Expert advisor programming is the process of creating automated trading systems for use in the forex market. You will need to master MetaQuotes Language 4 (MQL4) or the MetaQuotes Language 5 (MQL5) to effectively create trading robots. You’ll need hundreds of hours to learn all that and because of this custom programming is considered the old way of creating Forex robots.
Trading in the forex market is a very lucrative business and every trader aspires to find a way of making consistent profits. As such, most traders have discovered that expert advisors (forex robots) are the best way of making consistent profits and overcoming the several risks in the forex market.
Expert Advisor Programming
The forex robot programming languages borrow concepts from other languages, such as the C++ language. Therefore, being excellent in the other programming languages could make you a competent expert advisor programmer.
Trading robots need to be programmed, and traders without sufficient programming skills or money to hire a programmer never realize the benefits of automated trading systems. But if you are into programming then you can benefit from automated trading big time.
After you’ve identified a profitable strategy, you can use either the MQL4 or the MQL5 programing language to write lines of code that represent your strategy.
The languages are very versatile and will allow you to create amazing expert advisors to catapult your trading success.
If you are not competent in the forex robot programming languages, you can hire a programmer to translate your trading strategies into a robot.
There are several websites with programmers you can hire to develop an expert advisor that suits your trading requirements.
You can also do a background check on websites such as Forex Peace Army This way, you can know whether the programmer you want to hire or an expert advisor you want to buy is legitimate.
It’s important to note that this method of creating EAs that necessitates you to either master a programming language or hire a programmer is getting old and few people are still pursuing it.
Learning programming is difficult and few people get to master its intricacies. Similarly, hiring a programmer is expensive and you are not sure whether the coder will keep to your instructions.
Consequently, for cheap and simple expert advisor programming for MetaTrader 5 or 4, many people are resorting to expert advisor builders and expert advisor generators. With such tools, you can build an expert advisor without any programming skills or other technical skills.
The recent emergence of EA builders and EA generators has made the process of creating forex robots quick and uncomplicated.
Instead of mastering the complicated programming languages, you just need to input your strategy preferences, and the rest will be completed within minutes.
More so, using the forex EA generators is simple and is suited for every type of trader—regardless of whether you are a short-term trader or a long-term trader.
What Is Expert Advisor in Forex Trading?
As hinted above, an expert advisor in forex trading refers to an application that allows hands-free trading. Instead of doing the hard work of identifying trading opportunities, placing trades, managing trades, and exiting trades, a forex robot will save you from the hassle—allowing you to spend your time in doing other important activities.
Expert advisors will make trade decisions based on the algorithm you define in them. If you have any trading strategy that can be programmed, it can be written in an application and used for live trading.
For example, if you have a strategy that generates a trade signal whenever two moving averages cross each other, you can code it into a trading robot, and forget about manual trading.
Many traders around the world are relying on robot trading to make massive profits from the forex market.
Unlike manual trading, which forces you to be physically present and glued to your computer, expert advisor trading does not require your physical presence, as all the hard work will be performed for you by a machine.
Another benefit of using expert advisors in forex trading is that they are not vulnerable to emotions.
Since traders are also humans, who often tend to cling to emotions before making decisions, they often find themselves making greed-driven or fear-propelled trading decisions.
However, Forex EAs are machines which are not vulnerable to any emotions. The robots are wired to stick to specific rules, and will only generate trade signals if the set conditions are met—without becoming disappointed from losses or excessively joyful from wins.
Forex robots are also capable of quickly reacting to changes in the market. Whereas human traders may spend a few minutes or longer trying to understand what is taking place in the market, robots are able to instantly analyze the market movements and place an order without second-guessing.
Lastly, automated trading systems are not prone to human error. Being human is sometimes equated to being prone to error—unlike machines.
After in-building a strategy in a robot, it will follow the provided commands, without making any errors. Humans normally tend to be emotional when making decisions, something which usually leads to trading errors and losses.
How to Write Expert Advisor in MT4
Programming an expert advisor in MT4 is strenuous and unpredictable. For an expert advisor programmer to create a working robot, it will take from one day to several weeks.
Nonetheless, after spending a lot of time writing the EA, it does not mean it will give reliable results when tested against historical data. Such robots usually fail because the entry and exit rules are predefined even before its programming begins.
Conversely, if you use a Forex EA generator for programming an expert advisor, you’ll not encounter such problems.
Using an Expert Advisor builder will allow you to develop a robot quickly while providing you with reliable backtested results. What’s more, you can easily make improvements to the robot without worrying about breaking any line of code.
Without sufficient programming skills, writing an expert advisor in MT4 is difficult to realize. Programming is not easy and it may not be suitable for everyone.
You need to spend hundreds of hours practicing and purchasing a host of different resources to enable you to master how to code.
If you are still relying on the old way of creating robots, and depending on expert advisor programming pdf documents for developing EAs, then you are missing out on several benefits.
With today’s advancement in technology, creating expert advisors is not strenuous. And, you do not need to spend a lot of time and money trying to learn how to program forex robot or looking for a programmer.
Expert Advisor Without Indicator
Using custom programming, you can build an expert advisor that EA builders and generators cannot produce. Since you’ll be writing the lines of code yourself, you can program the forex robot with capabilities not available elsewhere.
For example, you can program your trading robot to carry out specific trading styles, such as grid trading, hedge, martingale, or scalping. However, programming such an EA will require more effort and expert technical skills.
Apart from having excellent programming skills, you also need to be excellent in your preferred style of trading. If you go ahead and create such an advanced robot without expert-level trading skills, you may end up creating a money-eating EA, which could lead to more losses. So, mastering how to program a forex robot is not easy.
Furthermore, such types of robots are usually too complicated for the average user. For anyone to use them, he or she should first master the advanced trading strategies, something which takes time and effort.
If you try trading with such complicated robots without enough trading skills, you could make risky decisions, which could also increase your losses.
Forex Robot Source Code
The forex robot source code contains the list of commands that your EA will be using to execute trading decisions. It is the most fundamental component of your trading robot.
An expert advisor can have one or more source codes—depending on the complexity of the instructions to be executed. Expert advisor programmers can include comments in the source code to assist in increasing its readability.
Whereas complicated trading robots usually reference hundreds or thousands of lines of code, it is more common for simple robots to reference only a few lines of code.
If the EA has several source files, it can be organized into various sections. If you have a single file with multiple functions and commands, it could be difficult to find some sections of the code.
It is very important to have the source of the robot, regardless of its type or complexity. It can be contained in an expert advisor programming pdf document. This way, you can easily alter the code if necessary.
For example, if a trading platform is updated or some significant changes in the market have taken place, you can easily make the updates.
If trying the performance of your forex robot under simulated forex trading conditions and you are not satisfied with its performance, you can easily go back to the source code and make appropriate changes. Without having the source code, it could be difficult to make such improvements.
Furthermore, having access to the forex robot source code also enables you to make a meaningful contribution to the community. You can share the code to assist other learners or you can recycle some of its portions for use in developing more powerful automated trading systems.
Forex EA Generator
The Forex EA generator is the new way to create reliable trading robots without requiring programming skills or other technical skills.
Relying on the old way of creating robots consumes a lot of time and is quite expensive, especially if you are beginning expert advisor programming with MetaTrader.
With an EA builder, you just input your preferred trading strategy preferences and the rest of the process is automatically completed for you—without writing a single line of code or following complicated instructions in some expert advisor programming for MetaTrader 5 pdf manual. Spending countless hours learning how to build expert advisor will also be unnecessary.
Importantly, before using an expert advisor builder, you need to carry out preliminary research to identify your trading strategy. You should come up with a technique that best represents your personal characteristics and preferred trading style.
For example, factors such as risk appetite, amount of capital, and preferred times for trading are all essential to consider when coming up with a strategy. Your chosen strategy need to market prudent and capable of making consistent profits in the forex market.
After you’ve developed a strategy idea, you can then input its preferences in the robot generator. The online-based tool has robust features to assist you to create reliable expert advisors within minutes.
The expert advisor builder from the Forex Robot Academy is an easy way to create robots without writing a single line of code. It’s an innovative tool and a way better technique of creating forex robots.
The online-based tool will generate the backtested results of the created robot, allowing you to ascertain its profitability. If the results are not satisfactory, even after trying them under simulated forex trading conditions, you can adjust your trading criteria until you get what you want.
Additionally, using the tool to create trading robots is much faster than a programmer. You will not need to worry about missing semicolons or other code compilation errors; everything will be automatically completed for you within a few minutes.
Here are the main components of the forex EA generator.
- Generator: After inputting your preferred strategy parameters, this component will do the work of creating an automated strategy for you. You’ll also be provided with backtested results to verify the profitability of your robot.
- Collection: After generating a strategy, it is stored in the Collection component. This way, you can easily sort them according to your preferred requirements.
- Editor: Before exporting your programmed strategies to a trading platform, you can use the Editor to edit them and ensure they will deliver the projected results under live trading conditions.
- Optimization: The forex EA generator has various tools to assist you to maximize the performance of your created robot. Examples include expert advisor tester and multi-market tester.
- Report: If you need a comprehensive report about the performance of your expert advisor, you can get it in this section.
- Exporter: With this component, you can safely and securely deploy your trading robot to a platform.
Conclusion
Expert advisor programming is the old way of creating forex robots. Using such a method to program EAs requires you to master advanced programming and spend several hours writing complicated lines of code, something that is strenuous and difficult to achieve.
Using a forex EA generator is the modern way of creating reliable automated trading systems without requiring advanced programming skills.
You just need to identify a trading strategy idea and input it in the robot creator tool, and the rest will be completed automatically within a few minutes.