Trading bots · Topic guide
What trading bots can and cannot do, from the inside
A trading bot is a program that opens, manages and closes trades by following rules written in advance. It does not think, it has no hunches and it does not know what happens next: it applies its rules to every new price, the same on the last day as on the first.
This page maps the subject. It explains what a bot does, what it cannot do however it is advertised, and how to check what is claimed for it, and at each point it links to the guide that works it through with sources.
Sources re-read at origin on 25/09/2026 · linked at the end
This page explains what a bot is, it does not recommend one
What a bot does, and on which account
A program that lives on a platform, reads prices and sends orders. What it does depends on how it is written; where it does it, on the account it is installed on.
In MetaTrader, the platform the term comes from, these programs are called expert advisors. The name misleads: it describes no one who advises, it is the name of the product. They are attached to a chart and, in the platform's own manual, "work until they are explicitly removed from a chart". That is why a bot needs a terminal running all the time, and why it usually sits on a server rather than a home computer. What it does each time a price arrives is in what an expert advisor is and how it works.
The same program can trade a prop firm account or an account funded with your own capital at a broker. What changes is the framework its parameters are set against: in the first, the firm's rulebook, which may also restrict automated trading —where those limits are written is in prop firm rules—; in the second, your account's conditions and the risk you choose to take.
What a bot cannot do
Executing rules without tiring is not the same as being right. Almost everything that goes wrong with a bot starts by mixing the two up.
A bot does not know whether its rules will work tomorrow. All it can show in advance is how it would have done in the past, and that is a backtest: a simulated result. European rules do not let an investment firm present such results without "a prominent warning that the figures refer to simulated past performance and that past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance". That is Article 44 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/565, and it is a good yardstick for any curve that comes with a bot, whoever is selling it.
Why the bots on sale fail, what an excellent backtest proves and which warning signs to check before you pay is in whether trading bots are reliable.
How to check what is claimed
What separates a track record from a screenshot is that someone other than the seller can check it. There is a procedure, and it has steps.
A trading history can be published on a platform that reads it straight from the account, and that already says more than an image. But a verified badge answers one specific question —that the figures match the account's— and leaves others open: the period, the worst stretch, whether the account is live or demo. The steps, in order and each with its source, are in how to verify a trading track record.
And if the bot is going to trade a prop firm account, before the track record it is worth being clear on what the evaluation measures and which limit closes the account, which is in the guide to prop firm accounts.
Before you install a bot, compatibility
With a prop firm account or with your own capital at a broker, the first step is to confirm that your account and platform accept an automated system. That is confirmed before anything is charged, and the route is written out step by step.
Continue reading
The site's other two general guides.