Author
Michael Novik
Articles for the Vectorhelm blog.
- Strategies
TradingView Alert to DCA or Martingale: The Real Numbers
One setting turns a DCA ladder into a Martingale ladder. Here's what each costs at eight rungs, what bounce gets you out, and which limit actually stops it.
- Prop firms
Prop Firm Copy Trading Rules: Self-Copy vs Third-Party
Copying your own trades between your own accounts is allowed almost everywhere. Copying anyone else's gets the account closed. Here's where firms draw the line, and how they see it.
- Comparisons
PineConnector Alternatives in 2026: How Vectorhelm Compares
PineConnector moves an alert into MT5. Vectorhelm builds the strategy, trades MT5 and crypto, and stops the account at your limit. A side-by-side comparison.
- Prop firms
Why Prop Firms Turned Against Third-Party EAs
Three hundred traders running the same EA aren't three hundred traders to a risk desk. They're one, and the rules that ask for your source code exist because of it.
- MetaTrader 5
TradingView Webhook to MT5: A Setup That Survives a Reboot
Most TradingView-to-MT5 setups work until the VPS restarts. Here's what has to come back on its own afterwards, and how to check it did before your next alert fires.
- Prop firms
Prop Firm Daily Loss Limit: What Actually Uses It Up
A 5% daily limit on $100k isn't $5,000 of trading room. Swap, commission, rollover spreads and yesterday's open positions take their share first. Here's how much.
- Crypto exchanges
Crypto Trading Automation on Your Own Exchange Account
An API key lets a platform trade your exchange account without ever holding your money. What to enable, what to never enable, and why keys switch themselves off.
- MetaTrader 5
MT5 Error 4756: The Number That Tells You Why
4756 doesn't tell you what went wrong. It's a wrapper around a second number printed next to it, and that number is the one with the answer in it.
- TradingView
TradingView Alerts Not Firing: Every Cause in Order
An alert that stops firing almost never announces it. Here are the causes ranked by how often they're actually the problem, and the one-click check that halves the search.
- Risk management
Prop Firm Drawdown Protection: Where It Actually Runs
Every tool in this category sells daily loss protection. Almost none of them tells you where the limit is being watched from, or what happens to it when the connection drops.
- Prop firms
FTMO EA Rules: Request Limits and the $400k Cap
FTMO allows Expert Advisors outright, with no approval and no source code. What it caps instead is activity, and the number that catches people counts every stop adjustment.
- MetaTrader 5
MT5 Automation With No Code: What You Install and Why
MT5 can't be reached from outside, so automation always means something small running inside your terminal. Here's what that is, what it needs, and what stops when your laptop sleeps.
- Prop firms
Why Prop Firm Challenges Fail: The Daily Loss Limit
Most challenges don't end because the strategy was wrong. They end in the first week, on a mechanical threshold, in a sequence that repeats across hundreds of thousands of accounts.
- TradingView
TradingView Automation: Executing Alerts End to End
An alert firing and an order existing are two different events, separated by four systems that can each fail silently. Here's the whole chain.
- Risk management
Automated Risk Management: Strategy vs Account Limits
One strategy can spend an entire account's daily budget while the others keep trading. Where the limits sit decides whether that ends the account.