User manual. Every setting, in order.

Five steps from install to your first trade.

1. Add SizeOps to a chart. MT4 / MT5: drag it from Navigator › Expert Advisors and turn on Algo Trading (MT4: AutoTrading). NT8: right-click the chart › Indicators › SizeOps. The NT8 panel floats on the chart by default (drag it by its header), so Chart Trader can stay closed; to put it inside Chart Trader instead, see Panel location (group 13).
2. Paste your license in group 1 (Start here) and press OK. MT only: allow WebRequest for https://sizeops.com in Tools › Options › Experts (MT4: Expert Advisors).
3. Press START TRADING. The SL and TP lines appear.
4. Drag the SL line to where your stop belongs. The size updates live, so a stop-out is planned to lose your risk. Slippage or a gap can make the real loss bigger.
5. Pick MARKET or LIMIT and press EXECUTE. Manage the trade with PT, BE, the quick-close buttons and CLOSE.

To change settings later: MT, press F7 on the chart and open the Inputs tab. NT8, right-click the chart › Indicators › SizeOps; NinjaTrader's own sections there (Data Series, Setup, Visual) can stay at their defaults.

Words used here:

• R:R: reward ÷ risk. R:R 2 means the target pays twice your planned risk.
• The % is of: what a % risk is taken from: your balance or your equity.
• Hedging / netting: MT5 account types, set by your broker. Hedging keeps each trade separate; netting merges them into one position.
• Key / pass: your license, pasted in group 1.

Step by step, with screenshots: the setup guide.

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The settings below refer to these buttons.

• The +/− buttons change risk or R:R for your next trade only. After you press EXECUTE, your defaults come back. A refused EXECUTE keeps them, so you can fix it and try again. A restart, timeframe or settings change brings the defaults back too.
• Every START TRADING starts fresh from your settings: risk and R:R (any +/− forgotten), a new stop (Fixed distance: your distance), the target on R:R, the side (Start as), the order type, Plan partials with your Partial 1–5 levels, and the BE line with its R:R. A LIMIT entry line starts at the last candle's close. Open trades and waiting orders (with their partial levels and BE lines, also right after EXECUTE), the daily limit and where the panel sits stay as they are.
• R : R (moved): you dragged the TP by hand; R : R − / + locks it back.
• Amber size row: the size was cut or can't be traded: (margin), (max), ! margin too low, risk too small (NT8 also: ! no free margin, 0 (max position)).
• NT8: SizeOps also writes the size into Chart Trader's quantity box.
• NT8 pending entries: a LIMIT or STOP entry gets its stop, target and partials when it fills, and only while NinjaTrader runs with SizeOps on the chart. Don't close NinjaTrader with an entry waiting.

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How the daily loss limit in settings group 3 works.

• What counts: today's closed P&L plus the open P&L of every trade on the account, manual trades and other EAs' included.
• Used up: when that loss reaches the limit, the account is locked for the rest of the day. Pressing EXECUTE shows DONE FOR TODAY and the Daily Limit row reads [LOCKED]. The lock survives a restart.
• Pending entries: once today's limit is used up, SizeOps cancels its own pending entries on that chart's symbol, including every leg of a split entry (MT). Your manual orders and other EAs' orders are left alone. NT8 does this only on the account that hit its limit. It also happens when SizeOps starts on a day that's already locked. The log (MT: Experts tab; NT8: NinjaScript Output) says "Daily limit used up: cancelled N SizeOps pending entries". With "At the limit: also close open trades" on, the close cancels them instead. If an entry has already part-filled, the filled part is a running trade and stays; the rest is cancelled.
• Running trades: never closed by the limit, unless "At the limit: also close open trades" is on. Then, when the limit is hit, SizeOps also closes its own trades on that chart's symbol, once (not again after a restart; NT8: only on the account that hit its limit). Manual trades are never closed.
• Before each trade: SizeOps refuses a trade whose risk is bigger than what's left of today's limit (OVER TODAY'S LIMIT). Here SizeOps counts open trades at their stops where it can: MT counts every open position on the account at its stop, and one without a stop at its current P&L. NT8 counts SizeOps' own trades on the chart's instrument at their stops, plus other open positions on that account at their current P&L. Risk in % or $ makes no difference: it's the real size's risk that's checked.
• Waiting entries keep fitting: SizeOps keeps checking its waiting entries with the same check as a new trade, and if one would no longer fit what's left today, it cancels all of its waiting entries (MT: on that chart's symbol; NT8: that chart's, on that account). Each entry counts on its own: a split entry's legs together, and of a buy + sell pair only one side can fill. An exact fit stays. It checks about every 2 s and right after SizeOps starts. The log says "Daily limit: a waiting entry no longer fits what's left today ($… at its stop, $… left), cancelled N SizeOps pending entries". No popup, and nothing comes back later. An entry with no stop can't be checked.
• Starting balance: your balance minus today's closed P&L. Deposits and withdrawals aren't trading P&L, so one made today counts as if it was made before the day started: on MT from the next time SizeOps starts (attach, restart, timeframe or settings change), on NT8 right away.
• The day: starts at broker server midnight on MT and 18:00 New York on NT8. A new day unlocks trading; cancelled entries aren't put back.

To plan the day's room before you trade, use the free drawdown calculator.

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MT5 accounts come in two kinds: hedging keeps each trade separate, netting keeps one position per symbol. The MT5 title bar shows which: "Hedge" or "Netting".

• SizeOps only trades a symbol with no position, or a position it opened itself. On netting, a new trade would merge into the position already there.
• A position SizeOps didn't open: EXECUTE shows MANUAL TRADE OPEN and sends nothing. SizeOps' own entries still waiting on that symbol are cancelled, since a fill would merge into it. Your manual orders stay.
• Closing part of a SizeOps trade by hand is fine: SizeOps keeps managing the rest.
• An EXECUTE the other way while SizeOps' position is open, or its entry is waiting, is refused (OTHER SIDE OPEN), since it would reduce or flip it: close or cancel it first. So no buy + sell entry pairs on netting. The same direction adds to it as before.
• Adding to a SizeOps trade, or flipping it to the other side (by hand or another EA): that hands the position back to you. SizeOps stops managing it: no BE, partials, CLOSE or daily-limit close on it, and its lines go. One alert tells you. Check its stop and target.
• Hedging accounts, MT4 and NT8 work as before.

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The numbers match the groups in the SizeOps settings window.

1. Start here

Your license, and on NT8 the account SizeOps trades.

• Your account must be on your license: your MT account number, or your exact NT8 account name. Manage your accounts on sizeops.com.
• MT only: allow WebRequest for https://sizeops.com in Tools › Options › Experts (MT4: Expert Advisors). Without it the panel says WebRequest blocked (hover it for where). NT8 needs no setup, just internet.
• A mistyped key blocks new trades, even with a saved license. SizeOps spots a mistyped SIZE- key itself (Invalid key – paste it exactly as emailed). Fix it or clear the field.
• Which key is in use? Hover the panel title: Key: SIZE-E7K2-••••-•••• (the rest stays hidden).
• Fixed it on sizeops.com? After License paused, Trial ended, License ended, Account not on license, Trial already used or a platform that isn't on your key yet, SizeOps checks again every 15 minutes (hourly after a day). Paying, buying or sorting out your accounts unblocks new trades with no click; CHECK LICENSE checks at once.
• Offline? You'll see Can't reach sizeops.com – OK until {date} (MT: hover the panel title; NT8: under the panel). New trades stay allowed until then.

What the panel title tells you:

2. Risk per trade

These decide how big each trade is: SizeOps sizes every trade so that at the stop you lose your planned risk. Fast markets, slippage or gaps can make it more.

• Your defaults: The +/− buttons change risk or R:R for your next trade only. After you press EXECUTE, your defaults come back.
• Risk in $ on the panel: the − / + row shows your $ risk and steps in $ (group 6); the row under it shows what that is as a % of "The % is of". The stop-line label shows both.
• The daily loss limit stays a % of balance, whichever you pick here (group 3).

3. Daily loss limit

At the limit, new trades are always blocked and SizeOps' waiting entries are always cancelled. This setting only decides about trades already open.

How the daily loss limit works: Daily loss limit: how it works.

4. Commission

Whether commission is part of the maths, and what yours is.

The target is R:R × the stop distance, plus commission when it's counted: TP distance = R:R × stop + (R:R + 1) × the round-trip commission as a price move. Spread is never part of the size or the target: the entry price (Ask for a BUY, Bid for a SELL) already carries it. Settings saved with the old "Add one spread to the TP as a safety buffer" setting load fine: that setting is gone, so targets are exact R:R now (NT8 says so once in the NinjaScript Output if it was on). Breakeven always uses your real commission, whatever the "Count commission" switch says.

5. Placing a trade

How a new trade starts out.

• SL line: placed once and never trails; drag it wherever you want (with the BUY | SELL switch: not across the price). Fixed distance is the one exception, and only while you set up a trade: its stop moves with the price (never a trade's real stop). Folded with no trade open, the setup lines go, as in every mode.

6. Panel buttons

How far each − / + click on the panel moves, the lowest values allowed, and the quick-close buttons. The +/− buttons change risk or R:R for your next trade only. After you press EXECUTE, your defaults come back.

• Tip: a plan level set below the lowest R:R (Partial 1 at 0.5, say) stays where it is until you press its − / +, then jumps to the lowest R:R.
• Quick-close: a trade too small to split stays as it is (TOO SMALL TO SPLIT).

7. Partial take-profits

Partials close part of the trade at set R:R levels on the way to the TP, up to 5 levels per trade.

• At EXECUTE: a level beyond the TP, or too small to close anything, is dropped. Its label warns you before EXECUTE, and the log says why.
• During the trade: PT opens the partials window to move, resize, add or remove levels.
• Where the levels live: MT4 and MT5 hedging accounts send levels set before EXECUTE to the broker as their own orders; levels added during the trade are closed by SizeOps at the touch. MT5 netting accounts: always at the touch. NT8 places resting limit orders once the entry fills and always keeps at least 1 contract for the TP.

8. Breakeven

BE moves your stop to entry plus a small buffer, so your stop sits at entry plus costs. A gap or slippage can still cost a little. BE NOW does it at once; a BE line does it when price gets there.

• BE line: drag it, then press ACTIVATE in the BE window. When price touches it, the stop moves and the line removes itself.
• No stop on the trade? BE places one at entry + buffer.
• Keep the platform running: SizeOps watches BE lines itself; the broker doesn't hold them.
• NOT IN PROFIT YET: price isn't far enough past entry + costs for the broker to accept that stop. An armed line simply waits and tries again.

9. Chart lines & labels

Which lines SizeOps draws, when, and what their labels show.

• Each label shows its line's name plus the parts you switch on, the same on MT and NT8: SL : 0.50 lot : 1.00% : $100.00, TP : 0.25 lot : RR 2.00 : +$200.00, and on partials PT1 : 50% | 0.25 lot | RR 1.00 | +$50.00 (NT8: ct). With every part off, only the name shows (on partials, the name and %).
• Waiting entries: their stop and target labels follow the same switches as every other label (and Focus mode).
• NT8, a plan too small for 1 contract: the labels show what one contract would risk or make: SL : 0 ct : 1 ct = $404.20 (4.04%), TP : 0 ct : RR 2.01 : 1 ct = +$810.80, and each partial between the entry and the TP PT1 : 50% | 0 ct | TOO SMALL | RR 1.00 | 1 ct = +$405.80. EXECUTE refuses it (RISK TOO SMALL). MT shows your planned risk on the stop instead.
• Where labels sit: one gap in from the left, side by side when they'd overlap, and around the trade box and the panel (NT8: when it floats), but never pushed off the chart for that. Chart labels are 1 pt smaller than the Text size. NT8: on a chart too narrow for the gap, a label starts further left so it fits when it can.
• R:R on labels uses the same maths as your TP: after commission when it's counted (group 4).
• Once your stop is past entry in profit, the SL label reads SL past BE, with the profit at that stop (a gap or slippage can give some back). Right at breakeven it reads SL at BE.

10. Panel info rows

Three panel rows that track your day. The daily limit works even when they're hidden.

• Daily P&L: today's closed P&L for the whole account, after costs, manual trades included.
• Daily Limit: today's limit in money (−$500, say). Shows only on the open panel with a limit set, and reads [LOCKED] once hit.
• Win / Loss: today's closed trades, with your win %.

11. Trade box on the chart

A small box with your live trade, shown only while a SizeOps trade or pending order exists. Drag it anywhere.

• With 2+ trades it shows the count, total size and total P&L. A pending order shows its type, price, size and distance from price.
• Its first spot: next to the panel on MT, top-right of the chart on NT8. Wherever you drag it, it stays: NT8 saves it with the workspace; MT keeps it until a restart.

12. Focus mode

Trade the system, not the money.

Refusal details in the platform's log still show amounts, so you can see why a trade was refused.

13. Panel look & size

Where the panel sits and how it looks. The panel starts folded at START TRADING, with your daily rows: when SizeOps starts and after you change a setting, also with a trade or waiting entry running. It opens only when you press START TRADING, and folds again after EXECUTE or when you fold it. Open trades keep their lines, and PT, BE and the close buttons work on the folded panel too. (MT: a timeframe change keeps it as it was.)

After EXECUTE the panel folds back on its own.

14. Advanced: order tags (MT4 / MT5 only)

How SizeOps marks its own orders. It only ever closes, moves or part-closes its own trades.

• Manual trades and other EAs' trades are never touched, but they do count toward Daily P&L, Win / Loss and the daily limit.
• NT8 has no group 14. It names its orders SO E (entry), SO SL, SO TP and SO P (partials), each with # and a short trade id, plus SO Close, so you can spot them in NinjaTrader's Orders tab.

15–17. Colours

Colours (MT: first line of group 15. NT8: the Theme setting, group 13)

• Auto (default): the SizeOps look, but a part you changed keeps your settings. Three parts are judged on their own: the line colours (group 15), the panel and button colours (groups 16–17) and the Font (group 13). A chart that kept the old default colours gets the whole SizeOps look. The Experts log says which part kept yours.
• SizeOps: the SizeOps look. The line colours follow your chart: bright on a dark chart, deeper on a white one, so every line and label stays readable. Buttons and words in Segoe UI, numbers in Consolas, titles in Bahnschrift.
• Cool blue: navy panel, cyan and orange lines, with the Font setting (NT8: your NinjaTrader skin with cyan and orange lines).
• Custom: the colours in groups 15–17, exactly as you set them, with the Font setting.

The colours in groups 15–17 (the chart lines, the panel and the buttons) are used with Custom, and by Auto for a part you changed. Their defaults are the SizeOps colours for a dark chart. NT8: with Auto or a skin theme, the line colours follow the same Auto rule; Custom uses them exactly.

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A refusal flashes on the button for a few seconds; on a half or third button it takes the whole row (click it to close it early). Words too long for their button show a little smaller, never cut. The full reason goes to the platform's log (MT: Experts tab; NT8: NinjaScript Output). Alerts also pop up. NT8 shows messages about a running trade on the line under the panel, so you see them with the panel folded. Words that changed recently show the old word in brackets.

When you press EXECUTE

In a trade

Alerts

License

The words come from sizeops.com, except Invalid key and the ones SizeOps writes itself (Account not on license, which names the exact account it checked in with, and Trial ended / License ended / Emergency pass ended when a pass runs out). MT shows the reason in short under CHECK LICENSE (License paused, Trial ended, License ended, Not on your key yet, Account not on license, Key replaced, Trial already used, Invalid key), the whole text when you hover the panel title, in the Experts tab and in a pop-up; NT8 on the line under the panel, in an alert and in the NinjaScript Output. New trades are blocked; open trades are still managed. After the ones marked ↻, SizeOps checks again every 15 minutes (hourly after a day), so fixing it on sizeops.com unblocks it with no click.

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SizeOps sends your trades to the Journal on sizeops.com. It all happens in the background: trading works exactly the same, and there's nothing to set in SizeOps.

• The switches are on sizeops.com: Journal settings › your trading account: Journal and Save chart pictures, both on by default. SizeOps learns them when it checks your license (at start, once a day, or when you press CHECK LICENSE) and with every send. Hover the panel title: it says Journal on.
• Switched off, SizeOps does nothing for it: Journal off: nothing is recorded, sent or kept on your PC (what was waiting is deleted). Save chart pictures off: no pictures.
• License paused or ended: SizeOps records and sends nothing for the Journal. What was already waiting stays on your PC and goes once your license is active again.
• What goes: for every trade placed with SizeOps while the Journal is on, your plan at EXECUTE (risk, stop, target, partials, BE line), what happened (stop and target moves, partials, BE, the exit), how far price went for and against you, and the money from your broker (profit, commission, swap, fees). Also your balance at EXECUTE and after each close, how your daily limit stood, and who did each step (your SizeOps level, a SizeOps button, the broker, or you in the platform). MT4 / MT5 also send your deposits, withdrawals and credit since the Journal went on, and your account's totals so the Journal can check it matches your broker. Your other trades on the account go too, without a plan.
• What-ifs from your platform's price history: after a trade closes, SizeOps reads your platform's own price history (up to 5 trading days) to estimate what would have happened if you'd left it, held it to the target, or let the plan run untouched. They're always shown as estimates and never change the trade's real result. It runs in the background, a little at a time.
• From the moment it's on: nothing from before goes, not even trades SizeOps placed earlier. Other trades count from when the Journal went on.
• After the terminal was off: SizeOps catches up from your account history since it last sent, never from before the Journal went on. Trades of yours that closed meanwhile (stop or target at the broker) go with their plan.

- MT4 catches up only what the Account History tab shows: keep it on a period that includes those days (or All history). - NT8 can only read today's session, so other trades from earlier days aren't sent.

• Chart pictures: at entry, each partial (also a part you close yourself: 25 % / 50 % or in the platform), BE and the exit (however it closes): the chart exactly as it is. MT: the whole chart, the SizeOps panel included. NT8: NinjaTrader's own chart picture (the one Share uses), as it comes: Chart Trader is in it when it's open, with your account and position (keep it closed for a clean picture); a window over the chart is never in it. SizeOps saves and sends the picture as it is, at your chart's size (nothing is resized on your PC); sizeops.com shows a tall one at most 1080 px high, keeping its shape (a 3840 x 2160 chart becomes 1920 x 1080), nothing cut. NT8: the entry picture waits until the trade's stop and target are on the chart (a limit: the waiting entry and its planned lines), 2 s at most. A minimised chart gets no picture for that moment (NT8: also a chart tab that isn't in front, or a picture that comes out blank). On MT5, another visible SizeOps chart on that symbol takes it instead. MT4 can't tell a minimised chart, so it takes the picture anyway. MT with SizeOps on several charts of one symbol: each picture comes from the chart you clicked for that step (EXECUTE, a partial, CLOSE, BE); a step that happens by itself (TP, SL, a partial level, BE by itself) comes from the chart you clicked last.
• When: right after each step of a trade: the fill, each partial, BE and the exit. The Journal shows the trade while it's open and updates it at each step; at the exit it gets the money from your broker. Each step's picture goes right after it. Never in the middle of a click or a drag: it goes the moment you let go. MT: a send holds SizeOps on that chart for a moment (usually a fraction of a second, 1 second at most); the platform and your stop and target at the broker aren't affected. NT8 sends in the background. MT: a big picture that doesn't go in 1 second goes in small pieces, one at a time, with SizeOps doing its normal work in between (after a dropped line or a restart it carries on). Your trades always go first and never wait for a picture. Offline? It waits on your PC and goes as soon as the platform is connected again (or at the next start). With several charts, one sends at a time and all wait the same.
• Your PC stays light: each trade is kept only until sizeops.com has it, then deleted. What's waiting is capped at 200 MB. It's in the terminal's MQL4 / MQL5\Files\SizeOps_journal folder (NT8: Documents\NinjaTrader 8\SizeOps\journal).
• Sending keeps failing? One line an hour at most in the Experts tab (NT8: NinjaScript Output): Can't send your journal to sizeops.com right now (…). Your trades wait on this PC and go later.

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