Installing an Expert Advisor on MetaTrader 5 is genuinely simple once you've done it — most of the confusion comes from two settings that are easy to miss the first time. Here's the complete process, in order.

Step 1: Download the file

Your EA will come as a `.ex5` file (or occasionally `.ex4` for the older MetaTrader 4). Download it from wherever your provider makes it available, and don't rename the file — some EAs are tied to their exact filename for licensing purposes, and renaming it can cause it to fail silently.

Step 2: Open your MT5 data folder

In MetaTrader 5, go to File → Open Data Folder. This opens a Windows Explorer window pointed directly at MT5's internal file structure — not your regular Downloads folder, a completely separate directory MT5 uses for its own files.

Step 3: Install the file into the Experts folder

Inside the data folder, navigate to MQL5 → Experts, and copy your `.ex5` file there. Back in MetaTrader, right-click Expert Advisors in the Navigator panel (usually on the left) and choose Refresh. Your EA should now appear in the list.

Step 4: Allow web access (if the EA needs it)

This is the step most people miss entirely. If your EA reports trades to a website, sends Telegram alerts, or does any kind of live license verification, it needs permission to make outbound web requests — and MT5 blocks this by default for security.

Go to Tools → Options → Expert Advisors tab, and tick Allow WebRequest for listed URL. Add the exact domain your EA needs (your provider should tell you exactly what to add) — just the domain, no path after it, and make sure it matches exactly, including whether it uses `www.` or not.

Step 5: Attach the EA to a chart

Open the correct chart for your EA — a single-instrument EA typically needs to be on that specific pair's chart (e.g., a gold EA on a XAUUSD chart), while a multi-pair EA is often designed to run from a single chart and monitor your whole Market Watch from there. Drag the EA from the Navigator panel onto the chart.

Step 6: Configure the inputs

A settings window will appear with the EA's configurable inputs — this is where you'd enter any license key, API token, or risk settings your provider requires. Fill these in exactly as instructed, then click OK.

Step 7: Turn on Algo Trading

This is the second most commonly missed step. Even with everything configured correctly, MT5 has a master Algo Trading toggle in the toolbar — if it's off (usually shown in red), no EA on any chart will place a single trade, no matter how correctly it's configured. Click it so it turns green.

Step 8: Confirm it's actually running

Check the top-right corner of the chart — a small smiley-face icon indicates the EA is attached and running (a sad face usually means an error occurred, worth checking the Experts tab in the Toolbox at the bottom of the platform for the specific error). If your EA reports to a dashboard or website, that's often the easiest way to confirm everything is genuinely connected — status should update within a few minutes of attaching.

The two mistakes that cause 90% of "it's not working" messages

Forgetting the WebRequest URL. If your EA needs to phone home for licensing or reporting and the URL isn't allowed, it will typically fail silently or log a network error in the Experts tab — always check there first.

Algo Trading being off. It sounds too simple to be the actual problem, but it's the single most common reason a correctly-installed EA does nothing at all.

If you're setting up QMS Trading's Gold or Forex Edition specifically, the full setup guide with exact URLs and inputs is here — most people are fully running in about five minutes.