If you have designed your trading strategy and you want to automate it and create a robot but you do not have any programming experience and learning to code is an unwanted task for you, hiring a programmer would be the right solution for you.
It is important to know that different trading platforms support different programming languages to code the expert advisors, so be sure that the developer you will rent is an expert in the programming language supported by your trading platform. MetaTrader 4, the most widely used trading platform, supports MQL4 programming language.
The best resources for hiring an EA developer are:
- Upwork.com – a leading freelancing platform where you can post the project and hire experts from many different fields including EA developers. It has the largest base of experts but also service costs are higher here.
- Mql5.com – an official Metatrader website, it has the section that allows you to post the projects and hire EA developers but only for MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 trading platforms. It has a decent number of EA developers available but due to their internal rules, the process of getting the desired EA will take a little bit longer.
- Guru.com – another freelancing platform where you hire an expert. It has lover service costs but also a smaller base of developers.
- Peopleperhour.com – UK based freelancing platform. Same as Guru.com has smaller service costs and a smaller base of developers.
- Freelancer.com – another platform for finding and hiring freelancers. It has a good base of developers but dubious quality.
When you decide which platform you will use the process of hiring the developer is following. First, you have to create the project and then you will wait for freelancers to bid you for the project. You can also invite the freelancers to give you the offer. It is important to clearly define the specification for your EA project (entry and exit rules, trade management rules, money management, etc.) and in that manner, you will inform the potential developer how complex your EA is and consequently, you will attract better developers. Depending on the complexity the cost of developing the EA will vary. A very simple EA that uses two indicators with trail stop rule will cost you from $30 to $50, while the more complex robot can cost you $100 or many more.
After a day or a few days, you will receive the offers for your project. For every developer that have sent you an offer you will see his previous project history on the platform, you will see his reviews and the experience he has. In that way, you can get the idea if he is capable to complete your project. The better developers will usually (but not necessary) bid you at a higher price.
I strongly advise exchanging few messages with the bidders to get a clearer picture of their capabilities and also they can get a clearer picture of your EA project. Remember if the developer does not fully understand your strategy he will not be able to code it correctly. After you have decided which of the biding developers is the best match for your EA you can offer him a contract. After being hired, more experienced programmers can sometimes give you useful remarks about your strategy and also propose you the improvements.
When you receive the EA, you must backtest it and also test it on the demo account to see if it works as you have desired and if it has errors, before approving the project and paying the developer. Do not rush with the testing and give yourself a reasonable time to correctly test the robot because after you have approved the project and paid the developer the coder might not be willing to correct the errors.
If you are happy with the final product I strongly advise you to rate the coder and give him a good review. It is important to keep a good and professional relationship with the developer because very often you will want to upgrade your EA with additional features and the developer that built the initial version of your EA is the best, fastest and the cheapest solution for the upgrade.
