PositionsTotal() is always returning zero even when there is open trades

[ibexy]

I have the code below but PostionsTotal() is always returning zero even when there is open trades.

I am trying to return the total number of currently open trades.

I am using MT5 downloaded from Metaquotes.

Any help highly appreciated. Thanks.

int _Currently_Open_Trades_Of_Type(ENUM_ORDER_TYPE tradeType)
{
      int totalPositions=0;   
      int total   =  PositionsTotal();
      int oType;
      
      if(total<=0) 
      { 
         return(0); 
      }
      else
      {
            for(int i=total-1;i>=0;i--)
            {
               if (!PositionSelectByTicket(i)) continue; 
               oType =  (int)PositionGetInteger(POSITION_TYPE); 
                                                                                     
               if( oType==tradeType) 
               {
                  totalPositions++;
               }
            }  
       }
      return(totalPositions);
}

[Alain Verleyen]

Always 0 because you are comparing different things :

  if( oType==tradeType) 

this can't be true. A position type is not the same as an order type.

[ibexy]

Alain Verleyen:

Always 0 because you are comparing different things :

this can't be true. A position type is not the same as an order type.

Thanks for your response

But PositionsTotal() is always zero.

That’s is before the error you pointed out 

At least that should return a value?

[Alain Verleyen]

ibexy:
Thanks for your response

But PositionsTotal() is always zero.

That’s is before the error you pointed out 

At least that should return a value?

How do you know it always returns zero ?

If there is a position, as soon as the terminal is notified about it PositionTotal() must return a value >0

[ibexy]

Turns out the culprit was the variable type.

Change  

      int total   =  PositionsTotal();

to

    uint total   =  PositionsTotal();

The corrected version of the code is this

int _Currently_Open_Trades_Of_Type(ENUM_ORDER_TYPE tradeType)
{
      int totalPositions=0;   
      uint total   =  PositionsTotal();
      int oType;
      
      if(total<=0) 
      { 
         return(0); 
      }
      else
      {
            for(uint i=0;i<total;i++)
            {
               if (!PositionSelect(_Symbol)) continue;
               oType =  (int)PositionGetInteger(POSITION_TYPE); 
                                                                                     
               if( oType==tradeType) 
               {
                  totalPositions++;
               }
            }  
       }
      return(totalPositions);
}

BTW, oType is just a variable name.

[ibexy]

Alain Verleyen:

How do you know it always returns zero ?

If there is a position, as soon as the terminal is notified about it PositionTotal() must return a value >0

I placed a "watch" on the variable during debug.

the fix was to change:

int total   =  PositionsTotal();


to

uint total   =  PositionsTotal();