Get started with Hesgram
From account creation to live AI trading in under 10 minutes. Follow this guide in order — especially the paper trading step before going live.
Quick Start Overview
Five steps to get Hesgram running on your MT5 account:
Create your Hesgram account
2 minutes — free, no card needed
Connect your MT5 broker
3 minutes — encrypted MetaApi connection
Configure strategies and risk
2 minutes — choose what you trade and how much
Run paper trading for at least 1 day
Recommended — test without risking capital
Enable live trading
Flip the switch when you are confident
1. Create Your Account
Go to hesgram.com/register
Enter your email address and choose a strong password (minimum 8 characters, at least one number and one symbol). You do not need a credit card for the free plan.
Verify your email
Check your inbox for a confirmation email from noreply@hesgram.com. Click the link to activate your account. Check spam if it does not arrive within 2 minutes.
Choose your plan
You can start on the Free plan immediately — it gives you paper trading with up to 2 currency pairs. Upgrade to Starter, Pro, or Elite at any time from your billing settings.
2. Connect Your MT5 Broker
Hesgram connects to your broker using MetaApi — a secure cloud bridge for MetaTrader accounts. Your broker login credentials are never seen by Hesgram.
Open Broker Settings in your dashboard
Navigate to Settings → Broker in your Hesgram dashboard, or go directly to /dashboard/bot-settings.
Enter your MT5 account details
You will need:
- Your MT5 account number (the login number from your broker)
- Your MT5 password (investor or master password — master is required for trading)
- Your broker server name (e.g.,
ICMarkets-Live01,Pepperstone-MT5-01)
Wait for connection confirmation
Hesgram will attempt to connect via MetaApi. A green Connected badge will appear within 30 seconds if your credentials are correct. If you see an error, double-check your server name — it must match exactly.
Supported brokers (any MT5 broker works)
3. Configure the Bot
Choose your strategies
Navigate to Settings → Bot Configuration. Enable one or more strategies:
| Strategy | Best for | Avg win rate | Risk level |
|---|---|---|---|
| SMC / ICT | Trending + ranging markets | 72% | Medium |
| EMA Crossover | Trending markets | 68% | Low |
| RSI Reversal | Ranging markets | 65% | Medium |
| MACD Trend | Trending markets | 62% | Low |
| News Trading | High-impact events (NFP) | 74% | High |
| Bollinger Bands | Low-volatility breakouts | 63% | Low |
| Ichimoku Cloud | Trend confirmation | 64% | Low |
Set your risk parameters
In the same Bot Configuration page, configure these critical risk settings:
Lot Size
0.01 (micro lot) to startThe size of each trade. Start small — you can increase after you have seen the bot perform on your account.
Max Drawdown %
5–10%If your account equity drops by this percentage, the bot stops automatically. This is your safety net.
Max Open Trades
2–3 to startLimits how many positions the bot can hold at once. Keeps risk concentrated and manageable.
Risk Per Trade %
1–2%Percentage of account balance risked per trade. 1% is standard; 2% is aggressive.
Trading Hours
London + New York sessionsRestricts trading to specific UTC hours. London (07:00–16:00) and New York (13:00–22:00) sessions have the most liquidity.
Select currency pairs
Pick 2–4 pairs to start. Focus on major pairs — they have the tightest spreads and most liquidity:
Your plan determines how many pairs you can trade simultaneously.
4. Paper Trading First
Paper trading simulates every aspect of live trading — strategy signals, AI reasoning, chart annotations, and trade journal entries — but executes no real orders. Your real broker account is not touched.
Enable Paper Trading mode
In Bot Configuration, ensure the toggle at the top reads Paper Trading (not Live). It is green by default on new accounts.
Set a simulated balance
Enter the balance you intend to use for live trading (e.g., $1,000). The paper trading engine will simulate trades against this balance so you can see realistic percentage returns and drawdowns.
Run for at least 24–48 hours
The bot needs to see multiple trading sessions to generate meaningful results. Watch for:
- Are entries appearing on your chart?
- Is the AI reasoning text visible and making sense?
- Is the drawdown staying within your configured limit?
- Is the win rate roughly matching the strategy's historical average?
Review in Trade Journal
Go to Dashboard → Trade Journal. Filter to paper trades. Review every trade — entry reason, result, and AI confidence score. This is your feedback loop before going live.
5. Going Live
Once you are confident in the paper trading results, switching to live is a single toggle.
Confirm your broker is connected
Check that your broker shows a green Connected status in Settings → Broker. If it shows red, resolve the connection issue before going live.
Review your risk settings one final time
This is the most important step. Verify your lot size, max drawdown, and max open trades are set for real money — not the larger values you may have tested in paper mode.
Toggle to Live Trading
In Bot Configuration, flip the Paper Trading toggle to Live Trading. A confirmation dialog will ask you to type LIVE to confirm. This is intentional — it prevents accidental activation.
Watch your first live trade
The bot will begin scanning for signals immediately. Your first live trade may come within minutes or may take a few hours depending on market conditions and your selected strategies. Trades will appear on your chart in real time.
6. Dashboard Overview
Your dashboard is your command centre. Here is what each section does:
Overview
Live account balance, total PnL, today's PnL, win rate, active trades count, and a mini equity curve. Your real-time health check.
Chart
TradingView-quality candlestick chart with every active trade drawn on it. Entry line (blue), stop loss (red zone), take profit (green zone), and AI reasoning text on each trade.
Trade Journal
Every trade logged — symbol, direction, open/close time, entry, stop, target, PnL, strategy used, and AI confidence score. Filter by date range, strategy, pair, or outcome.
Analytics
Equity curve, daily PnL bar chart, win/loss ratio by strategy and pair, average R:R ratio, best and worst trading hours breakdown.
ML Insights
Performance of the XGBoost and LSTM models over time. Shows feature importances, model AUC score, and when the next scheduled retraining will occur.
Economic Calendar
Upcoming ForexFactory news events (impact: low / medium / high) for the pairs you trade. The bot automatically reduces risk before high-impact events unless you configure otherwise.
Bot Settings
All configuration from Step 3 — strategies, risk parameters, pairs, trading hours. Changes take effect on the next signal scan (within 60 seconds).
Account
Your profile, connected broker accounts, API keys, notification preferences, and the option to close your account.
Billing
Current plan, invoice history, upgrade or downgrade subscription, and payment method management via Stripe.
7. Understanding AI Reasoning
Every trade Hesgram executes comes with an AI reasoning label drawn directly on your chart. Here is how to read it:
▲ BUY EURUSD @ 1.08542
Strategy: SMC/ICT — Order Block at 1.0850
AI: Bullish BOS confirmed. OB sweep with FVG above.
ML score: 0.81 (high confidence)
Regime: Trending ↑ (HMM: 87%)
SL: 1.08310 | TP: 1.08950 | R:R 1:1.9
8. ML Insights Page
The ML Insights page shows how the machine learning models are performing and when they will next retrain.
Model AUC
Area Under the ROC Curve — a score between 0.5 (random) and 1.0 (perfect). A healthy model scores 0.65–0.80. If AUC drops below 0.60, the system will flag the model for early retraining.
Feature Importances
Shows which market signals (e.g., RSI divergence, ATR, EMA slope, volume) are most predictive for the current model version. This updates every week after retraining.
Weekly Retraining
Every Sunday at 00:00 UTC, the system retrains on your last 60 days of trade data. The new model is only promoted to live if its AUC is better than the current version. The page shows next retraining time and last promotion date.
Regime History
A timeline of market regimes detected by the HMM. Useful for understanding why the bot was more or less active in certain periods.
9. Mobile App
The Hesgram iOS and Android apps let you monitor your bot and respond to alerts from anywhere.
Live dashboard
Real-time account balance, open trades, and today's PnL.
Chart view
Candlestick chart with all active trades and AI annotations.
Push notifications
Instant alerts when a trade opens, closes, hits stop loss, or when daily PnL targets are reached.
Emergency stop
One-tap button to close all trades and halt the bot instantly from anywhere in the world.
Bot control
Pause, resume, or change core settings without opening a browser.
Biometric login
Face ID and fingerprint authentication for fast, secure access.
iOS
Available on the App Store
Android
Available on Google Play
10. Emergency Stop
What it does
Emergency Stop immediately closes all open positions on your broker account and stops the bot from executing any new trades. It is irreversible — once triggered, you must manually re-enable the bot in Settings.
Where to find it
- Web dashboard — red STOP button in the top-right nav bar, always visible
- Mobile app — Bot tab → large red “Emergency Stop” button
- macOS widget — click the menu bar icon → Stop Bot
When to use it
- You spot a major unexpected news event (war, central bank emergency decision)
- Your drawdown is approaching your personal risk limit
- You see the bot behaving unexpectedly (too many trades, wrong direction)
- You are going to be without internet access for an extended period
- Any time you feel uncomfortable with the current positions
Troubleshooting
Broker shows "Disconnected"
Check that your MT5 server name is exactly correct (copy it from your broker's email or MT5 terminal). Common issue: brokers have multiple servers like "-Live01" and "-Live02". Try removing and re-adding the connection. If you changed your broker password recently, you will need to update it in Settings → Broker.
No trades after 24 hours
This is normal — the bot only trades when all AI validation criteria are met. Possible reasons: market conditions do not match strategy requirements, you are outside your configured trading hours, or the ML confidence threshold was not reached. Check the Bot Activity log in the dashboard to see why signals were rejected.
Bot is trading too frequently
Reduce the number of enabled strategies (disable the most aggressive ones like News Trading) or increase the minimum ML confidence threshold in Bot Settings. Also check that your max open trades limit is set to a sensible number (2–3).
Trades not appearing on chart
The chart only shows trades for the pair and timeframe currently selected. Switch to the pair the bot is trading on, or check the Trade Journal for the full trade list.
Received a notification but no trade in journal
The signal was likely rejected by the AI validation layer before reaching execution. This is intentional — not every strategy signal results in a trade. The rejection reason is logged in the Bot Activity section.
Subscription not activating after payment
Wait 2 minutes for Stripe to process and the webhook to reach our server. If the plan has not updated after 5 minutes, email support@hesgram.com with your payment receipt.
Trade closed at the wrong price
Slippage is normal in fast markets, especially during news events. The execution price may differ slightly from the stop loss or take profit level shown on your chart. This is a broker-level behaviour and not a bug in Hesgram.