How to install an Expert Advisor (EA) on MetaTrader

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How to install an Expert Advisor (EA) on MetaTrader- A simple but effective guide

While there are a multitude of expert advisors out there, they all are relatively simple to install to the MetaTrader platform. This is one of the greatest things about the MetaTrader platform, that it is built for automatic trading. There are other platforms out there that use Expert Advisors as well, but as over 90% of Forex traders use MetaTrader 4 or MetaTrader 5, we will stick to using this common platform to demonstrate how simple it is to begin automated trading.

Normally, the Expert Advisor comes in a .zip file, or with one or 2 other files independently. Essentially, there is only 2 files that truly matter: the .tpl file, and the .ex4 file. (.ex5 on MT5 platform) The .tpl file is simply the template file, as some Expert Advisors have different coloring or lines that will quantify exactly what’s going on, but there are plenty out there that are more “black box”, meaning that it will simply take the trade for you, and therefore have very little in the way of graphical representation. Those Expert Advisors may only come with the .ex4 file, which is the actual coding of the algorithm needed to place the trade.

To install, you simply click on file inside the trading platform, and open the data folder. Inside the data folder, there is the templates folder, which is of course where the .tpl file would go, if you had one, and then there is the MQL4 (or MQL5) folder, which contains the Experts folder, which is where the .ex4 or .ex5 files goes. After dragging the file into that folder, you simply restart the MetaTrader platform.

There is the auto trading button at the top of the platform that needs to be turned on, and then you can open up the expert advisors folder in the navigator window, and simply drag the trading robot onto the chart. At this point, you should see a smiley face in the upper right-hand corner along with the name of the indicator, showing you that things are working properly.