Why automate trading?

The market is very challenging and in the case of forex it is a zero-sum market, so to win yourself, other traders must lose. Not only this, every time you open a trade, a direct loss is taken between the spread, commissions and swaps in case the trade is not closed on the same day. This means that unless you are an advanced trader with great knowledge and great psychological strength, you are probably part of the traders that will feed the professionals and large investment firms. They use algorithmic trading because on average it is a more successful path than doing it manually, so by trading with automated algorithms you are trying to be on the winning side of the trader's queue.

Is so easy? No, 99% of Expert Advisors 'trading bots' are junk or scams, so be careful and spend your time finding real sources of good EAs.

The important thing is that using EA to trade does not mean that you do not have to do anything. Having a knowledge of the behavior of the market, to decide in which systems you risk more or less in the current market is under your decision, and this will make the difference between obtaining or not obtaining consistent profits.

How to get started with algorithmic trading? (the expert advisors)

Although there are other approaches, the common is to have a VPS (virtual private server) in the cloud with an MT4 / MT5 instance running all day, and in this instance, you can attach the different EAs that you own.

The MQL5 market offers a large number of EAs and generally there is the option to buy a lifetime license or rent for a specified period.

Instead of directly owning and using EAs, you can also follow a "signal". If you follow a "signal", the trades of the signal account will be replicated on your account, with the selected ratio.

How to get started with algorithmic trading? (the broker)

The first step is to have a good broker. In a broker you need: a reliable company behind, good customer service, competitive spreads and commissions.

In the end, the margin to be profitable is narrow, so the decision of the broker is one of the most important to be successful.

The two that I use and recommend the most are ICMarkets and ICTrading. Both are great trustworthy companies with very good conditions and services.

If you are from a country where you cannot join ICMarkets International, I recommend joining ICTrading which has similar trading conditions and enough leverage to trade crypto symbols, while in EU, UK, and regulation-based brokers the leverage is not enough to trade with some Expert Advisors. In ICMarkets International or ICTrading you will not have problems to use any Expert Advisor.

Disclaimer

SmartForexExpert is not a registered investment advisor, broker, financial analyst or planner. The information presented here is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Investors may use this information to make their own investment decisions. SmartForexExpert's automated systems are distributed on the Metatrader Marketplace (Metaquotes Ltd). The terms of use of the products of this Marketplace are described on the corresponding MQL5 page