The basic idea behind Take a Break is being able to use any EA or indicator you like, pause their operation during news releases, times of increased spreads or time-based and resume their normal operation afterwards.

To prevent unprotected trades, Take a Break will pause your external EAs only when they are not in the market during such times (= no open trades of the external EA).
If the external EAs are in the market already, the utility will pause them after all their open trades were closed - either manually or by their own algorithm.

Example: Let's assume you have a Scalper EA that uses Pending Orders for trading. Usually, this systems works well but you don't feel comfortable about trading during a particular news event, e.g. the NFPs (Non-Farm Payrolls). However, your Scalper EA does not come with a built-in news filter so that you need to stop its operation manually every time. This is where Take a Break comes into play as it will pause your EA's operation automatically by 3 different filter criterias and continue trading afterwards.

Main features

• Works with any Expert Advisor or Indicator
• 3 built-in filters for protecting your trades:
• news filter
• spread filter
• time filter
• Easy to set up

How to set up

1. Add the URL http://ec.forexprostools.com to the list of allowed WebRequest URLs (press CTRL+O, tab Expert Advisors)
2. Set up your favourite EAs and Indicators for any symbol
3. Right-click on the chart, select Template >> Save Template (use the default /templates/ directory)
4. Apply the Take a Break EA on the chart and set the EA parameter Show current Chart ID = true
5. Copy the displayed Chart ID and re-apply your template (right-click, select Template >> Load Template)
6. Open another chart for your chosen symbol and apply the Take a Break EA on it
7. Configure the EA parameters as you like and remember to set the following parameters:
• --- Chart Settings --- section:
• Chart ID (for templates): the Chart ID copied in step 4
• Apply this template if trading is NOT allowed: any template that should be applied when trading is NOT allowed (preset: default.tpl)
• Apply this template if trading IS allowed: the name of the template you saved in step 2 (example: My_Favourite_EA.tpl)
• --- External EA Settings --- section:
• External EA - Magic Number: the Magic Number of your external EA (for identifying trades)
• External EA - Delete Pending Orders: whether Pending Orders of your external EA should be deleted or not
• Pending Orders are deleted only when there are no open Market Orders of this EA (as some EAs use Pending Orders as recovery trades).

Other Parameters

--- News Settings ---

• Pause during Low Impact News: enable/disable filtering by Low Impact News
• Pause before Low Impact News (minutes)
• Pause after Low Impact News (minutes)
• Pause during Medium Impact News: enable/disable filtering by Medium Impact News
• Pause before Medium Impact News (minutes)
• Pause after Medium Impact News (minutes)
• Pause during High Impact News: enable/disable filtering by High Impact News
• Pause before High Impact News (minutes)
• Pause after High Impact News (minutes)
• Pause during Non-Farm Payrolls: enable/disable filtering by the Non-Farm Payrolls
• Pause before Non-Farm Payrolls(minutes)
• Pause after Non-Farm Payrolls (minutes)
• Maximum Spread (0 = not used): spread filter, set to "0" for disabling it
• Draw News Lines on Chart
• Line Color - Low Impact News
• Line Color - Medium Impact News
• Line Color - High Impact News
• Line Width
• Line Style
• News for current symbol only: if set to "false", ALL news will be taken into account - even those that may not directly affect the current symbol

--- Time Settings ---

• Use Time Filter (broker time): enable/disable filtering by time
• Monday trading - start hour
• Monday trading - start minute
• Friday trading - stop hour
• Friday trading - stop minute

Feedback, improvements or enhancements are appreciated.

If you need any assistance, please contact me.