How To Install Your Expert Advisor on Metatrader 4 (MT4) - Pip Cop

**PipCop** · 2008-09-21, 05:52 PM

Download and install MetaTrader 4 (Free download at http://www.metaquotes.net/

When you run MT4 for the first time it will prompt you to open a demo trading account. Do so. It is free. In fact you can open as many free demos as you want over and over on the same instance of Metatrader without re installing the MT4 software by simply going to File > Open Account.

To automate MetaTrader 4, place your expert advisor

EA file (usually a file ending in .EX4) in the "experts" folder while MetaTrader is not running. The experts folder of your MT4 installation is usually: C:\Program Files\MetaTrader 4\experts

Start MT4. You will notice the new EA in the navigator window on the left under "Expert Advisors". Drag and drop the icon of the EA to the chart you want to run it on. This will result in a pop-up box that will allow you to enter any external variables that may be needed on the "inputs" tab. Make sure you click on "Allow live trading" under the ‘common’ tab of that box so the EA will work. You will typically also need to allow "Long & short

" trades to be enabled.

Click OK. If you did everything right you will see a tiny smiling face at the top right hand corner of the chart with the name of the Expert Advisor

program that you are running next to it. That’s it! Your automated trading system is now up and running.

NOTE : If the little face is not smiling, (if it has a frown) it means you did not check the "allow live trading" check box when you attached it. To fix this simply left click anywhere on the chart, and select "expert advisors" from the drop down menu and then "properties" to get to the current EAs properties. Once there, on the common tab, click to allow live trading and click OK

Note #2: If it is still not smiling, be sure the click the button in the MetaTrader toolbar (right in the middle) that says "Expert Advisors". It must have a green icon next to it. If it’s red, it is disabled.

tatati · 2008-12-09, 01:31 AM

hello
I cant get my EA to perform trades for me, the smilie face just sits there on the corner but no orders get placed.

**PipCop** · 2008-12-09, 08:13 AM

At the bottom of MetaTrader you should see several tabs. Look in the tabs that say Expert and Journal and see if there are any error messages. If there are errors, you will have to rectify the problem. If there are no errors, that means your robot is just waiting for a good time to place an order.

If there are no tabs as the bottom of MetaTrader, click the drop-down menu for View - Terminal.

tatati · 2008-12-11, 05:35 AM

whats up pipcop. thank you for your reply.
i was going to complain that i did this and that when suddenly i see the SAR Sample EA decided to sell some EUR/USD yay.
im new to all this trading context and im intrigued by the fact that you can code an investor to handle money for you.
what i was going to say here, is that when i was trying to figure out while there werent any trading action on my metatrader demo, i could simulate tests on the historical data and i noticed how important it is to tweak the settings properly, it does give you different results, and the market behaviour can either be favorable to the approach of the e.a. making u money or can be totally out of touch with the e.a's logic. for example the zigandzag advisor looks awesome today, but it failed to deliver sometime in the middle of the year in my tests.