On many forex forums there is a heated debate about manual and automated trading. What kind of trading is more effective – manual or automatic? Who earns more – a trader who trades manually or an expert advisor who is not tired? Which side should a novice trader choose?
Arguments in favour of automated trading
Adherents of automated trading, first of all, say that trading advisors are not subject to emotions, can work around the clock and clearly, without delay, fulfil the tasks set before them. The second argument in favour of trading with robots is the speed of reaction of the advisor to changes in the market situation.
Indeed, if the necessary conditions coincide, the Expert Advisor will perform the action prescribed in the algorithm without unnecessary thought, while an ordinary trader may doubt something, try to double-check something and miss a profitable opportunity to open a trading position. And the most important argument in favour of automated trading is usually the autonomy of advisors’ work. A trader only periodically monitors the robot’s work, does his own business, and at this time the trading expert itself, without human participation, earns money.
Arguments in favour of manual trading
The very first argument in favour of manual trading is that in case of a non-standard situation, a person will be able to make a quick and correct decision, up to stopping trading and closing all losing positions, while the Expert Advisor will continue to work.
It is not uncommon to hear that it is not difficult for a trader to trade on his own, especially if he is trading with medium-term targets on senior timeframes. Many people say that it is impossible to translate all the subtleties and nuances of their trading strategy into machine codes to create an ideal Expert Advisor. No Expert Advisor, even the most perfect one, can incorporate the intuition gained through experience.
Difficulties in the process of automated trading
The biggest difficulty for automatic trading is the choice of a trading advisor and its correct setting. There is a huge number of all kinds of Expert Advisors in the network, and in free access, but the real efficiency and profitability can be found out only by installing the Expert Advisor in your own terminal. An important point is the correct use of a particular version of the Expert Advisor, because sometimes, through ignorance, an attempt to use a trending Expert Advisor during a prolonged flat, leads to large losses, if not to a complete loss of funds.
There are often debates about the effectiveness of using free and paid Expert Advisors, although in the end they come to the opinion that most paid Expert Advisors are camouflaged and slightly modified versions of the robots available in the free access. Another unpleasant moment in trading with Expert Advisors is the news release. As a rule, more than one deposit was drained on the news price swing, especially if the Expert Advisor uses averaging and Martingale coefficient in its work.
The advisor won’t make money on its own
If a person does not have any knowledge in the field of trading, then no advisor will not be able to make money for him. In order for an Expert Advisor to earn money, it needs to be set up correctly. Without having an idea of the principles of its work and the processes that take place during trading, it is impossible to ensure optimal settings of the Expert Advisor.
The market situation is constantly changing, so any Expert Advisor requires timely adjustment of settings. If you do not have the necessary knowledge and relevant trading experience, the use of any Expert Advisor will not be effective. This point should be emphasised especially for beginners who really believe the advertisements, which colourfully describe how the Expert Advisor will earn fabulous sums while its owner is resting somewhere.
Pros of automated trading
And yet there are undoubted advantages to automated trading. After all, Expert Advisors were originally created as assistants for traders in order to save their time. Using an Expert Advisor is effective and expedient when trading on minute timeframes, where extreme concentration of attention and instant reaction is required. If a trader has a profitable and proven TS, then an Expert Advisor written by specialists can free up a lot of time for other purposes.