Spread Spike and Alert MT5
- Utilities
-
AL MOOSAWI ABDULLAH JAFFER BAQER
To trade successfully we need to go through the proven path that others had gone and reached!
Here are 17 quotes from such successful investors:
1- Limit your size in any position so that fear does not become the prevailing instinct guiding your judgment.
Joe Vidich - Version: 6.10
- Updated: 1 November 2026
- Activations: 5
Try it free first: attach Spread Spike & Alert to a chart in the MetaTrader 5 Strategy Tester (visual mode) and watch the card measure the spread, learn its normal level and flag every jump, before you put it on a live chart.
SEE THE SPREAD JUMP BEFORE IT EATS YOUR ENTRY.
A wide spread is a hidden cost. It turns a good entry into a bad fill, pushes stops that should have held and makes a scalper's edge disappear in one second. Your broker shows the spread; it does not tell you when it is abnormal. This utility does. It learns what normal looks like on your symbol and your broker, and it warns you the moment the spread leaves that normal.
At a glance
- Live spread compared with its own rolling baseline (the median of the last minutes), shown in points and as a multiple.
- Spike detection with peak and duration, logged on the card and marked on the chart with a vertical line.
- New: a Today card with the worst spike of the day (peak, multiple, time and how long it lasted) plus the average, lowest and highest spread of the day.
- Alerts by pop-up, sound, push notification and e-mail, with a cooldown so you are never flooded.
- A calm ink-and-amber card on the left; the right side of the chart and the price scale stay clean.
Start here
- Attach it to the chart of the symbol you trade. Any timeframe works; it measures every second, not every bar.
- Give it a few minutes. The status pill shows LEARNING until it has enough samples for a baseline.
- Keep the default SpikeMultiple of 2.5 at first. Lower it if you scalp and want earlier warnings, raise it if you only care about extreme jumps.
- Switch on push notifications if you want the warning on your phone.
- It never opens, changes or closes a trade. It is a pure measuring tool.
Why a baseline and not a fixed number
A spread of 20 points is wide on one pair and tight on gold. A fixed limit is always wrong somewhere. Spread Spike & Alert compares the spread with its own recent history instead. It keeps one sample per second and uses the median of the last N minutes as the normal level. A median is used on purpose: a single spike cannot lift its own baseline, so the warning stays honest even while the spread is wide. While a spike is running, it is judged against the baseline it started on, so the end of the spike is measured fairly too.
What is new in this version
- Today card: the worst spike of the day with its peak in points, its multiple of the baseline, the time it started and how many seconds it lasted, plus the average, minimum and maximum spread of the day and the number of spikes today and in total. The card resets at the start of each server day.
- New card design: a title tab, a status pill (LEARNING, NORMAL, ELEVATED, SPIKE), three tiles, a live gauge with a marker at your spike line, a spike log table with columns and a status line at the bottom. It scales itself to the size of the chart and stays in the left half.
- Sharper measurement: samples are stored in a true ring buffer stamped with server time, exactly one per second, and the median is now exact for an even number of samples.
- Clear error messages: a failed timer, object, sound, push or e-mail is written to the Experts log instead of failing silently, and invalid inputs are explained.
- Clean removal: every panel object and every spike mark, including those left by older versions, is removed when the utility is taken off the chart. Chart mouse and scroll settings are never changed.
The card, top to bottom
- Title and status pill: LEARNING while the baseline is built, NORMAL, ELEVATED from 1.5 times the baseline, SPIKE when your spike rule is met.
- Sub line: symbol, the spike rule in plain words and the minimum points rule when it is on.
- Tiles: live spread, baseline and the live multiple of the baseline.
- Live gauge: the spread as a bar with an amber marker where a spike begins, and the spike line in points (or the running peak during a spike).
- Today: worst spike, its multiple, time and duration, then average, minimum and maximum spread and the spike counters.
- Spike log: the last six spikes with start time, peak, multiple and duration.
- Status line: a short plain sentence, for example SPREAD SPIKE - HOLD NEW ORDERS.
Who it helps
- Scalpers and news traders who need to know when the cost of entry has suddenly doubled.
- EA users who want to see when a robot is trading into a wide spread, around rollover or at the open.
- Anyone comparing brokers: the Today card shows the real average spread you paid for, not the advertised one.
- Prop-firm traders who want to avoid bad fills that eat into a daily loss rule.
Every input explained
Spike detection
- SpikeMultiple: a spike starts when the spread reaches the baseline times this value. Must be above 1. Default 2.5. The spike ends when the spread falls back under 80 percent of that line, so a spread that hovers on the line does not fire again and again.
- SpikeMinPoints: an extra rule, the spread must also be at least this many points. Useful on very tight symbols where 2 points to 5 points is a big multiple but no real harm. 0 switches it off. Default 0.
- BaselineMinutes: how many minutes of one-second samples form the median baseline, from 1 to 60. Default 30. Shorter adapts faster to session changes, longer is steadier.
Alerts
- AlertCooldown: the minimum number of seconds between two alerts. Default 300. Spikes are still logged and marked during the cooldown; only the alert is held back.
- EnablePopupAlerts: show the MetaTrader alert window. Default on.
- EnableSoundAlerts: play the alert sound. Default on.
- EnablePushAlerts: send a push notification to your phone. Needs your MetaQuotes ID in Tools, Options, Notifications. Default off.
- EnableEmailAlerts: send an e-mail using the mail settings of the terminal. Default off.
Display
- DrawSpikes: draw a dotted vertical line on the chart where each spike started; amber for a spike, red for a very large one. Hover the line to read its peak. Default on.
- X_Offset: distance of the card from the left edge of the chart in pixels. Default 30.
- Y_Offset: distance of the card from the top edge of the chart in pixels. Default 30.
Good to know
- The baseline needs at least a few seconds of samples; the first minutes after attaching are a learning period.
- When the market is closed the spread does not change, so no spikes are found; this is expected.
- In the Strategy Tester the spread comes from the tester settings, so use real ticks for a realistic picture.
- Statistics live in memory: they start fresh when the utility is attached again or the terminal restarts.
- No DLLs, no files written, any symbol and timeframe, hedging and netting accounts.
An honest request
If Spread Spike & Alert saves you from even one bad fill, a short review on this page helps other traders decide whether it suits them. Tell it as it is, good or bad; every comment is read and helps shape the next version.
