Expert Advisor Showdown: Custom vs Pre-Built EA

Want to start EA trading, but are confused whether to use Custom vs Pre-Built EAs? Learn which EAs suit you more and how to customize them.

Today, Expert Advisors (EAs) can analyze markets, execute your trades, and track the entire trading journey for you. Basically, you don’t need to invest hours in trading; you can do so with just the right monitoring. This is the power of forex expert advisors tools designed to simplify your trading life.

When you have an EA for doing all your trading tasks, then what’s the need of doing them manually? Most traders are switching to forex EA trading due to the advancement of such software. However, when starting EA trading, the first question that comes to mind is whether to use prebuilt or customized EAs. In this blog, we will have a detailed discussion on prebuilt vs customized EAs and how to customize EAs. So let’s get started.

What is an Expert Advisor?

EA or expert advisors are simply trading bots designed on the basis of predefined algorithms to help traders automate their trading tasks.

With trading EAs, you can analyze the market, identify buy or sell opportunities, and place trades automatically.

Prebuilt & Customized EAs: Pros & Cons

Prebuilt vs customized EAs, these are two major types and can confuse a trader a lot. Let’s discuss both to select the right one:

Pre-Built EA:

As the name suggests, Pre-Built EAs mean using the expert advisors already available in the market. Many companies and financial platforms offer free and paid expert advisors to serve a diverse client base.

Pre-built EAs are generally built on a trading concept, technical analysis aspects, or trade criteria. These robos worked based on predefined rules such as asset class, trading time frames, strategy, risk-to-reward criteria, and profit expectations.

Benefits of Pre-Built EAs

Best for Beginners:

Building your own EA requires both market and technical knowledge. And beginners generally lack in these two areas. Also, it takes a lot of your time. However, you can use a prebuilt EA that is ready to use.

Diversity:

Prebuilt EAs are developed considering a large group of traders. Thus, they are ideal for trading diverse assets, strategies, and time frames.

Cost-Effective and Highly Accurate:

Buying a prebuilt indicator is less costly than developing an EA. Also, prebuilt EAs are already backtested. All crucial information, such as traders’ reviews and EA performance rate, is available for traders.

Backed by Support:

Traders can seek the help of EA providers if they face any problem in using EAs. Also, a reputed EA has its community, so traders can take assistance from the people who are actually using it.

Drawbacks of Prebuilt EAs

Lack of Personalization:

Prebuilt EAs are developed considering a large number of traders. But an EA working for a big group may not work for you. Thus, when using such an EA, you need to customize it as per your needs.

Performance Dependency:

The performance of an expert advisor not only depends on the software but also on the person using it. Two traders using the same expert advisors can get different results after trading with EAs.

Customized EA

Many advanced traders don’t like pre-built EAs. Such traders prefer building their own EA. A customized EA is when a trader builds their own EA based on their trading strategy, time frame, risk, strategy, and other criteria.

Traders can develop their custom indicators through EA generator tools or MetaTrader platforms. Custom indicators are generally more effective as they are developed by a person who is going to use them.

Benefits of Custom EAs

Full Control

A customer indicator is built by the trader so they enjoy full control over the EA. They can add and remove features, adjust settings, and make necessary changes whenever they want.

Suitability:

Custom EAs are more suitable for traders. Every feature and element is according to the traders. When used in the live market, they give more flexibility and ease of use to traders.

Continuous Development:

You can make changes to the custom EAs as per the market conditions. That’s not possible with prebuilt indicators, as they are built by a third party. Thus, they work well in changing market conditions.

Drawbacks of Custom EA

Expensive:

Building an expert advisor can cost you significant money. Not all traders have that much capital to get started.

Complex:

Developing an EA not only requires market knowledge. But it also requires technical knowledge, coding, and programming language understanding. Also, even after all the knowledge, the development process is complex.

Low Accuracy:

Prebuilt EA developed by market experts with great knowledge. They are tested and used by many traders. And when you develop your own EA, the quality may not be as good as the prebuilt EA.

How to Update Your Expert Advisor for Changing Market Conditions

Whether you are buying a pre-built expert EA or making your own EA, timely customization is a must. Here is how to update EA as per changing market conditions:

Watch Fundamentals:

Expert advisors generally gave more importance to technical analysis aspects. However, market fundamentals such as news, economic events, announcements, speeches, and geopolitical conditions are also important. So, EA traders should watch these aspects and make changes accordingly.

Consider Strategy:

Every trader has a trading time frame, strategy, indicators, profit expectations, and risk-taking capacity. So, go to the settings and add filters according to your trade criteria.

Regulatory Update:

Many countries have regulatory restrictions and guidelines for Algorithmic trading. Traders, when customizing EAs, should ensure that they comply with the rules and regulations.

Consider Sentiments:

When trading with expert advisors, make sure you consider market sentiments. Market sentiments keep changing with the changes in conditions; thus, changing your EA considering sentiments is a must.

Time Analysis and Updation:

Most traders just buy or build an EA and start trading. However, reviewing whether the EA trades are working or not is important. So keep a track of your trades, analyze the results, and examine the effectiveness of the EA. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of the EA and make changes based on them.

Wrapping Up: Prebuilt Vs Custom EA, Which is Better

Using expert advisors in trading is the new trend. Whether you use a prebuilt EA or go for a custom EA, both have pros and cons. But the pros overshadow the cons.

Pre vs custom, which to choose depends on your experience, strategy, time frame, and overall knowledge. Beginners can go for a pre-built EA, while experts or advanced traders can go for a customized EA.

EA gives you speed, accuracy, diversification opportunities, and automations. It can directly boost your results if used properly. The best way to use EA is to combine your knowledge with the technology.

Also, if you are new to EA trading, first open a demo account with us and test your knowledge. If you are doing good, you can ahead placing real trades.

1. What is the difference between a prebuilt EA and a custom EA?

Pre-built EAs are the expert advisors already available in the market. Meanwhile, customized EA is when a trader builds their own EA based on their trading strategy, time frame, risk, strategy, and other criteria.

2. How do I customize a prebuilt EA?

Regulatory Update
Consider Sentiments
Time Analysis & Updation

3. Can you rely entirely on EA for trading?

Not relying on EA entirely is not a great idea. EA can fail during changing and choppy market conditions, so using human intelligence is a must for the best use.
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4.Who should use custom EA?

Traders with advanced strategies should go for a custom EA as they are more accurate and flexible.

5. Do expert advisors really work?

YES, but with a BIG caveat: It depends on the EA and how you use it!

The Golden Rule: An EA is NOT a “set-and-forget” money machine. It’s a tool that amplifies your strategy if the strategy is good, the EA works. If not, it fails.