Free equity protector for MT5

Balance or equity: which number is at risk?

Your balance only changes when a trade is closed (plus commission, swap, deposits and withdrawals). Your equity changes on every tick, because it includes what your open trades would make or lose if you closed them now.

In the second row nothing has been “lost” on the balance yet, but anyone who measures your account on equity already sees $1,800 gone. If your daily limit is checked against equity, that open trade has used $1,800 of today’s room the moment it shows that figure.

What happens when a position stays open

• The floating loss counts the whole time. Holding a losing trade “until it comes back” does not pause anything. A short spike against you can touch an equity level even if price recovers a minute later.
• Open profit can be given back. If your rule takes the start of the day from equity, a trade carried overnight in profit raises your reference point, and handing that open profit back counts as today’s loss.
• Swap is charged at the rollover. It lowers equity on the day it is charged, like any other cost.
• Weekends and gaps. From the Friday close to the Monday open nothing can be closed. If price opens beyond your level, the first possible close is already past it.

That is why we think of equity protection as a level you hold every second, not a figure you check at the end of the day.

How the Spectar Daily Loss Limiter protects equity

1. At the daily reset (broker server midnight by default) it stores the day’s starting value: the start-of-day balance, or the higher of start-of-day balance and equity.
2. With floating P/L included, today’s loss is that starting value minus your current equity, recalculated on every tick, every trade event and once per second.
3. When the loss reaches your limit minus a small safety buffer, it closes open positions (all symbols, or one magic number only), deletes pending orders and saves the lock in the terminal.
4. Until the next daily reset, any new position is closed straight away and any new pending order is deleted. The lock also survives a terminal restart.

Floating P/L included, or closed trades only?

Floating included is the equity-protector mode: open losses count against the day as they happen, which is how limits checked on live equity behave.

Closed only counts realised results and ignores open drawdown until the trade is closed. It suits a personal rule about realised loss, but it will not protect you from a limit that is measured on equity.

Check how your own account defines the daily limit and set the mode, the percentage or amount and the reset hour to match — ideally a little stricter. We do not suggest any figure; you type every value yourself.

Looking for a free alternative to paid equity protectors?

If you are looking for a free alternative to paid equity protectors, this one covers the daily side: a loss limit on equity that resets each trading day. It does not trade and has no profit target. For the arithmetic behind your own limit, try the daily loss calculator; for the full description of the tool and its install steps, see the Daily Loss Lock page; and for the difference between the two measures in more depth, read balance vs equity daily drawdown.

What it cannot do

• It cannot disable the trade buttons in MetaTrader 5. While the day is locked, new positions are closed as soon as they are seen, and each one can still cost spread, commission and slippage.
• It only works while MetaTrader 5 is open, connected, the EA is on a chart and Algo Trading is switched on.
• A close at your exact level is not assured: slippage, gaps and closed markets can make the final loss larger.

Free PDF: the Daily Drawdown Checklist

Two pages to print and keep next to MetaTrader 5: what to decide before the session, before every trade, and when the day goes wrong.