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Getting Started with MetaTrader 5

This guide walks you through the steps required to:

  • ✅ Register and log in to a MetaTrader 5 account
  • ✅ Connect the C# gRPC client to your MT5 terminal
  • ✅ Retrieve live account and trading data programmatically

🧾 Account Setup

1. Launch MetaTrader 5

Open the MetaTrader 5 application on your machine.

2. Access Account Panel

Click the person icon in the top-right corner to access account options.

3. Register or Log In

Choose to log into an existing account or register a new one.

4. Registering an Account

Enter your email and desired username, then click Create.

  • You will receive an email with your login credentials and a button to activate the account.

5. Activate Your Account

Click the Activate Account button from the email. Once confirmed, return to MetaTrader 5 and log in with the provided credentials.

📥 Opening a Trading Account

6. Open Account in MT5

Go to File → Open an Account

7. Select Your Broker

Choose MetaQuotes Ltd or your preferred broker.

8. Choose Account Type

Select a demo or real account type. Click Next.

9. Fill in Your Details

Enter personal info, accept terms, and click Next.

10. Save Your Login Credentials

Your login, password, and investor password will be shown. Save them securely.

11. Log in to the Trading Account

Go to File → Log in to Trading Account and enter your saved credentials.

12. Confirm Login

Check Save Password if you want to auto-login next time.

🌐 Accessing WebTrader

13–16. Log In to WebTrader

Follow these steps to access your account online:

⚙️ Connecting the MT5 C# Application

This section explains how to run the MT5 C# gRPC client.

🔧 Prerequisites

  • A valid MetaTrader 5 account (from steps above)
  • Visual Studio or any C# IDE installed
  • The MetaRPC MT5 repository cloned locally

Steps

1. Clone the MT5 Repository

Download the CSharpMT5 project to your machine.

2. Open the Project in Your Code Editor

Open the repo in Visual Studio or VS Code.

3. Open profiles.json

Fill in the relevant information. You can also create multiple profiles and switch through them quickly.

{
  "default": {
    "AccountId": 21455,
    "Password": "1nJeS+Ae",
    "Host": "95.217.147.61",
    "Port": 443,
    "GrpcServer": "https://mt5.mrpc.pro:443",
    "DefaultSymbol": "EURUSD",
    "DefaultVolume": 0.1
  },
  "demo": {
    "AccountId": 95591860,
    "Password": "GyI@7a1m",
    "ServerName": "MetaQuotes-Demo",
    "GrpcServer": "https://mt5.mrpc.pro:443",
    "DefaultSymbol": "GBPUSD",
    "DefaultVolume": 0.2
  }
}

▶️ After filling profiles.json

Once your profiles.json is ready, the next step is to actually run the MT5 C# CLI and test connectivity.

1. Restore and build

From the repo root:

dotnet restore

2. Run commands

The general pattern is:

dotnet run -- <command> [options]

Examples:

# Show all available profiles
dotnet run -- profiles list

# Show details for your "default" profile
dotnet run -- profiles show -p default

# Health check (ping)
dotnet run -- health -p default

# Get one quote
dotnet run -- quote -p default -s EURUSD

3. Place your first order (demo profile)

dotnet run -- buy -p demo -s EURUSD -v 0.10 --sl 1.0700 --tp 1.0800 --deviation 10

Tip: use --dry-run to preview what would be sent without touching the account.

⚡ Shortcasts (optional but handy)

You can also load PowerShell aliases once per session:

. .\ps\shortcasts.ps1
use-pf demo
use-sym EURUSD

info   # expands to: mt5 info -p demo
q      # expands to: mt5 quote -p demo -s EURUSD
b -v 0.10   # market buy with defaults

See also: CLI Shortcasts & Live Examples · Logging: Output Formats.

🧠 SL/TP rules (quick)

  • BUY: enter at Ask → SL < Ask, TP > Ask
  • SELL: enter at Bid → SL > Bid, TP < Bid
  • Use position.modify.points with --from entry|market to set distances in points.

Learn more: Position.modify.points · Modify (overview) · Symbol Rules & Smart Stops

⏱ Timeouts & retries

  • --timeout-ms bounds each RPC. Internally we wrap operations in UseOpTimeout and per-call CTS via StartOpCts.
  • Calls go through CallWithRetry(...) to automatically retry selected transient errors.
  • For CI, reduce timeout (fast fail). For slow terminals, increase to 60–120s.

Details: Timeouts & Retries Policy · Health checks

🛟 Troubleshooting

  • “Set Host or MtClusterName” → profile not picked up. Run profiles show and verify profiles.json path. See: Profiles.
  • Hidden symbol → symbol ensure -s <SYM> before trading or pending changes. See: Ensure Symbol Visible.
  • Timeouts → raise --timeout-ms, test with --trace to see where it stuck. See: Timeouts & Retries Policy.
  • Zero Margin/FreeMargin on empty accounts is normal; equity ≈ balance when flat.

More fixes: Troubleshooting & FAQ

🔗 What next