Best Way To Automate Forex Trading
August 13, 2008 by Trader Rich
I have never traded a forex strategy live using any advanced automated methods. At the most, I’ve placed a limit order. Most, if not all of my experience has been with expert advisors in Metatrader.
I realize more than ever that if I could automate my strategies, this may take me to the next level of trading and keep me more involved in the market. At this point, I need the motivation. The subject of automated trading has always interested me but my issue has always been with trusting a broker and the platform with a live account using an expert advisor. Therefore I’m calling on everyone who has experience with automated trading to share your experiences. If you’ve used Metatrader, have you found success with any particular brokers? I know there are other automated trading software available that mostly allow trading via an FXCM API but are they any good? I know Oanda also has an API but it costs about $600/mo. If you could, please send any experiences you have to my email address at rich@forexproject.com and based on what comes in, I’ll put the information together and post it here. Thanks.
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I don’t know how reliable those retail brokers are on automated trading, but it seems that FXCM do provide a portfolio of auto trading called the System Selector although it is not using your EA but their list of selected automated systems.
Anyway, I prefer to trade rather than let it automated, at least for now.
Apart from System Selector there is also FXTraderLink.com - while right now automated trading there is not available yet, in nearby future (about 2 months) it will become available.
So I am at the same stage as you are since I need to put my brain back to work. I am putting together ideas to check the Wisetrade stuff and their automated command trade program. Wish me luck!
There needs to be a way to compare the performance of automated systems like this. The results should be clear since they are all numbers that can be tracked and verified. Also, are the automated systems better at Position trading or Day trading? Last, I know the automated systems probably all have stop loss capability but can they tell when to let a winner run as opposed to cutting it off too early?
I just started live automated trading this week. I’m using Interbank FX (Ibfx). They seem to be very EA friendly (I’ve downloaded 7-8 demo accounts from them) and come highly recommended.
Hi Rich
This blog post (see web link above) was interesting…especially about the hosted server technology at godaddy.com
Cheers, Motu
…and also more on Pipforia’s HGM…this is a quote from the macrotactics blog….
“If you read the front page of their website, you will be confronted by their outstanding results, where they claim they claim to have averaged more than 20 - 35% per month. For example, their 2007 results are as follows:
Jan 07: +16.38%; Feb 07: +24.39%; Mar 07: +26.56%; Apr 07: +24.96%; May 07: +10.96%; Jun 07: +26.60%
Jul ‘07: +29.60%; Aug’07: +41.40%; Sep’07: +19.76%; Oct’07: +33.32%; Nov’07: +16.22%; Dec’07: +15.95%”
Hey fellow trader;
I do partial automated trading right now and I\\\’m working on the full blown system. Same problem you have, day job and kids eat into the development time. I\\\’ve written a bit about what I do and how I do it.
Here is a link that describes my automtrading system and my partially automated system, there is also a video there showing how I use trendlines on the chart to place my brackets order through an interface. Hope you find it usefull. (also notice I link to your excellent blog)
http://blog.tipster.ca/search/label/Automation (video)
Also, click on the labels on the right side for more about automated trading (I tried to put the link in here but got spacing errors)
I’ve tried using EA for executing my posotion before but from my experience, this EA thing only last for a couple of month before account commit margin call.
I have developed various fully automated trading strategies, all using MQL4 and running on the Metatrader platform on a live account. I use Alpari as my broker and they have proven themselves to be both reliable and reasonably priced.
Two of my Expert Advisors have been executing on three different currency pairs for nearly a year and so far I have not experienced any problems. I think it just requires some careful coding and sensible money management.
I have just started http://www.myforexresults.com to try and share some of my experiences and get others to share theirs if they wish. Bit basic at the moment… but I expect it to get more informative as time goes on!
Nice blog by the way.
Happy trading…
Trader Rich, any luck compiling available auto-trading brokers and platforms? The only ones I’ve been able to find so far are ones like FXCM, Alpari, and Interbank that offer Metatrader, which are steadily growing in number. Collective2.com has some info as well.
Mike - thanks posting your results, especially interesting to see the backtesting juxtaposed with the actual results. Nice work.
I am seriously considering spending the next year or so, trying to learn a (forex based) programming language. I have been using the GFT platform so far, and it’s ok, however, I am open to trying a different platform. The easier the programming language is, or the easier the platform makes the programming the better. Any ideas???