My VPSes don’t get the love they deserve. Or, maybe they don’t get the love because they don’t deserve it. My present predicament has an undetermined cause, but the VPSes are in line to take the blame.
- For a bot to operate within MT4 correctly, the smiling face needs to be showing in the top right corner. My Octane bot decided it didn’t want to abide by this rule. I believe this is the second time this has happened. Sometime between me logging in earlier today and the market opening for the week, the smiling face leaped off of the chart. Translation: The bot couldn’t trade, and the open trades are likely going to go unmanaged and become losses.
- Too many bots on the same VPS, and the execution lags. The bot may want to close a trade, but by the time the broker knows it, the opportunity may have passed. Lesson: Make sure the VPS you are using is capable of handling the number of bots it houses.
- Although it is not the VPS’s problem, the MT4 trading software does live there. When the software has an upgrade, the MT4 may be a casualty. Until the VPS is signed into and the MT4 software is upgraded, the open trades can go unmanaged.
- Don’t reboot your VPS to update the operating system UNLESS you are specifically told you can. Not every trading bot will maintain “knowledge” of open trades when it awakes after a reboot.
The VPS is a necessary evil. Based on the experience I had today, the VPS is excessively nefarious. You have to trust it, but verify it is doing its job.
Good Luck!
