Can You Live Without This Forex EA
Written by Michael Heylerman   
Saturday, 14 November 2009 02:23
Even if you are just starting out in the foreign exchange arena you almost certainly have heard of a forex ea. You may have heard it called a forex robot or expert advisor but they all do the same thing, automate our trading. Before we go any further you do need to understand that your dreams of this little robot mindlessly trading you into your own mansion is not accurate.
by MichaelHeylerman


Even if you are just starting out in the foreign exchange arena you almost certainly have heard of a forex ea. You may have heard it called a forex robot or expert advisor but they all do the same thing, automate our trading. Before we go any further you do need to understand that your dreams of this little robot mindlessly trading you into your own mansion is not accurate.

A forex ea is created by programming a lucrative market strategy into a piece of software. The program is then installed and dragged into your trading platform. This little robot can do a great deal of things depending on the complexity of the programming. Some may just notify you of an upcoming trade opportunity while others can buy and sell for you automatically managing all aspects of the trade.

What makes each of these forex robots unique is in the way they are automated to get in and exit the market. The great thing about a forex ea is that it takes the emotion out of trading. This is typically the downfall of a novice. The forex ea is coded to follow very strict trading guidelines and does not even understand how to trade beyond them. Now depending on your knowledge of the markets this can either be a good thing or a curse.

Where a robot definitely excels is in its natural ability of computing large amounts of information and instantaneously making a decision. We as humans are just not capable to take in and process all of that data and make an accurate decision as quickly.

The expert advisor is coded to check for particular signals and changes in the market. When it reaches a predetermined point it will buy or sell and start or complete a trade. Some disadvantages with automated trading arise when the broker catches on and delays your trades or if the market changes renders your robot obsolete.

Now before you go and buy every forex ea out there, make sure you do some homework. The internet is full of forex robots and several do live up to their claims, but be careful as most fall flat. Before using the expert advisor on your live account with real money always make sure you test it in demo mode.

If you start getting respectable at forex and developing your own strategy there is plenty of information out there on building your own robot. The benefit in programming your own forex ea is once again taking the emotion factor and human error out of the equation. The program would only trade based on the market guidelines that you program into it.

Automating your forex trades is awesome and can assist you but remember no expert advisor will make you rich. Know that a robot can only trade based on the data it was programmed with and can quickly become obsolete if methods adjust. That being said I think automated trading software is a great tool for every toolbox.

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