Licenses

A license routes TradingView alerts to one destination: a running MT5 account or an authorized cTrader broker account. Open Licenses to manage its connection, keys, alert authentication, and trading settings.

Find or create a license#

Use New License to create a destination for your platform. Email verification, an active subscription, and an available license slot are required, and the page explains which requirement prevents creation.

Switch between Cards and List views, or search by license name or the last four key characters. Search uses the masked key, not the full value. The Default trading settings sidebar shows shared settings and capacity, while Deprecated Keys lists retired credentials.

Rename, disable, regenerate, or delete#

Open the license's three-dot menu to choose an action. Rename changes its display name, while Disable pauses alert delivery and can be reversed.

Regenerate License retires the old key immediately. Update TradingView alerts and, for MT5, the EA's License Key input. The MT5 connection must use the new key, while a cTrader broker-account assignment remains attached to the license.

Delete permanently retires the license key. Deleted and regenerated keys appear under Deprecated Keys and cannot be reissued. Deleted Copier IDs are listed there too, with a Trade Copier badge.

cTrader broker account#

Choose Manage broker account to assign an available account or connect another cTrader ID. A broker account can be assigned to one license at a time. Authorizations are managed separately under Settings > Platform connections.

Changing the assignment leaves trades on the old broker account in place. Close or manage those trades at the broker before switching, and follow Connect cTrader for the full procedure.

The Secret Key for MT5#

A Secret Key protects the MT5 connection by requiring the EA to supply it alongside the license key. cTrader uses account authorization instead and has no Secret Key control.

Choose Set Secret Key, copy the generated value, and enter it in EA Inputs → Secret Key. The dialog requires you to copy before closing, because the key is shown once and cannot be recovered. Choosing the action again rotates an existing key and invalidates its previous value.

Signal Authentication#

Signal Authentication protects incoming webhook alerts on either platform and is configured per license. Open it from the license menu, enable the toggle, and set a case-sensitive password of 8 to 72 characters.

Every alert to that license then needs auth=YOUR_PASSWORD in CSV or "auth":"YOUR_PASSWORD" in JSON, including close, cancel, modify, and symbol-control commands. Missing or incorrect passwords block the alert with missing_auth or invalid_auth, shown in Signal Logs and returned to TradingView.

When authentication is off, PineHook ignores any supplied auth= value. In either state, it removes the password from saved alert data and does not send it to the execution platform.

Trading settings#

Default trading settings sets the trading values used by all your licenses unless you override a setting for an individual license. Open License Settings from that license's three-dot menu to override individual fields for that destination. An amber marker identifies an override, its reset link restores inheritance, and Reset All clears the license's overrides.

Daily loss limits reset at the configured UTC hour. Overall drawdown has five modes and an optional profit lock, and both limits can run together. Trading settings explains the individual fields.

Dashboard Mode vs MetaTrader Mode#

Dashboard Mode uses the trading settings saved in PineHook, while MetaTrader Mode uses the values entered in the EA's Inputs in MT5.

cTrader uses dashboard settings. For MT5, Settings Source in the EA chooses where trading values come from:

Check the settings-source badge before changing an MT5 license. To use dashboard values, set Settings Source to Dashboard in MT5 and restart the EA. License Key, Secret Key, Settings Source, and Connection Profile remain EA Inputs.

Missed alert recovery#

Enable missed-alert recovery if you want eligible queued alerts to execute after a connection interruption prevented their delivery. For example, MT5 may have been closed, your computer or VPS may have restarted, or a network outage may have disconnected the execution platform. PineHook holds those alerts in the delivery queue while waiting for reconnection, then applies your recovery mode and expiry window. Alerts rejected because of invalid commands or trading rules are not automatically retried.

Set Missed alert recovery and Recovery expiry globally or per license. MT5 follows its selected settings source, while cTrader reads dashboard values.

Notify Only does not execute missed alerts automatically. Closures Only recovers eligible closes and cancels within a 5, 15, 30, or 60-minute window: closelong, closeshort, closeall (including closeall with no symbol), cancellong, cancelshort, and cancelall. Entries and modifications are not replayed. On MT5, a compound command such as closelongopenshort or cancellongbuystop replays only its close or cancel part (the close part needs a matching position) and never places its new position or order; its Signal Logs row says so. MT5 also uses position-based smart-close detection. A replayed cancel, or a closeall with no symbol and no position to confirm it, still runs and shows a warning on its Signal Logs row, because it acts on whatever matches when it runs. Including a symbol and magic= keeps that narrow.

Recovery expiry differs from a pending order's broker expiry. For delayed cTrader alerts, recovery age starts when the scheduler fires. A recovered cTrader close or cancel excludes positions and orders created after the original alert.

Tile badges#

These badges appear on each license card to summarize its settings and connection status.

Stored-configuration badges remain visible while offline. A Copy badge shows that a license receives Trade Copier alerts and its multiplier. Click it to open that copier.

News Filter#

Configure the News Filter in shared settings or a license override, then preview events in News Calendar. The server supplies the calendar schedule.

Set the window#

Minutes before and Minutes after each accept 0 to 240 independently. Zero disables that side of the window. Presets set both values:

Check your firm's actual requirements rather than assuming a preset matches them.

Choose covered events and symbols#

High-impact events qualify when the filter is on. Enable Also hold around medium-impact releases to include medium impact, while low-impact events never qualify.

Leave Symbols to guard empty to cover every symbol, or enter up to 200 instruments to narrow it. Unlike an empty whitelist, an empty news-symbol list covers all instruments.

Ignore these categories excludes rate decisions, employment, inflation, GDP and growth, PMI and business surveys, retail and consumption, sentiment and confidence, trade and current account, or other events. Unclassified events belong to Other and qualify unless that category is excluded.

Holding stop and target changes#

Also hold stop and target changes is off by default. When enabled during a news window:

• modify, breakeven, nobreakeven, trail, and notrail alerts are refused and recorded in Signal Logs.
• Automatic trailing and breakeven updates pause, then resume after the window. A reached trigger can act immediately when updates resume.
• Partial closes still run, but a requested move of the remainder's stop to entry is held.

Close and cancel alerts remain available regardless of this setting. On cTrader, PineHook trails switch from broker-native trailing to Bridge-managed steps while this option is on. Trailing enabled directly in the cTrader app remains under broker control.

Symbol Filters#

Shared and per-license symbol filters combine. Blacklist permits everything except listed symbols, with an empty list allowing all. Whitelist permits only listed symbols, with an empty list blocking all entries.

Inherited symbols show a lock and must be changed in the shared filter.

Block manual trades on filtered symbols automatically closes trades placed outside PineHook on blocked instruments. It is off by default and is hidden and forced off during beta.

Symbol mapping#

If TradingView and your broker use different instrument names, symbol mapping translates the alert's symbol before execution. For example, a .micro suffix maps EURUSD to EURUSD.micro, while a rename can map US30 to DJ30.r. A rename uses the complete broker symbol and skips any prefix or suffix.

Open Default trading settings → Edit defaults → Symbols and mapping to configure the account mapping, or License Settings → Symbols and mapping from a license's three-dot menu for a broker-specific mapping. A license mapping replaces the account mapping entirely, and Use account mapping restores inheritance.

Both symbol mapping and lot size conversion can be managed from the dashboard for cTrader and MT5 in Dashboard Mode. For MT5, set the EA's Settings Source to Dashboard to use them. If you choose MetaTrader instead, both features use the EA Inputs. See Broker symbol mapping for examples and troubleshooting.

Lot size conversion#

Use lot size conversion when your strategy sends contracts or units rather than broker lots. PineHook multiplies the alert's quantity by the conversion factor. For example, 100000 EURUSD units with a factor of 0.00001 become 1 lot before broker volume rules apply.

Configure Lot size conversion in the same Symbols and mapping tab, either in default settings or for one license. Set a default factor and add symbol-specific exceptions using the TradingView symbol name. A factor of 1 leaves quantities unchanged, and Reset to global conversion settings removes the license's conversion overrides.

Conversion applies to explicit lot quantities, including size_lots, close_lots, and fixed-lot TP/SL allocations, while percentage and calculated-risk sizing stay unchanged. Keep the factor consistent while a position is open, because later lot-based exits use the factor active when they arrive. See Lot size conversion for supported parameters and MT5 Inputs setup.

Webhook parameters vs stored settings#

Allow Hedging, under Risk and limits → Position Limits, can override the global setting for this license, and clearing it makes the license follow the global value again. Hedging entry protection explains what the setting does.

Parameters such as size_lots, sl_pips, tp_pips, maxspread_pips, and trail_trigger affect the current command without changing dashboard defaults. A later alert that omits them falls back to stored settings where applicable.

The symbol-control commands are an exception. eaon, eaoff, eaonexcept, eaoffexcept, closealleaoff, and closecancelalleaoff update the per-license symbol filter, which persists across reconnects and appears on the license card. See Webhook Commands for syntax on both platforms.

Capacity and subscription changes#

At capacity, New License is disabled and an upgrade link appears. Contact us if you need more than ten licenses.

The Account limits card also shows your per-minute and daily alert limits, which primarily protect against spam and can easily be increased. If your strategy needs higher limits, use Send us a request to contact our team, and we'll raise them for you.

When a trial expires, active licenses are deactivated. Subscribing reactivates them up to the new plan's capacity, with extras remaining inactive. Use Subscription in the dashboard for plan changes, or follow Platform setup to connect a destination.