MetaQuotes Software Corp., Forex Capital Markets LLC (FXCM), Interbank FX LLC (IBFX), FXDirectDealer LLC (FXDD) and the TRADERS' magazine are glad to announce the start of preparations for the third annual Automated Trading Championship 2008. Just as one year before, the registration for participating in the contest will start on the 1st of June 2008. The Championship itself will start on the 1st of October 2008.


Unlike many other similar contests, not traders themselves participate in the Automated Trading Championship 2008, but their Expert Advisors - programs for automated trading. These programs will be competing within three months for the Title of the Best Expert Advisor of the Year and for the prize of totally 80 000 US dollars.

In the recent years, automated trading became widely spread. More and more traders choose automated trading systems for their numerous advantages. Unlike a human person, an Expert Advisor can make a huge amount of calculations within a short period of time. This allows the program to process more information per time unit, to obtain more reliable predictions of price changes, and make better trade decisions.

Besides, like all other computer programs, Expert Advisors are affectless. They operate according a clear algorithm and do not deviate from it guided by feelings. Expert Advisors know no tiredness either, they can analyze market situations in the twenty-four-hour mode and make independent trade decisions.

As a relatively new technology, automated trading has acquired its non-believers. Until quite recently, Expert Advisors were considered not to be able to earn money on the market without trader's intervention. Later on, some traders started to take up the position that automated trading is less profitable than the manual one. However, both statements were overthrown by the Automated Trading Championship. The Expert Advisor of the Winner of the first Championship managed to increase its deposit 3.5 times within 3 months, the Winner of the second Championship increased his deposit 13 times. Expert Advisors proved that they could earn really much.

One of the main purposes of the Championship is to raise the development of Expert Advisors among traders to a higher level. For this purpose, the course of the Championship will always be covered on the contest's website. It is an interactive internet resource where you can find a great variety of technical details about Expert Advisors behavior and the detailed reports of EAs. Moreover, statistical reports, articles and interviews with developers will be published on the website of the Championship over the whole period of the contest. These materials will help you to better understand the secrets behind the success of one Expert Advisor or another, the errors made by the authors of Expert Advisors and how to avoid those errors.

The registration for participation in the Automated Trading Championship 2008 will be started on 1st of July and last till the 19th of September; the competition will be conducted from the 1st of October till the 26th of December 2008. MetaQuotes Software Corp and the competition Sponsors invite all persons interested to take part in the ATC 2008. The win in the Championship will provide you with the title of the Best Developer of Expert Advisors 2008 and the first prize – 40,000 US dollars.

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Best Regards, Lenar Fatkhullin
MetaQuotes Software Corp.
http://championship.mql4.com

- but not the 'main purpose' obviously, otherwise you would have included even rudimentary code-debugging tools in your platform by now - hell, 4-5 years down the road, and we still have only the Comment & Print commands to work with!!!

In fact, one could argue (persuasively) that you have zero interest in seeing EA development progress, and in fact have a vested interest in seeing that the exact opposite occurs. The other inescapable fact is that the Metatrader platform still finds itself in the very bottom tier with traders, both in terms of platform functionality and the 'calibre' of broker it seems to attract - why is that?

You get what you pay for. MT is free.

The 'free' is an illusion - you end up paying through the nose through wider spreads, higher commissions, and unscrupulous brokers, many of whom have no hesitation in robbing its customers blind, aided and abetted by a platform designed precisely with this in mind. This is an undeniable reality of the Metatrader platform...

Good point Omelette, but how about MT4 ECN? Such as ATC brokers offering Hotspot feed? How would you classify that?

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Ash's Signals

I'm sure you agree that ANY platform is of secondary importance to your choice of broker - the sad fact is, and I take no pleasure in saying it, most MT brokers are scumbags!

You mention Hotspot. Well, they may be decent but they are also undercapitalised, so may have difficulties surviving the recent changes in financial requirements. btw, I opened an account with Aleccohfx precisely because of the promise of an non-dealerdesk, unfiltered ECN feed - not only was the feed filtered, it transpired that there was a dealerdesk on the LP's side, not with Aleccohfx - even though both 'companies' operated out of the same building!!!

This is the type of half-truths and lies that Metatrader has become synonymous with...

MetaTrader 4 is a good software and the brokers along with the traders understand this fact. Thats why both of them choosing this platform and terminals.



About the Main Purpose: please read attentively "raise the development of Expert Advisors among traders to a higher level". There is no even a word about MQL4 IDE development. We are gust trying to tech traders to use given functionality. The development level of most traders is at begging stage and they are now trying to learn to use basic things. At the same time you offering us to enrich the functionality... And we are actually doing it (MQL5), but not in frame of ATC.

"The other inescapable fact is that the Metatrader platform still finds itself in the very bottom tier with traders, both in terms of platform functionality and the 'calibre' of broker it seems to attract - why is that?"

More than 200 brokers/banks using our soft. worldwide There are very famous and respectable companies among them. For example, the same FXCM. Are you sure that you understand what are you talking about?

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Best Regards, Lenar Fatkhullin
MetaQuotes Software Corp.
http://championship.mql4.com

Reality of MetaTrader 4 Platform is that its a product. And one of the best products in the world in its class. Thats all.

All the rest is just your opinion. The opinion of the man/woman who even do not understand what is to develop a Trading Platform.

__________________
Best Regards, Lenar Fatkhullin
MetaQuotes Software Corp.
http://championship.mql4.com

I think we need to differentiate between the Metatrader platform, and the Metatrader brokers.

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Ash's Signals

Pity, I missed your response at the time ...

As for MT being the best "in its class" - probably, but then, its in the 'give-it-away' category! But, I agree that MT is good as a charting product, but is is absolutely hopeless as a EA development platform - which was the point of my first post here! (and unsurprisingly, you failed to address...)

btw, as you brought it up - most users probably realise that Metatrader is a "product", meaning, brokers have to pay Metaquotes to use it - what many don't realise is that there is an array of plug-ins made available to Metatrader-supporting brokers that are specifically designed to cheat customers out of their money! It is hard enough to make money in forex without having Metaquotes facilitating these underhand practices. And if you feel this comment unjust, kindly explain why the Metaquotes' forum instantly bans people who raise the 'plug-ins' issue?

Finally, while I'm sure you would like to see as many big reputable brokers as possible adopt Metatrader (as would I), as it currently stands, if one were to do a head-count, the majority of MT-brokers would be found wanting in the eyes of their customers - no doubt a reflection of the type of character that certain 'features' of the Metatrader platform tends to attract...