What to save when the platform glitches during an evaluation

[Fairman]

What to save when the platform glitches during an evaluation

Platforms freeze, quotes stop, orders hang. It's rare but it happens, and in an evaluation the consequences can be a breach you didn't really cause. Whether the firm does anything about it often comes down to what evidence you have.

The useful stuff to grab, as soon as you notice something's wrong, is a screenshot of the platform showing the issue and the time, the journal and experts tabs in MT4 or MT5 which log connection problems and order errors, and if the platform is unresponsive, a photo with your phone of the screen. Note the exact time in your own words too.

After, export the trade history and the platform logs from that day. They're in the logs folder. Keep the files, because they can be overwritten later.

Then contact support quickly, with the evidence attached, and keep it factual. When it happened, what you saw, what you tried, what the result was. Firms get a lot of complaints, and a clear one with logs tends to get looked at more seriously than an angry message with no detail.

They won't always reverse anything. Some terms say platform issues are your risk. But without evidence you've got nothing to argue with.

[Fairman]

If the problem was on your side, like internet dropping or your PC crashing, the firm is unlikely to help, and that's fair. Logs help show which side it was, though. MT4 and MT5 journals record when the connection was lost and restored, and if the broker side had issues, others will usually be reporting it at the same time. Checking whether there's a known incident before writing to support saves time and helps your case. Twitter, forums and the firm's own Discord are usually where you'll see whether other people are having the same problem. A screenshot of that, with timestamps, also helps.

[Fairman]

I keep the support contact details for the firm and the broker written down somewhere outside the platform, plus a mobile app logged in to the same account so I can close positions if the desktop goes down. A lot of the damage in these situations comes from the minutes spent trying to work out how to get to your position at all. The mobile app isn't great for trading, but as a backup for closing it's fine. Log in to the mobile app now and then, so you're not hunting for a forgotten password when you need it.