What Is VTS?
Visual Trading Studio (VTS) is an application that allows you to create a MetaTrader Expert Advisor by dragging and dropping graphical Elements onto a drawing pad.
Using VTS is similar to using applications like Microsoft Paint or Visio.
VTS offers a Toolbox of elements which you can drag, drop, configure and connect on a drawing pad.
When you are satisfied with the drawing, you press a button and VTS builds an Expert Advisor. The Expert Advisor’s MQL file is automatically generated by VTS. Now you can simply open your MetaTrader platform, attach the Expert Advisor to a currency chart, and you are running your trading strategy.
What is MetaTrader?
MetaTrader is a trading platform offered by many FOREX brokers. The trading platform is very comprehensive, offering just about every feature you would expect from a FOREX trading platform. Honestly, most FOREX trading platforms offer the same functionality and MetaTrader is generally the same or better when compared with other FOREX trading platforms.
What makes MetaTrader special is that it offers the trader the ability to create automatic (or mechanical) trading programs called Expert Advisors.
MetaTrader created its own programming language called MQL that is used to create these “Expert Advisors”. The MQL language is very powerful and allows a trader to execute many strategies that simply could not be executed manually.
But best of all MetaTrader is free. So it is a great opportunity for a trader to evaluate systematic (or mechanical or algorithmic) trading strategies with little or no investment.
As previously mentioned, MetaTrader is offered by many brokers. Just run an internet search on “MetaTrader broker” and you’ll see dozens.