MetaTrader India

Vantage FX UK offers an exclusive test environment for Forex traders to run the rule over Expert Advisors before using them to trade for real.

In financial trading, Expert Advisors are software robots designed to automate part or all of the trading process, including Forex strategy and money management.

Unique to Vantage FX account holders, the Expert Advisor Test Lab allows traders to assess two EA Forex Robots every month through demo account testing, detailed monthly performance stats and trade-by-trade descriptions. The online lab also provides users with discounts on EA programming software.

Vantage FX UK provides traders with a comprehensive education service, including a 30-day MetaTrader 4 demo account and daily currency market insights.

Find out more about Vantage FX’s Expert Advisor Lab here.

Trading derivatives and Forex carries a high level of risk to your capital and you should only trade with money you can afford to lose. Forex trading may not be suitable for all investors, so please ensure that you fully understand the risks involved and seek independent advice if necessary.

Source: www.prnewswire.com

At times traders may need to perform a time synchronization task when expert advisor is working. Prohibition or permission for orders opening in certain time spans during 24 hours, cancellation of suspended orders after certain time, prohibition against work of the expert advisor on holidays, trade permission only at news-time etc. may be required.

Time in MetaTrader 4 client is read from the server and depends on the brokers configuration. Normally, time on the brokers server is set to their local time. MetaTrader 4 has on means for determination or automatic adjustment of the time zone. There is a possibility at our disposal to know the server time and local time of the computer on which the MetaTrader 4 client is working. Accordingly, if we use such dimensions as hours, minutes or even specific dates then we have to provide correspondence between local time and time on the server. This task is owned by the trader, while the programmer considering the above limitations can provide only the means for configuration.

With respect to zero meridian, time can have a shift of -12 to +12 hours. I.e. within 24 hours. however, two dates fall within this span. These are the current date (from 0 to +12) and previous date (from -12 to 0).

Let’s take a look at an example.

Expert advisor has to work only during the session at NYSE. NYSE is opened at 9:30 AM and closed at 4:00 PM as per Eastern Time. If the time will be converted to Greenwich Mean Time, then we will have GMT-5. We have to configure the expert advisor to work during this time. If we are located at the GMT-0 zone, then for correct synchronization we have to know our location with respect to zero meridian as well. E.g., our time zone is GMT+1. Thus, time difference makes up 6 hours. As the reference point is time on the side of the Metatrader 4 terminal, then the relative time shift will be -6 hours.

Let’s move on to specific figures and computations. Local time on trader’s computer is 2:00 PM. We find the time in New York by shifting the current time 6 hours back. We get 8:00 AM. It is too early for the expert advisor to operate; the stock exchange is not opened yet. The exchange will open when the local time will be equal to 3:30 PM.

Let’s summarize. If the expert advisor has the TimeShift configuration, then the task of the trader is to know the difference between the local time and the time of event for which the expert advisor has to be configured. If local time precedes the required event, then the shift will have the “+” sign, and if local time follows the event, then the shift will have the “-“ sign.

by Alexey Koshevoy, AirBionicFX founder and CEO

To back test an expert advisor (EA) follow the steps below.

1. Open the Strategy Tester window by pressing Ctrl+R
2. Select the expert advisor you wish to back test
3. Select the symbol you wish to back test
4. Select a testing model (every tick model recommended)
5. Set a testing period
6. Press Start

The off-exchange retail foreign currency (or forex) trading uses currency markets from a variety of countries to create a trading market where large volumes are traded and exchanged daily. We believe if you aim to profit from Forex trading, then you would need to own every single pip that you can get. But this is easier said than done, specially if you are new to the Forex market. It occurs because traders-beginners, keen by passion, rush to trade without having a Forex trading strategy. Even if they have a Forex trading strategy there is still a human factor. That is why it is necessary to use MetaTrader Expert Advisors.

MetaTrader Expert Advisors or MetaTrader EAs are mechanical trading systems which completely automate the trading process on the Forex market by using unique Forex trading strategies. These trading robots trade under the control of the MetaTrader 4 trading platform.

During Technological crisis, orders may not be filled as placed. Trading on a particular electronic trading system may differ from trading on other electronic trading systems, or other market systems. If you undertake transactions on an electronic trading system, you will be exposed to risk associated with the system, including the failure of hardware and software. The result of any system failure may be that your order is either not executed according to your instructions or is not executed at all.

MetaTrader EAs are very easy to acquire and use. As soon as you purchase one, all you need to do is download it, install it into MetaTrader 4, set your preferences and run the program. The important thing to note is that you will need to have an account with a forex broker that supports MetaTrader 4. The MetaTrader 4 platform has the built-in MetaTrader Expert Advisorsbased on the technical analysis, such as MetaTrader indicator. There are hundreds of forex brokers who use MetaTrader around the globe, and a couple of them should fit your trading requirements perfectly.

Let’s look at how to optimize an expert advisor. In the example below we will look to optimize the size of stop loss and take profit.

Expert Optimization Steps

1. Open the Strategy Tester window by pressing Ctrl+R.

2. In the Strategy Tester window, select Expert Properties

3. Select the Optimized parameters ( in our example stop-loss and stop-profit)

4. Enter the initial values of the optimized parameters, step and stop

5. Close the window

6. Select Optimization

7. Choose a model for optimization ( a model “ Open prices only (fastest method to analyze the bar just completed)” corresponds to the most advisors, although for greater accuracy it is possible to test on Every tick (based on all available least timeframes) but then time of optimization substantially will be increased.

8. Press start

9. After completion of optimization, open Optimization result and choose parameters considering a highest income and minimum drawdown. (obviously income should be high and drawdown should be less)

Source: http://www.metatraderglobal.com/612/metatrader-tips-expert-advisor-optimization/