Read the article to get to know free forex advisors and the principles of their application. You will find out everything about the most efficient systems of automated trading on Forex.

Oftentimes, novice traders do not dare to make the first step on Forex even after they have digested tons of information. A good solution in this case could be automated trading systems. In other words, these are computer programs that handle the whole trading process without the actual involvement of a trader. It sounds fabulous, isn’t it?

Nevertheless, fairy tales do not always have a happy ending. Thanks to automated trading, some people have ensured steady earnings but the same idea has entailed heavy losses with others. Interestingly, even the unique advantages of artificial intelligence cannot compete with the quick-witted mind of a human being. Why does it happen that even elaborate time-tested trading programs are vulnerable and cannot operate error-free? Let’s try to find an answer right now!

What is automated trading on Forex and what is special about it?

Automated trading systems can be also referred to as algorithmic trading or forex robots or expert advisors. These are special programs to execute buy and sell orders according to pre-set rules created in the programming language specific to the user's trading platform. Therefore, a trader should automate trading, i.e. to tune entry and exit parameters as well as risk management rules, thus creating an algorithm for executing and monitoring trades.

It is not enough to define conditions for trade execution. It is essential to set out the levels of stop loss and take profit orders to ensure utmost efficiency and protection from market setbacks.

Even though you have dealt with all intricacies, there is no perfect trading algorithm to guarantee success. You will be able to assert that your trading robot is failure-free provided that you practice trading on a live account for a long time. You should carefully monitor what exactly your robot does to your account and check whether it opens and closes trades on time and fulfills the established rules.

*A stop loss and take profit are protective orders set by a trader to close positions automatically. A stop loss minimizes hypothetical losses and a take profit fixes a profit.

Important! Once you have developed and customized your robot, do not rush to try it out in a real market. Make sure you go through backtesting and practice your algorithm online on a demo account. Visit the InstaForex website and sharpen your skills on a free training account.

Top 3 free automated trading systems

No doubt, you do not have to invent your own trading robot. A multitude of ready-to-use expert advisors is available in the forex industry. They can be both free of charge and paid. Let’s find out the most popular ones that you can get at no cost.

Let’s begin the overview of trading algorithms with the most controversial system called Skyplay. Despite the fact that it was originally developed for scalping, this trading system allows opening only one position per 24 hours only during European trade.* Commonly, scalping allows a trader to execute several trades not too big in size within a trading day or with a frequency of a few hours.

You should bear in mind that the most active trading happens from 6:00 am until 9:00 am GMT. So, trading in the early hours of the European session, a speculator has a limited number of financial instruments to apply Skyplay to. On top of that, the strategy has a roughly equal risk/profit ratio, so this trading system is not rated very high. At the same time, in tribute to Skyplay, a trader can customize a variety of parameters to make the strategy yield decent profits.

TopGun is another popular expert advisor developed by Japanese traders. Though it was invented over 10 years ago, it is still widely used in the forex community despite the fact that it is tailor-made entirely for EUR/CHF and is applied only to the 15-minute chart.

Bollinger Bands are integrated into this expert adviser. Positions are executed at the moment of a breakout of the upper or lower border of the trend channel.

On the flip side, all advantages of this expert adviser are overshadowed by the mandatory averaging option. In other words, if the market changes its direction against positions opened, the trading system will add three more orders of a bigger size. Besides, if the price keeps on moving in the opposite direction, the robot will obey its settings and close positions with the utmost loss of 240 pips.

Gepard is the expert advisor that enables a trader to deal with multiple accounts.* However, this trading system suits EUR/USD and GBP/USD best. The expert advisor combines several strategies such as flat trading, trend trading, scalping, etc. The algorithm employs signals generated by a few popular indicators.

The weighty advantage of this expert advisor is that a trader can customize its contents: set filters, manage risks, etc. On the minus side, each parameter within Gepard requires complicated settings to avoid an unpredictable outcome.

* The European session means trading hours when currency pairs involving European currencies (EUR, CHF, DKK, etc.) are traded most actively.

* Multiple accounts imply trading several currency pairs in parallel.

No doubt, any of the above-said trading systems is able to yield profits and with an even chance to drain a deposit. When deciding on a particular expert advisor, a trader must be aware of a reasonable balance between a would-be risk and profit.

Pros and cons using expert advisors

There are two camps of traders who advocate for manual trading and automated trading systems. The essence of their feud is what is better: to trade on one’s own or to delegate one’s deposit to a robot. Here are some convincing arguments in favor or against automated trading systems on Forex.

Advantages

· Such systems entirely eliminate the human factor, so trading results can be trusted in terms of statistics, i.e. all positions are opened by a signal, not by a trader’s gut feeling.

· A trader does not have to spend endless hours and energy on analytics and does not have to sit in front of the monitor all day long, analyzing charts of hundreds of assets.

· Traders can run their trading robots 24 hours a day through a VPN-based trading platform.

· Experts advisors minimize emotions throughout the trading process that 100% sticks to a trading algorithm.

Disadvantages

· Commonly, traders overestimate automated trading systems. Fat profits with no effort sound too good to be true. Unfortunately, a trader can easily encounter a scam that promises high profits for a low price.

· Throughout the trading process, any expert adviser should be regularly fine-tuned to one’s own trading goals, trading style, and preferable currency pairs.

· A trader must not leave even a sophisticated expert adviser for the day. No automated trading system is immune to technology failures, power crashes, and system quirks.

You may get to know more pros and cons of automated trading systems in the special section on the InstaForex website.

Conclusion

Today you have learned how to apply algorithmic trading to the currency market. Besides, we have made you aware of both advantages and disadvantages of trading robots. Importantly, expert advisors are no way a magic wand that will generate tons of money for you. Indeed, robots can perform only technical analysis that preferably should be supplemented with fundamental one which can be comprehended only by a human being. In addition, expert advisors completely lack a market vision that is a great feature of a savvy trader to enhance efficiency of trading results. All in all, it is up to you.