Do you have a curiosity to find out how to create EA for the MT5 terminal? Let’s take a closer look at what expert advisors are and how you can build and activate them.
MetaTrader 5 is one of the most operated trading platforms today. It comes with enormous benefits and offerings for traders, one of them being EAs (expert advisors). Using EA for forex trading can be a fantastic help for individual traders when trading forex. It can either assist you in automating your trading activities or monitor the market conditions.
EAs are familiar with the MetaTrader platforms; both MT4 and MT5 provide these tools to their traders. There are various expert advisors available in the market. Some of them are built by a professional team of developers that have been thoroughly tested for efficiency and profitability, and regular traders also develop expert advisors.
What is an MT5 EA?
MetaTrader 5 expert advisors are also known as forex robots. These expert advisors are special programs or pieces of code created using MQL5, the native coding language of MT5. Clients use this software to automate the forex trading process.
Every automated expert advisor in the forex market is a unique piece of software, and it is created depending on the trading strategies of the traders. While some forex robots are created for specific currency pairs and strategies, others are utilized for multiple assets using various strategies.
There are different ways to get a forex expert advisor for trading. For instance, some people prefer to rent or purchase pre-made expert advisors. On the other hand, other traders prefer to create their own MetaTrader 5 expert advisors. Most EAs are available on the official MT5 marketplace. However, there are various other third-party websites and markets where you can purchase an expert advisor.
There are free, as well as paid expert advisors that you can utilize for trading. While some EAs for MT5 provide only market analysis, others can monitor the price movements and automatically execute the trades as well.
How to Create an MT5 Expert Advisor
On MT5, you can use the programming instrument called MetaEditor and a dedicated language, MQL5, to create an EA.
- From the menu, tap on tools and choose MetaQuotes Language Editor.
- MetaEditor will be started. Hit the New button in the menu.
- There are two options: Expert Advisor (template) or Expert Advisor (generate).
- Choose Expert Advisor and click on the Next
Note: If you choose Expert Advisor (template), only the minimum options will be filled out, such as the name of the EA, copyright, parameters, and functions. If you choose Expert Advisor (generate), it will include the items that are mentioned above, as well as the source code of indicators that come along with MetaTrader 5 by default.
- Fill out the expert advisor name, author, and link to display. Configure the parameters and click on the Next
- Set the event handlers, which are the features that are called if certain conditions are met.
- Set tester event handlers, which are functions that are called if definite conditions are met.
- Write the MQL5 program; after that, click the Compile button on the menu.
- After the compilation, the EA will shown in the designated folder in the navigator.
- Close the MetaEditor and go back to the MetaTrader 5. Check that the EA created is in the navigator on MT5.
Event Handlers
While you are setting event handlers, these items you get to choose from.
| Item Names | Descriptions |
| OnTrade | Ontrade is a function that handles changes to orders, executions, positions, and trade history when an order is executed. |
| OnTradeTranscation | OnTradeTranscation is well-known by the expert advisor when an event occurs to process the execution result of a trade request. |
| OnTimer | OnTimer is a function that is performed at a specified time interval. |
| OnChartEvent | OnChartEvent is a function that holds events on a chart. It is executed when an event happens on a chart, such as creating, deleting, moving, or editing an object. |
| OnBookEvent | OnBookEvent is a function that holds events on the depth of the market. It is operated when the depth of the market is updated. |
Test Event Handlers
These items are available to select when you set the test event handlers.
| Item names | Descriptions |
| OnTester | OnTester is a feature used for formulas to calculate optimization outcomes in the Strategy Tester. |
| OnTesterInit | OnTesterInit is a feature that executes the initialization of the Expert Advisor when starting optimization in the Strategy Tester. |
| OnTesterPass | OnTesterPass is a feature that executes data processing during optimization by the Strategy Tester. |
| OnTesterDeinit | OnTesterDeinit is a feature that executes data processing after optimization by the Strategy Tester. |
How to Activate MT5 EA
- Open the MetaTrader 5 terminal and log in to your account.
- Click on tools and choose options.
- Once the options tab is opened, tap on the expert advisor’s
- On this tab, fill the box next to Allow algorithmic trading and Allow DLL imports to checkmark on it.
- Uncheck the box next to Disable algorithmic trading when the account has been changed and Disable algorithmic trading when the profile has been changed by tapping on it.
- Hit OK to continue. Once all the settings are completed, you will notice the green Algo trading button on the instrument bar to signify that the MT5 is now ready to use EA.
How to Run Expert Advisor on MetaTrader 5
- First of all, attach the expert advisor to a chart to state the process.
- The easiest method is to double-click or drag and drop an EA from the navigator to be charted on the MT5.
- The expert advisor specifications window will shown after dragging it to a chart.
- To start using the expert advisor on the chart, tap
- The name of the EA and the icon will be displayed in the upper right corner of the chart if it was successfully launched.
- If the only icon is displayed, then you will need to run the setup again.
Wrapping Up
In this article, we have shared complete information regarding MT5 EA, from creating to running this software on the MetaTrader 5 terminal. However, creating an expert advisor is time-consuming and requires high programming skills.