EA is on the chart but not opening trades
Symptom: Everything looks correct in MetaTrader and no orders appear.
A smiling face means the EA loaded. It does not mean the EA is receiving anything, and it does not mean it is permitted to trade. These are three separate conditions and they fail independently.
Read the Experts and Journal tabs
In the Toolbox at the bottom of MetaTrader, the Experts tab shows what the EA is doing and the Journal tab shows what the terminal did with it. Between them they will usually name the problem outright. People skip these two tabs and then guess for an hour.
Rejections that look like silence
- Invalid volume - the size requested is below the broker's minimum, above its maximum, or not a valid step. Common when a percentage-based size rounds to something the broker will not accept.
- Not enough money - the free margin will not support the position at the requested size.
- Market closed - gold has a daily break and a weekend. A command arriving in the gap is refused.
- Trade context busy - another operation was in flight. Usually transient.
- AutoTrading disabled by client - the toolbar button, not the EA.
Check the account allows it
Some accounts - particularly funded and evaluation accounts - restrict automated trading, restrict certain instruments, or disallow trading around scheduled news. The EA will look perfectly healthy and simply have every order refused. Read the account's own rules before assuming a software fault.
This guide covers platform behaviour only. It does not describe how the QP strategy is configured. Educational content, not financial advice - trading gold carries a substantial risk of loss.