How to Diagnose Missed MT5 EA Entries Without Creating False Signals

Developers building Expert Advisors in MetaTrader 5 sometimes encounter missed trade entries that appear valid on the chart but are silently blocked by internal filters. A structured diagnostic approach recommends logging the full symbol, timeframe, bar timestamp, and the specific decision point that halted entry progression, rather than relying on a single boolean flag. Collapsing multiple outcomes into one variable obscures whether the failure was due to unavailable data, an unqualified signal, or a gate condition such as an outside-session block. A JavaScript fixture demonstrates a four-stage classification model — input, signal, gate, and request — showing that data readiness must be verified before any signal value is trusted. The guide emphasizes that reaching the request stage does not confirm a broker accepted an order, and that MT5's sequential tick processing means not every market tick is guaranteed to become a distinct handler call.