Expert Advisors

Brokers with expert advisors (EAs) offer a powerful automation feature available on the popular MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5) platforms. With algorithmic investing becoming ever more accessible, more traders are looking to learn how to use EAs. In this guide for UK traders, we will cover what expert advisors are, how they work and how to enable them in MT4. Our team have also produced a list of the best expert advisor brokers in 2025:

What Are Expert Advisors?

Expert advisors are programs coded to perform automated, hands-free trading on the MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 platforms. EAs can be designed, programmed and compiled individually from within the dedicated MQL MetaEditor or purchased from the MetaTrader Market.

Many traders publish their EAs on the MQL stores, either allowing public use for free or requiring a fee to be paid. MT4 and MT5 EAs come in all shapes and sizes, from simple SMA crossover strategies to complex, multi-asset hedging and netting systems that combine fundamental and technical analysis approaches. Outside of the MetaQuotes platforms, expert advisors are referred to as trading bots, robots or investing algorithms.

Expert advisors are a great way to remove limiting factors from hands-on trading strategies. Namely, human emotion, speed (or lack thereof), availability limits and cognitive holdbacks. By building a repeatable strategy that (hopefully) works consistently and setting it to run automatically, you remove the emotional component of decision-making, ensuring that trades are based solely on evidence and patterns.

In addition, an EA will often react more quickly to market events, take advantage of profitable opportunities while you are away from the computer, and not be distracted by irrelevant information.

How Do EAs Work?

Expert advisors are programmes in the MetaTrader terminals that perform automated trading tasks.

They can be programmed in the MetaEditor to perform technical analysis of price data and manage trading activities based on the signals they receive. This allows them to efficiently perform analysis and automatically open or close trades on behalf of the trader.

What Platforms Offer Expert Advisors?

Expert advisors are primarily available on the MetaTrader 4 and 5 trading platforms. These platforms are designed to seamlessly integrate with EAs, interfacing with MetaQuotes’ proprietary programming languages (MQL4 & MQL5).

Note, some other third-party platforms, such as cTrader, also offer a form of expert advisor trading.

How To Make An Expert Advisor

Creating an expert advisor does not require proficiency in MQL4 and MQL5, you can do it without programming experience. While those with a greater understanding of programming will find it easier to build and optimise complex EAs, those new to algorithmic investing can take advantage of the MQL5 Wizard. This tool uses a graphical interface to help generate an automated trading bot within MT5, making the process much simpler. A step-by-step guide to using the wizard is given below.

MetaEditor is the built-in scripting window within MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 that allows users to produce scripts and generate their EAs with MQL4 and MQL5. Note that MQL5 allows users to produce expert advisors that can work up to 20 times faster than their equivalents in MQL4.

While using expert advisors, our experts found that it is key to test any EA you plan to use before giving it the chance to play with your money. This can be done in real-time markets within the MT4 or MT5 demo account environment, a mock account with simulated funds and live pricing data.

Alternatively, you can use MT5’s strategy backtesting feature, which lets you test EAs on an extensive history of asset values. However, there is no guarantee that an EA that is profitable in one period will perform the same in another. Longer periods of testing can mitigate this phenomenon, though the further you go, the more the market characteristics will have changed.

Beginner’s Guide To Creating MT5 Expert Advisors

1. Open the MetaEditor from within the MetaTrader 5 platform. This can be done by clicking the IDE button in the toolbar or pressing F4.
   

   MT5 MetaEditor

2. Click the New button in the MetaEditor toolbar to access the MQL5 Wizard. This will produce a menu from which you can generate an EA, create a custom indicator, implement scripts, create a new class and more. Click on the Expert Advisor (Generate) button.
3. Next, type in the name of your EA. The author and link can also be changed here. Click Next to continue onto the parameters.
4. This is the point to add the signal properties of the expert advisor. Click the Add button to open a window that allows you to set the parameters of a signal module. If you want, you can layer several signal modules on top of each other.
   

   Expert Advisors Signal Properties Page

5. Once the signal parameters are set up, you can define the trailing properties of the algorithm. These work just like trailing stops and take profits when investing manually.
6. Expert advisors also need to know how much capital to invest in each position. The money management section here includes parameters for volume fixing, risk management, margin and more. Once you have finalised these parameters, click Finish to generate the EA.
7. Once the expert advisor is in place, its code needs to be compiled before it can be implemented. This is done by clicking the Compile button in the MetaEditor hotbar.
8. Once expert advisors have been compiled, they can be implemented as part of a trading strategy. To do so, ensure that algorithmic trading is enabled by pressing the Algo Trading button in the hotbar. Next, open the Insert menu and navigate to Experts. Here, you should find your named EA and clicking on it will begin implementing it on your chosen asset.

MQL Market

MetaTrader’s MQL5 Forex Market is the largest available collection of free and paid expert advisors. Here, traders can browse the online database of EAs and indicators for sale created by other users and provided to the public. There are many filters here that can be used to narrow the resulting range of EAs that appears.

The market conveniently offers demos of the EAs, renting options and a buy option. Expert advisor prices can range from being completely free to £25,000.

It is key to remember that not every algorithm will work for every situation and good expert advisors for MT4 and MT5 may be difficult to find. Most are designed for specific assets over specific timeframes.

Pros & Cons Of Expert Advisors

Pros

• Automation – Using brokers that support expert advisors lets you perform trades with limited manual effort. The positions will automatically open and close according to the parameters of the EA, giving you more time to focus on other investing activities.
• Speed – As expert advisors are electronic programmes, they can automatically perform trades with reactions much quicker than humans. This means that the EA robots can react to volatility and market conditions much more quickly than humans, so more of each profitable opportunity can be taken advantage of.
• Accessibility – Creating expert advisors has never been easier than with the MQL5 wizard. Programming knowledge is not required to build simpler EAs, so newer traders can jump into algorithmic trading.

Cons

• Programming – To create more complex, specialised expert advisors, specific programming knowledge is required. The most suitable is the bespoke MQL4/5 languages, which users will likely need to learn.
• Risk – Although leaving your investing to a robot with expert advisors brokers can make it easier and potentially more profitable, there is also the risk that market conditions could change unexpectedly. This could cause the bot to no longer be as efficient at profit-making or even switch to loss-making. The programme will continue to do as it is programmed, so users should need to keep a watchful eye.
• Price – Our experts found that, while there are many free or cheap EAs, there are also many priced very highly (up to £25,000). There is no guarantee that expert advisors will be a good return on investment, so caution should be used when buying an EA off of the market.

Comparing Expert Advisors Brokers

If you want to trade using expert advisors then you will need to choose a broker that offers the MetaTrader 4 or 5 platforms. However, these are two of the most popular platforms used by online traders, so there is a huge range of suitable brokers. As such, choosing the right one can be daunting. Below, we have outlined some of the key things UK traders should consider when choosing from expert advisors brokers.

Instruments

The instruments available for investing will differ between brokers for expert advisors. Many UK firms will offer the major UK exchanges, like the London Stock Exchange, as well as the New York Stock Exchange.

However, if you are looking to trade more exotic products like cryptocurrency then you will need to make sure the broker offers those assets before opening an account.

Base Currency

UK traders will likely want to invest with brokers that support GBP as a base currency. When GBP is not available, depositing in and withdrawing to GBP may incur foreign exchange (forex) fees, meaning you will be charged an extra fee on top of any others incurred while investing.

Regulation

To ensure brokers with expert advisors practise financial fair play, traders are advised to sign up with regulated brokers.

Top UK expert advisors brokers, such as Pepperstone, are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the golden standard of financial regulators, ensuring the highest level of safety of clients’ funds.

Fee Structures

Brokers with expert advisors may operate different fee structures. Some have deposit and withdrawal fees, while others may charge commissions on trades. Additional fees include swap fees, subscription and freemium models, inactivity fees and loose spreads.

Finding brokers with a fee structure that minimises your costs will be key in maximising your profit-making potential with expert advisors.

Bottom Line On Brokers With Expert Advisors

The MetaTrader 4 and 5 platforms offer a unique, customised algorithmic trading experience through their expert advisors feature. Signing up for brokers that support expert advisors allow users to automate their investing workflow, improving reaction times, removing human emotion and increasing their profit potential. Moreover, with MQL5’s streamlined EA generation wizard, automated trading has become ever more accessible and is something that any investor using MetaTrader can give a go.

FAQ