MT4 Sidekick is easy to install — it consists of two files: SidekickEA.ex4 and Sidekick.dll. Both are copied to your Demo Account’s MetaTrader 4 installation folder — SidekickEA.ex4 to the …\MQL4\Expert folder and Sidekick.dll to the …\MQL4\Libraries folder. There is one important requirement — you really must close all running instances of MetaTrader’s Terminal.exe. This is because MetaTrader loads DLLs into memory and never releases them, making it impossible to update a DLL when Terminal.exe is running. If this is the first time you are installing MT4 Sidekick then it may not be necessary to close Terminal.exe — but you should be aware of this requirement as future updates become available.

The SidekickEA.ex4 Expert Advisor only needs to be installed to Demo Accounts, whereas the Sidekick.dll is installed to both Demo and Live Accounts. To facilitate installing these files, the MT4 Installer application can be used. The installer can copy the SidekickEA.ex4 and Sidekick.dll files to your MetaTrader installation folders — up to 5 Demo or Live accounts. After selecting the Data Path(s) of your MetaTrader installation folders, check the CheckBox on the left and press the ‘Install’ button. Again, be aware that in order to update a DLL the corresponding Terminal.exe program must NOT be running.

Just to be clear — Sidekick.dll is required by both your Demo and Live Accounts, whereas SidekickEA.ex4 is only run within the Demo Account. It is okay if SidekickEA.ex4 is copied to a Live Account — simply ignore it.

SidekickEA.ex4 is an Expert Advisor — attach it to a chart window and it will begin running. You can choose any symbol or time frame — it doesn’t matter — also, there are no input parameters to set. When you attach SidekickEA.ex4 to a chart it will create a database of all trade results for the Demo account — depending on the number of trades this could take a few seconds or a couple of minutes. The SidekickEA.ex4 is harmless — it does not trade. It simply creates a database when first attached to a chart, and then updates that database as trades are completed.

The image above shows SidekickEA.ex4 running in a Demo account. When you press the “Show Stats” button a grid should appear that summarizes all trade results. This is one way to confirm that the shared database has been created.