Blog for Building Expert Advisors for Metatrader 4
MT4 PROGRAMMING FOR SYSTEMATIC FOREX OPERATIONS
Traders with some experience are aware of the importance of including systematic methods to take advantage of markets. A systematic approach involves conceptualizing, defining, writing and testing rules for entering and exiting trades, then consistently trading by those rules going forward. This approach is structured after understanding that varying discretion or emotion eventually affects their trading performance, and that discipline and acute precision in decision making and execution is necessary to accomplish consistent profits systematically.
As traders become systematic, they write rules that are robust enough to accommodate unseen market scenarios. The building of such trading rules requires statistical verification and understanding of the market logic behind the action taken in the specific market. By measuring system performance, risk can be determined.
In the other hand, Trading with a system implies one will always take the same actions under the same circumstances, which requires the risk tolerance that allows withstanding the risk exposure of the system. Once emotion is controlled, experts say, consistency can follow.
The coding of custom Indicators and Expert Advisors is a step forward for some traders, who are willing to use those rules in an automated environment. That is not to say an Expert Advisor won't generate lots of emotions from the trader who executes it. Losing trades from an EA are also difficult to swallow, but the immediate emotional reactivity of discretionary trading is eliminated.
An Expert Advisor will also, by construction, follow obediently the established rules for risk management and limiting loss, rules that can be difficult to adhere to when trading by discretion.
To take advantage of the consistency and emotional control that Expert Advisors offer, then you have at least two choices: You can develop your own Expert Advisor or you can buy one from a third-party developer.