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How to Install an Expert Advisor in MetaTrader

An Expert Advisor is a program that trades by rules written into it, delivered as one file, and installing it is putting that file in the platform's Experts folder, dragging it onto one chart with Allow live trading ticked, and turning the AutoTrading switch green. This paper shows you the steps in five lines; the idea as a player piano and its roll; the Data Folder and its shelves; the drag onto the chart, the Common tab and the face in the corner; and the AutoTrading switch and the Experts tab on your platform, where the program writes what it did.

Difficulty
Beginner
Reading time
5 min
Pages
8
Reviewed by
Saman Rahbar

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Installing an Expert Advisor, in five lines

An Expert Advisor is a program that trades by rules written into it, delivered as a file ending in .ex4 for MetaTrader 4 or .ex5 for MetaTrader 5. File, Open Data Folder, then MQL4, then Experts, is the folder the platform looks in; the file goes there. Right-clicking Expert Advisors in the Navigator and choosing Refresh makes it appear. Dragging it onto a chart opens its settings box, where Allow live trading has to be ticked. And the AutoTrading button on the toolbar has to be green, or the program sits on the chart and does nothing.

A player piano

Picture a player piano. The roll is the Expert Advisor: its rules are punched into it, and it is one file, ready to play. The piano is the platform. The roll does nothing on the shelf; it plays only once it is loaded onto the piano, and only while the piano is switched on. Installing an Expert Advisor is loading the roll. The platform then plays exactly what is punched into it, no more and no less, which is why the file is worth reading about before it is loaded.

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