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Essential

Automated Trading

Rules executing without hands: EAs, bots and algos trading your plan at machine speed.

Quick answer

Automated trading executes strategies through code without manual clicks. It removes emotion but adds bugs, outages and overfit strategies as new risks.

Definition

Automated trading runs strategies through code: Expert Advisors on MetaTrader, bots on crypto venues, algos at funds. The machine executes without fear or greed, which removes emotion and adds new failure modes: bugs, outages and curve-fit strategies that die on contact with live markets.

How It Works

  • Rules coded into EAs, bots or scripts
  • Runs on VPS around the clock unattended
  • Needs kill switches for runaway behavior

Trading Tips

1

Forward-test months on demo before cents live

2

Cap daily loss in code, not in your head

3

Monitor daily: automation assists, never absconds

Automated Trading Example

Say your breakout bot trades London open automatically, risking 0.5% per signal with a 2:1 target. Over three months it takes 60 signals while you sleep, banking the edge your day job would have missed. One VPS outage during NFP reminds you who supervises.

How Traders Use Automated Trading

Automate proven manual edges only, never ideas untested by hand. Start one pair, minimum size, with coded kill rules. Review logs weekly like employee performance reviews.

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