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After a bad month of random disconnects on my VPS, I realised my journal couldn't answer basic questions like "did the disconnect cost me money, and how much?" So I added a separate log for connection events.

Fields I now record:

• Start and end time of the disconnect (UTC), to the second, from the MT5 journal tab.
• Duration in seconds.
• Open positions at that moment, with their stops and targets.
• Whether stops and targets were server-side or EA-managed.
• Price movement during the disconnect (high/low).
• Any action I took after reconnecting.
• Estimated P&L impact compared with the plan.

After two months, the picture was clear: 14 disconnects, most under 30 seconds, all during the same hour. It turned out to be the provider's maintenance window, not my setup. Only two cost money, both because an EA-managed trailing stop didn't move while the terminal was offline.

Fixes:

• Moved the maintenance-hour trades elsewhere.
• Changed critical stops to server-side.
• Set up an external ping alert to my phone.

Without the log, I would just have blamed bad luck. Does anyone track connection events this carefully, or have a better approach?