An expert advisor, or EA, is a program that places trades for you on MetaTrader. Most established prop firms allow them. The rules are less about whether you automate and more about what the automation does, because a few EA behaviours can only make money on a simulated account.

What FTMO allows

FTMO says your trading style is up to you, and accepts discretionary, algorithmic and EA-based trading as long as it is legitimate, uses proper risk management and avoids its forbidden practices. It does not require a stop loss. It does set technical limits:

Expert Advisor and Automation Rules at Prop Firms. What FTMO allows; What firms usually ban; Using a bought EA; A safe setup
What this guide covers: 4 key sections at a glance.
  • Its servers allow up to 200 orders at a time and 2,000 positions a day.
  • If an EA puts excessive load on the server, FTMO may ask you to change its logic or settings.
  • If many traders run the same third-party EA, they are effectively running one strategy, and exceeding FTMO’s maximum capital allocation rule that way can lead to an account being refused.

What firms usually ban

Wording differs, but the banned behaviours are similar across the industry:

  • Exploiting the simulation: latency or price-feed arbitrage, or trading on delayed prices.
  • Hedging across accounts: opposite positions on two accounts or two firms so that one passes whatever happens.
  • Copying another trader’s signals or accounts onto yours, or letting someone else trade your account.
  • Very high-frequency trading that only works without real-market costs.
  • Gambling patterns: all-in positions or martingale grids that pass by luck.

Firms review trades before paying. An EA that passed the evaluation can still lead to a refused payout if the review finds a banned pattern, so read the forbidden practices before you buy, not after you pass.

Using a bought EA

A commercial EA sold to thousands of people places the same trades for all of them. Firms see that as one large strategy spread across many accounts, which can breach allocation limits or look like copy trading. If you use a bought EA, change its settings meaningfully and keep your own record of how you tested it.

A safe setup

  1. Test the EA on a free demo account with the firm’s loss limits coded in as hard stops.
  2. Make the EA stop trading for the day well before the daily loss limit.
  3. Run it on a VPS so a dropped connection does not leave trades unmanaged.
  4. Check news restrictions on the funded account and pause the EA around restricted events.
An EA follows the code, not the rulebook. Every prop rule you care about, daily loss, maximum loss, news windows, has to be written into it, or it will break them for you.
FX Recap viewEditorial team

Frequently asked

Can I use an expert advisor on a prop firm account?

At most established firms, yes. FTMO, for example, accepts EA-based trading as long as it is legitimate, uses proper risk management and avoids its forbidden practices.

What EA strategies do prop firms ban?

Usually latency or price-feed arbitrage, hedging across accounts, copying other traders, very high-frequency trading that relies on the simulation, and gambling patterns such as all-in or martingale trades.

Can I use an EA I bought online?

Often, but carefully. Many traders run the same commercial EA, so the firm sees one strategy on many accounts. FTMO says exceeding its maximum capital allocation rule through such an EA can lead to an account being refused.

Does FTMO limit how many trades an EA can place?

Yes. FTMO's servers allow up to 200 orders at a time and 2,000 positions a day, and FTMO may ask you to change an EA that puts excessive load on them.