How to set up an EA in MetaTrader 4
|EA’s, or expert advisors, are trading systems that can enter buy and sell decisions into the forex markets through the trading platform MetaTrader 4. They are gaining in popularity, particularly with the rise of peer to peer trade following sites such as ZuluTrade, and with the growth of social media.
EA’s allow several advantages to normal trading such as the elimination of emotion and the ability to enter trades at lightning fast speed. They can make complex calculations precisely and enter trades automatically. One thing that must be said is that there are thousands of EA’s out there and some are not very good at all. Only a very small number are able to take good profits out of the forex markets.
There are essentially two ways to set up an EA in MT4:
Download the EA
The easiest solution to using an EA in MT4 is to download the packaged EA file which will contain everything you need to get started. These EA’s can be found through the MT4 community or from a specific EA provider. This file needs to be added under the folder ‘experts’ which is found under your MetaTrader application folder in your program files. This is the one that you downloaded from your broker.Once the EA is in this folder, simply reopen the MT4 application and attach the EA to a chart. You will be able to find the new EA under Expert Advisors which is found in the Navigator panel. This will bring up another window where you specify important criteria such as lot size and stop levels for the EA.
Insert the code
The other way to set up the EA is to get the code that contains all the system instructions. Copy this code and then open up the MetaEditor screen in MT4. This can be accessed through the toolbar or by pressing F4.Simply paste your code into the MetaEditor and then click Save As. Give the EA a name and then save it as a mq4 file. It will need to be saved under the experts folder which is found under your MetaTrader application folder. The one that you downloaded from your broker.
You can now return to the main MT4 screen and the EA should be visible under Expert Advisors in the Navigator. Right click on the EA to attach it to a chart and set it up. If you click allow direct trading it will start trading right away. When you do so, the name of the EA will appear in the right hand corner of the chart along with a smiley face.
Remember, you can stop the EA’s at any time by clicking the big Expert Advisors button on the main toolbar.
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