How settings work

How a profile's trading settings are organised, where you change them, how defaults, restoring, the setup questions and syncing work, and how a listener's "Settings of its own" combine with the profile's when a signal is traded.

Three levels of settings

Relay2Trade keeps settings at three levels:

The profile. Each profile is one MetaTrader 5 account with its own trading settings: sizing, stop-loss, take-profits and trailing, runners, safety limits, the group's follow-up messages, repeated and late signals, trading days and hours, and symbols. Every profile has its own set, so two accounts can trade by different rules. See Profiles and MetaTrader accounts.
The listener. Each listener (one Telegram group or channel) follows the profile's settings, and can have "Settings of its own" for any group that should trade differently. Its entry rules ("Entry mode", "Max entry deviation" and the others) and its "Symbols" list belong to the listener itself.
The application. A few settings belong to the app on a computer, set once for all profiles: "Launch at startup", "Start minimized in tray", "Keep running when window closes", "Show tips" and "Log level" stay on that computer; "Language", "MetaTrader link" and the "Remote control & sync" switches follow your account to every computer.

The full list of settings, each with what it does and an example, is at https://relay2trade.com/features/settings.

Where you change them

You can change a profile's settings in two places, and they both show the same values:

The Desk on relay2trade.com, on a computer or a phone: open "Settings", pick the profile at the top, then pick a section. The index shows every section with a short line on how it is set now ("Risks 1% of the account on a signal", "No limit set").
The desktop app's window: "Settings", with the sections in a list on the left. "Application" and "Restore default settings" are at the bottom of that list.

Each setting has "What this does" under it, with "When:" and "Example:", and "More about it" for the full explanation. "Search settings" finds a setting by name or by a word in its help.

The sections are: "Trading" (the profile's trading switch), "Position sizing", "Stop-loss", "Take-profits & trailing", "Runners", "Safety limits", "The group's messages after a signal", "Repeated, late and opposite signals", "Trading days and hours" and "Symbols".

Saving as you change

There is nothing to save. Each setting is saved the moment you change it, and a tick shows beside its name once it is saved.

Your settings are kept with your account. A change made in the Desk reaches the app within seconds. When the app is not running, the Desk says "your app is offline: a change waits until it is back", and the app takes the change the next time it starts. In the app, a change made from the Desk shows as a notice: "Settings changed from the web: …".

A change is checked against the other settings and your plan before it is kept. A change that breaks a rule (for example a listener's own limit above the profile's) is refused with the reason, and nothing from it is saved.

Defaults and "Restore default settings"

A new profile starts with the default settings, held to your plan. Some of the defaults worth knowing:

"Sizing mode" is "Fixed lots", 0.01 for "Each take-profit".
"Require stop-loss" is off: a signal without a stop gets the default stop for its kind of instrument.
"Multiple take-profits" is "Split: a separate trade for each take-profit", and "Trailing stop" is "To the take-profit before".
"Protect runners" and "Close runners before the weekend" are on.
The group's follow-up messages ("Exits and stop moves", "Partial closes and target moves") are on "Ignore them".
"Max daily loss" and "Daily profit target" are "Off"; "Max open positions" is 100, held to your plan.

"Restore default settings" puts every setting of the profile, and the settings of each of its listeners, back to how the app starts out. Your broker symbol names are reset too. Your listeners with their chats and modes, and the trading switch, stay as they are. It applies to one profile only.

In the Desk, open "Settings" and pick the profile; "Restore default settings" is at the bottom of the page. In the app it is the last entry in the Settings list.
Click "Restore default settings" and confirm.

It suits a profile that stopped trading as you expected after many changes ("Missing signals after changing settings?"). Re-apply only what you need afterwards, or answer the setup questions.

"Set up with a few questions"

The setup questions set a profile from plain answers: how you want to trade ("Protect my account first", "Balanced", "Aim for bigger gains"), how big each signal should be, what you trade mostly, whether your signals always give a stop-loss, how many trades may be open, how take-profits are traded and what happens to the stop after the first one, runners, the group's follow-ups, late messages, a daily loss limit and the trading hours.

Open "Settings" and click "Set up with a few questions".
Answer one question at a time. Money answers show what they come to on your connected account, for example "With 10000.00 USD in the account, you lose about 50.00 USD if the signal stop-loss is hit."
The last step lists every setting that will change. If your plan limits a result, it says "Your plan limits some of these:".
Apply. Once answered, the button reads "Answer again".

Settings the questions do not ask about go back to their defaults. The trading switch, your listeners and your broker symbol names stay as they are.

A section that has questions of its own shows "Set up with questions" in its header. It asks only that section's questions and changes only that section. An open listener has its own "Set up with questions" too, for its mode, entry, take-profits, daily caps, instruments and follow-ups.

Each profile keeps its own settings. To give a second profile the same setup, answer the questions there with the same answers, then adjust the rest by hand.

Syncing across computers: "Sync settings & listeners"

"Sync settings & listeners" is a switch in the desktop app, under Settings → "Application" → "Remote control & sync". It is on by default and needs "Remote control" on.

On: each profile's settings and listeners are kept with your account. A new computer or a reinstall starts from them: sign in, connect MetaTrader and Telegram for each profile, and every setting and listener is as it was. You can see and change them from the Desk, on any device.
Off: your settings are kept only on the computer where the app runs. The Desk shows "Settings sync is off" in place of the settings, and they cannot be shown or changed from any other device. Switched on again, the app sends what it kept, and your account has them again.

A VPS needs settings sync on, so turn it on in the app before you move to one or create one (see Running Relay2Trade on a VPS).

What changed: "What's new"

The app's "What's new" lists what each app update brought. When an update changes a default setting, the Desk shows "We changed some default settings." with "See what changed", and the page "Default settings we changed" lists them. A changed default changes how the app acts only where you kept the default; what you set yourself stays as you set it.

After an update that changed the settings themselves, the app's window shows "Your settings changed" with each new, changed or removed setting and its value now. A new setting starts at its default. Where an update switched something for everyone, it says so, and you can turn it back in Settings.

A listener's "Settings of its own"

Open a listener and pick "Settings of its own". In the Desk, switch a setting's "Its own" on to give it a value for this group only; in the app, choose it from "Add a setting of its own…". It starts at the profile's current value, with the profile's value shown under it ("Profile: 1%"). To follow the profile again, switch "Its own" off in the Desk, or click ✕ "Follow the profile again" in the app. A listener with some shows "3 own settings" or similar.

There are two kinds:

Settings that replace the profile's for this group's signals. A listener can have its own:

size: "Sizing mode", "Risk % of equity", "Fixed lots are for", "Fixed lots", "Fixed cash", "Max lots per signal";
take-profits and trailing: "Multiple take-profits", "Share across take-profits", "Max take-profits per signal", "Require full signal", "Trailing stop", "Pips behind the take-profit", "Room behind the stop (pips)", "Max jump between take-profits";
every runner setting;
stop-loss rules: "Require stop-loss", "Own stop-loss", "Own stop-loss (pips)";
"Max spread (points)" and "Max slippage (points)";
"Opposite-direction signals";
"Trading days" and "Trading hours";
the follow-ups: "Exits and stop moves", "Partial closes and target moves";
the switches of the daily limits ("Count open trades" and the three "At the limit" and "At the target" switches).

These go either way: a listener may risk 2% while the profile risks 1%, or 0.5%. A setting of its own counts even when it is off or empty: its own "Max spread (points)" on "Off" turns the spread check off for that group, and its own empty "Trading hours" trade around the clock.

Limits of its own, counted on this group's trades only. "Max traded signals per day", "Max daily loss", "Daily profit target", "Max open positions", "Max open positions per symbol", "Max signals open at once", "Max total lots", "Max lots per symbol" and "Pause between signals (seconds)". A limit of its own:

counts only this listener's trades and orders;
can be at most the profile's (a pause between signals may be longer);
must be above 0; remove it to have none;
applies beside the profile's: both are checked, and whichever is reached first stops.

A limit above the profile's is refused, and so is lowering the profile's below a listener's own.

Settings that stay the profile's alone, because they belong to the account as a whole: "Max margin use %", "Lowest equity to trade", the duplicate check ("Duplicate window (min)", "Duplicate tolerance (pips)"), "Max signal age (min)", the four default stops per kind of instrument, the units of the daily limits, "Allowed symbols", "Symbol names at your broker" and the trading switch. A listener's "Symbols" list can only narrow "Allowed symbols".

How they combine when a signal is traded

When a signal arrives from a listener, the app takes the profile's settings, lays the listener's own settings over them, and then checks both sets of limits.

Example: the profile risks 1% with "Max daily loss" 500. The gold group's listener has its own "Sizing mode" "Fixed lots" at 0.05, "Trading hours" 08:00-17:00 and its own "Max daily loss" 250. The forex group's listener has nothing of its own.

A gold signal at 10:00 trades 0.05 lots for each take-profit; a gold signal at 18:30 is skipped as outside trading hours. The forex group sizes by 1% around the clock.
The gold group closes −90 and −170 (net −260): its own limit is reached, so its signals stop for the day. The forex group trades on.
If the forex group then loses 240, the profile reaches −500 and every listener stops, because the profile's limit counts every group.

A listener's own "Max open positions" of 5 can still stop at 2 when the other listeners have filled the profile's limit.

Plan limits on settings

Most settings are in every plan. One depends on the plan:

"Max open positions" has a ceiling of 10 on the 7-day plan, 10 on Basic, 50 on Advanced and 100 on Pro. A higher value is refused, and the window that opens shows how to raise the limit.

If your plan goes down, your settings are kept as you set them. The Desk shows the plan's sentence under a setting it holds, and the app trades at the plan's limit. When your plan allows it again, the setting applies again by itself, and the app tells you: "Your plan allows these again, so they are back as you had them, as far as the plan goes: …". Restoring defaults and the setup questions never fail because of the plan: their result is held to it.

If something goes wrong

The Desk shows "Settings sync is off". "Sync settings & listeners" is off in the app, so the settings stay on that computer. Turn it on in the app (Settings → "Application" → "Remote control & sync") to see and change them from the Desk.
The Desk says "Your app has not sent this profile's settings yet." The app has not connected since the profile was made, or sync is off. Start the app with "Sync settings & listeners" on.
A change from the Desk did not apply, and the app says "Settings changed from the web were not applied". The change broke a rule; the notice gives the reason and nothing from that edit was saved. Fix the value named and change it again.
"Your app sent newer settings while you were editing." The same setting was changed in the app or another browser meanwhile. Choose "Load them (drops your changes)" and make your change again on the current values.
A listener's own limit is refused. It is above the profile's. Lower it to the profile's value or less, or raise the profile's first.
Signals stopped after many changes. Open a skipped signal: it names the setting that stopped it, with "Go to" to that setting (see Why a signal was skipped). Or use "Restore default settings" and set again only what you need.
One group trades differently from the others. It has settings of its own. Open the listener and look at "Settings of its own".
A setting is held by your plan. The line under it says so. Raise the plan, or set a value within it.