Hello everyone, I was wondering if it was feasible to create a basic high-frequency trading bot using MQL as an Expert adviser. The major aim would be to wait for the market to open and trade as many deals as possible while closing under profits with minor profits (watch the youtube video for more understanding).
This is based on a genuine company or individual that uses an algorithm for this sort of trading. This subject was inspired by videos on YouTube. The links are listed below!
Hi Komiliy,
i’m sorry, the answer is No. MQL is too slow for highspeed trading. Use C++ instead. And use server near to the wallstreet. Than it might work.
Its an interesting tactic for a private retail trader to use. I can’t see any reason why it could not be used with a fast enough computer set-up and connection.
Of course, for the task of making profits through trading its a tool, not a solution. You still have the eternal problem of what to tell the computer to do when the market opens.
Hi, Thank you for your advice. Do you know anyone that teaches this or any books that teach how to build a bots using c++
Yeah, right now I’m trying to figure out how to create one of these bots by using c++ or python but still after creating it, I need to figure out how I can make it profitable.
Well, that’s the problem all traders have: Finding the right strategy! No matter if you trade fast or slow 
If you are trading fast, I would look for scalping strategies.
Hi, HFT is the field of activity of companies with enormous capital, which is needed to build a strategy and subsequent maintenance. I really doubt that you can compete with them at home. Regards Greg
Hi, yeah the big players won’t let the small players play the game. Also it’s not going to be easy but it’s good try and gain a new experience.
Bilol
There is not a problem with “big players” and “consent”, the problem is with HFT method itself. HFT is very sensitive for even smallest changing on the market like slippage or time execution, every millisecond is value. HFT is like “Formula 1”, weather is change from sunny to rainy all players going to pit-stop for change tires and settings. Try it if you want 
Regards Greg
I built a bot using C# that trades based on its own rules. It is not HFT but it uses the 5 minute charts to make its decisions. A lot of brokers will not let you hit their APIs as hard as you need to for the HFT stuff anyway.
Hey igillman how has it been working for you?
Not too well. It made money for a bit and then it lost money for a bit. I tried using different strategies and time periods but none of them were impressive. I even tried an adaptive one that ran backtests and picked the best strategy for the pair based on the back testing. They all ended up losing money in the end but some of them took a few days to turn negative.
Well, that has nothing to do with big or small players. If you have a lot of money, you can do HFT. Remember who does HFT: banks (lots of money) and insurance companies (even more money)!
Because, to do HFT, they have their servers standing IN WallStreet! You can imagine that this is very expensive!
On the other hand, a good bot programmer at the banks earns several 100.000$ per year! Starting salary!
These are all conditions that we can’t AFFORD. And not because they won’t let us!
Here is an example of API for C++
https://fxcm-api.readthedocs.io/en/latest/forexconnectapi.html
I used it to trade live for a bit in 2016 I think. I lost interest since then.
I’m guessing you still came up with the “own rules” right?
I used lots of different strategies out there, MA cross, Bollinger bands, RSI and combinations of different indicators. I got the strategies to try out from various and numerous forex websites. Do you have one or two you want me to try? As long as they can be coded it would be interesting to see how well they do.
I’m still trying to find something… I’m going in circles. Any recommendations on where to start?
Unfortunately not. I have done some extensive back testing (I am a programmer by trade and I have access to a decent FOREX API so I can code and backtest a lot of data). Here is what I have found…
Every strategy I have tried always has winning positions and losing positions, you cannot escape that. The same strategy can work well on one currency and bad on another one for the same period of time then it can change that situation. You have no way of knowing if a strategy is going to be good or bad for a currency beforehand. What is good one week may fail the next week.
I did some statistical analysis on the data…
If you have a green candle then the chances of the next candle being green are 50%. If you look at two candles in a row and you take the combinations green/green, red/green, green/red and red/red the chances of those combinations are 25% each. Three candles is 12.5% each etc… The results are the same for a completely random set of combinations of red/green. In other words, a candle being green or red is just a flip of the coin and has no bearing on what the next candle will be. In essence, you are not going to find a system that always wins because you are dealing with random data. Just as a little experiment I rand a strategy that randomly picked buy/sell and used the previous candle for the SL/TP calculation. Guess what? I had some winners and some losers and the number/frequency of winners and losers was indistinguishable from other strategies. If you did not know then given the wins/losses data you would not be able to pick out the random strategy.
Yes, 100%.
You never know what the next move is and you can only guess by looking at the anchor time frame ( bigger time frames than the one you are using). I also believe that 80% of the indicators are not accurate. But I do believe that using MA is very important.
As I CS student, I’m planning to code my own pro bot. I have been testing and running different algos but I came across one Expert Advisor which is not available on retail and has been done specifically for group of people. I was lucky to get the bot from the owner and when I back-tested the bot, the results were insane. After demos and testing. I traded it on my real account, and first few days of trading I was all in profit, however news came up and the bot messed everything up. I was wondering if you could copy the bot and make one because the file it self is ex4. There are a few things that need to be changed inorder to make the bot work even better.
Now you know why making HFT bot is so hard, ex4 and ex5 extensions has been created against this kind of idea, to protect developers.