Expert Advisors

Expert Advisors

An Expert Advisor, also known as an EA, is a mechanical trading system used for Forex trading. Expert Advisors allow for automatic trading to take place, freeing the trader from continuously having to watch the market. Making a profit while trading in the foreign exchange market is determined by a large number of human factors, such as emotions, knowledge, and even the psychology of the trader. Automated programs such as Expert Advisor remove a great deal of these factors from the equation and enable the trader to make better informed decisions by evaluating multiple factors at once.

FXOpen allows to use Expert Advisor in ECN accounts on the MT4/MT5 platform.


Where can I find Expert Advisors?

There are hundreds of Expert Advisors available on the Internet. You can purchase one on the MQL5 Market – an App Store of trading robots, Expert Advisors and technical indicators – or you can choose to create your own. To build your own trading robot, you will develop, program and compile it on the MQL MetaEditor using the MQL4 coding language. Using your trading experience, you can define which market conditions, based on various indicators and elements, will result in trade opening, or will close positions.

However, it is not necessary for you to be a master programmer or an experienced trader to use EAs when trading. Free and paid Expert Advisors are available on the Internet as well as in the MQL5 Market, where you can also download a demo version of the desired EA and try it before buying or renting it.

It is up to you to choose the source of buying/downloading an Expert Advisor.

How to download and upload Expert Advisors from MQL5 Market?

Take these steps to download an Expert Advisor from MQL5 and upload it to the Trading Platform:

  1. Download MT4 (MetaTrader 4 for ECN) or MT5 (MetaTrader 5 for ECN) from FXOpen official site. Install it.

  2. Sign up for MQL5 services.

  3. Run the trading platform (MetaTrader ECN - FXOpen/ MetaTrader 5 - FXOpen) and log in to MQL5.community.
    Select File → Login to MQL5.community or click the icon in the top right corner of the platform (ALT+M):  (MT4) or  (MT5).

  4. Select Help → MQL5 Market in FXOpen MetaTrader (MT4/MT5) or select Market → Experts in the Terminal (Ctrl+T) window in MT4; select Tools → MQL5 Market to access the Market window in MT5.
    You can also go directly to     mql5.com and select Market → MetaTrader 4/MetaTrader 5 → Experts.

  5. Choose an Expert Advisor according to your trading needs. Use a search box or click the tabs to sort them according to the following criteria: Popular, New, Free or Paid.
    Pay attention to the Trading platform for which you are downloading an EA as they  differ for MT4 and MT5.

  6. For Paid Expert Advisors there may be several options to choose: Buy, Rent or try Free demo. 
    Note     that Demo version can be run only in the Strategy Tester (Ctrl+R).

  7.   Download the Expert Advisor. Click the Download button.

  8. You will be offered two options depending on whether you have a Trading Platform installed or not. Click 'Yes, I have MetaTrader 4" or 'Yes, I have MetaTrader 5' (depending on your trading platform installed and run). The site (mql5.com) will ask you a permission to open MetaTrader, click Open.


    or


    If you do not have a Trading Platform installed, please download it from the official FXOpen site first (see step 1).

  9. The EA will be automatically installed and will appear in the Navigator window (Ctrl+N), Expert Advisors list.


    or   

    If you do not see the EA, return to the mql5 website and download the expert advisor again. To refresh the data, right-click the Expert Advisors list in Navigator and select the Refresh option.

  10. Click the chart (if you have multiple charts). Then double-click your Expert Advisor (e.g. Dark Venus) or drag and drop it onto the chart. 
    If the EA is enabled, you will see the EA icon in the top right corner of the chart: the smiley for MT4  or academic cap for MT5 .


    Dark Venus EA installed on MT4

  11. To remove the EA from the chart, right-click the chart with the EA, and select Expert Advisors/Expert List → Remove.
    To change the EA Inputs, right-click the chart with the EA, and select Expert Advisors/Expert List → Properties.


    Dark Venus MT4 Inputs

  12. Right-click the Expert Advisor in the Navigator window to manage it. You can add the EA to Favorites, set the hotkey, attach to a chart, or delete, etc. 

How to upload Expert Advisor from MQL4 Source Code library?

The Code Base for MT4/MT5 contains thousands of trading robots, indicators and scripts. Studying a source code of ready-made programs can help better understand the principles of programming or can be used as a basis for your own development. 
It is recommended to test EAs in the Strategy Tester (Ctrl+R).

  1. Run MT4/MT5, enable the Terminal/Toolbox window (Ctrl+T) and select Code Base tab.

  2. Right-click the Terminal/Toolbox area and select Expert Advisors menu item to be displayed all the available EAs in the library.

  3. Select the expert advisor in the list and click Enter (or double-click the EA) to view the detailed information on the program on the official MQL5.com website.

  4. Right-click the expert advisor and select Download  in the context menu (or select the EA and press D) to download the program.
    The EA is saved to /MQL4/Experts/Downloads or /MQL5/Experts/Downloads depending on your MetaTrader (MT4 or MT5).

  5. After the download, the EA is automatically compiled.
    It will appear in the Navigator window (Ctrl+N), in Expert Advisors/Downloads list.

How to upload Expert Advisor from other sources?

After you have chosen and purchased your Expert Advisor or developed your own, take these steps to upload an Expert Advisor to the trading platform:

  1. Save the file with the EA to your PC. If the program comes with the readme.txt file, please follow the author's instructions.
    Otherwise, double-click the EA file (mq4/mq5) to open it in the MetaQuotes Language Editor.

  2. The EA is saved to /MQL4/Experts or /MQL5/Experts respectively. Open the EA source code and click Compile.


    MQL4
    If there is an error , start debugging on real data. If the debugging succeeds, MT4/MT5 will run automatically and open the EA settings.
    If everything is done right, you will see no errors  in the logs (Toolbox → Errors in MetaEditor).

  3. You should be able to see your EA in the Navigator window (Ctrl+N), in Expert Advisors list.

  4. Double-click your EA or drag and drop it onto the chart.

  5. Adjust the necessary EA on the right top corner of your chart. The logs of all operations performed by your EA are available on Experts and Journal tabs in the Terminal window (Ctrl+T).

How to change Expert Advisor options?

If your Expert Advisor doesn't work properly in an ECN account, please check the following suggestions:

  1. Select Tools → Options→ Expert Advisors. Make sure the 'Allow automated/algorithmic trading' and 'Allow DLL imports' options are checked. 

    MT4 EAs Options

  2. Some EAs may request adding the Advisor address in the list of allowed URLs.
    To do this, select Tools → Options→ Expert Advisors. Check the 'Allow WebRequest for listed URL' and enter the address from the error message box.

  3. Click the icon (smiley or academic cap) on the right top corner of your chart or right-click the chart with the EA and select Expert Advisors/Expert List → Properties to open the settings and inputs of the Expert Advisor.
    Select 'Allow live trading'/'Allow Algo Trading' and 'Allow import of external experts'. Here you can also enable alerts and allow modification of Signals settings.


    Dark Venus MT4 Common Properties

  4. Select Experts and Journal tabs in the Terminal/Toolbox window (Ctrl+T). There should be logs about all actions that your EA takes. For example, “Invalid Volume” error message means that your EA tries to open a trade with volume less than the minimum transaction size allowable in ECN accounts (0.01 lot).


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