The advancement of forex trading software has blessed us with a truly possible additional income. As mentioned in my write up about the metatrader expert advisor, we can see how this automated forex trading is realised. There is, however, one requirement that not so many people talk about when it comes to running expert advisors to do the forex trading for you, that is, it has to be let run as long as the forex market is open. And, the forex market is open 24 hours, 5 days a week.
Why do we need to run the expert advisor 24 hours, 5 days a week?
To answer this question, we have to look at the strategy programmed into expert advisors first. Most EAs are programmed to make profit for the owner, and the most profitable EAs are the ones that ’scalped’ the forex market for small gains, as many times a day as possible. As unpredictable as a forex market is, nobody knows when will these small profits can be made, maybe a few times in the morning, maybe another few times in the afternoon and maybe another few times in the evening/at night. Therefore, to get the maximum return of investment(ROI), the best way to optimise the outcome of running EAs is to run it 24 hours, 5 days a week. Your EA need to be up and running to open, close or modify trades. In other words, your computer has to be switched on 24 hours, 5 days a week since it is the one that is running your expert advisor(s).
So what’s the problem? I can switch on my computer 24 hours, 5 days a week!
True. In fact, anyone can switch on their computer 24 hours, 5 days a week. But at what cost? Do you know that:
Now, what if any of these unfortunate events happen when you have an open trade made by the expert advisor? What if you have a few open trades made by the expert advisor? (FACT: Most EAs might open a few trades at one time). And what if you are not there to remedy the situation.
Simple Solution
If you are not a professional forex trader, does not mean you cannot act like one. All professional traders who use expert advisors, run their forex software separately on a different machine, maintained by computer hardware professionals. You should do the same and it does not cost that much either. In fact, it would cost only a fraction more than the cost of you running your computer 24 hours, 5 days a week yourself (FACT: The cost for you to run a computer 24 hours, 5 days a week ranges from USD18-USD20 a month). The idea is to subscribe to this service (also known as Virtual Private Server/ VPS Hosting), install your metatrader and your expert advisor there. From that remote machine then you can run your EA to automatically trade forex for you. It is much safer, guaranteed.
So how do i know which server to subscribe to?
First of all, lets do a checklist of what you need.
An example of an excellent forex robot VPS hosting provider is ForexVPS.com, based on personal experience and reviews from forex traders in forums all over internet, I highly recommend it. Check out their services and hosting plans and decide for yourself. Finally, although automated forex trading is definitely profitable, it also has it risks and getting yourself a VPS hosting service will definitely put you at ease.