An expert advisor, also known as a robot, is a tool that traders and investors use to automate their trades and identify opportunities in the market. They are mostly used by advanced traders who have mastered the forex market for years. High-Frequency Trading (HFT) companies have also embraced the use of expert advisors. In this article, we will explain what an expert advisor is, how to select a good builder, and some of the tips to consider.
What is an expert advisor?
As a forex trader, you have a number of options to analyze and execute trades. First, you can conduct analysis manually. This is where you analyze and then execute trades manually.
Second, you can decide to use copy trading. This is a process where you use technology to copy trades from other experienced traders. This approach was initially introduced by eToro, one of the leading forex brokers in the world. Today, it is offered by many brokers.
Third, you can automate your trading by using robots. A robot automates the manual process. For example, assume that your trading strategy involves opening a buy trade when the Relative Strength Index (RSI) and the Commodity Channel Index (CCI) move to the oversold level. In this case, you could create a bot that opens a trade when the two indicators move to the predetermined level.
What is an Expert Advisor builder?
Building a robot from scratch is a difficult thing. For one, you need to have experience as a trader. Trading skills are necessary since you will need to move them to the robot.
Most importantly, you need to have software development or coding skills. Some of the most popular programming languages needed to build these robots are Python, MQL, and PHP.
Sadly, most people don’t have a combination of trading and programming skills. Most of those who don’t have these skills buy robots from the marketplace and then use them for trading.
Another concept is to use an expert advisor builder. This is a tool that enables anyone, regardless of their trading experience, to come up with robots that are compatible with MT4, MT5, and other trading platforms. Some of these builders provide a drag and drop platform for you to build a robot.
EA builders can be used by both experienced and inexperienced traders. Experienced traders use them to save time, while inexperienced traders use them since they are easy to navigate. So, let us look at some of the top things to consider when selecting an EA builder.
Choosing an EA builder
There are many Expert Advisor builders in the market today. Some brokers even offer free builders to their customers.
Consider the ease-of-use
One of the top things to consider when selecting an Expert Advisor builder is how easy it is to use. Ideally, we recommend that you select a platform that has a good user interface. Such a platform will help you save time and optimize your development process.
Cost of building
The EA builder industry is growing, and there are many companies offering the service. These companies use different options to make money. Some of them use a completely free approach where they make money using online advertisements.
Other companies use a freemium model. This is where they offer basic services for free and then charge a fee for premium features. In my experience, I have found that the free version offered by most companies is adequate for most traders. That’s because some of the premium features are not all that necessary in most cases.
Still, the necessity of more premium features will depend on your expert advisor’s needs and your developing stage.
Available templates
Templates refer to prebuilt robots that you can use to build your expert advisors. At times, all you need to do is to change a few things in these templates, and you are good to go. Templates are important because they will help you build robots at a faster speed. They will also help you to learn how to build these bots. Therefore, we recommend that you go for EA builders that have a good portfolio of templates.
Available tools
There are several things that will help you build a good robot. As such, we recommend that your preferred EA builder has some of these tools. For example, the builder should have a good strategy tester. This is a tool that tests the performance of your robot using historical data.
Some of the best strategy-testing features you should consider are the Monte Carlo, Multi-Market, and Walk Forward. Monte Carlo is widely used by advanced traders to find the probable performance of a robot in different market conditions.
Walk Forward, on the other hand, is the process of testing a strategy by finding its optimal parameters in a certain period. Multi-market testing, on the other hand, looks at the probable performance of a trading robot in different types of markets. This can be forex majors and minors.
There are other tools that you can consider. For example, the EA builder should allow you to simply export your robot to MT4 and MT5.
Examples of top EA builders
There are many EA builders that you can select from. One of the best that incorporates those features is known as the Forex Robot Academy. It is an advanced builder that is a bit expensive. Its monthly subscriptions start at about 69 euros. While expensive, I have found that it is a good platform, especially for advanced traders.
Other top builders you can consider are EA Builder Pro and fxDreeema. MT4 and MT5 also offer a platform that can help you build robots using existing templates.
Final thoughts
Expert Advisors are important and useful tools that can help you build quality trading robots. They can also help you save time. In this article, we have looked at how robots work and some of the top EA builders to use.
