Setup & operation.

Before you start

You should have four things in place. If any are missing, sort them first — most support messages we get are one of these.

• An Axi MT5 Swap-Free, Hedging live account under IB code 4743869
• MetaTrader 5 installed and logged into that account
• At least $100 funded
• The Lahoog file, sent to you on Telegram

Lahoog is given out personally rather than published for download. Please don't pass the file on — it's free to anyone who asks and trades under our IB, so there's no need, and redistribution is the fastest way to get the whole arrangement shut down.

1 · Installation

Install the file

1. Open MetaTrader 5 and log into your Axi account.
2. Go to File → Open Data Folder. A file explorer window opens.
3. Navigate into MQL5 → Experts.
4. Copy your Lahoog.ex5 file into that folder.
5. Back in MT5, right-click Expert Advisors in the Navigator panel and choose Refresh. Lahoog should now appear in the list.

Enable algorithmic trading

MT5 blocks all automated trading until you allow it. Two places, both required:

1. Click the Algo Trading button in the top toolbar. It should turn green.
2. Go to Tools → Options → Expert Advisors and tick Allow algorithmic trading.

Attach it to a chart

1. Open a chart for the pair you want to trade.
2. Drag Lahoog from the Navigator onto that chart.
3. In the dialog that opens, check the Common tab has Allow algo trading ticked.
4. Review the Inputs tab (see Settings), then click OK.

If it refuses to start

The most common cause is the account margin mode. Lahoog needs a hedging account to run two opposing baskets, and it checks this on startup rather than misbehaving later. If your account is netting, no amount of configuration will help — you need a hedging account.

2 · Settings

The inputs are organised into twenty numbered groups, and the full reference comes with your file on Telegram. What follows is how to approach them — which matters more than any individual value.

The four settings that decide your risk

Ignore everything else until these are right:

• Grid spacing and max positions per basket. Together these set how far price can travel against you before the basket stops growing. Wider spacing and a lower cap means a slower, safer grid.
• The per-basket drawdown stop. Your main protection. Leave it enabled and set it somewhere you'd accept losing.
• Lot mode. Fixed is the default and the sane starting point. Multiplier scaling is a martingale — treat it accordingly.
• The averaging ladder master switch. Off by default. Leave it off until you genuinely understand what it does to your exposure.

Set the account-level stop

The whole-account drawdown stop is disabled out of the box because it needs a dollar figure only you can choose. Choose one. It watches your entire account balance-to-equity gap, closes everything and halts. It's the backstop that works even when something else has gone wrong, and it costs you nothing to have armed.

The equity stop is worth enabling too — it acts on Lahoog's own floating loss as a percentage of balance, and can flatten both baskets when breached.

Start conservative

• Minimum lot, single pair, averaging off, for at least the first few weeks.
• Watch a full basket cycle open, extend and close before you change anything.
• Extra pairs mean extra charts and multiplied exposure. That compounds faster than people expect when a correlated move hits all of them at once.

Changing settings mid-basket

Avoid it. Removing or reattaching the EA while positions are open can leave them unmanaged — Lahoog won't be there to close what it started. Use Smooth Stop to let open baskets finish while blocking new ones, then adjust once you're flat.

3 · The dashboard

The on-chart panel is where you'll spend most of your time. It's collapsible, it remembers its state, and every control is a real button — no reopening the inputs dialog mid-trade.

Draggable exit lines

Target, drawdown and trailing levels are drawn on the chart as objects you can drag. Move one and that becomes the fixed price for that side. Each line can print its projected dollar value, so you're setting exits against money rather than points.

4 · Telegram control

Lahoog can be driven entirely from Telegram. This is the feature most users end up relying on, and it takes about two minutes to set up.

Create your bot

1. In Telegram, message @BotFather and send /newbot.
2. Give it a name and a username. BotFather replies with a token — copy it.
3. Message @userinfobot to get your numeric chat ID.
4. In Lahoog's inputs, group 15: enable Telegram control, paste the token and your chat ID.
5. In MT5, go to Tools → Options → Expert Advisors, tick Allow WebRequest for listed URL and add https://api.telegram.org.

What you can do remotely

Check status, switch between Auto / Manual / Auto+MH / Smooth Stop, set targets and drawdown levels, arm or adjust the trail, change lot mode, configure or disable the averaging ladder, toggle the hedge, and close by side, by losers, or by profitables. Send /help to the bot for the current command list — it stays in sync with your version.

Alerts

Failure alerts go out over both Telegram and MT5 push notifications. That redundancy is deliberate: Telegram alerts travel over the same internet connection that may be the thing that failed, while push notifications go through MT5's own channel. Lahoog watches for connection loss and for AutoTrading being switched off, and can announce each new basket as a liveness heartbeat.

5 · VPS — New York 3

A VPS is not required. Lahoog runs on your own computer as long as that computer stays awake, online, and running MT5. Close the lid or lose WiFi and the tool stops managing your open positions.

We recommend New York 3 specifically. Most forex broker infrastructure, Axi's included, is concentrated in the NY4/NY3 data centre area in Secaucus, New Jersey. Being in the same facility cuts your order round-trip from tens or hundreds of milliseconds to low single digits. For a scalping tool that difference lands directly in your fill prices.

Two ways to get one

Setting it up

1. Order the VPS and note the IP address, username and password.
2. Connect with Remote Desktop — built into Windows, free app on Mac and mobile.
3. Download and install MT5 on the VPS, then log into your Axi account there.
4. Install Lahoog on the VPS following the Installation steps above.
5. Attach it to your chart, confirm the licence validates, then disconnect. The VPS keeps running with the session live.

6 · Grid & averaging risk

This is the section to read twice.

How the grid builds exposure

Lahoog runs two independent baskets on one pair. When price moves against an open basket, it adds another level at your grid spacing, up to your cap. Those positions don't carry individual stop losses by default — the basket closes as a group on a profit target, a trailing lock, or the drawdown stop.

In a ranging market that's the whole point: price oscillates, the basket's average entry improves, and it closes at target. In a strong one-directional trend it's the problem: the basket keeps adding while price keeps going, and your exposure grows fastest exactly when you'd want it shrinking.

What stands between that and your balance

Three of the strongest guards ship disabled because they need a number only you can pick. Picking those numbers is the most valuable ten minutes you'll spend with this tool.

The averaging ladder

Separate from the grid, and off by default. It deliberately adds against an open basket to pull its breakeven closer, with its own distance, its own cap, and its own lot rule — including a multiplier mode that sizes each rung off the side's total open lots.

That multiplier mode is a martingale. It's the single most dangerous setting in the tool. It's there because experienced grid traders ask for it, and it's off because most people shouldn't use it.

If you enable it anyway

• Assume the account can go to zero. Fund it with money whose total loss wouldn't change anything for you.
• Work out the worst case first. Know how many rungs your margin survives — then know that markets produce longer runs than people expect.
• Keep every stop armed. Basket drawdown, equity stop, account-level stop. All three.
• Don't leave it unwatched. A ladder in a trending market needs a human decision earlier than feels comfortable. Telegram alerts exist for exactly this.
• A bigger balance doesn't fix it. It changes how long the sequence runs before reaching the same place.

Trouble in progress?

Smooth Stop lets open baskets finish while blocking new ones — the right first move when you want out without slamming the door. CLOSE LOSERS cuts the losing legs and keeps the rest. CLOSE ALL flattens everything. All three work from the panel or from Telegram, which means from anywhere.

7 · Troubleshooting

Lahoog isn't opening any trades

Work down this list in order:

• Algo Trading button green? Top toolbar in MT5. This is the cause about half the time.
• Smiling face on the chart? A sad face means algo trading is blocked for that chart. Reattach and tick Allow algo trading in the Common tab.
• Check the Experts and Journal tabs. Errors appear there, not on the chart.
• Is the market open? Forex closes over the weekend.
• Spread too wide? If your account has unusually wide spreads at that moment, the tool may correctly be standing aside.

It won't initialise at all

• Netting account. The most common cause. Lahoog needs a hedging account and refuses to start otherwise.
• Check the Experts tab — the reason is printed there on startup.

Telegram commands aren't working

• https://api.telegram.org must be added under Tools → Options → Expert Advisors → Allow WebRequest for listed URL. Missing this is the usual cause.
• Confirm the chat ID is your numeric ID, not your @username.
• Message your bot once from your own account first — Telegram won't deliver until you've started the chat.
• Push notifications are separate: they need your MetaQuotes ID set under Tools → Options → Notifications.

"Trade context is busy" or orders rejected

• Usually another EA or script competing on the same terminal. Run Lahoog on its own terminal if you can.
• Check your account has enough free margin.
• Confirm the symbol is visible in Market Watch — MT5 can't trade a hidden symbol.

It worked yesterday and stopped today

• Did your computer sleep or restart? MT5 has to be running continuously. This is the argument for a VPS.
• MT5 updates occasionally reset the algo trading permission. Check the button.
• Check the Journal tab for disconnection messages around the time it stopped.

Results look worse than expected

Before assuming a fault, check: is the account swap-free? Are you on a VPS or a home connection? Have you changed the grid spacing, lot mode or caps from the defaults? Is the averaging ladder on? Those four explain most of the difference between one user's experience and another's.

A basket is deep underwater

Decide before you act, because all three options are permanent. Smooth Stop stops it getting worse without closing anything. CLOSE LOSERS takes the loss on the losing legs. CLOSE ALL flattens everything. What you should not do is remove the EA from the chart — that leaves every open position unmanaged, with no exit logic watching them at all.

Getting help

Message us on Telegram — the same handle that sent you the file. To get a useful answer quickly, include:

• Your Axi account number
• A screenshot of the Experts tab showing the error
• A screenshot of the dashboard panel
• Whether you're on a VPS, and where
• Whether the averaging ladder or a scaling lot mode is enabled

We can't advise you on what to trade, when to trade it, or how much to risk — that's your decision and we're not licensed to make it for you. We can help you get the tool running correctly.