The Expert Advisor is a sophisticated piece of trading software comprised of a specific set of rules that sits on your trading platform and executes your trades. Essentially, it is a robot.

Most forex traders fail because they fall prey to the human emotions of fear and greed. However, trading with an Expert Advisor removes these emotions so that trading can be executed on a purely logical basis.

So often a trader will hold on to a trade in an effort to grab that last pip of profit even when his/her logical mind says to exit. Conversely, many times a trade is exited prematurely out of fear, leaving profits on the table. The Expert Advisor has a plan, sticks to it without regard to outside influences, and does this 24 hours a day during market hours.

The Expert Advisor is constantly scanning and monitoring the market, and executes trades based upon its underlying parameters. And unlike a human, it is also capable of monitoring indicators, support and resistance levels, and a host of other factors in a variety of timeframes with lightning speed, and making immediate trading decisions.

There are many Expert Advisors on the market today, and the prices run from OK to ouch. One must be sure to do some research and get answers to questions such as; are they timeframe or currency specific? Do they follow trends or attempt to predict them? How do they handle risk management? Do they recommend a 2-4% risk or something lower, such as 1-3%? Do they support stop losses? How do they handle take profit levels? Do they ride downturns and only exit trades once they’re in profit?

There are many questions to be researched and answers to be considered before buying an Expert Advisor. It’s also important to be sure the EA will run on your trading platform, that you can run multiple EA’s on one account, and that it can be used with a mini account, if that is your account type.

One more thing you should consider before installing an EA on your trading platform. Remember that when using an EA, it controls your trades. If you have a power failure and your computer shuts down, you have an unmonitored open trade. Once a trade is placed, it’s in the hands of your broker; the trading signals from your EA are on your computer.

In areas prone to power failures, it might be wise to consider opening a VPS (virtual private server) account and running your trading platform from there. This way, you wouldn’t have to worry about crashing computers or power outages because your trading platform wouldn’t be running from your computer. There is also an added benefit in that it would be accessible from any internet-connected computer.

More and more traders are relying on Expert Advisors to do their trading. Do some research, get all your questions answered, and you should have a very successful trading experience.