What Is Forex Autotrading, and Why Should You Care?

What Is Forex Autotrading, and Why Should You Care?
If you are a forex trader, you are probably aware of the large profit potential that this market possesses. For a number of reasons, it is possible to make more money as an individual currency trader than in nearly any other field, in terms of the time-to-money ratio required.Leverage (the ability to control 50x your account value or more) can be one of the forex trader's most useful tools when it comes to creating money through trading. It is this leverage, combined with seamless market access and very low transaction costs that mke forex trading as lucrative as it is.However, even though the potential rewards of becoming a successful forex trader are great, being a full time trader still does require a large time commitment. It possible, though, to take advantage of the benefits of the foreign exchange market without the large time commitment, and that is the topic of this article.The term that I want to introduce to you (which is something you may or may not have heard of) is called 'autotrading.' Autotrading simply means devising a set of mathematical rules and calculations, plugging them into your trading platform, and literally having your platform trade for you regardless of whether or not you are at your computer.Have you ever heard the term 'passive income?' Well in kind of a funny way, creating and setting into motion a forex autotrading system is alot like creating a stream of passive income. Allow me to explain:In business, there are really two types of income that you can earn: either active income or passive income. Working as a shop clerk would be a good example of active income, because you come to work one day and later you will be paid for one day's work. If you want to make more money, you must again do more work.Passive income is a bit different. Working to set up a utilities company is a good example of passive income. There might not be any immediate benefits, but once you get the company rolling you will have people that pay you like clockwork every single month because they need utilities.So instead of trading your time for money, you spend your time setting up a system that will make money for you regardless of whether or not you are still working at it. That is exactly what creating a forex autotrading system is like.When you trade the forex market in the regular sense, you will need to sit down at your computer and identify a profitable trade every time you want to make money. Now this can still be very worthwhile, but if you want to make more money you will need to do it al over again.When it comes to devising a forex autotrading system that can be consistently profitable, instead of spending your time doing something that will make you money once, you spend your time doing something that can make you money over and over again.You put your energy and effort into devising, tweaking, and testing different technical and mathematically-based strategies, and once you can create a trading system that can profit consistently over time, all you need to do is set it up and walk away.A few good forex trading platforms that I know of that support autotrading are called Metatrader and Tradestation. When using Metatrader, you will use their simple programming language to create a small piece of code called an 'expert advisor.'In your code, you will give the instuctions for your technical-based trading strategy, such as what indicators or calculations should be used to find entry and exit points.All in all, forex trading has massive profit potential, and creating an autotrading system is one of the ways that you can leverage your time and effort to make as much mney as possible.