Thank you for giving this a place on your chart.
Helmsman was built for one kind of person: the trader who still makes the decision themselves. Not a signal service, not a black box — a steady pair of hands for the part of the job that is arithmetic and discipline, so the part that needs judgement gets your whole attention.
It is free. Not free-for-now, not free-until-you-need-the-good-features: free, with no activation, no account limit, and nothing locked away. Version 1 does everything you can see in this guide, and it will keep doing it.
That is also the honest part of the deal. Helmsman is the first piece of something larger — a small suite of tools built around manual trading, each one earning its place the same way. Building that takes time, and it takes something from you that costs nothing but matters enormously: a fair rating, and a review or comment that tells me what to fix or what to build next. Every serious suggestion received so far is already in the product. Tell me what is missing, and it goes into the next version.
If something breaks, please say so plainly — a screenshot and the broker name is usually enough. A reproducible report becomes a fix with a proof behind it.
— The developer
What version 2 is being built toward
Written down here so you can hold me to it — and so your review can change the order.
Challenge & funded-account mode
A live compliance card for prop-firm rules: how much you may still lose today, how far the target is, how many trading days you have, and a warning before a rule is broken rather than after.
One-line pre-trade verdict
Risk, spread, session and the distance to the next high-impact event, combined into a single sentence under the buy and sell buttons before you commit.
Command bar
Type what you want — buy 1% sl 300 tp 2R — and have it
staged instantly. For traders who are faster with a keyboard than with a
mouse.
Portfolio view
Every open position across every symbol in one list, with a warning when several of them are really the same trade wearing different names.
Journal with pictures
Automatic screenshots at entry and exit, notes and tags on a trade, and an export you can study away from the terminal.
Your language
The panel and this guide in more than English. The wording is already centralised for it; the translations come next.
Install and first attach
Where the file goes
- In the terminal, open File → Open Data Folder.
- MT5 Copy
Helmsman.ex5intoMQL5\Experts. MT4 CopyHelmsman.ex4intoMQL4\Experts. - Back in the terminal, press Ctrl+M to refresh the Navigator, or simply restart it.
- Drag Helmsman from the Navigator onto any chart.
- In the dialog that opens, allow algorithmic trading and press OK. Make sure the terminal's own Algo Trading (MT5) or AutoTrading (MT4) button is switched on — with it off the platform refuses every order, and the panel will say so out loud rather than look broken.
The values you set in that dialog are first-attach defaults only. From then on the panel itself is the living configuration: whatever you change on screen — position, size, theme, every field — is remembered and restored next time.
One panel per chart
Helmsman manages the symbol of the chart it sits on. Put it on a second chart for a second symbol; each keeps its own settings. If you run two panels at once, give them different Expert ID values so each one manages only its own trades.
MetaTrader 4 or MetaTrader 5?
The same product, built from the same source, on both platforms. Where a platform genuinely cannot do something, this guide marks it with a chip like MT4 and says plainly what happens instead. You will not find a control here that quietly does nothing.
The dashboard, part by part
The rail, on the left edge
Four icon tabs — Trade, Manage, Parts, Settings. The blue spine marks where you are.
The header
Stealth appears when hidden levels are available; Stats opens the big window on its charts; News opens that same window on the news tab; and – minimises the panel to its title bar.
The footer strip
The symbol switcher (< XAUUSD >) moves the chart to the next symbol in Market Watch. Beside it sits a clock that turns red when this market is closed, and the time left on the current candle. Small chips appear here when break-even, trailing or partial closes are armed, so you always know what is watching your trade.
Moving and resizing
Drag the title bar to move the panel. Drag the notches in the bottom-right corner to resize the whole thing — the size is remembered along with everything else.
Trade — from an idea to an order
Everything needed to place one correct trade, in the order a trader actually thinks: direction, then size, then where it fails and where it wins, then what it costs.
SELL and BUY
The two big buttons carry the live bid and ask, so you are never trading against a stale price. With confirmation on (the default) a small dialog shows the entire order before it goes anywhere.
Lot, balance, the money at risk and what percentage of the account that is, the margin it will take, and the three prices. Tick Don't ask again to switch to one-click trading; you can switch it back on the Settings page at any time.
One-click trading is faster and, on a bad day, faster in the wrong direction. The dialog costs you a quarter of a second and has prevented more mis-clicks than any feature in this panel.
Plan a trade on the chart
The wide button under the two big ones draws the planning box on the chart. It is explained in full in the next section.
ORDER TYPE
Mkt sends at the market. Stop and Limit place a pending order at the distance in the box beside them, measured in points from the current price. When Stop or Limit is selected, the big buttons rename themselves — BUY STOP +200p — so what you are about to place is never a guess.
RISK > LOT SIZE
This is the heart of the panel. Set how much you are willing to lose, and the lot is calculated for you from the stop distance and the contract of the symbol.
- The risk stepper — click − or +, or click the number in the middle and type it.
- The mode box — what that number means: a percentage of Balance, a straight Cash amount in your account currency, a percentage of Equity, or a percentage of Free margin.
- The Lot field — you can also work the other way round. Type a lot size and the risk figure re-computes itself to match. Neither number is ever a leftover from the other.
STOP · TARGET · RATIO
The stop and target distances in points, and the reward-to-risk ratio between them. Type in any of the three and the others follow: change the stop and the target moves to hold the ratio; type a target and the ratio re-computes. Press the RR button to unlink them when you want the target somewhere structural instead.
The money card
Four lines that turn the plan into money, recalculated on every tick:
| Line | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Risk | The money that is actually at stake and what share of the balance it is. Green up to your comfortable limit, amber up to the danger limit, red beyond it. If no valid lot exists, this line says so and the note underneath explains exactly why — usually that the risk is too small for the broker's minimum lot. |
| Costs | The spread right now in points and in money, plus commission per lot. Leave the commission input at zero and the panel estimates it from your own closed trades, marking the figure (auto est.) so you know where it came from. |
| Margin | What this trade will take, and what stays free afterwards. |
| Reward | The money at the target, and the distance in points. |
Quick actions — on the trades you already have
- Breakeven — move the stop of every open position to its own entry price.
- Close % — close that percentage of every position; the percentage sits in the box beside the button.
- OCO — a bracket: a buy stop above the market and a sell stop below it. When one fills, the other is cancelled automatically. If a fast market fills both, the later one is closed and the panel tells you it did.
Close positions & delete pending
The coloured buttons carry live totals, so you always know what you are about to close: Buys, ALL, Sells, and then Profit (every position currently in profit) and Loss. Underneath, All / Limits / Stops delete pending orders by family.
Stealth mode
With Stealth lit, your stop, target and pending orders stop being broker-side orders and become panel-side levels. The broker sees a naked position; Helmsman watches the price and executes the level itself.
A hidden level only exists while the panel is running. Close the terminal, lose the connection, or remove the expert and the level goes with it — the position stays open and unprotected. The panel states this on screen whenever stealth is armed.
In this screenshot you can also see the close buttons carrying their live totals, and the money card explaining, in words, why no lot can be produced at that risk.
Planning a trade with your hands
Press Plan a trade on the chart and three lines appear — entry, stop and target — with a shaded box between them. The button changes to Planning — drag the box, OK sends it so you know the panel is waiting for you.
Grab any line anywhere along its length; there is no need to select it first. Drag the entry line and the whole box moves with it. Every number on the panel updates while you drag.
The OK tag knows what you drew
Drag the entry above the market and the tag becomes OK · BUY STOP; below it, OK · BUY LIMIT; at the market, OK · BUY. Click it and that order is sent, with the stop and target exactly where the lines are.
Right-click a line
- Place the order now — same as pressing OK.
- Trailing stop: next rule — step through the trailing rules; the stop tag immediately shows the chosen rule by name, so you can see that it took.
- Trailing stop: off.
- Remove the box.
- Nothing — close this menu.
Everywhere else on the chart, your platform's own right-click menu is untouched. Helmsman only takes it over its own lines and its own panel.
What the labels can show
Every line label is built from tokens you choose on the Settings page: the kind of level, the lot size, the distance in points, the money, that money as a percentage of balance, the reward-to-risk ratio, and the price. Turn off what you do not read; the chart restyles instantly.
Manage — what happens after you are in
The rules that watch the trade for you. Everything here applies to positions you open from now on and, with one button, to everything already open.
The headline and the list
The top line counts your open positions, their total lots and their live profit. Under it, each position gets a row with its direction, size, entry and money. Click a row and that single trade opens in its own window.
AUTO-PROTECT (break-even + trailing)
Arm at profit is how far into profit the trade must go before the stop is moved. Lock offset is how far beyond the entry the stop lands — a few points past break-even so the spread cannot take you out at exactly zero.
The box below picks the trailing rule by name, and the field beside it is that rule's one number. Apply to open positions stamps both onto every trade you already have.
The trailing rules, in plain words
| Rule | What it does | The number beside it |
|---|---|---|
| Off | No trailing. | — |
| Fixed distance | The stop follows price at a constant distance. | points |
| ATR distance | The distance breathes with volatility, measured by ATR on a timeframe you choose. | × ATR |
| Follow MA line | The stop tracks a moving average, kept a small indent away. | indent, points |
| Follow PSAR | The stop tracks the parabolic SAR dots. | step / max |
| Last fractal | The stop sits beyond the most recent fractal high or low. | indent, points |
| N-bar high/low | The stop sits beyond the extreme of the last N candles. | bars |
| Keep % profit | Whatever the best profit reached, keep this share of it locked. | percent |
| Step by timer | The stop tightens by a fixed step every so many seconds — for trades you want out of on a clock. | points / seconds |
CLOSE EVERYTHING WHEN
Two account-level exits: close every position when the net result reaches a profit, or when it reaches a loss. Switch either on and it arms itself as soon as you edit the amount. The third toggle also deletes pending orders when it fires, so a triggered basket does not leave orders behind.
PENDING ORDERS · BASKET
- Trail pendings at — pending orders follow the price at the given distance until they fill, so a breakeout order keeps its distance from a market that walked away.
- Basket break-even line on chart — draws one dashed line at the single price where all your open positions together break even. For anyone averaging into a position, this is the number that matters.
Grid…
Opens the grid window: levels, spacing (fixed points or from ATR), lot multiplier, base lot, and whether the grid builds behind price with limit orders or ahead of it with stop orders. One real order is placed per level. Drag the first grid line on the chart and every other level re-spaces itself around it.
PANIC — flat everything
One button that closes every position and deletes every pending order on this symbol. It arms on the first click and turns red; a second click within five seconds fires it. Wait longer and it disarms itself.
The line under the card always tells you what is armed and what the news module currently knows, so the Manage page is readable at a glance without opening anything.
Parts — taking money off in pieces
A ladder of partial closes. The left column is your profit steps, the right column your loss steps, ten of each. Every row has three controls: a switch to arm it, how much of the trade to close, and how far away that happens.
The row at the top of the page reads exactly like a sentence: row 1 = close 50% at +300pt profit.
What the numbers mean — the unit picker
- Levels in points — a plain distance from entry.
- Levels in % — a percentage of this trade's own target distance (and of its own stop distance on the loss side). Set 50% and every trade banks its first piece halfway to its target, whatever the symbol.
- Levels in R — multiples of the risk you took, where 1R is your stop distance.
How much to close
% of initial measures against the size you opened with; % of current measures against whatever is left.
Apply to open stamps the ladder onto every position you already have. Levels also apply automatically to new trades.
Every armed level is drawn on the chart at its real price with its own tag, and a level that has fired greys out and is labelled done instead of vanishing — so you can see both what happened and what is still waiting. And if closing a piece would leave less than the broker's minimum lot behind, the panel closes the whole remainder instead of leaving an unclosable crumb.
A broker can refuse a partial close — bad price, a busy trade context, a volume it will not accept. Helmsman tries three times, then disarms that level for that position and writes the broker's own reason on this page. It will not sit there retrying and beeping at you forever.
Settings — the panel itself
Show on chart labels
Seven switches decide what every line label on the chart contains: Kind (SL, TP, BUY STOP…), Lots, Points, Money, % Balance, RR and Price. Every line restyles the moment you flip one.
One-click
Off by default: every order shows its confirmation dialog first. Turn it on when you want orders to go straight out.
Hotkeys
Arms the keyboard chords listed in their own section.
Panel scale
A manual zoom for the whole dashboard. Leave it and the panel follows your screen's DPI; set 1.25 or 1.50 on a very large monitor.
Screenshot now · Save preset · Load preset
A one-click chart screenshot into the terminal's files folder, and your whole panel configuration saved to — or restored from — a preset file.
Theme
Dark, Light, Midnight blue and Slate & amber. Every surface, including the floating windows and the chart labels, restyles live.
The four themes
About / account info
Opens the page below: who your broker is, the account number, whether it is hedging or netting, the leverage and the currency — then the facts of the symbol you are trading, including how many points make one pip on this symbol. That single line explains why a distance that felt right at one broker feels ten times tighter at another.
Journal / stats
A short summary of your closed trades, with a line that checks the panel's own arithmetic against the broker's history and says verified when they agree to the cent.
One position, on its own
Click any row in the Manage list and that trade opens here, titled with its ticket, direction and size.
- The headline — live profit in your account currency, green or red.
- The graph — this trade's own profit since the window opened. The dotted line is break-even, so you can see at a glance whether it has ever been in the money.
- SL and TP — type a price and press Apply SL / TP; it goes straight to the broker.
- Close, Close 50%, Reverse (close and open the same size the other way), Breakeven now.
- The trailing box and “This one” — a trailing rule for this position only. The rest of your book keeps its own rules.
The window closes itself when the position is gone, so it can never describe something that no longer exists.
Stats, news and closed trades
One window, three tabs, opened from Stats or News in the header. Drag it by the title, resize it from the corner, close it with the red X — and it places itself where the recent candles are not.
Charts
News
Trades
| Column | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Closed | When the trade ended. |
| Trade | Direction and size. |
| Held | How long the position was open. |
| Open / Close | The two prices. |
| Pips | The move in pips for this broker — ten points make a pip on a 3- or 5-digit quote, one point on a 2- or 4-digit one. |
| Gross | The price result, before costs. |
| Comm | Commission charged on the trade. |
| Swap | Overnight financing paid or received. |
| Net | What actually reached your balance. |
Click any row and it expands: the ticket, when it opened, how long it was held, the move in pips and points with this symbol's points-per-pip spelled out, the full cost breakdown, and the result in R.
There is not one, and that is deliberate. Brokers do not record a per-trade spread anywhere in the history — its cost is already inside Gross. Rather than print a number that looks precise and is not, the table says so at the bottom.
Guardian — the rules that stop you
Every guard is off by default. Switch on only what you want, in the inputs. When one fires it says which rule and until when — and closing trades always stays allowed, even while entries are locked.
| Guard | What it watches | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Daily loss | Balance against the day's starting point. | Locks new entries for the rest of the trading day, and optionally flattens what is open. |
| Max drawdown | Equity against its own highest point. | Same lock, measured from the peak instead of the day. |
| Trades per day | How many entries you have taken today. | Refuses further entries once the cap is reached. |
| Consecutive losses | Losing trades in a row. | A cooling-off brake for the minutes you set; the panel names the time it expires. |
| Friday flat | The clock on Friday. | Closes everything at the time you choose and locks the weekend. |
| Spread gate | The spread at the moment you press buy or sell. | Blocks the entry and shows both numbers — the spread now and the limit you set. |
| Equity target | Account equity rising to an amount. | Banks the day: flattens everything once and locks. |
| Equity floor | Account equity falling to an amount. | Flattens everything once and locks. |
| Trading window | Server time and the weekday. | Entries only inside your hours and on your chosen days; an optional daily flatten at a set time. |
Guard state survives a restart, so a lock cannot be escaped by closing the terminal and opening it again.
News — and where it comes from
With the news guard on, Helmsman refuses new entries from a few minutes before a filtered event until a few minutes after it, and can optionally flatten once before impact. The refusal always names the event.
MetaTrader 5
MT5 Nothing to set up. The terminal has a built-in economic calendar and the panel reads it directly.
MetaTrader 4 — pick one of two
MT4 MetaTrader 4 has no calendar at all, so Helmsman brings its own. Both routes are honest about where the data came from, and the news tab always prints the source.
Option 1 — straight from the internet (simplest)
- In the terminal, open Tools → Options → Expert Advisors.
- Tick Allow WebRequest for listed URL.
- Add this address to the list, exactly as written:
https://nfs.faireconomy.media - Press OK, then set the panel's input Fetch the calendar over the internet to true.
The feed is the weekly ForexFactory calendar in JSON — the same one MT4 news tools have used for years. If you ever want a different provider, the address is an input; anything serving the same fields works.
The panel does not show an empty list and leave you guessing. It prints the exact sentence: which URL to allow, and the menu it lives in. That is your switch to flip — no product can flip it for you.
Option 2 — from a file, with no internet permission
If you also run MetaTrader 5 on the same computer, attach the small companion expert HelmNewsExport to any MT5 chart. It writes the terminal's own calendar into the folder both platforms share, and every MT4 running Helmsman reads it from there. No web permission, and the data is MetaQuotes' own.
You can also point the input Custom news CSV at any file you maintain yourself. One event per line:
| epoch,currency,importance(1-3),title,previous,forecast |
Hotkeys
Switch them on from the Settings page. Every one is a Shift-chord, so they never collide with the platform's own shortcuts. They work while the chart has focus.
| Keys | What it does |
|---|---|
| Shift + B | Buy at market — or send the plan, if the planning box is open. |
| Shift + S | Sell at market. |
| Shift + C | Close everything on this symbol. |
| Ctrl + Shift + B | Close the buys only. |
| Ctrl + Shift + S | Close the sells only. |
| Shift + P | Close every position currently in profit. |
| Shift + L | Close every position currently at a loss. |
| Shift + 1 … 9 | Close that many tenths of every position — Shift+5 closes half. |
| Shift + E | Move every stop to break-even. |
| Shift + D | Delete all pending orders. |
| Shift + O | Place the OCO bracket. |
| Shift + N | Open a fresh planning box on the chart. |
| Shift + H | Stealth mode on or off. |
| Shift + A | Drop an alert line where the mouse is; the panel speaks when price reaches it. |
| Ctrl + Shift + A | Clear the alert lines. |
| Shift + T / M / R | Jump to the Trade, Manage or Parts page. |
| Shift + K | Switch the theme. |
| Shift + X | Minimise or restore the panel. |
| Shift + ↑ / ↓ | Step the chart timeframe up or down. |
| Shift + + / − | Make the panel bigger or smaller. |
Every input, explained
These are the values in the dialog that opens when you attach Helmsman to a chart. They set the starting state; from then on the panel remembers whatever you change on screen. Names below are exactly what you see in the dialog.
Trade defaults
| Input | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Expert ID | 862001 | The stamp Helmsman puts on its own orders. Give a second panel a different number so each manages only its own trades. |
| Max slippage (points) | 10 | How far the fill may drift from the price you asked for before the broker should refuse it. |
| Risk mode | % of Balance | What the risk number means: % of Balance, a Cash amount, % of Equity, or % of Free margin. |
| Risk | 1.0 | The risk number itself, read in the mode above. |
| Default SL distance (points) | 600 | Where the stop starts when the page opens. |
| Default TP distance (points) | 1200 | Where the target starts. |
| Link TP to SL by ratio | true | Keeps the target at a fixed multiple of the stop while you move things around. |
| Reward : risk ratio | 2.0 | The multiple used by that link. |
| Order-type row distance (points) | 200 | How far from price the Stop and Limit buttons place a pending order. |
| Default order comment | (empty) | Text attached to every order the panel sends. |
Costs
| Input | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Round-turn commission per lot | 0.0 | Your broker's commission for a full round turn of one lot. Leave it at 0 and the panel estimates it from your own closed trades and marks the figure auto est. |
| Risk % green up to here | 1.0 | Risk at or under this share of the balance shows green. |
| … amber up to here, red beyond | 3.0 | Above the first number and up to this one, the risk figure turns amber; past it, red. |
Risk guards
| Input | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Lot floor | 0 = broker min | Never trade smaller than this. |
| Lot ceiling | 0 = broker max | Never trade larger than this, whatever the risk maths says. The money card says when a lot has been capped. |
| Close everything at net profit | false | Arms the profit basket exit. |
| … when net P&L ≥ | 100 | The amount that fires it. |
| Close everything at net loss | false | Arms the loss basket exit. |
| … when net P&L ≤ − | 100 | The amount that fires it. |
| Also delete pendings on fire | false | When a basket exit fires, remove pending orders too. |
Stealth
| Input | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| SL/TP + pendings virtual | false | Levels live in the panel instead of at the broker. They only work while the panel runs — the page says so whenever it is on. |
| Pendings follow price | false | Pending orders keep their distance as price moves away. |
| Trail distance (points) | 200 | That distance. |
Break-even
| Input | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Break-even enabled | false | Move the stop to entry once the trade is far enough ahead. |
| Trigger mode | By points | Measure that distance in points, in R multiples, or as a percentage of the target distance. |
| Trigger | 300 | The number, read in the mode above. |
| Offset (points) | 10 | How far past entry the stop lands, so the spread cannot take you out at exactly zero. |
| Add spread to offset | false | Add the current spread on top of that offset. |
| 4-stage progressive lock | false | Instead of one move, four: at each profit level the stop steps to its own lock. The four pairs follow in the dialog. |
Trailing
| Input | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Trailing rule | Off | Which of the nine rules to use — see the table on the Manage page. |
| Trailing parameter | 300 | That rule's single number: points, an ATR multiple, an indent, a bar count or a percentage, depending on the rule. |
| ATR / MA period | 14 | The indicator period for the rules that use one. |
| Trailing timeframe | M15 | Which timeframe that indicator is read from — independent of the chart you are looking at. |
| Profit before trailing arms | 200 | Trailing stays asleep until the trade is this far ahead. |
Guardian
| Input | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Lock the day after a % loss | false | Arms the daily-loss rule. |
| … % below the day-anchor balance | 3.0 | How far down triggers it. |
| Server hour the day re-anchors | 0 | When a new trading day begins for that rule. |
| Lock after a drawdown from peak | false | Arms the drawdown rule. |
| … % below peak equity | 10.0 | How deep a drawdown triggers it. |
| Entry cap per day | 0 = off | Maximum entries in one day. |
| Losses in a row before the brake | 0 = off | How many consecutive losses start a cooling-off period. |
| Brake duration | 60 min | How long that pause lasts. |
| Flatten + lock on Friday | false | Close everything before the weekend. |
| … at (server hh:mm) | 21:00 | The time it happens. |
| Daily-loss / max-DD also flatten | true | Whether those two rules close open trades as well as locking new ones. |
| Block entries when spread > points | 0 = off | Refuse entries in a bad moment; the refusal shows both numbers. |
| Flatten + lock at equity ≥ | 0 = off | Bank the day at a target equity. Fires once. |
| Flatten + lock at equity ≤ | 0 = off | A hard floor under the account. Fires once. |
News guard
| Input | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Calendar window + pre-news lockout | true | Turns the news module on. |
| Minimum impact | 3 = high only | Which events count: high only, high and moderate, or everything. |
| Lock entries N min before | 15 | How early the lock starts. |
| … until M min after | 5 | How long it holds afterwards. |
| Flatten N min before | 0 = off | Optionally close everything once before impact. |
| Custom news CSV | (empty) | Read events from your own file instead — in the terminal's files folder, or the folder shared by all your terminals. |
| Fetch the calendar over the internet | false | Get events from the web address below. Needs the URL allowed in Tools → Options → Expert Advisors. |
| News URL | nfs.faireconomy.media | The feed to read. Any source serving the same fields works. |
External and manual trades
| Input | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| External / manual trades | Announce them | What to do about trades Helmsman did not open — for example one placed from your phone. Ignore, Announce (touch nothing), or Protect. |
| Only manual / mobile trades | true | Adopt only trades with no expert stamp, so another robot's positions are left alone. |
| Missing SL/TP get panel defaults | true | In Protect mode, give an unprotected trade your default stop and target. |
| Close excess volume to fit panel risk | false | In Protect mode, trim a position that is larger than your risk settings allow — and say by how much. |
Time manager
| Input | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Trading window + weekday matrix | false | Only allow entries inside your hours and on your days. |
| Window start / Window end | 08:00 / 22:00 | Server time. Set the start later than the end for an overnight session. |
| Monday … Sunday | Mon–Fri on | The days trading is allowed. |
| Daily close-everything at a time | false | Flatten the book once a day at a set time. |
| Flat time | 22:30 | When that happens. |
| Flat also deletes pendings | true | Remove pending orders in the same sweep. |
Alerts and sounds
| Input | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Trading sounds | true | Play a sound on the events below. |
| Screen alert popups | false | Also raise the platform's alert box. |
| Push to your phone | false | Needs your MetaQuotes ID set in the terminal's notification settings. |
| false | Needs the terminal's mail settings configured. | |
| Trade sound / Refusal sound | ok.wav / alert.wav | Which sound file to play for each. |
| Announce fills / closes / pendings | true | Which events are worth hearing about. |
| Screenshot every fill and close | false | Saves a picture of the chart at each event, linked to the journal. |
Panel and planning lines
| Input | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Panel X / Panel Y | 20 / 20 | Where the panel first appears. |
| Theme | Dark | Dark, Light, Midnight blue, or Slate & amber. |
| Panel scale | 0 = auto | Fixed zoom for the dashboard; 0 follows your screen's DPI. |
| Saved live state wins on re-attach | true | Keep what you had on screen. Turn it off to make the inputs win every time. |
| Helm menus on its lines and panel | true | Right-clicking a planning line opens Helmsman's menu. Everywhere else the platform's own menu is untouched. |
| Show planning lines immediately | false | Draw the planning box the moment the panel loads. |
| One-click trading | false | Off means every order shows its confirmation first. |
| Zone style | Band | How the stop and target zones are drawn: a compact right-side band, a wide fill, or lines only. |
| SL/TP defaults from ATR | true | Start the planning box at a distance measured from recent volatility instead of a fixed number. |
| SL = ATR × | 1.5 | The multiple used for that. |
| Releasing the entry line places the order | true | Drop-to-trade. Turn it off if you would rather always press OK. |
| Lines hide once the order is placed | true | Clears the planning box after it becomes a real order. |
| Label tokens | most on | Seven switches deciding what each chart label shows: kind, lots, points, money, % of balance, reward-to-risk, price. |
What Helmsman will not do
- It will not tell you what to trade. There are no signals here and none are planned. The decision stays yours.
- It will not pretend a number it cannot know. Where a figure is estimated it is labelled; where a broker records nothing, the panel says so instead of inventing a value.
- It will not fail silently. Every refusal — from the broker, from a guard, from the risk maths — is spoken in plain words, with the reason.
- It will not hide behind a paywall later. Free, without activation or an account ceiling.
- Hidden levels are not magic. Stealth levels live in the panel. If the terminal is closed, they are not watching anything, and the panel tells you that whenever stealth is on.
MT4 Four things the older platform simply cannot do, stated once: it has no economic calendar (use one of the two routes above), no stop-limit orders (asking for one is refused in words), no asynchronous closing (group closes are sequential and report what happened), and no netting accounts — every MetaTrader 4 account hedges.
Support, and reporting a bug
Version 1 is the beginning of this tool, not the end of it. If something is wrong, or missing, or simply awkward — say so, and it gets fixed.
The fastest way to get a fix
- A screenshot of the panel or the chart at the moment it happened.
- Your broker and account type — the About page on the Settings tab has every fact needed, in one screen.
- What you expected, and what happened instead.
That is usually enough to reproduce a problem exactly, and a reproducible problem becomes a fix with a proof behind it.
Where to write
- Email the developer directly — shaikhsadi049@gmail.com. Bug reports and feature requests are read personally, and a clear one usually gets a reply with a plan.
- The Comments tab of the product page — best for questions others will have too.
- A private message to the author on MQL5.com — best for account details or anything you would rather not post publicly.
- A review — the single most useful thing you can do for this project. A fair rating and one honest sentence about what to build next is what keeps a free tool moving forward.
However you found this — thank you for trying it. Trade well, protect the account first, and tell me what to build next.