MARKETPLACE GUIDE
Buying a gold EA on MQL5 Market: what to check
The marketplace lists gold expert advisors from about $30 to $30,000, and price tells you almost nothing. Three fields on a listing are hard to fake. Most of the rest are not.
Short answer
On an MQL5 Market listing, the fields worth weighting are the linked verified signal, the age of the product and its update history, and whether the description states its position sizing. Reviews, star ratings and backtest screenshots are the easiest parts to game. Always check which platform the product targets — an MT4 EA will not run on MT5.
The three fields that are hard to fake
Almost everything on a marketplace listing is written by the seller. These three are not, or not easily.
| Field | Why it resists gaming | What to look for |
|---|---|---|
| A linked verified signal | Hosted by MetaQuotes, not the vendor | Length of history, and whether it survives a drawdown |
| Product age and update log | Timestamps are platform-generated | Still updated recently, and updated after platform releases |
| Stated position sizing | A specific claim they can be held to | Fixed risk, and explicitly no martingale or grid |
What is easy to game
- Star ratings. Reviews cluster right after release, while early buyers are still ahead. A martingale can hold five stars for months before the run that ends it.
- Backtest images. Trivially produced with favourable settings, optimistic spread and no slippage. Every strategy has a beautiful backtest somewhere in its parameter space.
- Win rate. Achievable at any level by taking small profits and holding losers. Meaningless without the reward-to-risk ratio beside it.
- "Low drawdown". Almost always true right up until it is catastrophically false, if position size increases after losses.
Two things buyers routinely miss
Platform. MQL4 and MQL5 products are separate listings and do not interchange. Gold Emperor EA, to take the most searched example, is published on MQL5 Market as a MetaTrader 4 product — so it will not run on an MT5 terminal at all. We set out why the two cannot be bridged in MT4 versus MT5 expert advisors.
Refunds. Marketplace purchases are generally not refundable. Buying direct from a vendor who offers a stated refund window is a materially different transaction, and on an unproven product that difference is worth more than a discount.
A five-minute check before you buy
- Platform badge — MT4 or MT5, matched to the terminal you actually have.
- Linked verified signal — and does it cover a losing period, or only a good quarter?
- Sizing statement — does it ever increase lot size after a loss? If the listing avoids the question, assume it does.
- Update history — has it been maintained through recent platform builds?
- Reviews by date, not average — read the newest and the worst first.
These are the marketplace-specific version of the broader seven-point evidence test, which applies to any vendor including us. If you want to see what a gold strategy actually has to survive before you judge anyone’s numbers, our published spread and volatility data is free and the dataset is downloadable.
We sell a gold expert advisor ourselves, and it is not on MQL5 Market — partly because marketplace purchases are not refundable and a refund window is the only term in an offer that costs the seller something when the product disappoints.
Common questions
Are MQL5 Market EAs legit?
The marketplace itself is legitimate and operated by MetaQuotes, the company that makes MetaTrader. Products are code-reviewed before listing, which catches outright malware but does not assess whether a strategy is any good. So the platform is trustworthy and the individual products vary enormously. Treat it as a shop rather than a curator: the shelves are real, the claims on the packaging are the vendor’s.
How much should a gold EA cost?
Listings run from roughly $30 to $30,000, and price correlates poorly with quality in both directions. A very cheap EA is often a martingale or a rebranded free one; a very expensive one is frequently priced to signal exclusivity rather than to reflect development cost. What matters far more than price is whether you can get your money back. MQL5 Market purchases are generally non-refundable, which is a material difference from buying direct from a vendor who offers a refund window.
Can I trust the reviews on MQL5?
Read them, but weight them lightly. Reviews cluster shortly after release when early buyers are still in profit, and a strategy that ends accounts can hold five stars for months before the losing run arrives. Look at the dates rather than the average, read the one and two-star reviews first, and treat a perfect rating on a young product as less informative than a four-star rating spread over two years.
Does a gold EA from MQL5 work on MT5?
Only if it was published for MT5. MQL4 and MQL5 are different languages and the products are separate listings — Gold Emperor EA, for instance, is published on MQL5 Market as a MetaTrader 4 product. Check the platform badge before buying, because a purchase for the wrong platform is not usually refundable and there is no converter.
Further reading
Educational information only, not financial advice. Trading leveraged products carries substantial risk of loss. Last updated 2026-08-19.