Quiet markets and expert advisors that only act on ticks

[Shadow Trader]

Expert advisors typically run their logic when a new tick arrives. In a busy market, that means dozens of calls per second. In a quiet one, there might be one tick every few seconds, or fewer.

If the logic depends on time, such as closing a trade after 90 seconds, a quiet market creates a problem. With no tick arriving, the code doesn't run, and the position stays open longer than intended.

During rollover, ticks may stop for 20 or 30 seconds on some feeds. A time-based exit scheduled for that window just waits, then fires late with the first tick, at whatever price is quoted.

The fix is a timer event, which runs independently of ticks. A timer calling the exit logic every second ensures that time-based rules happen on time, even when the feed is silent.

Another subtle issue: if a script is busy processing one tick, new ticks may be skipped. In a fast market, a long calculation can cause the EA to miss events, making it act on a picture that's a few ticks old.

Keeping tick-handling code lean and moving heavy work out of the hot path is a basic design principle that pays off in fast moments.

Time-based exits firing late because of a quiet feed: has that ever happened on a live account?