Five Reasons an MT5 EA Stops Trading That Have Nothing to Do With the Strategy
When an EA goes quiet on a VPS, the first suspect is the strategy. Often the strategy is fine and the terminal isn't ready to trade. Five causes we see most:
1. Algo Trading is off. One toolbar button (Ctrl+E) switches off every EA in the terminal. The charts look normal; no orders reach the market.
2. A chart didn't come back after a restart. Usually the chart was opened after the profile was last saved. No error is raised. That EA has simply stopped.
3. "Max bars in chart" is set to Unlimited. This is the one with a number behind it. Each price bar takes about 60 bytes (time, open, high, low, close, tick volume, spread, real volume), and each indicator buffer adds 8 bytes per bar.
| 20 charts, one 4-buffer indicator each | Bars per chart | Memory (rough lower bound) |
|---|---|---|
| A few years of M1 history | 1,000,000 | 20 × 1,000,000 × 92 bytes ≈ 1.84 GB |
| Sensible setting | 100,000 | 20 × 100,000 × 92 bytes ≈ 184 MB |
On a 2 GB VPS, that one setting is the difference between fitting comfortably and running out. Lower it under Tools > Options > Charts to what your EAs actually need, then restart.
4. Low memory or a full disk. A full disk stops the terminal writing history and logs, and it can stop working without warning. Keep at least 5 GB free.
5. Connection drops. A short blip is normal. A disconnect of more than a few tens of seconds means no EA can trade during it.
Causes 1 and 2 raise no error, which is why VRD Terminal Health checks Algo Trading, connection, max bars, memory and disk while the terminal runs, and after each restart reports Clean, a warning or NOT clean, listing any missing EA charts. It can't restart the terminal or switch Algo Trading back on, and it only checks while the terminal is running.
What to do today: check Max bars, multiply it by your open charts and the 92 bytes above, and compare the result with your VPS's free memory.
Try it: Try the free demo of VRD Terminal Health in the Strategy Tester to see which of these it puts on its readiness panel (the restart check and alerts run on a live terminal only). $44 to buy, or rent for $30 for 1 month or $39 for 3 months.
https://www.mql5.com/en/market/product/205568
Virtual Risk Desk
Memory figures are illustrative lower bounds (price data and indicator buffers only); real terminal usage is higher. Trading carries a high risk of loss. Educational content, not trading advice.
