Using Expert Advisors for Trade Management

In a trade execution process, there are a few steps to follow: 1. wait for the signal; 2. enter your orders; 3. set your exit points ie takeprofit and stoploss, if any; 4. Or do a manual close when it is time to exit.

So if you have an EA that handles the entire process, it is robotic trading or fully-automated trading. Like I mentioned in the last blog, if you are still hunting for the "Holy Grail", then take time to use EAs for managing your trades ie semi-automated. For example, you can choose to enter your trade manually and then let an EA take over the exit. You can have trailing stoplossess or moving takeprofit levels. There are many EAs out there that are free, some are generic and some exhibit certain closing criterias. A good one to use is MTPv1.5 by Stockwell Taylor.

Or you might let your EA hunt for signals and enter a trade for you. Then you manage the exit manually. But usually in this case, if you have your EA fire your orders, you might as well put in the exit conditions for your trades.

So there is this aspect of using EAs for semi-automated trading that adds to your arsenal of tools besides the indicators for technical analysis that we are often familiar with.

I have shared all these ideas in a forum at a Singapore Automated Forex Trading Meetup in greater details with examples. I will document more of this in this blog.