Brokers & VPS

Three filters when picking a broker:

1. **Regulation** — FCA (UK), ASIC (Australia), CySEC (EU), NFA (US). Avoid offshore-only regulators unless you understand the trade-off. 2. **Execution model** — ECN/raw spread + commission for scalpers; STP for swing/trend. 3. **EA policy** — verify in writing that the broker allows EA trading, scalping, and news trading. Some retail brokers restrict scalping.

We maintain detailed broker reviews at /brokers and a per-EA fit summary on each product page.

Spread directly enters the EA's profit equation. A scalper that targets 5 pips per trade is highly sensitive to whether the round-trip spread is 1 pip or 2 pips — the latter cuts net profit roughly in half.

Many retail brokers advertise tight headline spreads (e.g. "from 0.0 pips") that only apply during very narrow windows. The realistic average spread during your EA's typical trading hours is what matters. Track this for a week on demo before going live.

XAUUSD spread in particular has a wide range across brokers (0.8–3.0 pips for the same product), making broker choice especially impactful for gold-trading EAs.

ECN (Electronic Communications Network): - Tight raw spreads (XAUUSD 0.3–0.8 pips) - Commission $5–7 per round-turn lot - Anonymous order matching - Suitable for scalping

STP (Straight-Through Processing): - Wider spreads (XAUUSD 1.5–3.0 pips) - No commission - Broker acts as principal - Suitable for swing/trend

For a scalper closing 5–15 trades per day, ECN+commission is mathematically cheaper than STP-wider-spread despite the explicit commission line. For a trend EA closing one trade every few days, the wider STP spread is negligible.

Three criteria when picking a VPS provider:

1. **Location** — ping under 20 ms to your broker's MT5 server. Most ECN brokers route through LD4 (London). Ask your broker for their server location and pick a VPS in the same data centre when possible. 2. **OS support** — Windows Server (2019 or 2022) for MetaTrader. Linux is not supported by MT5. 3. **Uptime guarantee** — 99.9% or higher with SLA.

Forex-specialised VPS providers (BeeksFX, FXVM) charge a premium but include MT5 preinstalled and broker connectivity optimised. General-purpose VPS (Vultr, Hetzner) costs less but requires manual MT5 install. Both work fine.

Ping latency directly affects execution slippage on scalp EAs. A round trip from your VPS to the broker server of 100 ms means every order is at least 50 ms behind the price you saw — and 50 ms in a fast-moving XAUUSD M1 chart can be several pips.

For swing/trend EAs that hold positions for hours or days, latency is essentially irrelevant — the difference between 5 ms and 200 ms is invisible at the H4 chart.

Ask your broker for their MT5 server's IP or data centre and pick a VPS in the same facility. Most professional providers list this matrix on their site.

Slippage shows up on both entries and stop-losses. On entries it is usually small (under 1 pip) on a good ECN broker. On stop-losses during high-volatility events it can be large — sometimes 10+ pips. Both directions matter: - **Positive slippage** (entry fills at a better price) is rare but possible. - **Negative slippage** (entry or stop fills worse) is far more common, especially during news.

No EA can prevent slippage — it's a function of broker execution and market conditions. The mitigation is choice of broker and execution venue.

Options for Mac users:

1. **Windows VPS** (recommended) — provision a Windows VPS, install MT5 there, control via Microsoft Remote Desktop (free Mac client). The EA runs on the VPS 24/5 regardless of your Mac being awake. 2. **MT5 macOS bundle** — MetaQuotes provides a wrapper around Wine; works but occasionally crashes during long sessions. 3. **Parallels / VMware Fusion** — full Windows VM on the Mac. Stable but consumes RAM and battery; not a 24/5 solution.

For live trading we recommend option 1. For backtesting and learning, options 2 or 3 are fine.