How to keep your Metatrader terminal running with your PC off

Sometimes, as a trader and especially if you are using Metatrader expert advisors, it may be necessary to leave your trading terminal open for long hours.

Let’s look at two great ways you can avoid interruptions to your trading activities even when you are not present.

1. Renting a VPS from a hosting company

A VPS is basically a server that has been divided into several virtual servers which are assigned smaller shares of the server itself. You can rent a VPS from most hosting companies online.

Their main advantage is that they are way cheaper to rent than a dedicated server.

For running your trading terminal, its ideal to find a company that offers windows servers. This is because most trading software, are designed to run on windows.

A good company that provides windows VPS servers is PiVPS . Their windows VPS offers start from as low as $6 per month.

Once you have your VPS set up, you can login to it using the IP address provided, on the remote desktop connection program on your windows computer or other third party apps.

Pros of renting a VPS

• You have full control of your VPS like on your own PC. You may even run your Metatrader strategy tester in the server.
• It may be more value for money, especially if you are running more than one terminal. You may also run other programs in the same VPS without paying any additional costs.
• No limitations on expert advisors. You can run EAs that require external DLL files without problems.

Cons of renting a VPS

• Might seem a bit complex for beginners, to initially set up and manage the environment. This may also depend on the hosting company you use.

2. Using Metatrader’s inbuilt virtual server feature

Later versions of Metatrader, introduced a feature where you can rent a virtual server from your terminal. To use this feature you must have an mql5.com account with the required subscription fee available.

This feature can be accessed by right clicking on your account number in the navigator window of your Metatrader.

Pros of Metatrader virtual hosting feature

• Easy to set up.
• You can enable and disable the server and also make a few changes right from your Metatrader

Cons of Metatrader virtual hosting

• May turn out more expensive because each instance of Metatrader, requires its own virtual server to be rented. The servers on Metatrader, cost around $10 per month, so three servers for three terminals translates to around $30 per month.
• The user has no visual access at all to what is going on in the server. You can only access logs and a few data from Metatrader.
• The servers are limited to a few functions of Metatrader i.e. You can’t run your strategy tester in it.
• Expert advisors that depend on external DLL files are not allowed.

Conclusion

Having tested both the above options, I would strongly vouch for the first option.

Renting a standalone VPS gives you more control of the server and the Metatrader instances running on it.

The fact that you can run many instances of Metatrader for the cost of just one VPS is also a major advantage in my opinion.