Suppose you are looking for a solution to automate your investments. In that case, you may be interested in buying a forex robot, especially if you do not have enough time to place trades manually.
Well, automating all or part of your strategy is a good way to optimize your work and have better results.
We also can avoid emotional stress associated with trading if we backtest the strategy before using it live.
These advantages can be obtained with an Expert Advisor. In this article, we’ll talk about what it is, how it works, and how to configure it.
What is an Expert Advisor (EA)?
EA is a trading software that performs operations automatically in the forex market. This computer program relies on numerous signals to execute buy or sell orders (according to the parameters or instructions you have given).
It is an alternative for those who want to diversify or do not have time for manual execution but still want to trade Forex. Nowadays, working with trading robots is easy and fast. It is not necessary to have programming skills to use algorithms, and it’s very simple to run robots.
Some positive considerations are that robots are machines and never get tired. They are available 24 hours a day. In addition, it allows you to free yourself from the emotional factor that buying and selling entails.
How does it work?
First, consider that in trading, we have two ways of operating:
- Manual: You, as a trader, have to be present to enter or program orders to be executed on your account.
- Automatic: Operations are not carried out manually. Trading is executed automatically through an algorithm.
Therefore, for the program to work automatically, you have to give it some instructions. MetaTrader software is one of the most popular software packages for trading algorithms.
Robots cannot continue operating if you shut down the computer. If you want to activate the robot all day long, hire a VPS (a virtual server that is active 24/7) to host the program and keep it always running.
The performance of automated strategies will depend on supervision. So if they are not profitable in the first place, no matter how much they are automated, they would not make money.
Three advantages of using an Expert Advisor
- Improves trader discipline: Often, even simple market setups can affect traders emotionally. Maintaining discipline is not easy for discretionary traders under constant stress because of uncertainty about what will happen, especially if operations are not going well.
- Faster order execution: Scalpers must react to the market signals and execute trades fast. Speed and precision should be the primary focus as the time frame becomes shorter, especially 15 or 5 minutes.
- Optimization of time: Everyone needs to maintain a healthy life doing other things, like exercising or sleeping.
We all have 24 hours every day, so time is limited and manual trading requires watching charts and indicators. Automating strategies can reduce the time required to monitor the markets and significantly increase the chances of timely acting upon the market signals.
How to configure it?
First, enter the website expert-advisor-studio.com and register for a 15-day free trial.
Once you have completed registration, click on the generator. In this option, you can start creating a strategy and backtest it. Let’s see how to do it.
1. Historical data:
- Select data you want to backtest. This is done with data from a point in the past to present
- Select the currency pair of your preference
- Choose the time frame
2. Strategy properties:
- Select the number of lots you want to use in your positions
- Choose the side of operations, either buy (long) or sell (short)
- Customize where to take profits and stop losses.
3. Generator settings
- Here you can configure a lot of technical indicators available you want to use.
When the whole strategy is configured, results will appear summarized in the backtest output section.
You can save it in the portfolio and also transfer it to the Metatrader account and put it into action if the results are positive.
Conclusions
Automated trading completely changes the mindset of anybody because robots are machines that can follow the rules better than humans. You also have to dedicate time to building an efficient algorithm. As it’s based on backtesting, often it’s easier to evaluate the strategy objectively.
Investors who have patience and take enough time to create rules and a methodology that can be turned into a fully automated trading system have much more possibilities to maintain discipline in their operations and minimize the emotional stress that carries out this profession.
An automated and tested trading system will help you to achieve profitability in the long term. Best of all, you can do it without any programming skills.
