How to Connect TradingView Alerts to MetaTrader 5

There's a frustrating disconnect in the trading world. TradingView offers arguably the best charting experience available—clean interface, powerful indicators, and a massive community sharing strategies. MetaTrader 5, on the other hand, remains the industry standard for actually executing trades with most forex and CFD brokers.

The problem? They don't talk to each other.

For years, traders have been forced to choose: analyze on TradingView, then scramble to copy signals manually into MT5. It works, technically. But it's slow, it's error-prone, and it means you're chained to your screen whenever you want to trade.

The Manual Trading Trap

We've all been there. You spot a perfect setup forming on TradingView. RSI is oversold, price is bouncing off support, and your custom indicator is flashing green. You switch to MT5, navigate to the right pair, calculate your position size, set your stop loss... and by the time you're ready to click buy, the move has already happened.

Or worse—you set an alert, step away for coffee, and come back to find you missed the trade of the week.

Manual execution isn't just inconvenient. It introduces delay when speed matters most. It invites emotional interference when you should be following your system. And it limits you to trading only when you're physically present and alert.

What Changes When You Automate

Imagine a different scenario. Your TradingView strategy identifies a setup. Within 500 milliseconds—faster than you could blink—that signal reaches your MT5 platform and executes. The trade opens at the price you wanted, with the exact stop loss and take profit you defined, while you're asleep, at work, or spending time with your family.

This isn't hypothetical. This is what happens when you properly connect TradingView to MetaTrader 5.

The technical magic happens through webhooks—TradingView's way of sending information to external services when an alert triggers. When your indicator condition is met, TradingView sends a message. That message gets translated into a trade command. And MT5 executes it immediately.

The result is consistency you simply can't achieve manually. Every signal gets executed. Every trade follows your rules exactly. No hesitation, no second-guessing, no "I'll catch the next one."

The Bridge Between Platforms

The connection between TradingView and MT5 requires an intermediary—something to receive the webhook from TradingView, translate it into the right format, and send it to your MT5 platform. This is where most traders historically got stuck, because building this bridge required either coding knowledge or expensive custom development.

Modern solutions like TradeSgnl handle this translation automatically. You configure your signal format once—specifying how you want symbols mapped, what position sizing to use, and how to handle risk management—and the platform handles everything else.

The MT5 side requires an Expert Advisor (EA) that listens for incoming signals and executes them. Unlike traditional EAs that contain their own trading logic, this EA is essentially a receiver. The strategy lives in TradingView; the EA just follows orders.

Setting Realistic Expectations

Before you rush to connect everything, let's be clear about what automation can and can't do.

Automation executes your strategy with perfect discipline. It doesn't improve a bad strategy. If your TradingView signals aren't profitable when you trade them manually, they won't magically become profitable when automated. Garbage in, garbage out.

What automation does is remove the variables that degrade good strategies: delayed execution, missed trades, emotional interference, and fatigue. If you have a strategy with an edge, automation lets you capture that edge consistently.

Automation also doesn't mean "set and forget." Markets change. Strategies that worked last year might not work this year. You still need to monitor performance, review results, and make adjustments. The difference is that you're reviewing data and making strategic decisions, not frantically clicking buttons all day.

The Practical Reality

Getting everything connected typically takes about 30 minutes if you're following a guided setup. The main components are straightforward: a TradingView account with webhook support (Pro or higher), an MT5 platform with algorithmic trading enabled, and a service like TradeSgnl to bridge them.

The trickiest part is usually symbol mapping. TradingView might call a currency pair "EURUSD" while your broker's MT5 calls it "EUR/USD" or "EURUSDm". Getting these translations right ensures your trades go to the correct instruments.

Position sizing is the other area that requires careful thought. You can use fixed lot sizes, percentage-based risk, or dynamic sizing based on account balance. The right choice depends on your strategy and risk tolerance. Most traders start with fixed, conservative sizing while they verify everything works correctly.

When Things Go Wrong

No system is perfect, and it's worth understanding what can break.

Internet connectivity issues can prevent signals from reaching your platform. Running MT5 on a VPS (virtual private server) instead of your home computer significantly improves reliability here.

Broker limitations occasionally cause problems. Some brokers restrict certain order types, impose minimum distances for stop losses, or have specific lot size increments. These constraints are usually discovered during testing on a demo account—which is why testing on demo first isn't optional.

TradingView alert expirations catch some traders off guard. Alerts don't last forever by default. If you're running a long-term strategy, you need to set your alerts to "Open-ended" or remember to renew them periodically.

The Bigger Picture

Connecting TradingView to MT5 is really about leverage—not financial leverage, but leverage of your time and capabilities.

Instead of manually executing trades, you're defining the rules once and letting technology handle the repetition. Instead of watching charts all day, you're checking in periodically to review performance. Instead of being limited to the hours you can stay alert and focused, you're trading around the clock.

The traders who benefit most from this setup aren't necessarily the most sophisticated. They're the ones who have clear, rule-based strategies that they're executing inconsistently due to human limitations. Automation doesn't require complexity—it requires clarity about what you want to do and when you want to do it.

If you know your entry conditions, exit conditions, and risk parameters, you have everything you need to automate. The technology to connect these platforms is no longer a barrier. The only question is whether you're ready to let go of the manual habit and trust your system to run.

Ready to bridge the gap between TradingView and MT5? Explore how TradeSgnl makes it simple →