Memory Issues with MT4

I am currently working on converting some FIX algos over to MT4 and Im having some memory problems with MT4.

Anyone have a slick way of managing the memory in MT4 ? The programs require a continuous loop in MT4 (this way its live as opposed to waiting for the next tick on the chart). This makes it memory intensive and usually results in a crash after about 3 hours of operation. I would like to store what I need in a file and dump the rest for optimization, just cant figure out how to dump it.

Thanks,
KK

mt4 has a good library of file writing and reading functions. You could dump the data every hour or so and if you are using arrays to store the data, just flush those and start over. Without knowing the complete details on how your FIX engine runs that is about all I can suggest right now.

I figured out the data storage using the file functions. Is there a way to just dump the memory? it seems to be a problem with with handling multiple currency pair pricing. Im pulling pricing data from 36 pairs to run the calculations. The system just freezes up, I even got rid of all the global arrays. If I restart MT4 it works just fine again.

"The programs require a continuous loop in MT4 ..."

Do you have a "sleep" in the loop? If no, that is not a Good Thing.

Yes I do have a sleep in the loop. I think that I figured out the problem. It seems like the loop continues to run, then another loop starts with every incoming tick so I end up with a bunch of looping instances of the same EA. anyone know how to solve this? how do I stop the previouse loop with a new incoming tick?

It shouldn't begin prcessing a new tick if the processing (including sleep) for the prior tick is not complete, per docs...

"Expert Advisor is a mechanical trading system (MTS) linked up to a certain chart. An Advisor starts to run with every incoming tick for a given symbol. The Advisor will not be launched for a new, tick if it is processing the previous one at this moment (i.e., the Advisor has not completed its operation yet). "

But, who knows...

What build number are you using? The latest ( 216 ) is a memory hog compared to previous ones.

( would love to hear about your FIX algos.. )

keep a tick counter and change your loops to

while ( ticknumber == currenttick)

making sure that ticknumber is a "global" variable (not an actual MT4 global variable, just a variable that is scoped to the whole script) and currenttick = ticknumber, but scoped to just the start() function ?

I am wondering how much memory you have in your computer?

Most traders I know wont touch a computer with at least 1gb of ram in it, largely due to the amount of memory MT4 requires on startup (about 40 meg) and then more for all the indicators , EA's and charts as well.

For an example one trader I know trades 10 pairs , 3 indicators on each chart , an EA on each chart , a custom template for each chart, for a total of about 540 megabytes.

Got to leave about 350 for memory spikes (ticks / tick counter etc during news etc)

For your issue, why does it keep writing to ram all the time? Why not configure it to flush it to disc after using up lets say 40% of avaiable RAM ?

Use a global variable to let the other know that there is a new loops on progress. So you may stop the oldest loops by that.