What is an expert Advisor or a robot for trading on the stock exchange, how to configure it, choose it and where can I download it. Is it possible to earn money on automatic trading on Forex or the stock market?
Most of the trading strategies can be automated. After developing the rules, the trader does not have to trade manually, you can create a Forex trading robot that will trade automatically in exact accordance with the rules of the strategy. The exchange trading robot frees the trader from routine work, saves a lot of time and guarantees 100% compliance with the rules of the strategy.
The profitability of trading robots (Expert Advisors) is not limited by anything, there are both conservative advisors and overclocking algorithms that trade with high risk, they are able to provide more than 100% profit per month, but only for a short distance.
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What are Trading Robots and Expert Advisors (in simple words)
Trading robots for stock trading are algorithms that can analyze the market according to certain rules, find entry points, make deals and accompany them. Usually, a trading strategy is created first, for example, based on indicators, then its rules are written in a language that is understandable to the computer, and the developer receives a trading robot at the output.
Read more: The main components of a Trading Strategy
These algorithms are also called Expert Advisors, bots or EA (from the English Expert Advisor). Historically, the appearance of robots did not begin with fully automatic trading. At the beginning of the journey, the robots only notified the trader about the fulfillment of some conditions in the market and gave advice. From here and the name-adviser. Later, the advisors learned to act independently according to the specified algorithms. Now the trading robot can be configured in any way so that it notifies, gives a signal or silently trades.
For example, high-frequency scalping on the stock market cannot be implemented with manual trading, the same applies to Forex Expert Advisors working on impulse movements. In other cases, trading robots for trading save time and can be used as an addition to manual trading.
Trading advisors in simple words are full automation of trading. The Expert Advisor only needs access to the terminal to analyze the market and trade in 24x5 mode. Such concepts as sleep, fatigue, mistakes due to inattention are unfamiliar to him.
Classification of trading robots
You can classify Expert Advisors according to several criteria. If we put the level of trade automation as a basis, then we distinguish:
- Fully automatic robots. They find the entry points themselves and make deals themselves. The trader's intervention is necessary only at the preparatory stage (installing the terminal on the VPS, launching it, installing and configuring the robot).
- Semi-automatic. They analyze the market themselves, then notify the trader about it, and he makes a decision about entering the market.
Depending on the tools used, there are:
- Indicator algorithms. Market analysis and search for entry points is performed using standard or custom indicators.
- Based on graphical analysis, candlestick and graphical patterns. The code sets, for example, the relationships between individual elements of a Pin bar or another candle model.
- Combined - there are signs of both of the above types.
You can also give a classification depending on the style of work:
- Trend robots trade only in the direction of the prevailing trend. One of the most popular techniques is to search for the end point of the correction using oscillators and identify the trend using moving averages.
- Countertrends. Trading is conducted in the expectation of a change in the trend. Such Expert Advisors are characterized by a reduced win rate, but this is compensated by a high ratio of potential profit to accepted risk.
- Scalpers for the quiet market. An Expert Advisor that trades only during periods of minimal volatility, when most market makers do not participate in trading and it is easier to predict the price behavior. Most often, trading is limited to the time of the Asian and European trading sessions.
- High-frequency scalpers. They are created to work in areas of the market with increased volatility, dozens of transactions are made in a few minutes/seconds. Manually trading in this style is problematic. They are especially popular on the stock market.
- Standard Expert Advisors for intraday work, which do not differ in either a high trading frequency or ultra-precise entries in a quiet market.
Read more: Volatility: types, how to track and how to use
Another criterion for classification is the versatility of the trading Adviser:
- The category of multi-currency robots includes all Expert Advisors suitable for working on at least 2 trading instruments.
- There are bots built on the patterns of one trading instrument, they are not suitable for other assets. Usually, the developer indicates this in the explanatory note to his development.
The vast majority of Expert Advisors are created for intraday work. There is no point in automating long-term trading – signals occur rarely and it is not difficult for a trader to track their appearance independently.
Free trading robots
There are several categories of free trading advisors.
Demo and free trading robots are pre-installed in trading terminals. For example, the developers of MetaTrader add several simple expert Advisors to the platform, they are available immediately after installing the trading software.
These are extremely simple algorithms, they are suitable only for getting acquainted with autotrading in general.
Read more: Long-term Forex trading
Created by enthusiasts. Usually, a working strategy or your own idea is automated, a corresponding topic is created and the community is looking for ways to improve the effectiveness of expert advisor.
Hacked robots. They are purchased for a fee, then the "treatment" is paid, and the programmer removes the limit on the number of accounts to which the robot can be attached. There are no guarantees that the Expert Advisor will work the same way as the developer intended, besides, updates are not available for hacked versions. In theory, during the" treatment", the programmer can intentionally spoil the robot.
Sometimes developers make their own developments free of charge due to the fact that the robot has lost its relevance. The main advantage is that you can download the trading robot for free. They can also be considered as an element of training for those who are taking their first steps in the auto trade. Using free algorithms, you can practice optimization, check different options for money management, experiment with portfolios.
But free Expert Advisors are not suitable for the role of a tool for guaranteed passive earnings. Most often, they have to be optimized for a long time without guarantees of success. They may work for some time, but the chances of "breakage" are higher than those of Expert Advisors supported by the developer.
Read more: Why are the MetaTrader 4 & 5 trading platforms so popular?
Paid robots
The cost of this type of Expert Advisors depends solely on the desire of the developer and the seller. There are offers from $20-$50 and up to $xxxxxx for one robot. The most interesting thing is that a high price does not guarantee the performance of the Expert Advisor. Any test can be faked, even account monitoring may not reflect the real performance.
Some sellers play on the psychology of potential buyers by setting a high price. At the subconscious level, buyers form a connection "high cost – high quality", in combination with aggressive marketing, this gives results.
The advantage of paid robots is that developers usually offer support and update settings for them. The trader does not need to monitor the result independently and try to optimize the Expert Advisor. The higher the probability that the trading adviser will earn.
The disadvantages of paid robots include:
- Sometimes the cost is too high.
- The authors, as a rule, do not disclose the features of the strategy on which the trading algorithm is built, only an explanation is given in general terms.
- The trader is directly dependent on the developer. Without knowing all the nuances of the strategy on which the Expert Advisor is based, it is difficult to optimize it. The developer can stop supporting his brainchild at any time.
- There are restrictions on use. For example, a limit is introduced on the number of accounts to which expert advisor can be linked, the developer can limit the work of the Expert Advisor only to accounts with a specific broker.
These disadvantages do not allow us to call paid Expert Advisors an ideal tool for earning money. With them, you can steadily increase your capital, but the fact that you will have to pay for a robot does not mean that it is guaranteed to work.
Read more: Who are Market Makers and what are they doing on the market?
Where can a trader get a good robot assistant
There are several sources, the complexity of this task depends on the needs of the trader.
Expert Advisors can be downloaded for free on specialized forums. The advantage of this method is zero costs and a clear description of the principle of operation. But there is a possibility that you will have to work on optimization until a stable result.
Individual brokers post a selection of Expert Advisors in the public domain on their websites. We are talking about old algorithms, new hacked EA are not laid out. The efficiency of such advisers is questionable.
You can create your own robot by ordering code writing from a programmer. Depending on the responsibility of the contractor, you can get both an ideal adviser, taking into account all the wishes of the customer, and a DIY with the absence of half of the functions.
You can buy a trading robot directly from the seller. A built-in market is available directly in MetaTrader, through which not only Expert Advisors, but also indicators and auxiliary scripts are sold.
Here you can choose the best trading robots, but the price spread is very large. There are also free offers in the market, but they are more suitable for getting acquainted with the auto trade than for real earnings.
In theory, you can share the idea of trading on a specialized forum. If it is considered worthwhile, then traders familiar with programming can write an expert Advisor for free. But before you write a trading robot with someone else's hands and for free, you need to be prepared for the fact that it will become public domain and there are no guarantees that all the ideas of the author will be implemented.
Programming of trading robots is a separate topic, there are special programs and even constructors for this.
To write a bot yourself, you need at least a good knowledge of the MQL4 or MQL5 programming language and have programming skills. If you are unfamiliar with programming languages, you will either need to understand them well, or give the development of trading robots to order.
A few precautions when buying a product
When buying an Expert Advisor, you need to follow the standard security rules:
- It is advisable to buy a bot only through a platform that performs the role of an intermediary. This reduces to zero the risk that the seller will not send the adviser to the buyer after receiving the money.
- Before buying an Expert Advisor, the statistics of its trading are studied. If the developer, under various pretexts, does not allow you to get acquainted with the results of the adviser's work before buying, then you should not buy a bot from him. Ideally, real account monitoring should be enabled on myfxbook.com or another service.
- At least in general terms, the principle of trading should be described. The developer will not disclose all the features of the strategy, but the style and idea should be clear.
Reviews of other customers can not serve as a reliable proof of the effectiveness of the bot. In any store, it is easy to "wind up" the seller's rating and the evaluation of his products. Therefore, in the question of how to choose a trading robot, you should always focus on your own assessment and statistics of trading on the real market.
Factors affecting profitability
The effectiveness of Expert Advisors is affected not only by the efficiency of the trading idea as a whole, but also by a number of technical nuances. Below is an analysis of all the factors that affect the result:
- The efficiency of the idea as a whole. For example, an attempt to use the trend trading approach on flat instruments is doomed to failure.
- The speed of execution of orders. This is important only for scalping or pipsing robots. This category of bots has an average profit of 10-20 points, delays in processing orders can reduce profits by 10-30%. For other categories of bots, slippage and requotes are not so significant.
- Spread. This criterion is also important for high-frequency scalpers. With a high spread, several pips are lost on each trade, due to the intensity of trading, as a result, the losses are higher than with a low spread.
Robots of this type are usually placed on ECN accounts, where the spread on majors can reach up to 0 points, but a commission is introduced, the amount of which is tied to the turnover on the account, and not to the number of transactions.
Read more: ECN Forex account: what is it?
And a couple more conditions:
- Compliance with the rules of money management. These recommendations are given by the developer, usually it looks like "xxx Lots for every xxx units of the deposit currency". Violation of the rules of money management increases the risk of leaving the deposit in a deep drawdown.
- Uninterrupted access to the market. When testing, the Expert Advisor works in 24x5 mode, if you do not put the bot on the VPS and do not provide the same trading mode, the results will be strikingly different from the test.
The influence of most of these factors can be reduced by selecting a good VPS. As for the efficiency of the adviser's idea, it will have to be evaluated independently based on the results in the tester and monitoring of the real account.
Criteria for selecting suitable trading advisors
Despite the differences between different types of trading algorithms, there are several general recommendations for the selection of bots.
The style of work is taken into account, which directly affects profitability, risk and the permissible load on the deposit. If, for example, the tactics of martingale, averaging, locking are unacceptable for a trader, then the corresponding robots are excluded from the list.
Equity is correlated with the recommendations of the developer. It makes no sense to start working if the Expert Advisor author recommends trading a minimum lot for every $ 1000 deposit, and it is possible to allocate only $200-$300 for trading. In this scenario, the risks will be overestimated by 3-5 times, which will reduce the chances of survival of the robot at a distance.
Read more: What is Slippage in trading?
The number of settings points should not be too high. If there are dozens of them, then it is almost impossible to optimize the Expert Advisor.
It is undesirable to use robots built on neural networks or using artificial intelligence in trading. This sounds impressive, but the result in most cases is questionable.
The test on a long-term history is not particularly useful, the market is changing too quickly, this applies to both the Forex market and the stock market. You need account monitoring or a demo version of the Expert Advisor for independent experiments.
The function of renting a bot for a week or a month is useful – this is the best way to test it in "combat" conditions before buying.
The profitability on the history and the frequency of trading are evaluated. These parameters affect the payback period and allow you to estimate the exit date to zero, that is, the date when the profit compensates for the cost of the Expert Advisor.
Various types of deposit protection "sewn" into the code are taken into account. It will be useful, for example, to stop on equity – a kind of stop-tap that turns off trading in case of a sharp drawdown. In general, the settings should allow you to flexibly change money management and protect the deposit from force majeure.
Hidden nuances during work
Using any robot for trading on the stock exchange, a trader risks encountering a number of pitfalls. Not always the trading nuances depend on the developer of the bot or the trader himself, such features of auto trading include:
- Restrictions on the number of open trades or the total volume of open positions. This will affect the work of the Expert Advisor only when working with particularly large volumes and a large number of orders. But the scenario is real and technical restrictions on the part of the broker may affect the work of the adviser. These nuances are also indicated in the description of the trading conditions on the broker's website.
- If the position is held open for a long time, a loss will accumulate due to the swap. For bots of this type, it is better to choose an Islamic account type (the swap is reset for them, a commission is introduced instead), but not all brokers open swap-free accounts for all clients without exception.
- If the Expert Advisor was tested on a demo account, then the result may worsen when switching to real money. When working with virtual currency, there are no such phenomena as slippage, requotes, and requests are always executed instantly. On real deposits, the execution is not perfect, slippages and requotes can affect the result in both directions.
- The overnight spread expansion can "break" the Expert Advisors belonging to the category of night scalpers. If the company greatly expands the spread, then robots of this type will simply not be able to earn, you will have to change the broker.
- If you overdo it with saving on VPS and put several resource-intensive robots on the account, then the server power may not be enough. Terminal freezes will not affect the result in the best way.
- Even when installing Expert Advisors on a VPS, there is a slight probability of a failure and a server reboot, which will put auto trading on pause. Therefore, you need to add a trading terminal to autorun, when the server is restarted, it will start, and trading will resume.
All of the above applies to all types of algorithms. Both the stock trading robot and the Forex Expert Advisor work on the same principle, only the tools and the logic by which the entry points to the market are selected differ.
Read more: Forex broker: how to choose a good broker
Recommendations on how to correctly formulate a request to the developer of a paid individual robot program
When drawing up a technical specification for a programmer, it is critically important to clearly describe the strategy itself and the additional features of the adviser. When developing and creating a trading robot, special attention is paid to:
- The description of the signals should not leave room for speculation. For example, the phrase "the Buy signal occurs at the intersection of 2 moving averages with periods 8 and 46" leaves several options for interpretation. Firstly, it is not clear what kind of movings are used. Secondly, the customer did not specify what exactly is considered an intersection – the position of the MA lines at the close of the candle or the intersection is sufficient until the end of the candle formation. Third, it is not specified at what prices the moving averages are built. The programmer is not obliged to guess what seems obvious to the author of the strategy, this applies to both indicator and other vehicles. The code depends on such nuances, as well as the generation of ticks.
- The time and number of attempts to enter the market. The Expert Advisor can try to make a deal 1 time immediately after the signal is formed, it can do it after some time. The number of attempts is important in case of possible slippage and requotes.
- The method of tracking the position. When developing an Expert Advisor, you can "sew in" not only the closing of a transaction on a fixed take profit, but also a trailing stop, for example, on a Parabolic or a moving average.
- Methods for determining the working lot. It is advisable to immediately provide for work with both a fixed volume and a dynamic one, when the lot is determined as a percentage of the deposit.
- Methods of limiting losses. We need a stop loss, if it is supposed to open a grid of orders, then it can be a general stop loss, for example, by equity.
- Methods for determining the state of the market. Most strategies focus on the trend or flat phase of the market. If visual identification is performed during manual trading, then the Expert Advisor needs a clear criterion, for example, an ATR filter or the position of moving averages relative to each other.
Also, in the Technical task, you can specify the need to create temporary filters in order to be able to limit the work of the adviser on certain days/hours. Another desirable element is the availability of key parameters that affect the work in the settings window. If a number of key settings are not available, then you will not be able to simply set the parameters and change them during optimization, you will have to edit the code.
Read more: Swaps in the financial market. What are they and what are they given to the trader
Connection and configuration guide
Regardless of the terminal, the robots are connected according to a similar scheme. The Expert Advisor is delivered as a file with an extension, for example,. ex4 and/or .mq4. You just need to install it in the desired folder and restart the terminal.
Installing the robot using the example of MetaTrader 4:
The file of the Expert Advisor itself should be located in the root directory in the Experts folder. To get to it in MT4, the "Open data directory" item is selected in the "File" menu.
In the folder that opens, go to MQL4-Experts and paste the file/files of the Expert Advisor here.
The robot can be bundled with the necessary scripts, libraries or indicators for its operation. They need to be placed in the appropriate folders.
After that, the terminal is restarted and after restarting, the Expert Advisor appears in the Navigator. You can do without rebooting, it is enough to update the list of Expert Advisors so that the installed robot becomes visible in the general list.
Read more: What is a Trailing stop and how to use it?
Advantages and disadvantages of robotic trading
The strengths of autotrading include:
- Complete lack of emotions when making decisions. Robots do not want to earn more, do not move the stop, do not violate the rules of money management, and they also do not know fatigue. As for how the trading adviser works, it trades strictly in accordance with the rules laid down in it, that is, they are always 100% observed.
- Instant reaction to the signal that appears. This is important when working on impulses or high-intensity scalping.
- Work in offline mode. To do this, you will have to put the Expert Advisor on the VPS, it will work when the computer is turned off on the trader's side.
- The ability to run multiple bots on the same account.
- There are no restrictions on manual trading. You can combine both auto and manual trading on one account.
Of the disadvantages, it deserves mention:
- The lack of "intelligence", the robot can not go beyond the rules, it has no intuition.
- The need to periodically optimize the Expert Advisor, selecting new sets of settings.
- The presence of scammers selling mediocre Expert Advisors at inflated prices. Reporting and even monitoring of accounts can be forged.
- A number of trading tactics are very difficult to automate. We are talking about strategies in which it is impossible to avoid subjectivity in the analysis of the market. Such vehicles are based, for example, on graphical or wave analysis.
- If the bet is placed only on auto trading, over time, the skills of independent work in the market are lost.
- If the work is carried out in MT4, then when switching to MT5, the Expert Advisors will have to be rewritten from scratch. The MetaTrader 5 uses the MQL5 programming language, bots and indicators built on MQL4 will not work.
The listed disadvantages are rather features of autotrading, a consequence of automation of work. They need to be taken into account, but they do not reduce the value of the auto trade as a whole.