Please get me started...
ok that's 33 views but no replies. how about one straight forward question...
what is presently the most profitable EA system anyone here knows of right now?
I've read on several threads now, poked my nose into a few discussions, I gather from all this that there ARE some profitable EA's floating around here and 'some' of you have working knowledge of 'many' of them...
sooooo....spill the beans already, what's hottest right now?
You must surely be joking 
You come into the forum and ask for profitable EAs and expect to get it? There are many members who are working their tails off to develop profitable EAs. Why will they just give it to you? Have you contributed anything that is useful to them?
Well, truthfully, you should become a member of the elite section of this forum and see some profitable EAs. For disclosure, I am not a member of the elite section and I use this forum to learn from the many learned members here and try to help others as much as I can. However, it is always a give and take process 
I'm looking for synergy, I give what I can. programming coding is not something I have to give currently. It's not so much having expectation as much as it is asking into the question in the spirit of adventure and exploration. I may yet contribute something of value in collaboration. Don't count me out just yet. You assume that I have not been working my tail off? You assume I have no background because I want to collaborate? I hear you. I do. I just want to particpate and feel a little out of my element. It sounds like my goal to learn from others here isn't that different than yours.
Tell me more about the elite section?
In all honesty I'm very geared to work on systems. Perhaps I should learn how to program. Where would be the best place to start learning?
I'm looking for synergy, I give what I can. programming coding is not something I have to give currently. It's not so much having expectation as much as it is asking into the question in the spirit of adventure and exploration. I may yet contribute something of value in collaboration. Don't count me out just yet.
You assume that I have not been working my tail off? You assume I have no background because I want to collaborate?
Tell me more about the elite section?
In all honesty I'm very geared to work on systems. Perhaps I should learn how to program. Where would be the best place to start learning?Welcome Aaragorn. Keep looking around. There is lots to learn here. I don't think anyone can really just say "Here try this EA or that EA."
When you find some systems and/or EA's that suit your trading style, work with them, test them, improve them, etc. People will be glad to work with you and share with you if you take that kind of initiative.
If you want to learn about programming, try codersguru's lessons. Even if you don't learn how to program from scratch, you should at least look at the code of lots of different EA's so that you can get an idea about what different EA's are doing.
Good luck.
thanks Eric, I've studied somewhat with my spreadsheet mostly the interactions of trending indicators. I realise that I've not spent as much time with ranging indicators in comparing their effects on systems. I do understand how different time periods and different time intervals operate differently with trending indicators. I've learned that much from my spreadsheets. I'm not suprised when i hear people saying that they are getting better results off of 4 hour charts or 2 hours charts for example. There is something about those time intervals which makes them better for trending indicators. I really wish I could generate the exponential moving average in real life that I generated in my spreadsheet. It gave me a 97% winning signal. But alas I don't think it's doable. I'm used to comparing the output of systems in terms of percentage of wins to the total wins plus losses for the demoninator. It's too bad that I can't create that exponential moving average for real. At least I don't think it's possible. I think it would require access to 'future data' which doesn't exist in real time. 
I can see that getting out of the spreadsheet and into expert advisors opens up alot of possible system combinations that were not really exploitable to me with my spreadsheet. I also know that sometimes 'less is more' and that 'simplicity is powerful'. I'm just so new to the using these EA's in the platform.
moreover I can't seem to figure out how to use the strategy tester function to actually DO backtesting in the platform. i click the 'start' button on the 'tester' i watch the progress bar move to fully done and then nothing happens. there is not report, no history not output of any kind of result that I can tell of any kind anywhere. I'm using metatrader but I also just signed up for a demo account with MIG. I think they are using the same platform aren't they?
anyway I have lots of unanswered questions about using these tools. 
I hope everyone is patient with me and that I can find the answers here.
Welcome to trading and forums! I have learned alot on this forum, thanx to NewDigital, CodersGuru, etc... While you learn, remember the following:
1. Google is your friend
2. Find others you can ask questions and/or forums to ask your questions.
3. Open up some EA's, even if not profitable, and learn what makes them tick. Even go through the MQ4 course to learn or refresh.
4. Try lots of EAs.
5. Find a couple threads you can latch onto and read all the posts, that's how i not only learned about, but am now on the forefront of the Hedgehog EA development. I don't like all systems, but some just click with me.
Hope that helps,
Graham
thankyou for your kind reply, it's nice to meet you. I still must not have the hang of 'opening' these EA's or something...I can get them to load in the editor but not to run on the platform what's the trick to making them backtest and/or execute?
In order to execute an EA, you just need it in your tradestations experts directory. Once the tradestation is restarted, it should be in there via the View > Navigator. From there, you just open a chart and double click it to attach the EA to the chart.
Backtesting is done through the View> Strategy Tester. Personally i find strategy tester is as reliable as a 90s Ford Taurus.
Graham
Here's my take on the matter...
There are no long-term profitable EAs on this forum, or any of the others that you might visit, so asking for one is a waste of time. Unless you're trading long-term charts (effectively going with the trend) with "investment type" expectations, i.e. 10-15%/year, automated strategies aren't going to work.
Most of us on these forums have looked at probably thousands of threads, dealing with everything from systems to indicators to EAs. I bet nobody would be able to give you a long-term profitable EA. I've never seen one. First off, I just don't really believe it's possible. Second, you can't rely on the MT backtester, so the only way you can really test things with MT is by forward testing. MT4 hasn't been around long enough to be able to say you have a long-term profitable system that is automated. IMHO.
I do believe there are a lot of people making money trading with MT, using very good systems, they're just not fully automated.
Now, I'm not saying EAs are bad. I believe they can be good if they are used "properly" (As I define that. See below. ), but most people don't do that. Most people want the EA to do everything. (Fully automate the system) I believe we would better spend our time finding a profitable discretionary system, and then use EAs to help manage our trades. For instance, you might manually enter trades and then start an EA up to exit for you when certain conditions are met. Another example is that you have a mechanical method that typically generates good entry signals for you, but you need to manage your exits based on current market conditions. Create an EA that enters the market for your automatically when your conditions are met, sends you an alert/email, and then does nothing. You come around when you get your alert and manage your exits manually.
Again, this is just my opinion and I'd love to be proven wrong. Everyone, me inclued, wants a fully-automated, profitable trading system. I just don't believe they're out there.
As to the Elite forum, I better give my opinion on that too. This is what it says about the Elite forum at the top of this page: "Expert advisors leaders IN ELITE SECTION won more than 3000 pips (30000$ investing 1 lot every time) in March 2006" The problem with that is that it doesn't tell you that those were the exact same leaders from the month before, or two months before, or for the last year. Any EA can have some good months, but if the leaders aren't the same every month, then you have to ask yourself, "what happened to those EAs during their bad months"?
Anyway, better stop now, lest you thing I'm cynical. My advice, learn to be a good trader, not an EA follower.
Keris
Here's my take on the matter...
There are no long-term profitable EAs on this forum, or any of the others that you might visit, so asking for one is a waste of time. Unless you're trading long-term charts (effectively going with the trend) with "investment type" expectations, i.e. 10-15%/year, automated strategies aren't going to work.
Most of us on these forums have looked at probably thousands of threads, dealing with everything from systems to indicators to EAs. I bet nobody would be able to give you a long-term profitable EA. I've never seen one. First off, I just don't really believe it's possible. Second, you can't rely on the MT backtester, so the only way you can really test things with MT is by forward testing. MT4 hasn't been around long enough to be able to say you have a long-term profitable system that is automated. IMHO.
I do believe there are a lot of people making money trading with MT, using very good systems, they're just not fully automated.
Now, I'm not saying EAs are bad. I believe they can be good if they are used "properly" (As I define that. See below. ), but most people don't do that. Most people want the EA to do everything. (Fully automate the system) I believe we would better spend our time finding a profitable discretionary system, and then use EAs to help manage our trades. For instance, you might manually enter trades and then start an EA up to exit for you when certain conditions are met. Another example is that you have a mechanical method that typically generates good entry signals for you, but you need to manage your exits based on current market conditions. Create an EA that enters the market for your automatically when your conditions are met, sends you an alert/email, and then does nothing. You come around when you get your alert and manage your exits manually.
Again, this is just my opinion and I'd love to be proven wrong. Everyone, me inclued, wants a fully-automated, profitable trading system. I just don't believe they're out there.
As to the Elite forum, I better give my opinion on that too. This is what it says about the Elite forum at the top of this page: "Expert advisors leaders IN ELITE SECTION won more than 3000 pips (30000$ investing 1 lot every time) in March 2006" The problem with that is that it doesn't tell you that those were the exact same leaders from the month before, or two months before, or for the last year. Any EA can have some good months, but if the leaders aren't the same every month, then you have to ask yourself, "what happened to those EAs during their bad months"?
Anyway, better stop now, lest you thing I'm cynical. My advice, learn to be a good trader, not an EA follower.
To some extent, i do agree. Nothing replaces a good trading mind. The market has ups and downs, and because of that, the EAs can never be as smart as our interpretation of the charrts. Usually EAs have good times and bad times. I love playing with EAs however i have narrowed down to improving my trading, esp to 1 currency pair, max 5 timeframes, and stick to price action and chart patterns. For me that works. At least then i get familiar to a currency and how it moves.
Hope that helps,
Graham
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I'm new to this, well kinda new, I've studied trading for a couple years, enough to know something about myself as a trader, I have a demo account. I believe in systems and system development. I believe in auto hands free executions of strategies. Alas I'm not a program coder. I'd like to learn. I've done some work backtesting in excel but as you might imagine finding expert advisors has me chomping at the bit to use them for strategy development. I have alot to learn about coding. In the mean time what I have is time on my hands. With that time I could be following directions from you blokes who know know so much already. I could be forward testing for ya, whatever, I just want to learn. Show me what to do and I'll do it. I do have an rather analytical mind and understand most of the trading basics. I just don't have the skill to translate what "I" know into expert advisors. I'd like to think I still can contribute to strategy development efforts around here.
Naturally I'd love to get working with the most profitable systems that are being used currently already and make money while working on refinements. I had a system giving me 97% win ratios until I tried to forward test it and realized that I can't add an exponential factor to a subsequent interval only to a previous interval. If I could do that in real time I've have reached the holy grail but it doesn't work that way does it. I don't have to make a killing, I just want to be profitable and get an automated system running while I work on refining more profitable systems.
What do you say you got a place for me to start working here?