The Expert Advisor is a very sophisticated trading software tool. Each one is built upon a specific set of rules, sits on your trading platform and executes your trades. Actually, it is a robot.
Most forex traders fail because they fall prey to the human emotions of fear and greed. However, trading with an Expert Advisor removes these emotions so that trading can be executed on a purely logical basis.
So often a trader will hold on to a trade in an effort to grab that last pip of profit even when his/her logical mind says to exit. Conversely, many times a trade is exited prematurely out of fear, leaving profits on the table. The Expert Advisor has a plan, sticks to it without regard to outside influences, and does this 24 hours a day during market hours.
The Expert Advisor watches the market for you and will execute trades based upon predefined parameters. Unlike a human, it is also capable of monitoring indicators, support and resistance levels, and many other factors in multiple timeframes and making immediate decisions.
There are a variety of Expert Advisors available today, at just about any price you could name. Some are currency and/or timeframe specific, others are not. There are some that try to predict trends and others that go with them. Some are low risk (1-3%) while others recommend 2-4%, but most are adjustable. Some close out trades only when a net profit is achieved, holding tight through a drawdown, whereas others will utilitze a stop loss.
There are many questions to be researched and answers to be considered before buying an Expert Advisor. It’s also important to be sure the EA will run on your trading platform, that you can run multiple EA’s on one account, and that it can be used with a mini account, if that is your account type.
Before purchasing your Expert Advisor, there’s one more point to consider. When trading with an EA, it makes your trading decisions, and it resides on your computer. Once a trade is initiated, the trade is in the hands of your broker. If the power goes out in your area, or if your computer dies, you will have an unmanaged open trade.
If you are located in an area that is prone to power failures, you might want to consider opening a VPS (virtual private server) account and loading your trading software on it. That way, your platform will continue to run without you monitoring it, and it can be accessed from any location.
More and more traders are relying on Expert Advisors to do their trading. Do some research, get all your questions answered, and you should have a very successful trading experience.