What is a Forex Expert Advisor (EA)?

What is the meaning of expert advisor in Forex Trading? Before we answer the question of what is an EA in Forex trading, it is important to first understand some aspects of the Forex market.

The Forex market is open for trading 24 hours a day Monday – Friday. Being constantly active around these is obviously not possible for humans, however, a machine can trade for days without ever needing to take a break. This is one area where Forex EAs can help.

So, what is an Expert Advisor?

A Forex expert advisor is an automated system, which monitors the Forex markets and provides signals upon identifying trading opportunities.

Although we do not recommend any specific forex expert advisors, due to their unpredictability, some professional traders do find them to be of benefit.

EAs can be programmed to automatically generate trading signals and notify you of trading opportunities. EAs can be used on many FX trading platforms. Some of them allow traders to fully customise their trading systems, and then use them on a personal account, such as MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5).

Another type of automated trading system is a Forex robot which, like a Forex expert advisor, is a program that works to identify market patterns and generate trading signals.

However, unlike a Forex expert advisor, a Forex robot can also automatically trade on a trader’s behalf. An expert advisor, on the other hand, will always require a trader to manually authorise individual trades.

Every Forex expert advisor is based on preset rules, but EAs can differ in the rules they follow to trade. As with any automated software, they reduce the chance of making emotional and irrational trading decisions, which is a common problem for inexperienced Forex traders. A Forex expert advisor follows a very strict set of rules and is free from any human intervention.

Forex EAs can be obtained easily on the internet, usually for sale, and can be quickly installed into your trading platform without any advanced technical knowledge.

Before describing the functions of Forex EAs, we will outline the four kinds of Forex Expert Advisors you may encounter:

• The News Expert Advisor – as the name implies, the main purpose is to take advantage of various news events and big price moves that can take place during big news releases.
• The Breakout Expert Advisor – is specially designed to open a trade when a price breaks through predetermined resistance and support levels.
• The Hedge Expert Advisor – under this category falls any Expert Advisor that plays two respective and opposing positions, diminishing the loss on one whilst facilitating profit on another.
• Expert Advisor Scalper – such EAs pursue the goal to secure small profits once they are available. This EA will open and close an endless amount of trades for any profit and could trade up to 400-500 times a day depending on market conditions.

Which Functions Does a Forex Expert Advisor Have?

The best Forex Expert Advisors can be programmed to work in multiple ways (e.g. by utilising a selection of technical indicators, such as the moving average indicator, or the MACD indicator) or by searching for necessary trends and breakouts.

By applying those diverse indicators, the Forex expert advisor can analyse the market, as well as the behaviour of individual financial instruments, and can generate a signal about trading opportunities.

As we mentioned above, EAs are similar to Forex robots, which are another type of automated trading software.

When using strict definitions, the difference between a Forex expert advisor and a Forex robot is that an EA will generate signals while a robot will perform trades without any manual sign-off required. 

However, the terms are often used interchangeably, which means that many so-called Forex EAs are capable of far more than just generating signals.

Some Forex expert advisors are designed to take full control of your account. The idea here is that it will look at your current account balance, before deciding how much of your balance can be put at risk. The general rule of thumb is to only risk 1 – 2% of your account balance.

Furthermore, it may review the trades and decide whether there should be a trailing stop, take-profit or stop-loss. As soon as Forex Expert Advisors have the necessary information, they also take into account the current market conditions. Consequently, you will be notified when to open a particular position.

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What You Should Be Aware of Before Launching Your Forex Expert Advisor

If you want to build and use your own Forex expert advisor, here are some tips on what to do to make it work properly, outside of using a Forex EA generator (this is a tool where you enter the parameters of your preferred trades, and the tool generates the EA program for you).

1. The Importance of Data

The first tip is to be wary of the reliability of backtesting results. You might think that great backtesting results are proof of your system being ready to prosper – unfortunately, it is not that simple.

These results are dependent on the quality of the data applied in the backtest, implying that poor data can lead to unreliable outcomes. The default data in MT4 and MT5 can only reach a modelling quality of up to 90%. While this seems good, this can cause considerable differences in backtesting and the live experience, particularly on smaller time frames.

Fortunately, there are sources of freely accessible historical data and instructions on how to prepare the needed data for MetaTrader.

2. Understanding Your Execution Speed

Reliable data is the first step in adjusting a Forex expert advisor to trade on a live account. The next step is fully comprehending your execution speed.

MT4 and MT5 work on a trading session length of 30 seconds. If you are using a Forex EA, your session will time out automatically if there is no trading activity for more than the period mentioned above. This requires the IP address to be automatically re-authenticated with a password and a login.

This can take some time, even up to two seconds with some brokers. Even though it may seem an insignificant amount of time, in times of high volatility, delays of this size can have a substantial impact on the results of your trades.

3. Debugging

If you have spent any amount of time writing a complex Expert Advisor in MetaTrader, you probably know how difficult it is to debug the code. Since the MetaQuotes policy shows that they cater more to the needs of brokers than traders, you will find that a debugger is not included in the list of available tools.

Luckily, there are some things available to make your life easier. One method is to input print functions directly into your code, although that can become very hard to manage, particularly if you have thousands of lines and don’t know where the problem is. You can also download the Microsoft DebugView to view a methodically formatted log.

4. Test Your MetaTrader Connection

Make sure to test your MetaTrader connection. Your platform has to be turned on and connected directly to your broker to run your Expert Advisor. There is nothing more disappointing than thinking you have a Forex expert advisor only to find out that it has been disconnected, and is unable to reconnect.

While MT4 and MT5 are designed to automatically reconnect to the server without any problem, this does not always work as expected.

If you possess multiple MetaTrader accounts, occasionally the wrong credentials are used during the process of reconnection.

The best resolution is to delete your unapplied accounts from the Navigator window in MT4/MT5. Although this may not necessarily be a considerable problem, it can be quite frustrating if you are getting disconnected and your Forex expert advisor is not continuously up and running.

How a Forex EA Works: How to use a Forex Expert Advisor

There is a vast range of MT4 and MT5 Expert Advisors available on the internet. Some of them have been developed especially for trading news events and to remain out of the market at all other times, while other EAs are meant to stay active 24/7. Experienced Forex traders who have developed their own manual trading FX systems often hire MQL4 programmers to automate their systems, thereby creating their own custom EA.

All Expert Advisors have an identical purpose, and that is to fully automate the Forex trading process and produce a profit while doing it. Expert Advisors utilise technical indicators to gauge conditions on the market and then make trading decisions. Before using an Expert Advisor, it must first be attached to a chart on the MT4 platform.

An Expert Advisor can take into account dozens of factors and elements to decide what the next actions will be. This capacity to consider such a wide range of price-affecting elements, as well as the discipline of an emotionless automated trading system, can often lead to quite a useful and successful combination.

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Is It Possible to Use More Than One Forex EA in Trading at Once?

The answer is yes. You can use multiple Forex EAs on the MetaTrader client terminal. It is worth noting, however, that not all Expert Advisors work together on one terminal. This is mainly because they will try to handle each other’s open trades. Programmers tend to get around this by applying for special numbers in the market entrance part of the source code.

There are some platform restrictions, however. For instance, one Expert Advisor in MetaTrader can only communicate with one trading server at any one time. If multiple Forex expert advisors display a lot of activity on the same terminal, and more than one tries to communicate with the trading server, you will eventually receive ‘trade context busy’ errors in the logs. This occurs if you have too many Forex expert advisors on a single client terminal.

Top 6 Forex Expert Advisors: Which is the best forex EA?

So, which is the best Forex robot EA? While we can’t guarantee which Forex expert advisor is the best, we can list the 7 top Forex EAs that are worth considering.

In MetaTrader, they are written in MetaQuotes Language 4, and are developed for use under the MT4 and MT5 trading platforms. We’ll now take a look at some of the top Forex EAs available online. This isn’t a Forex expert advisor ranking, but just a list of some of the EAs out there and some details about each one.

1. Itic Software

Itic Software provides FX traders with a wide variety of services. They indicate to their clients when it is an appropriate time to carry out buy-sell actions of main currency pairs on the Forex market, based on analysis

Itic Software Forex expert advisors have multiple trading strategies. The wide service they offer is continuously tested by professional traders, products are not repaints, they always provide the source code and use unique mathematical algorithms only.

2. Armor

The Forex Armor expert advisor is for the MetaTrader 4 platform. Version 1 uses price action and Double OsMA signals for its strategy. Once the trend shifts in the opposite direction, this EA begins its averaging strategy without a martingale. Version 2 uses a combination of hedging, grid and the choice to use martingale.

The martingale strategy uses an initial trade that you double for each loss with the aim of a winning bet compensating all previous losses. With the martingale strategy, you may incur several losses before a win. So, it’s key to remember that, without an immense account balance, the martingale strategy can lead to immense losses.

3. Combo

The Forex combo expert advisor has a reputation among traders as being reliable and using an unusual trading algorithm. Its algorithm involves four strategies, which work together or separately. Due to its age and evolution, there are many versions of this Forex expert advisor. It supports EURGBP and GBPUSD.

4. Forex Factory

Forex factory is not an expert advisor but a place that connects traders. Users of their site discuss all things trading on their forum, including topics like ‘the best Forex expert advisors. It’s one source of information that may prove useful to you.

5. Forex Gump 

The Forex Gump EA is a Forex expert advisor with a candle and News Filter. It offers 3 unique settings – Low, Middle and High. They allow you to protect yourself from losing more money than you have specified in the EA settings, even in the case of a system crash. 

It is not sold on the MQL5 market. It is only sold on its website and through its affiliate partners. It supports nine currency pairs: EURCHF, EURJPY, EURGBP, EURUSD, AUDUSD, GBPUSD, USDCHF, USDCAD and USDJPY on the M1 time frame. Traders can trade with a minimum of $40 on a micro account.

6. Miner EA V3.0

The Forex miner expert advisor v3.0 is based on a trend which is following strategy. It uses many different trend indicators to get results on daily basis. The Forex Miner EA robot is programmed to trade with many currency pairs. They claim their best results come from trading GBPUSD, EURUSD, GBPJPY and USDJPY.

Before you decide to download any of these Forex EAs, it’s important to remember that using these robots mentioned above doesn’t guarantee profits. Trading with EAs can lead to serious financial losses. 

Trading with any EA without understanding the strategies it’s based on is very risky and can lead to great losses. There is no set-and-forget Expert Advisor. All EAs require regular manual intervention. If you choose to use an EA, understanding HOW to use them is essential to minimizing financial losses.

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Do Forex Expert Advisors Work in 2022?

Forex expert advisors tend to cause quite a lot of debate on the internet. First of all, let us define the positives:

• An EA does not sleep – it can work 24/7
• It is deprived of any emotion
• Nothing can distract an Expert Advisor from working
• Expert Advisors are available for the MetaTrader trading platforms

Besides the standard disadvantages, which include the lack of creativity, there is also the fact that it is really hard to verify the accuracy of any Forex expert advisor unless you have used it yourself. Let’s outline two scenarios that could occur as a result of EA use:

• The first one is that the Forex expert advisor for MetaTrader 4 or 5 tweaks countless times, and it still cannot show steady profits on a demo account.
• The second one is that the Forex EA is profitable on a demo account, but for some unknown reason, when the trader tries to apply it on a live account with their own funds, suddenly the EA does not work as well, and traders lose their money.

Choosing a Broker for a Forex Expert Advisor

Remember that you’ll need to integrate the expert advisor software with your trading account.

To do this smoothly, you’ll need a trading platform that is compatible with both your broker and the EA you wish to use. As I mentioned above, there are many Forex expert advisors available on the internet for MT4 and MT5.

Lastly, when searching for a broker, try to find one that is:

• reliable, with rapid transaction processing (without delays and platform freezing)
• reasonable trading costs (remember that your EA could make many transactions, so you will want to find a broker that doesn’t charge high commissions, overnight fees or have large spreads. Otherwise, these could cut into a lot of your profits, quickly)

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If after reading this article you feel ready to apply what you’ve learnt about Forex expert advisors and put it into action, our live Forex trading account makes Admirals one of the best Forex CFD brokers for expert advisors!

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Do Forex Expert Advisors Work in 2022?

Forex expert advisors tend to cause quite a lot of debate on the internet. First of all, let us define the positives:

• An EA does not sleep – it can work 24/7
• It is deprived of any emotion
• Nothing can distract an Expert Advisor from working
• Expert Advisors are available for the MetaTrader trading platforms

Besides the standard disadvantages, which include the lack of creativity, there is also the fact that it is really hard to verify the accuracy of any Forex expert advisor unless you have used it yourself. Let’s outline two scenarios that could occur as a result of EA use:

• The first one is that the Forex expert advisor for MetaTrader 4 or 5 tweaks countless times, and it still cannot show steady profits on a demo account.
• The second one is that the Forex EA is profitable on a demo account, but for some unknown reason, when the trader tries to apply it on a live account with their own funds, suddenly the EA does not work as well, and traders lose their money.

Choosing a Broker for a Forex Expert Advisor

Remember that you’ll need to integrate the expert advisor software with your trading account.

To do this smoothly, you’ll need a trading platform that is compatible with both your broker and the EA you wish to use. As I mentioned above, there are many Forex expert advisors available on the internet for MT4 and MT5.

Lastly, when searching for a broker, try to find one that is:

• reliable, with rapid transaction processing (without delays and platform freezing)
• reasonable trading costs (remember that your EA could make many transactions, so you will want to find a broker that doesn’t charge high commissions, overnight fees or have large spreads. Otherwise, these could cut into a lot of your profits, quickly)

Trading Forex CFDs With Admirals

If after reading this article you feel ready to apply what you’ve learnt about Forex expert advisors and put it into action, our live Forex trading account makes Admirals one of the best Forex CFD brokers for expert advisors!

Trade 80+ currencies on CFDs with no restrictions on trading styles or strategies, as well as the offering of competitive spreads, reasonable commissions, localised support available in 20+ countries, a start-of-the-art trading platform with enhanced trading capabilities, and so much more.

Click the banner below to quickly register an account: