Trade Guard EA is an Analyst Pro feature that manages your position automatically once you're in a trade — moving your stop to breakeven, taking partial profit, trailing the rest. Getting it running takes three real steps, no more.
Before you start
Download Trade Guard EA from your Profile page — there's a real download button there specifically for this. You'll need MT4 already installed and connected to whichever broker account you're actually trading Gold, EUR/USD, or GBP/USD through.
Step 1: Copy the file into MT4
Open MT4, then go to File → Open Data Folder → MQL4 → Experts, and paste the downloaded .mq4 file into that folder. This is the same folder every MT4 Expert Advisor lives in — nothing SonaPips-specific about the location itself.
Step 2: Restart MT4
Close MT4 completely and reopen it. This is the step that's easy to skip by accident — MT4 only picks up a newly-added EA file on startup, not while it's already running. Once it reopens, look in the Navigator panel → Expert Advisors, and you should see SonaPips_TradeGuard listed there.
Step 3: Attach it to the right chart and configure it
Drag the EA onto whichever chart matches the pair you actually traded — XAUUSD, EUR/USD, or GBP/USD. In the settings window that appears, enter the Profit Target exactly as shown in your SonaPips signal, then make sure "Allow live trading" is checked before clicking OK.
The one setting that actually matters most
That "Allow live trading" checkbox is the single most common reason an EA appears to be attached but doesn't actually do anything — MT4 has this as a separate, general permission from the EA's own logic, and it's off by default. If your EA isn't managing your trade at all, this is the first thing worth checking.
How to tell it's actually working
Look at the top-right corner of the chart — a small smiley face icon means the EA is attached and active. A neutral or sad face usually means either "Allow live trading" isn't checked, or your platform's own global AutoTrading button (in the main toolbar) is switched off.
The honest part
Trade Guard EA only manages a position you've already entered — it doesn't open trades on its own. If you haven't actually entered the trade in MT4 yet, there's nothing for it to manage, regardless of how correctly it's installed.