Answers to the most common questions about our Expert Advisors, purchase process, installation, and risk.
An Expert Advisor (EA) is an automated trading program built for the MetaTrader platform. It executes buy and sell orders according to a predefined set of rules — entry conditions, exit conditions, stop losses, and position sizing — without requiring manual intervention from the trader.
EAs run directly inside MetaTrader 5 and can operate 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. They react to price movements in real time, placing and closing trades according to the strategy logic they encode. Once configured and attached to a chart, an EA manages the entire trade lifecycle automatically.
QIS Expert Advisors are generated from research-backed strategy specifications, then validated through a multi-stage pipeline before publication. They are not black-box systems — each EA ships with a full validation report showing exactly how it was tested and what metrics it achieved.
MetaTrader 5 (MT5) is a professional-grade electronic trading platform developed by MetaQuotes Software. It is one of the most widely used platforms for retail forex and CFD trading, supported by hundreds of brokers worldwide.
MT5 provides a built-in programming environment (MQL5) for developing automated trading strategies, as well as a Strategy Tester for backtesting those strategies against historical data. It supports trading across forex, stocks, commodities, indices, and cryptocurrencies.
All QIS Expert Advisors are built specifically for MT5. They require MT5 to be installed and connected to a broker account to run. MT5 is available as a desktop application for Windows and macOS, and as a mobile app for iOS and Android. You can download it for free from the MetaQuotes website or directly from your broker.
No programming knowledge is required to use a QIS Expert Advisor. Each EA is delivered as a compiled .ex5 file that you install directly into MetaTrader 5.
The installation process involves three steps:
.ex5 file into the correct MT5 folder (detailed instructions are included with every purchase)No command-line tools, compilers, or code editors are needed at any point. If you have used MetaTrader before, you will find the process straightforward. If you haven't, our installation guide walks you through every step with screenshots.
QIS operates a fully automated pipeline that runs every day. The process begins with AI research agents scanning more than 1,000 sources — academic papers, quantitative finance blogs, GitHub repositories, and trading communities — to identify actionable strategy logic.
Candidate strategies are evaluated for originality, completeness, and viability. Those that score 65 or higher on a 100-point confidence scale are passed to the code generation stage, where a code-specialised large language model converts the structured strategy specification into production-ready MQL5 and Python code.
Before any file is stored, an automated security audit scores it for dangerous patterns, missing error handling, and logic errors. Files scoring below 8.0 out of 10 are rejected. Survivors then enter a three-stage validation sequence — Python backtest, MT5 Strategy Tester, and 30-day paper trading — before being published.
See the How It Works page for a detailed breakdown of every stage.
Every EA must clear all of the following gates before it is listed in the shop:
All thresholds are fixed and applied automatically. No strategy is published unless it satisfies every single gate.
The paper trading period is a minimum of 30 calendar days on a live MT5 demo account. The EA must trade using real-time market prices from the demo broker feed, with realistic spreads, swap charges, and commission applied. No simulated fills — all orders execute under the same conditions as a live account at that broker.
The 30-day clock starts from the first live order placed by the EA. If the strategy does not generate sufficient trade activity in 30 days to produce statistically meaningful results, the period is extended until it does.
During paper trading, the Profit Factor is monitored in real time. If it drops below 1.2 at any point during the forward test period, the EA is rejected immediately — regardless of how strong its earlier test results were. Only EAs that maintain their performance metrics through 30+ days of live market conditions are published.
Each EA is designed and tested for a specific instrument and timeframe combination. The supported pair and timeframe are clearly listed on each product page in the shop, along with the test period and broker conditions used during validation.
Our current library includes EAs for the following instruments:
Timeframes in our catalogue range from M15 (15-minute) to H4 (4-hour), depending on the strategy type. Scalping strategies typically operate on M15 or M30 charts; trend-following and mean reversion strategies more commonly use H1 or H4.
Important: running an EA on a different pair or timeframe than the one it was tested on is not supported and may produce unpredictable results. Always use the instrument and timeframe specified in the product documentation.
After completing your purchase, you will receive an email with a secure download link. The link is valid for 7 days from the date of purchase and can be used up to 5 times, allowing you to download to multiple devices.
The download package contains:
.ex5) ready to install in MetaTrader 5If you do not receive your download email within 5 minutes of purchase, check your spam folder. If it is not there, contact us at our support page with your order reference and we will resend it promptly.
QIS Expert Advisors work with any broker that supports MetaTrader 5 and offers the instrument the EA is designed for. Because MT5 is a standardised platform, there are no technical compatibility issues with specific brokers.
That said, EA performance is sensitive to broker conditions — particularly spread width, commission structure, execution speed, and swap rates. Each EA's validation report states the broker conditions used during paper trading. For best results, we recommend using a broker with conditions similar to those listed in the report.
Recommended broker characteristics:
We do not receive any commission from broker referrals and do not endorse specific brokers. The choice of broker is your responsibility.
A VPS (Virtual Private Server) is not strictly required, but it is strongly recommended for any EA that is intended to trade continuously or react to intraday price movements.
MetaTrader 5 must be running and connected to your broker for an EA to place or manage trades. If your personal computer is turned off, loses internet connectivity, or goes to sleep, the EA will stop functioning and may leave open positions unmanaged.
A forex VPS is a cloud server that runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with a stable low-latency internet connection. Running MT5 on a VPS eliminates these risks entirely. Windows-based VPS services suitable for MT5 are available from providers such as Contabo, Vultr, and Linode, typically for $5–$15 per month.
For strategies with long holding periods (daily or weekly timeframes), a VPS is less critical — a reliable home PC or laptop that you keep running during trading hours may be sufficient.
Installation takes under two minutes. Here is the full process:
MQL5 → Experts in the folder that opens.ex5 file into this Experts folderA smiley face icon in the top-right corner of the chart confirms the EA is running. Ensure that the global AutoTrading button in the MT5 toolbar is also enabled (shown in green).
A full illustrated guide is included with every purchase download.
We offer a 14-day refund window for purchases where the EA has not been downloaded. Because our products are digital files that can be copied indefinitely, we are unable to offer refunds once the EA file has been downloaded.
We will issue a full refund without question in the following circumstances:
Refunds are not available on the grounds that the EA did not perform as expected in your live trading — trading results are influenced by broker conditions, account settings, market conditions, and many other variables outside our control. All historical performance metrics are clearly labelled as backtested or paper-traded and do not constitute a guarantee of future returns.
To request a refund, contact us via the contact page with your order reference. See the full Refund Policy for complete terms.
No. Past performance does not guarantee future results. This applies to every financial product, including our Expert Advisors.
Backtested results — even those generated using every-tick MT5 simulation on real historical data — are computed on the basis of past market conditions. Markets are non-stationary: volatility regimes change, correlations shift, liquidity conditions evolve, and macroeconomic contexts that did not exist during a test period may arise in the future.
Our 30-day paper trading requirement adds a forward-testing component, but 30 days is a short sample in the context of a strategy's potential full lifecycle. A strategy that performs well for 30 days may subsequently encounter market conditions that degrade its edge.
We believe our validation pipeline is rigorous by industry standards, and we publish all results honestly. But we cannot guarantee any specific outcome in your live trading. Only risk capital you can afford to lose.
The minimum recommended account size varies by EA and is specified on each product page. As a general principle, we recommend account sizes that allow comfortable operation within the EA's validated drawdown parameters.
Our quality gate requires that maximum drawdown does not exceed 20% of account equity during the MT5 test period. For an account operating at the minimum lot size and experiencing this worst-case drawdown, you should have sufficient buffer to avoid hitting broker margin requirements or stop-outs.
As a general guideline: if an EA trades at a fixed lot size of 0.01 and the validated maximum drawdown was $200 at that size, we recommend an account of at least $1,000–$2,000 to trade at 0.01 lots comfortably. Scaling up lot sizes requires proportionally larger account equity.
Do not run an EA on an account where the maximum validated drawdown would represent more than 10% of your total capital. Conservative position sizing is the single most effective risk management tool available to you.
Each licence covers installation and use on one live trading account. If you want to run the same EA on multiple live accounts — for example, a personal account and a family member's account — you will need a separate licence for each account.
You may, however, run the same EA on:
Our EAs do not include hard-coded account binding or online licence checks — the licence is enforced by our terms of service rather than by technical restriction. We trust our customers to comply with these terms. Redistribution or resale of purchased EA files is strictly prohibited and may result in account termination.
If you need multi-account or institutional licences, please contact us via the contact page for pricing.
Our support team typically responds within one business day. Reach out via the contact page.