Does anybody think it is worth the hard slog of trying to learn MT4 or MT5 ? There are a lot of so called EAs but do any actually make a profit ?
there are several charting/order entry programs that allow auto trading. since I'm not a coder I've no idea which coding language each uses may be better or simpler than another. NinjaTrader is a popular program and MT4 indicators (and EAs ?) have been coverted to NT. NT offers some fx trading via GAIN and FXCM (others ?) but NT also offers CME Globex currency futures and some fx pairs futures for trading based on my belief that the Price Time Waves Movement is Irregular, one single auto system isn't going to work all the time. could/should one then have 2 or 3 accounts for different ea types in order to try and trade the irregularity of the price movement ? in a sense the different eas are hedges against ea #1 having a losing trade, ea # 2 and/or ea #3 in theory trade profitably
First off I'm not trading live, but I am in the final stages of developing an automated breakout strategy that I will begin to trade live soon. My quick and dirty answer to your question is this. If you think discretionary trading is hard, evaluating and implementing automated trading strategies is much harder. I think trying to evaluate tens or hundreds of EAs is a waste or time. If you are passionate (a prerequisite IMO) about automated trading then I would suggest learning basic C#, reviewing the source code of example trading strategies, and using a wizard provided by your trading platform to help get you started. You should be able to do all of these in a few weekends. If not then maybe its not for you. And thats just the first step, you'll need to avoid certain trading methods and techniques to eliminate overly curve fitting or vague ideas that are difficult to automate. But don't expect to develop a profitable strategy in a few months. Its going to take a year or 3 of implementation and evaluation before you should feel confident in deploying your strategy with live money. It is very time consuming.
Hi Humpy, One advantage of MT5 - is the MQL5 Wizard, which allows to quickly generate code of an Expert Advisor (Expert Advisor builder). You can also use the built-in Strategy Tester to test how an Expert Advisor (Trading robot) can perform in trading. If you do not have the opportunity to create own EAs, you can order it's development work in the Jobs service or buy a ready EAs in the MQL5 Market. Learn more other features of MetaTrader 5 here