Installing the Proovly EA

The Proovly EA is the piece of software that reports your MT5 account’s stats to our rules engine in real time. Without it installed and running, we can’t evaluate your challenge — so this is the most important setup step.

It is a read-only EA. It does not place trades, it does not manage risk, it does not touch your positions. It reads balance, equity, margin, and open/closed positions, and POSTs them to our ingest endpoint every 5–10 seconds.

What you’ll need

• MT5 installed and logged into your broker cent account
• Your Challenge ID (from the Proovly dashboard)
• Your EA API key (from the Proovly dashboard)
• The Proovly ingest URL (from the Proovly dashboard — it’s shown right below your API key)
• The Proovly.ex5 file (download button on your dashboard)

Step 1: Drop the EA into MT5’s Experts folder

In MT5:

1. File → Open Data Folder
2. A file explorer window opens. Navigate to MQL5/Experts/.
3. Copy Proovly.ex5 into that folder.
4. Go back to MT5. Press Ctrl+N (or View → Navigator) to open the Navigator.
5. Expand the Expert Advisors section. You should see Proovly in the list. If you don’t, right-click the Experts section and pick Refresh.

Step 2: Whitelist the Proovly URL in MT5’s settings

This is the step everyone forgets. By default MT5 blocks outbound HTTP requests from EAs. You have to explicitly allow our ingest URL.

1. Tools → Options
2. Click the Expert Advisors tab.
3. Tick the box Allow WebRequest for listed URL.
4. Click in the URL list area, press Enter, and paste the Proovly ingest URL exactly as it appears on your dashboard. It must include the full protocol (https://...).
5. Click OK.

If you skip this step, the EA will run but every heartbeat will fail and your dashboard will say “No heartbeat received.” We print a prominent Alert dialog the first time WebRequest fails so you don’t miss it.

Step 3: Attach the EA to a chart

1. In MT5, open any chart. It doesn’t matter which symbol. The EA watches your account, not the chart symbol, so EURUSD, BTCUSD, an offline chart — all work.
2. Drag Proovly from the Navigator onto the chart. The settings dialog opens.
3. On the Inputs tab, fill in:
   • ChallengeId — paste from your dashboard
   • ApiKey — paste from your dashboard
   • IngestUrl — paste from your dashboard (or leave the default if it matches)
   • HeartbeatIntervalSec — leave at default (7 seconds)
4. On the Common tab, make sure Allow live trading is ticked. (We don’t actually trade, but MT5 requires this to be on for EAs that call external URLs.)
5. Click OK.

A smiley face appears in the top-right of the chart. The EA is running. The first heartbeat fires within a few seconds.

Step 4: Verify on your dashboard

Open your Proovly dashboard. Within ten seconds of attaching the EA, the “EA Status” card should flip from No heartbeat (red) to Live (green). Your balance, equity, and open positions panels should populate immediately.

If the card stays red for more than 30 seconds:

• Check MT5’s Experts tab (bottom of the window). If there are red errors from the Proovly EA, they usually say “WebRequest failed” — which means Step 2 wasn’t done correctly.
• Double-check your Challenge ID and API key. They’re case-sensitive and whitespace-sensitive.
• Make sure MT5 is actually online (top-right, next to the ping time — should show a green connection icon).

Step 5: Keep MT5 running for the week

Your EA only reports while MT5 is running. If you close MT5, heartbeats stop. If heartbeats stop for more than 2 minutes, the dashboard flags the gap, but we don’t fail you for dropping offline — we only fail you on observed rule breaches.

That said: if you go offline, we can’t warn you about drawdown approaching. We can’t update your live dashboard. And if a position you left open blows through your drawdown limit while you’re offline, we’ll see it the moment you reconnect, and the breach applies retroactively.

For serious challenge runs we recommend one of:

• Leaving MT5 running on your own PC with sleep disabled and a stable internet connection
• Renting a cheap MT5 VPS ($5–10/month from MQL5, Beeks, Forex VPS, or your broker’s own VPS offer)
• Using your broker’s included VPS if eligible — both RoboForex and Exness offer free VPS hosting above certain deposit thresholds

What the EA actually sends

Every heartbeat is a signed JSON POST containing:

{
  "challenge_id": "...",
  "account_login": 12345678,
  "broker": "RoboForex",
  "ts": 1723843200,
  "balance": 1023.45,
  "equity": 1031.22,
  "margin": 120.50,
  "free_margin": 910.72,
  "peak_equity_today": 1034.10,
  "peak_equity_all": 1034.10,
  "open_positions": [
    { "ticket": 987654321, "symbol": "EURUSD", "side": "BUY",
      "volume": 0.10, "open_price": 1.0843, "sl": 1.0825,
      "tp": 1.0890, "profit": 7.77 }
  ],
  "closed_since_last": [
    { "ticket": 987654320, "symbol": "XAUUSD", "side": "SELL",
      "open_price": 2345.10, "close_price": 2338.20,
      "open_ts": 1723842100, "close_ts": 1723842800,
      "profit": 68.90 }
  ],
  "ea_version": "1.0.0",
  "ea_hash": "0x..."
}

That’s everything. The EA does not send:

• Your credentials
• Your login password
• Your broker server address
• Your PC’s IP, MAC address, hostname, or any user-identifying info
• Anything at all about charts, indicators, or your strategy

Uninstalling

To stop the EA: drag it off the chart, or right-click the chart → Expert Advisors → Remove. Delete Proovly.ex5 from MQL5/Experts/ to remove the binary entirely.

Stopping the EA does not pause or cancel your challenge. The challenge clock keeps running. If you stop reporting and then hit a drawdown breach, we’ll see it the moment you restart. The only way to end a challenge is to fail it or to let the Friday deadline pass.