DislikedSure, an Expert Advisor can do many things. MT4 basically allows a great amount of customization in the form of mini programs. These take the form of Indicators, Scripts and Expert Advisors. The EA can be programed to do a lot of things, ranging from giving you a signal that says 'BUY NOW!!' to automatically placing trades for you. EA's are useful for people who know exactly how they want their system to work and want to take the Human error out of the equation. However, EA's do exactly what they are programed to do. Because of this, they will often miss a buy or sell that you may have made for reasons that it's not programmed to anticipate. Example: You see a huge downward trend in the market for the hourly, weekly and monthly chart of a currency pair. The 15 minute chart is trending up. You're watching the news and see that some bad report just came out and your sure the trend will go back down so you sell (or go short). The EA you are using might only be looking at the 15min chart so it thinks that the market is trending up when in reality, it's going down.
This is why we all say to tweak your EA's and know when a good time to use them is. Any given EA may be better suited to a paticular currency pair, or to a Bull or Bear market. If you are not currently in a condition that the EA thrives in, you have a good chance of loosing money.
In short, the EA is a tool. The best 'Expert Advisor' out there is YOU (given that you have put the time and effort into learning the market and it's ways). No EA will make you a millionare. You should not go live with an EA until you have tested it and tweaked it and understood it's interworkings for a long time. (Did I give enough disclaimers?)Ignored
Great warning and explanation for everyone to read... especially newbies.
(And aren't we all noobs to some extent?)
This EA and this trading strategy is a very good one, I believe. But if it is designed to duplicate the manual trading strategy then I also doubt it will prove to be profitable -- if -- all you do is turn it on and let it trade for you without using any discretion. However, if you have enough judgement and experience to know when to stay out of choppy, ranging market conditions then it could be a very useful tool.
I'll admit, many times I can't tell what will be a ranging day or trending until it's late in the game.
I'm not trying to criticize or be discouraging, I'm just saying that I have been using the manual strategy since the beginning and have had some very profitable days when there are good smooth swings in one direction for several hours duration. And some days where they were very choppy, like yesterday that would have shot several days profit if you just kept getting in and out, in and out, blindly, like an EA would do.
Again, not to sound negative, but what do we do to find a way to avoid the whipsaws but enjoy the sustained moves that are obviously where the profit is from this method?
Just wanted to post my concerns and see if anyone else had any thoughts on that idea either.
Thanks
