How does one learn an EA?

Hey everyone. I do not know if this is the right place to post this but I thought I would give it a shot. I am a sort of newbie here but I see a lot of discussion about EAs and programming EAs. I would like to learn this but not sure where to begin.

Do I find a broker such as Interbank (IBFX) that says:

We offer one of the only platforms in the world that has automated trading capabilities. We call them Expert Advisors.
An Expert Advisor is an automated trading system (ATS) written in the MetaQuotes Language II (MQL II) and linked to a particular chart.
An Expert Advisor is an automated trading system (ATS) written in the MetaQuotes Language II (MQL II) and linked to a particular chart.

Does this mean using them as my broker means they already have what I need for automatic trading or do I have to subscribe to Metaquotes.net, whose website is confusing. I assume they are not a broker but just a trading platform. If they are one of the providers of the MQL II language, there is no pricing on the site that I can find.

Basically, I want to learn this but I do not know who or what to subscribe to. Can anyone steer me in the right direction as to where to begin to learn EA? Thanks.

Brett

if you want to use metatrader, just find a broker that offers metatrader as a trading platform. you don't have to subscribe to anything.

Unfortunately there is not good documentation for learning the metatrader language. I taught myself just by looking at other EAs and looking up the functions one at a time in the metatrader dictionary that comes with metatrader editor.

Hey Brett,

Check out these links...this should assist you.

Good Luck!

http://www.fxtechsupport.com/
http://www.metatrader.info/node/34
http://www.mql4.com/
http://www.metatrader.info/index.php

Interesting. BTW, I just sent you a private message and that was before you replied. Coincidence? Thanks!

brett

I cannot emphasize enough how great MT4 is! There are some other programs out there which are as good as MT4 but they're not free - so it's in my opinion the best free platform for FX trading and especially automated Trading.

EA's dont work.. dont want to burst anybody's bubble, but thats my 2 pips

I think this kind of posts is not appreciated. Please elaborate on your opinion, why don't they work?

If you would, can you be more specfific as to why you believe ea's don't work superdezign?

Thanks in advance

I think the theory that a permanent system running for weeks and weeks where you have to do nothing and just let the ea make money for you is not possible. Some people feel it is, some feel that it isnt. I'm probably more along the lines that it isn't but ea's can be extremely useful. One reason people say they arent useful is because every situation is different, every currency pair is different, and every trade is different, you have to judge the market. Again, many traders have varying opinions. But the way I see it, ea's are very useful for simple alerts as when to trade and very useful for backtesting systems that you have developed. It can help you fine tune it to work better. That said, I personally wouldnt let my account run solely on an ea.

Back to your original question about learning to program an EA. If you know the basics of c programming, you should be able to figure out ea programming even though there isnt too much great documentation on it out there. If you check the metatrader section on forexfactory, the best documents are there. Just read through them, and if you do understand c programming concepts, the ea programming will seem fairly straight forward to you.