Automated trading questions

Hi. I am looking into having my strategy built so that it may automated an run while I am at work.

As I have never done this before, what special considerations should I be aware of? Example, does it scan all Forex pairs for setups? Or can it only scan for a few pairs at a time. Is running it on one computer enough? Are there any special computer configurations/ components that are needed?

Are their any particular trading platforms considerations, other than designing the EA to work on the trading platform that you use?

Any other tips or comments that might be helpful with this, is appreciated.

I have the same requirement but have decided to do this myself, despite it being 30 years since I programmed anything for the real world. I have decided the software to use and have subscribed to TradingView intending to use their Pine Script language. I need it to be very high level because I don’t intend to become a programmer at my old age.

I may stand corrected but from my limited research to date, the only special consideration you need to be aware of is whether your description of what that automation programme needs to do, in all circumstances, needs to be documented so that the output of the programme knows exactly what to do, either Yes / No, On/Off, in other words, binary outputs. This may sound quite simple but believe me, these things have a habit of becoming very complicated. I will try to break down what I understand as a strategy, as opposed to a plan. A strategy should describe what and why. The plan should describe how, who, when and where. So for example, your strategy could be "I want a program (algorithm) that will tell me if manipulation of a number of variables that I call “my indicators”, for past Forex historical closing values will result in an increase of my bank if I take all trades identified by the algorithm as resulting in a win/loss ratio greater than 60%. Why - to be able to backtest historical market close data to find the optimum value of the variables to use as a trading plan that will result in profit.

It can be designed to check any number of Forex trading pairs.

Running it on one computer is enough. The limiting factor here will be the bandwidth allowed by the service you are interrogating that provides market data on all the pairs in scope of your program. A modern laptop (i5 processor, 8GB memory) should be more than adequate.
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Before you go to market to ask anyone to code something for you, please understand that the quality of product you get will depend on your ability to describe your “Statement of Requirements” in sufficient detail that a software engineer (programme writer) will be in no doubt (binary) as to your stated inputs and required outputs of the program. This is far, far more difficult than most people can imagine, and is the main reason for failure of many software projects . I say this with 30 years if IT project management experience.

Many people say you should stick with MT4 or MT5 because this is what the majority of brokers provide. I am starting with TradingView just for the simplicity of Pine script (or so commenters say). It is not my intent that I just let a program loose on my own capital without first intervening and having the final say. But for back testing and forward testing, the objective is to reduce the data capture time from potentially thousands of hours to a few hours. It’s not a one off either. As you change your algorithm and the market changes its behaviour I am sure this will need to be a continuous process of improvement. I hope this long reply has been useful. It has been for me just to write down the sequence of my own plan in its own context. You and I will no doubt choose completely different indicators on which an EA should be designed to work. So there is some overlap in goals, but probably not too much overlap.

Best of luck with your endeavour.

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Thanks for your reply!

This a common problem of most traders. I am using a platform called Cleo one for my automated trading. They are free and I think they excellent backtesting and live trading. You create the strategy only by typing which you don’t need any coding knowledge. Their customer support was pretty helpful when I first get started. Check it out, might work out fine for you as well.

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Thanks JohnnyB7, I will check it out. I hope you are finding it profitable, and I appreciate you letting me know about this.

I know what you mean. There are some good options out there and you should be able to find one that can suit you well. I came across EA Profiter | Forex Trading Perfomance | FX Merge . I have been using this robot for 2 days. I bought it from the guy who put it on this page and so far it earned 8% which is rather good.

This doesn’t look like an EA you’ve created yourself or what?

I have made some articles on my website concerning this question linkto:www.rabenesche.de/home/wissen/howto-automatisches-handeln-teil-1
I know it’s german but you can choose you’re prefered language on the website

I found it on a site and it looks very interesting, I have been using this robot for a couple of days now. I bought it from the person, who added it on this page. I am satisfied with how I’m doing.