The first time we surveyed the MT5 EA market, the surprise wasn't how many bad products existed. It was how many looked identical to the good ones. Same equity curves on the landing page. Same screenshots of "live results." Same promises of risk-managed AI. The only thing that separated them was what happened after you paid.
This guide is the checklist we wish we'd had.
The single question that breaks most sellers
Email the seller and ask: "Can you send me the Strategy Tester .htm report from the screenshots, with the modelling mode and broker visible?"
What you'll get back tells you everything:
- Full report attached, broker named, "Every tick based on real ticks" visible → trustworthy seller, real product.
- Different screenshot, no .htm file → the original screenshot was either fabricated or cherry-picked. Walk away.
- "It's proprietary" / "We can't share that" / radio silence → the report doesn't exist or it's embarrassing. Definitely walk.
- "Here's our marketplace listing" → not the same thing. The marketplace listing is also a screenshot. Ask again.
This one email screens out roughly 70% of the market. (For context, our published report is the file format you should be expecting.)
The 7 red flags
1. "Guaranteed" returns
"30% per month, guaranteed" is illegal in most jurisdictions when sold to retail buyers. Even when it's not illegal, it's dishonest — no automated strategy returns 30% monthly forever. The math compounds to absurdity. (30% monthly = 23× per year. After 5 years, $1,000 → $7 million.) Anyone who's seen real markets knows that's a fantasy.
Honest sellers say "test it on demo, it might not work for you." Read the disclosures. The cleaner the disclosure, the more confident the seller.
2. No published backtest report — only screenshots
A screenshot can be Photoshopped in 30 seconds. The .htm file MT5 exports can't be — well, technically it can, but the broker name, modelling mode, and trade list are auditable. If a seller only has screenshots, they have something to hide. How to read a real Strategy Tester report.
3. Martingale, grid, or "smart recovery"
Same logic, different marketing. Each one means: add to losing positions hoping for a reversal. Each one produces backtests that look like a steady upward line until they don't. Each one ends the same way: one extended losing streak, account zero.
The tell: ask if the EA opens additional positions after a loss. If yes, it's some flavor of martingale. If the seller can't answer the question clearly, assume yes.
4. No refund policy or "non-refundable digital goods"
The refund window forces the product to survive demo. Without a refund, the seller has no incentive to ship something that works past day one — they have your money already. A 14-day refund is the minimum acceptable. Below that, skip.
5. Hidden or undocumented inputs
If you can't see the input list before purchase, you don't know what you're buying. The seller might be hiding a martingale multiplier, a grid step, or a kill-switch the EA disables silently after a few months. A documented input list looks like this — every parameter, what it does, what it defaults to.
6. No support email or unanswered email
Send a pre-purchase question. "Does it work with broker X?" or "What's the minimum deposit?" If the response takes more than 48 hours on weekdays, post-purchase support will be worse. Trade-day urgency makes that gap unbearable. (Our own response time target is under 24 hours weekdays — contact.)
7. Anonymous seller, no track record
EA development is a small market. Sellers with track records have GitHub repos, MQL5 marketplace ratings with multi-month review history, blog posts going back years, public Discord/Telegram groups. Sellers who appeared three months ago with a glossy landing page and no history are either brand-new (acceptable, but pay the smallest possible price) or rebranded after their last identity got blacklisted (not acceptable).
Search the seller name + "scam" or "review." If the first page of results is all affiliate sites with identical 5-star reviews, that's a marketing smokescreen. Real reviews have negatives.
What "AI" actually means in EA marketing
Most "AI EAs" are EAs that call OpenAI or a local model once per signal. The model returns a confidence score. The EA either trades or skips based on that score. That's it. It's not magic — it's a filter.
What to ask:
- What model is being called? (Llama 3.3 / GPT-4 / a custom classifier?)
- How often is it called? (Once per bar / once per signal / every tick?)
- What features does it see? (Price, volume, ATR, time-of-day?)
- What happens if the model is offline? (EA skips trades / EA continues with rules-only / EA crashes?)
If the seller can't answer all four, the "AI" is marketing veneer. What AI in forex actually means and what it can't do.
The compliance / legal layer
Most EA sellers operate as software vendors, not financial advisors. That's legal almost everywhere — they're selling code, not advice. But it means:
- You're solely responsible for trading outcomes.
- Past performance disclaimers must be present (any seller without one is reckless).
- The seller is not subject to the same rules as a regulated investment manager.
The SEC's automated trading guidance covers what the lack of regulation actually means in practice. Read it once before you spend any money.
Personal insight: the "free trial" trap
A "free 7-day trial" sounds like risk reduction. Sometimes it is. More often, it's a delivery mechanism for an EA that subtly changes behavior after the trial ends — tighter stops, different lot sizing, a new "premium signal source" that's actually the same one with random noise.
Prefer products with a paid license + refund window over free trials. The refund proves the seller will honor it; the free trial proves nothing.
The verification pass
Before you transfer money, run this 5-minute pass:
- Search the EA name on Trustpilot, Reddit, ForexFactory. Negative reviews exist? Read them.
- Email the seller. Time the response.
- Ask for the .htm Strategy Tester report. Check the modelling mode line.
- Read the refund policy. Note the window length and the conditions.
- Check whether inputs are documented publicly (not "after purchase").
If all five check out, you've already filtered out 80% of the market.
FAQ
How do I spot an MT5 EA scam?
Guaranteed monthly returns, no published backtest, no refund, hidden inputs, anonymous seller. Any one is a yellow flag; two or more is a hard pass.
What's the safest way to test a new EA?
Demo account for 7+ days, then live with the smallest possible position size for another week, then scale up. Skip the demo and you're using your own money to find out the install was wrong.
Is the MQL5 marketplace safer than buying direct?
Slightly — MetaQuotes vets sellers and runs official cloud backtests. But the marketplace also lists thousands of low-effort products with bought reviews. Verify independently regardless of where you buy.