How to Switch from Manual to Automated Trading in 4 Easy Steps

Mary Hilton
3 min readJul 16, 2024

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According to various resources and research that have been conducted throughout the years, it has become clear that manual trading which is also known as retail trading leads to loss about 70% to 90% of the time. This is a stupendously high number, which goes to show you just how risky manual trading can be.

There are various reasons as to why such a high loss rate is seen with manual trading. Among them we can refer to the serious and detrimental impact of human emotions on the process of trading. There are many damaging forms of emotions that can influence the result of your trades in the market, such as fear or greed. On the other hand, retail traders are normally faced with an issue related to keeping discipline and sticking to a consistent regimen of trading.

But what is a good solution?

Algorithmic vs Manual trading

The best solution is to switch from manual trading to automated trading. But this switch can be complex and challenging. There we want to present you with four easy steps that can help you seamlessly switch from being a manual trader to a full automated trading approach.

Step 1: Define your needs as a trader:

First and foremost, you ought to define your needs and goals as a trader as precisely as possible. Naturally, you need to know what you want out of trading first in order to be able to aim to achieve them.

This step includes defining how much capital you exactly have for the purpose of automated trading. Then you can define your profit goals given your starting capital.

When that is clarified, then you can look for trading strategies that are most befitting your needs in the market. This is hugely important, because then you will pick the automated trading tool exactly based on those needs and the strategies that are suitable for them.

Step 2: Go through the due diligence of picking a tool:

When you have a clear image of what you want out of trading, including your profit goals and the strategies that are required to achieve them then it is time for the next step which is picking the trading tool itself. You need to go about picking just the right tool that fits your needs and requirements out of trading.

Make sure to dedicate every bit of due diligence as required such that the trading tool that you pick is completely reliable. Check the various aspects of the product that can help you decide better on the reliability and high performance of the tool.

These could include user testimonials and comments that are registered especially on sites such as TrustPilot, which is a platform where users can leave a testimonial of their real experience with the product.

Step 3 : Pick the right tool for your needs:

Once you have crossed all the t’s and dotted all the i’s, then it is time to see if the tool you want to pick is the right one. How do you figure that out? The way you can achieve this is to backtest the automated trading tool you have picked to see how the results compare with the purported capabilities of the tool. You can also check out the recorded performance of the tool you have picked on audit sites such as MQL5 or MyFxBook.

Step 4: Monitor the tool for sustainable trading results:

Last but not least, when your chosen tool is up to the task in every way and has passed every test, you put it to use. But when you put it to use, it is not the end. Now you need to maintain a regimen of monitoring and make sure that the results that are obtained keep being what you desire out of the tool.

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