Common Error Messages

ATM is merely the glue which holds a whole bunch of other things together, with those other things all made by different companies. For this reason, we don't always control the error message that you see, and those error messages aren't always clear as to what went wrong. If the below doesn't help you out, please use the forums.
 

Miscellaneous

 
Unicode byte order mark

When importing a trading system or alert, you might get an error like this: "There is no Unicode byte order mark. Cannot switch to Unicode."

Trading systems and alerts are exported as text files, but text files in unicode format. Opening it in notepad, then saving, may revert the file to ANSI (ASCII) text. The Unicode byte order mark is an invisible character put at the start of the file to indicate that it is indeed Unicode. When it was accidentally saved as ANSI, that Unicode byte order mark character was blown away.

But the technical details don't really matter - all that matters is how to fix it. What you need to do, is open the file using Notepad, and click "Save As" from the main menu. In that "Save As" window, at the bottom, change the encoding to "Unicode". Not "Unicode (big endian)" - just "Unicode". Then save. And then try to import again.
 

Sending Emails

If you get an error like this when sending an email:

The SMTP server requires a secure connection or the client was not authenticated. The server response was: 5.5.1 Authentication Required. Learn more at...

Check that you have typed in your password correctly for the outgoing email address.
 

Error Messages From Oanda

Any single word error message ending in "Exception" comes from Oanda. For example, "RateTableException", or "SessionException".

Here's what the Oanda help file says about each. The description is not always so helpful:
 

In addition to the above, there is also this kind of error message given by the Oanda API:

Attempted to read or write protected memory. This is often an indication that other memory is corrupt.

at Oanda.Account.modify(Account* , MarketOrder* )
at fxClientAPI.Account.Modify(MarketOrder trade)
at [...and so on]

Oanda does not allow hedging.  Preliminary evidence suggests that the cause of this error is that you already have a trade open, and are trying to open another trade going in the opposite direction (i.e. your trading system is trying to hedge, either on purpose or not).

There is a workaround. See this section - "How to Hedge"
 

Error Messages From Gain Capital

Text in the "Description" fields copied from a thread in the Gain Capital forum: