Making the right connections

FAPTurbo runs on a platform called MetaTrader4 (MT4). Every Forex broker that supports Expert Advisers uses the same MT4 platform. FAPTurbo recommend ForexMeta as a broker BUT, from personal experience, their spreads, ie difference between buy and sell price, are too large for FAPTurbo to trade consistently, and profitably. Don't let the $500 bonus fool you, it's not cash, it's credit that you can trade with AND you don't get $500, it depends on how much you deposit and the value of trades placed. It's all very well having a bonus but it is no good to you if high spreads prevent you from trading.

I like AlpariUK. They are a UK based company, you can open an account in £'s and, most importantly, their spreads remain tradeable during the key trading hours of FAPTurbo trades. If you live in the USA you can open an account with Alpari-US.

When you open a LIVE account you should make sure it is a MICRO account with a leverage of 1:100

Tip. - It is all too easy to get carried away and open a Demo account with $5,000 or even $10,000. It really doesn't matter but I would suggest you open an account with roughly the same amount that you will be trading when you go live. This will make you think more about the EA settings when you attach them to charts later in the installation process. It will also show up very quickly if you make any mistakes, but the mistakes won't cost you anything!

I would run the MT4setup.exe file twice and create in two directories called "MT4 Alpari DEMO" & "MT4 Alpari LIVE". This will make the process of adding EA's and Indicators to the correct account easier later on.

N.B. Make a note of the directory path where you install MT4 as you will need it in the next step.

One further point. In some cases MetaTrader will advise that an update is available. You should always update to the latest version as FAPTurbo will have been configured to run on this.

Once you have installed your MT4 trading platform go to the Members Area on the FAPTurbo.com website and download the FAPTurboSetup.exe file.

If you are new to Forex Trading and particularly using Expert Advisers, make sure you download the standard version NOT the Pro version. The Pro version has more configurable parameters whereas the standard version has the majority of parameters hard coded. The trading logic is exactly the same in both versions.

Run the setup.exe file and follow the steps.

What the Easy Installer is doing is extracting two files from the FAPTurbo zip achive file. If you know how to save files to directories you can simply unzip the files and then copy them into the following directories:-

N.B. Let's assume you have installed Alpari MetaTrader using MT4setup.exe in C:\Program Files\MT4 Alpari Demo

• fapturboxx.ex4 file goes in MT4 Alpari DEMO\experts\ - where xx represents the fapturbo version number
  
  fapturbox.dll goes in MT 4 Alpari DEMO\experts\libraries - where x represents the latest dll version number which does not change with every fapturbo release

If you have the MetaTrader program open then close and reopen so that you can view the FAPTurbo.ex4 file. You will find this file in the Navigator window which is very similar to a normal explorer window. Just click on the + sign to expand the directories.

You are now ready to attach FAPTurbo to the currency pair chart window. Before doing so you need to make sure that MetaTrader has the correct "Global Settings" to run Expert Advisers.

Simply click on Tools at the top of the MetaTrader screen then go to Options and then tab number 5 labelled Expert Advisers. Here's a screen shot of my settings which are easily remembered by the fact that "every box on the left is checked, every box on the right is unchecked".

Click OK to close the window.

Then click on the "Expert Advisers" button at the top of the Metatrader window making sure it has the green triangle which indicates that any EA's are active and can manage trades.

Getting close now!

On the left hand side of the MetaTrader window you will see the list of currency pairs available for trading which are displayed in the "Marketwatch" panel. If there doesn't seem very many right click anywhere in the panel and click "Show All". You should see lots of pairs.

Select one of the pairs that FAPTurbo trades, e.g. EURGBP, right click on it and then select "Chart Window". The chart will load onto the screen with a default time period of 1 hour, ie EURGBP,H1. We want a 15 minute time frame for the EURGBP pair so click anywhere inside the chart window and then click the M15 button on the periodicty button at the top of the MetaTrader window. Before and after charts should look like this:

Now left click on the FAPTurbo adviser in the Navigator window on the left hand side of your screen. Click and drag the EA onto the chart window.

Ensure the Common EA settings are as per the above.

The Inputs settings will vary dependant on your broker and your tolerance to risk. This is also why I suggested opening a Demo account with the same amount of money that you will be trading live. Refer to the installation manual section, "FAPTurbo Parameters" for a detailed explanation of all the parameters and for those that you need to configure.

The are two settings that you need to get your head around and understand fully. They are:-

1. GMT OFFSET and
2. MONEY MANAGEMENT

GMT OFFSET - This parameter defines the offset, in hours, between GMT and your broker time. FAPTurbo trades between 21:00 - 01:00 hours GMT so you need to ensure your broker time is aligned to get trades at the correct time.

The broker time can be found at the top of the "MarketWatch" panel on the left hand side of the Metatrader window. Important! GMT Offset does not relate to where you live, it relates to your broker time. Alpari UK servers are based on European time so they are one hour in front of the UK. I therefore have to set my GMT Offset parameter to 1 so that FAPTurbo trades at the correct time. N.B. When we are in British Summer Time your GMT Offset should be 2. N.B. If you try to attach FAPTurbo to a window over the weekend you will see the MarketWatch time apparently "frozen". You then need to wait until a normal trading day to set your GMT Offset value.

MONEY MANAGEMENT - FAPTurbo has a built-in money management system which can be turned on or off using the "Scalper_UseMM" parameter.

1. Scalper_UseMM set to "True". Your trade size will be opened using the figure set by "Scalper_LotsRiskReducer (LRR). LRR is the percentage of equity (if no trades are open) OR the percentage of free margin. e.g. If LRR is set to 5 you are using 5% of your equity on each trade. The ideal situation of course is that you win a few trades and your amount per trade will increase. This "compounding" of profits is the way to make serious money. (N.B. Many seasoned traders will advise you to NEVER bet more than 5% of your equity on a single trade).
   
2. Scalper_UseMM set to "False". Your trade size will be fixed by the value set in "Scalper_Lots" parameter. You need to understand Lot sizes, for a definition or to find out more click here.
   Providing you have opened a "Micro" account you can set your Lot size to 0.01. If you have opened a GBP account you are trading 10 pence per point. Dollar account is 10 cents per point.

When you are happy with all the parameters click OK to run the EA. You should see a smiley face appear in the top right hand side of the MetaTrader window.

A few minutes after loading the EA a window will pop up saying that your FAPTurbo copy needs activating. Within this window will be a comment similar to this:- "Your Expert ID = 123456789". Make a note of it for the next step which is to obtain your activation key..

FAPTurbo requires a license "key" before it can work. It's all in "Step 4" of the "Downloads" section in the FAPTurbo members site.

Take very special care when obtaining your key and MAKE SURE you obtain the correct key dependent on whether you are using a Demo or Live account. You can create as many Demo account keys as you like, even for different brokers.

To do this you simply use the "DEMO ACCOUNT ACTIVATION" section of "Step 4".

I say take care when completing this task because it is easy to use the incorrect section, I speak from experience!! If you do inadvertantly use the wrong section it is a proverbial pain in the butt to get the key reset from FAPTurbo Support. Well at least it was when I tried but in fairness to FAPTurbo they were caught out by the phenomenal success at product launch and their support infrastructure just could not cope. Things are much improved now as FAPTurbo have recruited additional support staff.

Even though you completed loading the EA to the chart window in Step 3 above and have the smiley face FAPTurbo will not start to trade until you have activated your copy. Activation is all part of the process to prevent pirate copying of the EA.

Once you have entered your activation key you will again see a smiley face but this time you will also see additional information in the chart window similar to this:- You are now ready to trade

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Forex Expert Advisers (or Robots as they are called) need to be trading 24/5, ie Monday through Friday. FAPTurbo trades between 21:00 - 01:00 Monday to Thursday nights. My reasons for using VPS rather than leaving my own PC are described on the Forex VPS page here.

When you apply for a VPS account they will ask you who your broker is so that they can preload the MetaTrader4(MT4) application ready for you to use. I actually use multiple instances of MT4 so I run the setup program a number of times and create in different directories, one for each instance of MT4 that I need. My preferred broker is AlpariUK so I have 4 instances of MT4 running, one for each of 3 live accounts and one for a demo account.

VPS has Internet Explorer loaded so you simply use that to access your FAPTurbo members zone and download a further copy of the EA (you can download multiple times but you still only have a single license).