VPS (Virtual Private Server)

An EA only trades while its terminal runs. A VPS is a small cloud machine — ideally close to the broker's servers — where MetaTrader runs 24/5 regardless of your laptop, power, or internet.

For latency-sensitive strategies, VPS location matters (milliseconds to the broker). For most retail strategies the bigger benefits are mundane: no missed trades from sleep mode, reboots, or home connectivity drops.

Covered in depth in Lesson 02: Setting up MetaTrader 5 properly.

Related terms

MetaTrader 5 (MT5) — The trading platform most retail algorithmic trading runs on, connecting charts, robots, and your broker account.
Expert Advisor (EA) — A program that runs inside MetaTrader and places, manages, and closes trades automatically according to fixed rules.

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