If you belong to the majority of traders who combine Forex with their main job or study, then you are well aware that it can be very difficult to find time to monitor charts and look for suitable trading setups. It is much easier to rely on Expert Advisors that can do all the work for you.
Unfortunately, trading robots do not always work equally well. And at that moment, when the results begin to fall, traders prefer to test and reprogram their EAs. Radical methods are not always optimal. There are several ways to improve the work of your Expert Advisors without drastic intervention.
What You Will Need
If you want to understand what the exact problem of your trading robot is then you need to analyze the work of your Advisor. You will be able to make an accurate conclusion only for those programs that have been working for at least six months. So it will be easier for you to analyze the available data.
There are two ways to review the results of your Expert Forex Advisor:
- Manual - You will need to use the data from your personal trading journal. This method will be time-consuming and difficult.
- Use an automated service, such as Myfxbook.
You need to optimize your trading robot in two cases:
- If it initially did not show high results.
- If the Advisor gave good results in the beginning but now the profit has decreased.
The actions that I will describe below can be applied not only to the work of trading robots. Similar methods may help traders that prefer to trade themselves. If after analysis you find that your performance has declined, you can apply one or more of the tips from this article to your trading. So what can you do?
Try the Non-Interference Technique
Since Forex Expert Advisors cannot timely respond to sudden changes in volatility during the major economic news releases, most traders prefer to turn them off during these periods. However, some trading robots can actually follow the trend. Such programs are still able to secure your investments thanks to built-in risk management systems. But if the market moves in your direction, you can get a huge profit in just a couple of trades.
Thus, if your Expert Advisor is equipped with the appropriate trend following function, you can try not to interfere with its work even during the news release and see how this will affect your overall results.
Optimize the Working Hours of Your EA
Forex Expert Advisor is just a robot that behaves the same under any conditions, while the market behaves differently at different times. Analyze your trading results in terms of time:
- What days of the week does the Expert Advisor work better?
- In which weeks/months does your overall performance drop?
- In which trading session you get the highest or lowest profit?
Based on the data you collect, you can optimize your trading time. You can find out that on Mondays and Fridays your results are the lowest and therefore you want to avoid trading at this time. Or vice versa, you will see that on Wednesdays and Thursdays you get the maximum profit. It is worth considering using your Advisor only these days.
The analysis may also work for intraday optimization. Perhaps due to higher liquidity during the London session, your results will be significantly higher than during the Asian session. Then you should find a way to limit the work of your Advisor only to this period.
Review the List of Your Trading Instruments
We already know that Advisors cannot adapt to different conditions. The same applies to various currency pairs. If you trade on several instruments, make a table and review the results for each of them.
It is worth getting rid of currency pairs with the lowest results. The instruments that show a total profit of just a few dollars over a long period of time should also be excluded. You can try to replace them with others or add new ones if you trade only one currency pair and the results are not high.
Do Expert Advisors really work?
Some Advisors may be unpredictable, so it would be easier to get a profit if you are a professional trader. Using EA requires patience.
To Summarize
Before giving up on the work of your Advisor and applying “brute force” to it, it is worth taking a softer approach. After all, Forex is more a craft than art or an exact science. The approach and practice are what matters here.
Use the techniques in this article and repeat the analysis of your results after a few more months. You may notice that your profit has grown significantly. I hope that it will. Good luck.