subject: The 3 Best Metatrader 4 Expert Advisors Of 2012 [print this page] 2012 has seen the launch of many Metatrader 4 expert advisors, all promising to help you to make the Forex trading profits that you desire. As an active Forex trader and enthusiast, I'm always looking for fresh ideas to improve my trading, so I try to keep up with any new trading system that's released into the market. I must have bought and tested more than a hundred EAs over the course of my trading career, and from personal experience most of them don't deliver the results they promise.
Considering that most of the MetaTrader 4 expert advisors being peddled out there aren't up to scratch, why do I even bother? First of all, even though a trading system doesn't work, most of the time I still learn something by observing the ideas behind the program. It could be a new entry strategy, stop loss method or even money management strategy, but there's still some value in it for me. Secondly, and more importantly, every now and again I stumble upon a winner that keeps on winning. I see it as panning for gold - most of the time you're going to get dirt, but every now and again a shiny nugget shines through and makes it all worthwhile.
It would be crazy for anyone else to go through the same process as I do, buying EA after EA trying to find a winner. And you don't have to, because I'm releasing my reviews of the 3 best Metatrader 4 expert advisors of 2011 based on my testing!
Best MetaTrader 4 Expert Advisors Of 2011 #1: Forex Morning Trade
Forex Morning Trade gets my vote as one of the best Metatrader 4 expert advisors of 2011 because of its consistent performance through both choppy and quiet market conditions. The idea behind the trading system is to trade the burst of volatility that follows the London open, which happens like clockwork every single day. The strengths of the system are that it is completely transparent as to why trades are being made, and it only trades once a day so your risk is capped.
As it stands this year, the system is up 26% with an average winning percentage of 64%. What I like about this system is that it's very consistent, with no prolonged drawdowns. I've kept my risk levels low with my money management settings, risking only 2.5% of the account per trade. As such, I don't experience huge equity swings, just slow and steady accumulation of profits.
Best Metatrader 4 Expert Advisors Of 2011 #2: Forex Growth Bot
Another strong performer this year is the Forex Growth Bot, which performs extremely well in trending conditions. 2011 has been a year of strong trends in the EUR/USD and AUD/USD in particular, which may continue for some time yet. Obviously in choppy, sideways markets you will give back some of these profits, but the Forex Growth Bot does well enough in the trending markets to more than offset these losses. I would highly recommend that you avoid trading with this EA on Non Farm Payrolls and other high impact news releases though, as the system doesn't handle the volatility very well at all, like most other MetaTrader 4 expert advisors.
The version that I have tested and used is the basic version, which has landed a 24% increase thus far in 2011. While some people may prefer the advanced version that allows the changing of certain risk parameters, from my personal experience I prefer not to mess with the developer's settings as it can radially alter the results for the worse. This system's performance is more volatile than Forex Morning Trade, being a trend following system, but overall has shown that it can recover from significant drawdowns consistently, which is a big plus in my book.
Best Metatrader 4 Expert Advisors Of 2011 #3: Meta Pro Forex
Last but not least of the best Metatrader 4 expert advisors based on its 2011 performance is Meta Pro Forex. This trading system is primarily a swing trader, which has been performing above expectations despite this being such a strong trending year. The main strength of Meta Pro Forex is its ability to keep losing trades small, so that when the eventual winners come along they far outweigh the losers.
One thing that impressed me about Meta Pro Forex before I bought the system was that they posted up to date trading results on their website, which showed losing weeks and low (30% - 45%) winning percentages. I've rarely seen any developer post up such unattractive results to try to promote their system! For 2011, the system is up a modest 9% so far, with larger drawdowns than the other two systems I've reviewed but the ability for it to recover has been impressive.
All in all, this hasn't been a good year for most other Metatrader 4 expert advisors, so for the trio of Forex Morning Trade, Forex Growth Bot and Meta Pro Forex have done well to post strong positive growth in 2011. As always, if you're considering any of these systems, I would recommend testing them on a micro account before putting them on full allocation, and make sure that you're applying sound money management at all times!
