The whole setup, one step at a time. Nothing here assumes you have traded before. About twenty minutes, and most of that is waiting for the broker to email you. You need a Windows computer or laptop - this cannot run on a phone, a tablet or a Mac.
There is one thing the installer is not allowed to do for you. MetaTrader blocks it on purpose: letting a program trade your money is a decision only you can make.
Turn AutoTrading on (step 16) — click the AutoTrading button at the top of MetaTrader so it goes green.
Leave it red and everything still looks right. Both algos sit on both charts, nothing goes red, no error appears. And no trade is ever placed. The only sign is a sad face instead of a smiley in the top right of each chart, so check the faces. That step is marked in amber below.
One more, earlier on: step 9, open MetaTrader once and close it. The installer cannot find MetaTrader until you have opened it at least once.
Click "Get free access" on the APEX home page.
It opens a window with twelve tick boxes.
Read the twelve boxes and tick them.
They explain how you can lose money. They are short. Read them properly, because you are agreeing to them.
Click "Open partner account".
This sends you to Vantage, the broker who actually holds your money. APEX never touches it.
Fill in the Vantage form. Four things must be right.
A Raw or ECN account charges commission on every trade that our published results do not include. Vantage UK caps leverage too low for the algo to hold its positions.
Wait for Vantage to email you.
Usually minutes. Sometimes a few hours.
Save these three things from that email.
Lost the email? All three are in the Vantage client portal under My Accounts.
Put money in. At least £200.
On the Vantage website find Deposit. Below £200 the broker's minimum trade size means the algo has to skip some of its trades.
Install MetaTrader 5.
Download it from Vantage and install it. If you skip this, the APEX installer will offer to download it for you - but you will still have to do step 9 afterwards, so it is quicker to do it now.
Open MetaTrader 5 once, then close it again.
This makes the program create its own folders. The APEX installer cannot find MetaTrader until you have opened it at least once.
Come back to the APEX site and finish signing up.
It asks for your email and the login number from step 6.
Copy your licence key and save it.
Yours will look like that. Keep it with your other details.
Click Download APEX Installer. You get one file: APEX-INSTALL.bat
One file. Nothing to unzip, no folder to dig through. It goes to your Downloads.
Double click APEX-INSTALL.bat.
Windows may show a blue "Windows protected your PC" box, or Chrome may warn about the file type. Choose More info then Run anyway, or Keep in Chrome. That happens because the file is new and unsigned, not because anything is wrong with it.
Paste your licence key and press Enter.
Right click inside the black window to paste. It then downloads both algos, installs them, and opens MetaTrader for you. If MetaTrader is missing it will offer to fetch that too.
In MetaTrader click File, then "Login to Trade Account".
Enter your login number, your trader password, and pick your server from the list. It has to be the exact server from your email.
Turn AutoTrading on. Without this nothing trades.
Look along the top toolbar of MetaTrader for the button marked AutoTrading. It must be green. If it is red or grey, click it once and it turns green.
This is the one thing no software is allowed to do for you. Windows and MetaTrader both treat "let a program trade my money" as a decision only you can make. Leave it red and both algos sit on the charts doing nothing.
Look for two charts, NAS100 and XAUUSD, each with a smiley face in the top right.
Smiley face = running. Sad face = AutoTrading is still off, go back to step 16.
From now on just double click Start APEX Algo on your desktop and leave it alone.
A report pops up telling you READY or NOT READY — and if it is not ready, it names the one thing to fix. You do not have to remember to check anything.
It checks all seven things that have to be true before a trade can happen: connected to your broker, logged in (and whether that account is demo or live), AutoTrading green, your broker allowing automated trading, the gold algo on a gold M1 chart, the NASDAQ algo on a NASDAQ M1 chart, and money in the account.
If you ever email us for help, run it first and paste the whole thing in — it usually answers the question on its own.
You can still check by eye if you prefer: two charts, a smiley face on both, and the AutoTrading button green.
There is no practice mode and it will not ask you first. If you want to watch it before risking anything, log into a demo account at step 15 instead. It behaves exactly the same.
The algo only trades while your computer is on and MetaTrader is open. If you shut it down or it goes to sleep, it stops.
Easiest fix — MetaTrader's own VPS. Look at the bottom right corner of MetaTrader for a small VPS / hosting button. Click it and set up a cheap subscription (about £10 to £15 a month). It copies your setup into the cloud and runs your algos 24/7, so you do not need your own computer on at all. When it asks to copy your charts and algos across, say yes. Best option if you want it fully hands-off.
Download the MetaTrader 5 app (App Store or Google Play), log in with the same login number, password and server, and you can watch your live trades, profit and balance from anywhere.
One thing to know: the algo still runs on your computer or VPS, not your phone. The phone is only a window to watch it — do not close your computer thinking the phone keeps it going.
Do not move its stop losses and do not close its trades by hand. It remembers what it planned to risk, and changing a stop does not update that.
Your trades use the same money. If you use it up, the algo's orders get rejected and those trades are gone. Open a separate account if you want to trade by hand.
5 of the 19 months in the published record lost money, and the untouched £200 example fell 79% from its high before it recovered. If that would make you switch it off at the worst moment, this is not for you. Risk ships at 3% per trade - about £6 on a £200 account. Do not raise it: at 5%, two of the eight tested periods lost the entire account.
3% of your account equity, per trade. You do not have to set anything up - it is already 3% on both charts when the installer finishes.
It is a percentage, not a fixed amount, so it moves with your account on its own. You never have to adjust it as the account grows.
The 3% is per trade, and there are five separate engines - two on NASDAQ, three on gold. Each one sizes its own trade at 3%. They usually do not all trade at once, but they can, and when several are in together your total exposure is higher than 3%.
The published results were produced exactly this way, so the figures already include it. But when you pick a number, size it on what you could stand to lose in a bad week, not on one trade.
Do this on both charts. Changing one only changes that market.
The algo restarts on that chart and uses the new number from its next trade. Trades already open keep the size they were opened at. Your setting sticks, including after you close MetaTrader and reopen it with the desktop shortcut. To check what you are on, press F7 and look at InpRiskPercent.
| Setting | What it means |
|---|---|
| 1% | Cautious. Slower growth, much shallower falls. A sensible place to start if this is your first algo. |
| 2% | Middle ground. |
| 3% | The default, and the highest we recommend. Every published figure was produced at this setting, and it is the one we support. |
| 4%+ | Not recommended and not supported. At 5%, two of the eight tested periods lost the entire account. At 7% and above, every period we tested was wiped out. |
Going lower is always safe - it cannot blow the account faster, it just grows slower. If in doubt use 1%. For less than 1%, type a decimal such as 0.5.
Want a fixed pound amount instead? Set InpRiskPercent to 0, then set InpRiskDollars to the amount you want risked per trade - the percentage always wins unless it is zero. Be careful with this: a fixed amount does not shrink when your account does, so a run of losses risks a bigger and bigger share of what is left.
The AutoTrading button is not green. Look at the top of the MetaTrader window and click it so it turns green, then check each chart shows a smiley face in the top right rather than a sad one.
If it is green and both faces are smiling, it is simply waiting for a setup. The algos take around 8 to 9 trades a day between them, and quiet spells are normal.
Live trading only runs on a Vantage account opened through the member link, because the broker commission is what pays for the software. A demo account works on any broker.
You skipped step 9. Open MetaTrader once, close it, then run APEX-INSTALL.bat again. Or let the installer download MetaTrader for you when it offers.
Choose More info then Run anyway, or Keep in Chrome. It flags because the file is new and unsigned. You can open APEX-INSTALL.bat in Notepad first if you want to see what it does.
AutoTrading is off. Click the AutoTrading button at the top so it turns green.
Wrong server. Check the exact server name in your Vantage email and choose that one from the list.
On the home page click Already registered? Get your key back under the join button. It gives you both again.
Still stuck? Email theogoodsmithmtb@gmail.com.
Back to the main page The longer setup guide
Educational software, not financial advice. Trading carries a high risk of losing money and losses are possible. Only trade money you can afford to lose entirely.