When evaluating the health of your bot, it comes down to whether it can make trades or not. I am not going to go into the specifics of the algorithm and why it isn’t buying or selling a specific pair. I am only addressing the basic question: Why is my algo trading bot so sluggish?

There may be causes I haven’t experienced yet, but it is almost certainly the VPS (Virtual Private Server. This is where your bot is attached to MT4.) As I have talked to various people about their bots, I have gotten different opinions. “Oh, yeah! I have 5 bots operating on one VPS.” Others will say, “You can do what you want, but I don’t want my bot having to share bandwidth with any other bot.” With the limited experience I have had, I am much closer to the “1 to 1” camp.

In early February, I had all 3 of my bots on one VPS. All of the bots played along perfectly together until they didn’t. I am not sure what the source of the network problems were, but the servers began operating very slowly. Some of the trades the bots wanted executed were completed, and some weren’t. I didn’t lose much money, but the experience made me wonder why I would risk saving $35 when I could easily lose that and more.

Some VPSes are designed to handle the needs of multiple bots. I am trusting the word of some of my bot-providers until I don’t. These bots are mine. They trade my money to make me more money. I choose what is a necessary expense and what is an extra. For me, providing a solo dwelling for my money-making bots is an easy one. I sleep better and they don’t have to share.

I have had success with these VPS providers: (These are affiliate links)

• Chocoping: This is a very reliable server for a solo bot. My Settings: CHOCO – 4GB v.2 Standard Forex VPS v.2,

• ForexVPS: Standard Cloud VPS service, this VPS might handle 3 bots without problems, but I cannot promise. I suggest just one bot using this VPS package.