We hear a lot about the advantages of reading expert advisor reviews before you invest in one, but can you actually trust them? There are so many different types of robots and different types of forex traders, that even if an EA or expert advisor has the best reviews in the world, it still might not work for every individual.

That might be a surprising statement. You can probably imagine that a trading system, which depends on the trader to put it into practice successfully each time, could have very varied results for different people. The assumption is often that robots either work or they don't, and that they will work in the same way for everybody, so that all users make the same profit at all times. But in fact this is not true.

In broad terms of course most traders' results will follow peaks and downturns at approximately the same time if they are using the same software, but surprisingly, the actual results can be quite different. In fact in some of the expert advisor forums you can find two people using the same EA and one is making a profit while the other is making a loss. So why is this?

There are several factors that contribute to the discrepancy. First, there is the question of currency pairs. Most expert advisors have the potential to work with several currency pairs and they will not always perform equally well with all of them. You can often get better results by concentrating only on the pair or pairs that are the most successful. Expert advisor reviews can be great for working out which are the best pairs to trade.

Second there is the question of settings. This is the most common question in forums, on blogs and to EA support staff: what are the best settings for this robot? It is a little like the quest for the best system: it is almost impossible to evaluate. The permutations are almost infinite and what would have worked best last month will not necessarily work best next month.

Generally, the safest option is to follow advice on settings from the company's own information, but in some cases you may pick up useful tips from expert advisor reviews and user websites. Remember though not to trust everything that you read, and always test new settings before going live.

Fourthly, risk management makes a huge difference to whether you can sustain profits in the long term. If your risks are too high, then even an EA that is profitable can wipe you out. This often happens to beginners. Remember that even the best EA (like the best human traders) will have losses and losing runs. It is vital to set your risk low enough that you can survive the bad times.

Finally, it makes a difference which broker you use. Some will have higher costs, some may operate in a way that tends to trigger stop losses more often, and so on. The EA will usually come with information about which brokers you can use, but that is often based solely on technical compatibility of the software. Forex robot reviews and users will sometimes recommend particular brokers for their quality of service, and that can be helpful.

So EA reviews certainly have their uses, even though no reviewer can guarantee that another individual will have the same experience with the robot. So do seek out feedback from those who have had a chance to use and analyze the software, but be aware that you will not necessarily achieve the same results. It is important to read expert advisor reviews carefully to assess whether a particular EA is likely to suit your individual case.

Tags: expert advisor reviews, forex

Forex investing is becoming one of the most popular ways for people to use their money online. In some cases they make money, and there is certainly money to be made on the forex market. However, a lot of people lose, at least at first. It is often their strategy that is at fault.

Many new forex traders start out with the attitude that they should be online as much as possible looking for trading opportunities so that they can trade as often as possible. They want to be constantly involved in a trade. The result is that they are over eager and impatient, and will start trading at the slightest indication. Not surprisingly, a lot of their trades go wrong.

Forex is not gambling. There are clear indications when a price is moving in a certain direction and forming a trend. If we wait for these moments before we trade, we have a very high probability of making money. This may mean only opening a new trade a couple of times a week. This requires discipline and patience but they are well worth developing.

Let's take an example to demonstrate this more clearly. Trader 1 is trigger happy and wants to be in on every possible price movement. He makes 2-5 trades per day, some winning, some losing, but ending up with around 10 pips per day profit. So that's 50 pips per week.

Trader 2 is less eager to trade and more interested in serious forex investing. He makes one trade per week, but expects to make 50-100 pips from each of his trades. Who is making more money?

Clearly, trader 2 is in a better position. Not only is he making more profits, but he probably has more of a life away from the computer. He is less stressed. He also has a much more positive view of his trading and his ability to succeed at it. Where trader 1 probably feels that forex is more or less of a gamble, trader 2 knows that he has a strong, successful forex system and strategy. This confidence will help him to deal with the ups and downs of forex trading and always come out a winner.

Beginners usually start out with the first strategy and go for day trading or scalping. Often times this is why they fail. It is true that there are some successful traders out there who are day traders and always will be, and certainly if day trading is working for you, then stick with it.

But a lot of beginners get into this way of trading simply because they lack the skills to identify a real trend or the confidence to leave a trade open for a longer time. This is a sign that they are not ready to be trading for real at all. Instead of getting into scalping trades that will probably eat away at their funds until there is nothing left, they should be reminding themselves that forex investing is for the long term, and work on their skills first.

Tags: forex investing, forex