Prohibited Strategy Detector
Funded programme rulebooks commonly ban a handful of specific patterns outright, and traders using a strategy they did not write themselves frequently have no idea whether it does any of them. This EA checks for three that are actually visible in ordinary MQL4 order history: trades held for only a few seconds (tick scalping), a sequence of same-symbol, same-direction trades opened close together with lot size climbing by a fixed multiple each time (a grid or martingale progression), and overlapping opposite-direction trades on the same symbol (hedging, banned on many netting-style funded accounts even when the platform itself allows it). It deliberately does not attempt to detect latency arbitrage or other patterns that need data outside what a terminal's own order history contains - a check invented from insufficient evidence would produce false confidence in either direction. Everything it does flag is a mechanical fact about the trade sequence, stated plainly, for the trader to check against their programme's actual wording. The history scan is bounded to a configurable number of most recent matching trades, keeping this fast on an account with years of history, and the overlap check - the only one with worse-than-linear cost - stays inside that same bound. Notes and limitations Read-only detector - it never closes a position or blocks a trade, because whether a flagged pattern actually violates your programme's rules depends on wording this EA cannot read. It only sees this terminal's own account history, so a strategy that trades across multiple accounts or terminals will only be partially visible here. A flagged pattern is a prompt to check the rulebook, not proof of a violation. On MQL5, a trade whose entry deal has aged out of local history is skipped from the sample rather than guessed at.
Expert advisor · MT4 · v1.0 · Free
About Prohibited Strategy Detector
Prohibited Strategy Detector is a script for MetaTrader 4. It can alert you with a pop-up, sound, email or push message. It has 8 settings, such as Lookback trades, Scalp max hold seconds and Scalp flag threshold percent. MQL source code included.
Files in the download: ProhibitedStrategyDetector.ex4, ProhibitedStrategyDetector.mq4, ProhibitedStrategyDetector.txt.
Settings
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Lookback trades | 200 | Most recent matching closed trades sampled (bounds the scan) |
| Scalp max hold seconds | 30 | Trades held at or under this duration are scalp candidates |
| Scalp flag threshold percent | 10.0 | Flag scalping once this percent of the sample are scalp candidates |
| Grid lot multiplier | 1.5 | Consecutive same-direction, same-symbol lot growth ratio that flags a grid/martingale signature |
| Grid window seconds | 300 | Maximum gap between opens for two trades to be considered part of the same sequence |
| Detect hedging | true | Flag overlapping opposite-direction trades on the same symbol |
| Magic filter | -1 | Magic number filter (-1 = every magic number) |
| Recalc seconds | 60 | Minimum seconds between rescans |
How to install
- Download the ZIP from your PolyMaria library and unzip it.
- In MetaTrader 4 open File → Open Data Folder, then go to MQL4 → Scripts.
- Copy the .mq4 file(s) there. Put any .mqh files in MQL4 → Include.
- Open the .mq4 file in MetaEditor and press Compile (F7) if MetaTrader does not show it.
- Drag the script onto a chart to run it once.
Tags: Scalping · Grid · Martingale · Alerts · MT4 Expert Advisor · MQL4 Source Code