# Connect a signal group and decide how much you trust it

A listener is one Telegram group or channel plus its own rules. For each group you choose whether the app only watches, asks you first, or trades by itself.

- On Watch the app records a group's signals and places no trades. To trade, switch the listener to Manual or Auto.
- Manual holds every signal for 10 minutes with "Trade it" and "Dismiss". Auto places the trade within seconds.
- A dry run tests a group on its latest messages: 25, 50 or 100 of them, by plan. Nothing is placed. Run one before you switch a group to Auto.

## Add your signal group
The Telegram account you connected has to be a member of the group already. The app reads the group on your computer, as you would.
1. Open Listeners and click "+ Add listener".
2. Next to "Group / channel" click "Choose…" and pick the group. The name fills in by itself.
3. Leave "Mode" on "Watch — record only" for the first days.
4. There is nothing to save: the listener is kept as soon as it has its group, and it starts at once.
Your plan decides how many listeners run at the same time, across all your profiles. One more can always be created; when the limit is reached it is created switched off, and the app says so.

## The three modes
Watch — record only. The app reads every signal and shows what it would have done. It places nothing.
Manual — wait for my approval. Each signal waits on the Dashboard for 10 minutes. "Trade it" places it at the current price, after all your safety checks. "Dismiss" drops it.
Auto — trade immediately. The trade is placed within seconds, inside your limits.
When signals show up and nothing is traded, the listener is on Watch. Open it and, under "Group and mode", set "Mode" to Manual or Auto. The change is saved by itself.
On Auto, a signal that looks like a repeat of one you just received is not traded twice. It waits for your approval instead.
An approval that is not answered within 10 minutes expires and stays in the signal list, marked as expired.

## Switching a group to Auto
Auto places real orders with nobody checking in between, so the app asks you to confirm it once per group.
1. Open the listener and, under "Group and mode", set "Mode" to "Auto — trade immediately".
2. Tick "I understand that orders will be placed on my account automatically, and that the results are my responsibility."
3. Click "Turn on auto". The mode is saved by itself.
Example: A gold channel posts: BUY XAUUSD 2400, SL 2390, TP1 2410, TP2 2420, TP3 2430. Auto: sized by your risk setting and placed, usually in under a second from the message reaching your PC. Manual: it waits on your Dashboard for 10 minutes. Watch: it is listed with an eye icon and nothing happens in MetaTrader.

## Approving signals by hand
Signals from a Manual listener, suspected duplicates, and signals picked up after your PC was offline for a few minutes wait in "Awaiting your approval" on the Dashboard. The bell rings when one arrives.
When you approve, every check runs again at the current price. If the price has moved away from the entry by more than your "Max entry deviation", the app skips the signal and says why.

## Dry runs: test a group on its own past
A dry run puts a group's latest messages (25 on Basic, 50 on Advanced, 100 on Pro) through the same AI reading and the same rules the app uses live, then replays each trade on MetaTrader's price history. Nothing is placed.
1. Open the listener and click "Dry runs".
2. Click "Run it on the last 25 messages" (50 or 100 on Advanced and Pro). You can close the window; the app tells you when it is done.
3. Every row shows what the app would have done and why. Click "Would skip" to see only the skipped signals.
A dry run needs what live trading needs: the listener switched on, Telegram connected, trading switched on for the profile, and MetaTrader logged in to your broker.
The five tiles are Messages read, Signals found, Would trade, Would skip and Replayed result, for example 25 · 9 · 6 · 3 · +148.20 USD. When every row is skipped for the same reason, that reason is a setting you can change.
The replay uses five-minute bars and leaves out commission and swap, so the result is a guide. Test trades are marked as tests and count nowhere: not in your statistics, not in your daily signal limit.

## Groups with topics
Some Telegram groups are split into topics: signals in one, results and discussion in others. To the app it is still one group, so a listener on it reads every topic unless you choose which ones.
1. Add the group as usual. The chat list marks it with "topics".
2. Open the listener and, under "Group and mode", press "Choose…" next to "Topics".
3. Tick the topic where signals are posted and press "Use these".
4. The choice is saved by itself. "All topics" reads the whole group again.
In a discussion topic, any member's message is read like the provider's. "Close all" written there can close your trade. Leave those topics unticked.
Two listeners can share one group: one on "Gold signals" in Auto, one on "Forex signals" in Manual. A message goes to the first listener that reads its topic, never to both.
Every signal shows the topic it came from next to the listener's name, in the app and in the Desk on the website.
A dry run replays only the ticked topics, so it tests what the listener will really read.
A listener you set up earlier on such a group keeps reading all topics. The app tells you once, and the "Topics" setting appears under "Group and mode".

## Every setting of a listener
Each listener has its own rules, so a careful group and an aggressive one can run side by side: its own daily limits (signals traded and money lost), and under "Settings of its own" any setting marked "per listener too" below, set differently from your profile: its own size, take-profits, trailing, runners, stop-loss rules, spread and slippage limits, trading days and hours. Whatever it does not set follows your profile. The limits of the account as a whole stay the profile's. In the Desk each listener sits under Connections, below its Telegram: tap it to open its settings, where "Settings of its own" lists what it sets differently from the profile.
In the app the Listeners page lists "Your listeners". An open listener takes the list's place and shows its settings in four groups: "Group and mode" (name, group or channel, topics, mode), "Entry", "Symbols" and "Settings of its own". Its on/off switch sits beside its name, and "‹ Your listeners" goes back to the list.
- Name: How this listener shows up across the app. Change it freely; history stays attached.
- Group / channel: The group or channel to read. Click Choose… to pick from your Telegram groups, or type @handle for a public channel.
- Topics: This group has topics: one chat split into several threads, such as signals, results and discussion. "All topics" reads every message in the group; click Choose… to read only the topics you tick. Example: Two listeners on the same group can split it: one on "Gold signals" in Auto, one on "Forex signals" in Manual. A message goes to the first listener that reads its topic.
- What does this group usually trade?: When a message from this group names no instrument (“I'm buying - 4134”), it is traded on this one. Pick it from your broker's list. A message that names its instrument is always traded on the one it names. Empty: a signal with no instrument is not traded. The lists of allowed symbols still decide.
- Read calls without a number: Some groups post a call as a few words with no price at all: “GOLD BUY NOW”. The app normally sets every message without a number aside unread, because in most groups such a line is talk. On, a short message that names an instrument and a side (buy, sell, long, short) is read as a signal and traded at the market by this listener's and the profile's rules. Off, it is set aside and its record says why. Example: “GOLD BUY NOW” or “SELL EURUSD”: read with this on. “Gold looks strong today” names no side and “buy now guys” names no instrument: neither is ever read.
- Enabled: No pauses this listener: its messages are ignored until you turn it back on.
- Mode: What happens to a signal from this group.
- Entry mode: Market enters right away at the current price. Limit places a pending order at the entry price stated in the signal and waits for the market to come to it. A limit waits only for the entry or a better price: a buy at the entry or lower, a sell at the entry or higher. When the price is already better, "If the price is already better" decides.
- Where in an entry range: When a signal gives an entry range (“BUY GOLD 2400–2405”), the limit waits at one price inside it. The best price (the low edge for a buy, the high edge for a sell) gets the best fill but is reached least often; the worst is reached first, so it fills most often; the middle sits between. Example: BUY GOLD 2400–2405 with the price at 2410: the best price waits at 2400, the middle at 2402.5, the worst at 2405.
- Stop orders: When a signal says BUY STOP or SELL STOP, place it at your broker as a stop order at its entry: it waits until the price rises to a buy stop or falls to a sell stop, and enters then. Off, the app reads such a signal like any other entry. Example: BUY STOP US30 44100 with the price at 44020: a buy stop waits at 44100 and enters if the price breaks up through it.
- Let both sides of a straddle trade: A straddle is a buy stop above the price and a sell stop below it in one message, so the trade follows whichever way the price breaks. Off, only the first side to enter trades: the moment it fills, or enters at market because the price was already past it, the app cancels the other side's stop, and an order of that message the other way that comes after is refused. On, each side waits on its own and both can fill. Example: BUY STOP US30 44100 and SELL STOP US30 43900 with the price at 44000. The price rises to 44100: the buy enters and the sell stop at 43900 is cancelled. With this on, the sell stop stays, and a fall to 43900 later opens the sell too.
- Cancel a limit or stop order not filled after: A limit or stop order that waits at your broker and has not filled after this many minutes is cancelled. A signal waiting for your approval is not an order yet: it waits 10 minutes, whatever is set here.
- If the limit order expires: What to do when the pending order expires unfilled: cancel it, or enter at market instead, but only while the price is still within the entry deviation below. The market entry is placed only while your other rules still allow a new trade.
- If the price is already better: A limit waits on the far side of the market. When the signal's entry is already past the current price — you would pay less than asked — no limit can rest there. Enter at market instead, never worse than the entry, or skip the signal. Example: BUY GOLD @ 2400 with the ask at 2395: Enter at market fills at 2395, capped at 2400; Skip records the signal and does nothing.
- Max entry deviation: Skip the signal if the price has already moved further than this from the stated entry, in either direction; you would be chasing. A signal with no stated entry is never checked. Example: Stated entry 52 500 on US30, price now 52 580 (0.15% away): skipped with the default 0.10%, taken with 0.25%. In pips: entry 1.1000, price 1.1030 (30 pips away): skipped with 20, taken with 50.
- Deviation unit: Percent is relative to the entry price and the default: it means the same on every instrument, indices and crypto included, where a pip means little. Pips is a fixed price distance, the traditional measure on forex and metals. Example: On forex a pip is 10 points on 3- and 5-digit symbols; on gold it is 0.10 and on silver 0.01. 20 pips = 0.0020 on EURUSD and 2.00 on gold. 0.5% is about 55 pips on EURUSD at 1.10 and about 12 dollars on gold at 2400.
- If the price already passed a take-profit: A signal can arrive after the price already went through its first take-profits. Skip it, open the trade now with only the take-profits still ahead, or wait at the entry, with every take-profit, for the price to come back. Example: SELL GOLD 4172–4180, SL 4184, TPs 4170 / 4168 / 4166, arriving with the price at 4167.53: Skip does nothing; the take-profits still ahead sell now with 4166 only; waiting places a sell limit at 4172 with all three.
- Symbols: Only trade these symbols from this group. Empty = all symbols the global whitelist allows. Write each one as the Signals page shows it (XAUUSD for gold) or as your broker spells it (XAUUSD.s), separated by commas.
- Settings of its own: Any of the profile's trading settings, set differently for this group's signals: its own size (risk %, fixed lots or cash), how its take-profits are traded and trailed, its runners, its stop-loss rules, its spread and slippage limits, the days and hours it trades. And limits of its own: the profile's daily, open-position and lot limits counted on this group's trades only, such as a daily loss of 250 for this group within the profile's 500. Whatever is not set here follows the profile, and changes when the profile changes. Example: Profile: 1% risk and a daily loss of 500. A gold group: fixed lots 0.05, trading 08:00-17:00, its own daily loss 250. After the gold group loses 250 today it stops; the others trade on until the whole profile reaches −500.

## Set it up by answering a few questions
An open listener has "Set up with questions" under its groups, and the Settings page has "Set up with a few questions". The app asks how much to risk, what you trade, what to do with several take-profits, and what to do when a signal has no stop-loss.
For a listener the questions are about that group: what to do with its signals, whether to wait for its entry price, and its other rules. A section of Settings that has questions of its own shows "Set up with questions" in its header, for that section alone.
Settings the guide did not ask about go back to their defaults. In the app the last step, "What will change", lists every change before you apply it. In the Desk your answers are set after the last question, and you see what changed.

## Common setups
- I just joined a group and do not trust it yet → Mode → Watch — record only; Run a dry run on it today (You see what it posts and how it would have done, with no money involved.)
- I trust this group: trade it for me → Mode → Auto — trade immediately; Settings → Position sizing → Risk % of equity; Settings → Max daily loss (Set a daily loss limit before you turn on Auto.)
- I want to decide each trade myself → Mode → Manual — wait for my approval (You get 10 minutes per signal. Keep the app open; the bell rings for each one.)
- This group is riskier than my others → Listener → Add a setting of its own… → Risk % of equity → half of the profile's; Listener → Add a setting of its own… → Max traded signals per day → 3 (Half the risk and a daily cap, for this group only.)
- I only want gold from this group → Listener → Symbols → XAUUSD (Write the symbol as the app shows it in its signal list. Empty takes everything.)

## Common pitfalls
- "The app sees the signals but does not trade." — The listener is on Watch. Open it and, under "Group and mode", set "Mode" to Manual or Auto. The change is saved by itself.
- "The dry run says every symbol is unknown." — MetaTrader was not logged in to your broker. Log in first; the app refuses to start a dry run until then.
- "I added another group and it does nothing." — Your plan's limit of running listeners was reached, so the new one was created switched off. Switch another off, or upgrade.
- "My signal disappeared from the approval list." — Approvals expire after 10 minutes. The signal stays in the signal list, marked as expired.
- "I cannot find my dry run in the activity list." — Dry-run results are tests. They are in the listener's "Dry runs" window, not in the live activity.
- "The app reads the chatter in my group as signals." — The group has topics and the listener reads all of them. Open the listener, press "Choose…" next to "Topics" and tick only the signals topic.

Q: Does a listener on Watch ever place a trade?
A: No. Watch only records what the group posts and what the app would have done. To trade, set the listener to Manual (you approve each signal) or Auto (the app trades immediately).

Q: Does the app need me to be the admin of the Telegram group?
A: No. Your Telegram account only has to be a member. The app reads the group on your computer through your own Telegram login; it never posts anything.

Q: Does a dry run cost money or use my daily signals?
A: No. Nothing is placed, and dry runs have their own monthly allowance, separate from the daily signal limit.

Q: How long does a signal wait for my approval?
A: Ten minutes. After that it expires, because the price has usually moved on.

Q: Can different groups have different rules?
A: Yes. Each listener has its own mode, its own risk, daily cap, symbols and entry rules, on top of the profile-wide safety limits.

Q: My signal group has topics. Which ones does the app read?
A: All of them, until you choose. Open the listener, press "Choose…" next to "Topics" and tick the topic where signals are posted. Two listeners can split one group by topic.

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Source: https://relay2trade.com/features/listeners · Updated 2026-10-13