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Trading Strategies

What Is an Expert Advisor

An Expert Advisor is MetaTrader's name for a trading program: a file attached to one chart, which reads that chart's bars and acts on them by the rule written inside it, while the AutoTrading switch allows it to. This paper shows you the file on the chart, the idea as an autopilot switch, the Inputs tab where its settings live, the four moments at which the platform wakes it, and the Navigator list and AutoTrading button on your platform.

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

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A program file on a chart

An Expert Advisor is MetaTrader's name for a trading program. It is a file, ending in .ex5 on MetaTrader 5, and it is attached to one chart, where its name and a small hat sit in the corner for as long as it is there. It sees that chart's bars, the symbol and the timeframe the chart is set to, and it acts on them by the rule written inside it. Attach it to a different chart and it works on that one instead; detach it and it does nothing at all. The chart is where it lives.

An autopilot switch

Picture an autopilot. The dials are the same dials, and the switch decides who moves them; while it is on, the program flies, and the pilot is still in the seat and can flip it back. On MetaTrader the switch is the AutoTrading button on the toolbar. With it on, an Expert Advisor may send orders; with it off, the program still runs and still reads every bar, but it may only watch. Nothing about the rule changes with the switch, only whether the rule is allowed to act.

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