3.1.1US and Canadian recipients

If you want to send to a US or Canadian phone number, one extra step may be required because of anti-spam regulations. You may need a "virtual number" to send from, which you enter as the SMS_param3 value in the EA. For further information, please see:

https://nexmo.zendesk.com/entries/22362928-Specific-Carrier-Restrictions-to-the-US-and-Canada-DIRECT-routes

3.2Setting up a Clickatell account

The procedure for setting up an account with Clickatell is a little complicated. The following steps could potentially change if Clickatell alter their website.

• Create a "Clickatell Central" account at:
  https://www.clickatell.com/central/user/client/step1_new.php?prod_id=2.
• Wait for the confirmation email to arrive, and then log in to your account at http://www.clickatell.com/login.php. Choose "Clickatell Central (API)" from the list of products.
• Set up a connection by clicking on "Manage my products" and then choose "HTTP" from the "Add connection" list in the top-left of the page.
• Give the connection any name you like, leave the other fields blank, and click on Submit.
• The "Manage my products" page will refresh to show an "API code" for the connection (usually 7 digits).

You fill in your choice of username and password as the SMS_param1 and SMS_param2 values in the EA's configuration, and you fill in the "API code" as the SMS_param3 value.

3.3Testing the account details

You can test the account details using the Test SMS script which is installed with TradeTalk. You simply run the script by double-clicking on it in MT4's Navigator list, and then fill in the parameters such as SMS_param1 as described in relation to the TradeTalk SMS settings.

4Running TradeTalk

4.1Running the monitor

You run TradeTalk by opening a new chart in MT4, and dragging the TradeTalk EA from the MT4 Navigator window onto the chart, or by double-clicking on the EA (which adds it to the active chart).

You can add TradeTalk to the chart for any symbol. By default it will send messages about all orders in MT4, regardless of symbol, not just the chart on which it is running. You do not need to run separate copies of TradeTalk on each different chart which you trade.

N.B. You must turn on "Allow DLL imports" in order to use the EA, and it will warn you if this is not switched on.

You can control the monitor's behaviour using the EA parameters described in the following sections. Please note that TradeTalk will not send order-open alerts about orders which are already open at the time the EA is started.

The EAs displays its current status in the top-left of the chart. If no status is visible, please see the troubleshooting notes below. The following screenshot shows TradeTalk running successfully:

4.2Choosing which orders to alert about

You can choose which orders are included in alerts using the following parameters. You can also specify whether alerts are issued by SMS, email, or Twitter.

The system handles pending and filled orders separately. If you turn on both AlertAboutPendingOrders and AlertAboutOpenOrders, then a first alert will be issued when a pending order is created, and a second alert will be issued when the pending order is filled (or when it is deleted without being filled).

4.2.1Alerts about changes to s/l or t/p

You can use the AlertAboutSLTPChanges parameter to set up alerts when the s/l or t/p price changes on an order or position. There are three settings:

No alerts about s/l or t/p

Alert about changes from zero only

Alert about all changes to s/l or t/p

The first of these options turns off alerts about such changes. The second of them sends an alert if either the s/l or the t/p changes from zero to non-zero.

The third option sends an alert if there is any change to either the s/l or t/p. Please note that this can generate very large numbers of messages if you or your trading system is using a trailing stop.

Alerts will only be sent about the s/l or t/p on a pending order if AlertAboutPendingOrders is also turned on.

4.3Choosing how alerts are sent

You can choose how alerts are issued - by email, by SMS etc - using the following parameters. You must turn on at least one of them, and you can turn on all of them if you want to.

Some of these settings require additional information, such as the SMS account details.

4.4Alert text

The next set of parameters lets you control the text which is used for SMS and email. All these parameters can include the variables described below.

4.4.1Alerts about open positions

The following parameters are used to define the email/SMS/tweet text which is used when a new order is filled in the market. These settings are only used if AlertAboutOpenOrders is turned on.

4.4.2Alerts about closed positions

The following parameters are used to define the email/SMS/tweet text which is used when a position is closed. These settings are only used if AlertAboutClosedOrders is turned on.

4.4.3Alerts about new pending orders

The following parameters are used to define the email/SMS/tweet text which is used when a new pending order is created. These settings are only used if AlertAboutPendingOrders is turned on.

4.4.4Alerts about deleted pending orders

The following parameters are used to define the email/SMS/tweet text which is used when a pending order is deleted (i.e. removed before it is filled). These settings are only used if AlertAboutPendingOrders is turned on.

4.4.5Alerts about price changes on pending orders

The following parameters are used to define the email/SMS/tweet text which is used when the entry price of a pending order is changed. These settings are only used if both AlertAboutPendingOrders and AlertAboutPendingPriceChange are turned on.

4.4.6Alerts about changes to the s/l or t/p

The following parameters are used to define the email/SMS/tweet text which is used when the s/l or t/p price changes on an order.

4.4.7Variables

You can use the following variables in the above text parameters. Some of the following entries are obviously only applicable to order-close messages.

4.5SMS account details (Nexmo or Clickatell)

In order to send SMS from TradeTalk, you need to do three things:

Register with either Nexmo or Clickatell

Turn on the SendSMS setting

Fill in the following values about your Nexmo or Clickatell account

The meaning of the values such as SMS_param1 depends on whether you are using an account with Nexmo or with Clickatell.

Please note that TradeTalk sends its SMS asynchronously (like email in MT4), and therefore does not report on delivery problems.

All SMS activity is logged in daily files in the following Windows app-data location:

C:\Users\<your username>\AppData\Local\MT4-SMS

If any errors are reported in this log you can diagnose them using the TestSMS script.

4.6Email details

If you choose to send email alerts (by turning on the SendEmail parameter) you can either use MetaTrader 4's built-in email and its settings in Tools/Options/Email, or you can use FX Blue's email library.

The FX Blue library lets you use services such as Gmail, lets you change the sender name on messages, lets you have multiple recipients including CC and BCC addresses, and lets you send HTML-formatted email.

The following settings only apply if you use the FX Blue email library, i.e. if you turn off the UseMT4EmailSettings parameter.

If you use MT4's built-in email, delivery of messages is logged in the MT4 journal.

If you use the FX Blue library, messages are sent asynchronously, and all email activity is logged in the following Windows app-data location:

C:\Users\<your username>\AppData\Local\MT4-Email

4.7Twitter account details

In order to have TradeTalk send tweets, you must turn on the SendTweet parameter and also fill in the following details about your Twitter account:

Please note that Twitter uses OAuth authentication, and the process is as follows:

• The first time that a tweet is send from TradeTalk, a window will be displayed asking you to authenticate with Twitter.
• You click on the "Get PIN" button. This will open the Twitter website in your web browser.
• Click on the "Allow" button on the Twitter webpage. This will display a PIN code (usually 8 digits long).
• Copy and paste the PIN code into the authentication window (or type it in manually).
• Click on the "Save PIN" button.
• Your tweet will then be sent, and a success message will be displayed.

Once you have authenticated with Twitter and sent your first tweet, TradeTalk will only display messages if errors occur. It will not display further messages when tweets are successfully sent.

4.8Diagnosing problems

TradeTalk keeps a comprehensive record of its activity in the MT4 Experts log. You can view this in the Terminal pane of the MT4 software, or find the files on disk by using File / Open Data Folder in MT4 and then going to the MQL4\Logs subdirectory. (Please note that the Logs subdirectory is different to MQL4\Logs; the former contains the MT4 Journal.)

As explained above, SMS activity is recorded in a separate place because it is sent asynchronously. Email activity is also recorded in a separate place if you are using the FX Blue email library rather than MT4's built-in email.