Quick Start

Using Expert Advisor Studio you can easily create an Expert Advisor and discover a trading strategy by following a few easy steps:

1. Set Your Account
Set a virtual account in EA Studio the same way you set a demo account at in your Forex broker. To do it, go to the  Settings tab  and select your  Account Currency ,  Initial Account Amount  and the  Leverage.

Make sure the settings in EA Studio correspond to the account at your broker. This is to ensure you later get the same results in MetaTrader.

2. Import Data from MetaTrader
We provide Data Export Scripts for MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 versions.
 * 1) Go to EA Studio and navigate to  Tools > Data Import
 * 2) Download the appropriate script for your MetaTrader 4 or MetaTrader 5
 * 3) Open MetaTrader and go to  File > Open Data Folder
 * 4) In this Windows Explorer window find and open the  MQL  folder (MQL4 or MQL5). Then open  Scripts.
 * 5) Paste the  Data Export Script  file in the  Scripts  folder.
 * 6) Return to MetaTrader and go to the  Navigator  box. Then right-click in it and choose  Refresh

Additional steps for MetaTrader 5 (after you have done all the previous steps)

 * 1) When the script appears in the Navigator window right click it and choose  Modify
 * 2) A text editor will open. From the menu on top click  Compile
 * 3) Close the text editor

Running the Data Export Script and Importing the Data

 * 1) Attach the script to the chart.
 * 2) It is done, you have saved the quotes.
 * 3) From the MetaTrader menu open  File > Open Data Folder.
 * 4) From this folder navigate to  MQL4 (or MQL5) > Files
 * 5) You should see a whole bunch of files. Those are the files the Export Script exported for you.
 * 6) Go to  EA Studio > Data
 * 7) From the  Files  folder drag and drop the files to EA studio to upload them. (See the picture below)

3. Generate Strategies

 * To manually create a strategy from the ground up choose the entry triggers in the Editor.
 * To create a strategy aromatically use the Generator. The Generator uses an advanced backtesting algorithm that was built to find strategies that make sense. The algorithm uses logical blocks and uses a set of rules (see Acceptance Criteria) to recognize good strategies.

4. Choose a Strategy from the Collection
Let the Generator work for a moment. The Generator will store the best strategies in the Collection. You can see them by clicking on  Collection  in the top navigation menu.

In the Collection, you can see the top strategies with their equity curves and apply filters to select to select only the strategies to your liking.

5. Review the Strategy Trading Rules and Stats
In the Collection, you can click on a strategy to open it in the Editor for review.

Use the Editor to change settings, Entry Rules and indicators parameters. On the right side, there is a table that shows the most important stats. Below the stats is the  Balance chart where you can see the Equity chart.

You can use this information for evaluating strategies fast. For the complete strategy backtest stats check the Report.

When you are satisfied with your strategy you can export it as an Expert Advisor.

6. Export an Expert Advisor
To export and Expert find the  Export  button in the upper right corner.

Click on the button and choose to export the proper Expert Advisor for your MetaTrader version.

7. Test an Expert Advisor with MetaTrader
The Expert Advisors exported by EA Studio have 100% native MQL code. EA Studio Expert Advisors do not require any 3rd party code and compile in MetaTrader without any errors or warnings.

To test an Expert Advisor
Make sure to compare both backtest results and see that they are very much the same.
 * 1) go to MetaTrader  File > Open Data Folder.
 * 2) Save the Expert Advisor “MQL4/5 > Expert”.
 * 3) Additional steps if you are using MetaTrader 5
 * 4) Go to the  Navigator  box in MetaTrader.
 * 5) Right click on the Expert Advisor you just imported.
 * 6) Choose  Modify
 * 7) A text editor will open. From the top menu click on  Compile
 * 8) Close the text editor
 * 9) Open the MetaTrader Strategy Tester ( View > Strategy Tester )
 * 10) Test the exported Expert Advisor with the correct Period, Symbol etc.

Expert Advisor Studio is the most advanced online platform for trading strategy creation. It enables you to use a fully automated workflow for strategy generation, strategy optimization and strategy validation (see Reactor)

Trade Safe
Join our super-friendly Community Forums to find useful information and insights about algorithmic systematic trading.

Other useful links:
 * Trading Resources
 * Building Forex Strategies

Risk Disclosure
Futures and forex trading contains substantial risk and is not for every investor. An investor could potentially lose all or more than the initial investment. Risk capital is money that can be lost without jeopardizing ones’ financial security or life style. Only risk capital should be used for trading and only those with sufficient risk capital should consider trading.

Hypothetical performance results have many inherent limitations, some of which are described here. No representation is being made that any account will or is likely to achieve profits or losses similar to those shown; in fact, there are frequently sharp differences between hypothetical performance results and the actual results subsequently achieved by any particular trading program. One of the limitations of hypothetical performance results is that they are generally prepared with the benefit of hindsight. In addition, hypothetical trading does not involve financial risk, and no hypothetical trading record can completely account for the impact of financial risk of actual trading. for example, the ability to withstand losses or to adhere to a particular trading program in spite of trading losses are material points which can also adversely affect actual trading results. There are numerous other factors related to the markets in general or to the implementation of any specific trading program which cannot be fully accounted for in the preparation of hypothetical performance results and all which can adversely affect trading results.