I have noticed that there is a lot of confusion around when it comes to Forex robots (expert advisors) and Forex signal services. The two methods of automating your Forex trading are not the same although they do have the same attribute of taking the decision making process away from you. Many traders struggle with the emotional aspect of Forex trading; by that I mean the overwhelming desire to change ones’ mind when a trade is underway due to the fear of losing and making money.
Forex robots, also known as Expert Advisors, work on a set of programmed rules which can have different degrees of automation. The EA might just automate the stop loss movement once a trade is manually triggered or it might completely automate the trading process; from the entry, stop loss and take profit levels. The Expert Advisor will use technical indicators to pin point an entry level and generally have nothing to do with the fundamentals that drive the market.
A Forex Signal service can come in many forms; from email or SMS alerts telling you what to trade and when, to a completely automated trade copier service. A trade copier service is done through the MT4 platform where a subscriber can copy trades directly from another traders account. Both these services don’t require any knowledge of the Forex market and can be partly or completely hands free. Forex signal services generally come from professional traders that have a proven track record in the market, however trading robots can be used as a signal service.
In this part of the article we are going to give you the information you need to decide which is best for you. First of all it is important to realize that there are literally thousands of products for sale on the market today but many of them will just take your money and run. We are going to give you some check points when looking for the product that is going to suite your situation to see if it is a genuine service.
It doesn’t matter if you are deciding on a trading robot or a signal service you should be able to view verified results real time. Anyone can compose results on excel that are fixed to show great returns. A reputable company will show results from a third party verification service that cannot be tampered with by the trader. These results are linked to the trading account and updated real time. If the product does not use this type of service then it should be well avoided. With signal services they tend to be a subscription so they will come with support. However, when purchasing a one off robot they often come with no or very little instruction or support; this is the second necessity that you require as a customer and you should not settle for less, no matter how good the sales copy is.
You should also make sure you have contact details of the company, never send anyone money that is not prepared to give you their contact details. Lastly make sure you read the small print and understand what it means. All Forex trading related products will have a risk disclaimer and mention that past results are not a guarantee of future performance, this is law for Forex trading companies and does not mean that the product or service will suddenly stop working once you purchase or subscribe to it. The last thing that you should look for is a money back guarantee; any company that has complete confidence in their own trading system will offer a money back guarantee.