The Lot Panel: change the size of an open MT5 position with one click

MetaTrader 5 lets you change an open position, but not quickly. Closing part of it takes several clicks and typing a volume; adding to it means placing a new order. The Lot Panel in Spectar FX Gold turns both into one click.

Resizing a position in plain MetaTrader 5

In the terminal, a partial close works like this: you open the position from the Trade tab, choose the volume to close, check it, and confirm. To make the position bigger you open a new market order in the same direction with the extra volume. Neither is hard, but on a fast gold candle every few seconds of typing is a few seconds of price movement — and typing a volume under pressure is where mistakes happen.

What the Lot Panel does

The Lot Panel is a small window that stays on top of your other windows. Each button carries a position size, and one click moves your open position to that size:

• A bigger size adds to the position in the same direction.
• A smaller size closes part of the position.

The sizes on the buttons are yours. You type them yourself in your own configuration, in the field lot_panel_sizes; nothing is preset, and we do not suggest any size. If you want buttons for, say, a small, a medium and a large size that fit your account, you choose what those are.

Like every order, a resize is filled at the market price your broker gives at that moment. On a fast market that price can differ from the one you saw when you clicked.

The manual hedge

Through a manual command the Lot Panel can also open a hedge — a position of a size you choose on the opposite side — and close it again. A hedge does not make a loss disappear; it fixes the distance between the two positions while both are open, and it still costs spread and commission on both legs. When and whether to use it is entirely your decision.

Using it on a prop-firm account

Two things deserve attention before you click on a challenge or funded account:

1. Bigger is bigger risk. Adding to a position raises the amount you gain or lose per dollar of gold movement. On most accounts one lot of XAUUSD is 100 ounces, so each extra lot is roughly another $100 per $1 move. Your daily stop does not change because the position got bigger — it just arrives sooner.
2. Hedging rules. Some firms do not allow hedging, or allow it only within the same account. Read your firm’s rules before you use the hedge command.

A gap in the market or slippage at your broker can carry any position past the limits you set, whatever its size. See Daily loss limit and broker server midnight for how the daily stop is counted.

Why a panel and not a hotkey script?

Because the Lot Panel works together with the rest of the application. Once a position is open, the application manages it by your numbers — trailing, reverse legs, chain cap, daily stop and daily target. A resize made through the panel is a change the application knows about, not a separate order it has to discover later.

Which plans include it

On MANUAL, the Lot Panel works only together with an active main MANUAL licence: at checkout you enter the key of your main MANUAL licence, and the Lot Panel then opens with that key. When your main licence ends, the Lot Panel stops working with it, and cancelling your main plan cancels the add-on automatically. Details are in the Questions & Answers and in section 9 of our Terms of Service.

Related: Trading gold on a prop-firm account with an MT5 tool · Running two prop-firm accounts