Trying to convert one of my MT4 expert advisors to MT5 I’ve finally realized what probably the biggest problem of new MetaTrader 5 platform is — the positions are now limited to one per Symbol (currency pair). In fact, the position can now be identified purely by its currency pair. That means that you can have only one position open at the same time, for example, one on EUR/USD, one on GBP/USD and one on USD/JPY but you can’t have two positions on EUR/USD. All you can change is the volume of the position and its direction.
This limit makes stop-loss and take-profit work in a very new way. For example, your EA opens a Long position on EUR/USD for 1 standard lot at 1.4940 and sets stop-loss to 1.4900 and take-profit to 1.5000. Then your expert advisor decides to open another position on EUR/USD for 0.5 standard lot at 1.4950 and sets stop-loss to 1.4910 and take-profit to 1.5010. Your resulting position will be Long 1.5 lots with the stop-loss and take-profit of the latest order (1.4910 and 1.5010). There will be no partial closing of your position by the first and second SL/TP levels.
More than that, running two or more EAs on one currency pair will mess up the trading history and reports for them, because position won’t differ by expert advisors. They will keep modifying the same position. Of course, that has its own advantages, but for those traders that are used to the old MetaTrader 4 execution it will be very hard to adapt.
I haven’t checked it yet, but I think the problem itself can be solved by setting the stop-loss and take-profit levels as the pending orders with the volume corresponding to the specific position’s size. Of course, MetaTrader 5 may be just offsetting these orders the same was as it does with the positions.
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