2Bull Forex Blog

MetaTrader is one free, powerful, customizable Forex trading platform that supports custom Expert Advisors. MetaTrader 4 replaces MetaTrader 3.8, with more robust features. The MetaQuotes Language 4 (MQL 4), the built in programming language, is a bit more sophisticated than MT 3.8.

MT can trade any pair of currencies. You can also customize the system to trade in more currencies, on your approval. You can also use MetaTrader to analyze any historical data. With Expert Advisors installed, MetaTrader responds to market movements. That is any upward or downward move of prices alerts MetaTrader into action (of selling or buying).

With MQL 4, you can create your own custom indicators or alerts, with your own scripts and libraries. MetaTrader Expert advisor is a MetaTrader 4 add on, which automates the trading process based on your settings. An expert advisor for MetaTrader automates opening and closing of trades. The software has direct connection with your Forex account and uses a set percentage of money for trade and investment.

You can set more than one Expert Advisor for MetaTrader and each EA can be set to book profits at assigned points. If the currency shows negative trend, MT opens another trade to book profits at assigned margins and buffers the loss from the first trade.

MetaTrader expert advisor is only a tool that you can use to automate your Forex trading strategies. In other words, MetaTrader 4 Expert Advisor allows you to script your strategies and attach it to the MetaTrader platform. Thus, the software implements the strategy that you have taught the system, without the need of your interference.

With MetaTrader Expert Advisor, it is just like you doing the real business. Only difference is, your Forex trading strategy is put into an autopilot.

Like most trades, time spreads have a maximum loss for the buyer. As a buyer, you can only lose what you have spent. If you paid $1.00 for the spread then your maximum potential loss is that $1.00. If you bought the spread for $2.00, then $2.00 is the maximum potential loss.

The buyer of a time spread will be purchasing the out-month option while selling the nearer month option of the same strike in a one-to-one ratio. Since the out-month option will have more time until expiration than the nearer month option, the out-month option will cost more. This means the buyer will be putting out money (debit spread) which makes sense. The buyer can only lose the amount of money they spent to purchase the spread. Thus the buyer’s maximum risk is the cost of the spread.

The buyer can profit in several ways. First and foremost, being a time spread, the buyer can profit by the passage of time. Options are wasting assets. So as the nearer month option decays away more quickly than the outer-month option, the spread widens (increases in value) and the buyer sees a profit.

Second, implied volatility can increase. As implied volatility increases, the out-month option, which the buyer is long, increases in value more quickly (due to its higher vega) than the nearer month option which the buyer is short. This will force the spread to widen or increase in value, which again is profitable for the buyer.

Third, the buyer can make money due to stock price movement. As stated before, a time spread’s value is at its maximum when the stock price and the spreads strike price are identical (at-the-money). You could have an increase in value if you owned an out-of-the-money or in-the-money time spread, and the stock moved either up or down toward your strike. As the stock moves closer to your strike, the spread will expand and increase in value creating a profit for you, the buyer.

The buyer’s risks are obviously the opposite of the rewards. You can not stop or reverse time so the buyer of the spread can never be hurt by time.

Implied volatility, however, can decrease as easily as it can increase. A decrease in implied volatility will decrease the value of the out-month option (which the buyer is long) faster than it will decrease the value of the nearer month option (which the buyer is short) due to the higher vega of the out-month option. This will narrow the spread thereby creating a loss for the buyer.

In the same way that stock movement in the right direction can be profitable for the buyer of a time spread, stock movement in the wrong direction can be costly. As the stock moves away from the spread’s strike, the spread decreases in value. That will create a loss for the buyer of the spread.