What to Expect 

 

Sometimes, the hardest part of building an EA is not the programming; it’s the communicating and testing. Here’s how a typical project (less than 10 hours) goes: 

  • The customer tries to explain the concept for the expert advisor. 1-2 weeks.
  • The actual programming work. A maximum of 5 business days.
  • The customer tries to explain problems that he has never explained before. We fix them and send a new version. The cycle repeats. 2-4+ weeks

Payments & Pricing 

 

You can order our services for as low as $50, however we request a 50% deposit to initiate a project and the remaining 50% balance will be charged only after completion of the Program. After the Program has been delivered any errors or bugs found in the Program will be fixed free of charge but modifications on the strategy will require additional fees. 

We accept payments in various forms such as; 

  • Credit / Debit Card
  • Bitcoin, Ethereum
  • Skirll
  • Paypal

The Scope of Work 

 

Once the project concept reaches a certain point of clarity, the project manager will send you a scope of work (SOW). The SOW attempts to bridge the gap between 

  • Explaining a trading strategy in clear English
  • Structuring the explanation so that a programmer can pick it up, read it once or twice, and immediately start programming

The structure of the SOW reflects the idea of a checklist: I know to enter the market when items x, y and z are checked off. You can also think of those items as evaluating to true or false. If they’re all true, then the EA should enter a trade. If not, then the Expert Advisor does not need to do anything. 

Take a look at a sample SOW written for a triple moving average crossover robot. Although the strategy is simple, you will get a feel for how the document flows and how it may apply to your EA. 

The project manager creates the SOW to confirm his understanding. In effect, he parrots the strategy back to you. It’s our way of saying, “Yes, we understand the work that you want us to do” before we accept any form of payment. It also presents the opportunity to correct any mistakes before they actually happen. 

The project manager does a lot of the mental heavy lifting. That said, you are the person with the fully formed idea in their head. You may find yourself strained at some point to translate thoughts from your brain into a format that others can follow. There are no shortcuts – it is best that you approach the subject with a great deal of patience. 

Expert Advisor and Custom Indicator Delivery

 

Delivery of the initial expert advisor or custom indicator takes 5 business days from the date of payment, unless specified otherwise. 

Atrifx. uses an email ticketing system for delivering and testing the programming project files. Customers are automatically registered and receive their EA or indicator as an email attachment. You can send as many messages as need without worrying about cluttering the inbox. The system neatly categorizes and organizes emails according to the order in which they were received. You can also login to the ticketing system directly. 

We do tech support via the ticketing system. The system helps maintain the files, issues and comments within a single confined area. The project stays more organized, making your life easier and less stressful. 

Testing Your Expert Advisor

 

The initial version of an Expert Advisor almost never comes out as a final, polished product. While the programmers do test the product, a difference exists between running an EA on backtests versus using the file in real life. 

Almost all software companies hire a quality assurance engineer to test software. That profession exists for a reason. Testing software takes a lot of work. 

Many of our customers are retail forex traders seeking to keep costs down. The most obvious way to reduce cost is to have you, the customer, do the testing. 

Even the most trivial EAs usually require several hours of testing to find the little bugs. You are also probably not a quality assurance engineer, and thus not comfortable explaining what exactly doesn’t work. We fully expect that you are inexperienced communicating software concepts or problems and reflect that in the estimated time. 

The customer is the only person that can fully communicate the requirements and verify that the software we produce matches the scope of work. Therefore, that person has to do real work. You should expect to spend a significant amount of time verifying that the software functions as intended and sending documentation. 

A defined process exists for communicating Expert Advisor issues. Most novices report general issues such as the “trailling stop does not work properly”. Whenever these types of issues arise, expect the project manager to ask for MetaTrader log files, screen shots and an written overview of the problem. Although the problem may appear obvious, that is probably not the case for the person on the receiving end of the information. The process aims to reverse engineer your thought process, which in turn leads to the clearest description of the problem. The process also involves some degree of computer literacy on the part of the customer. 

Ironing out the bugs, great and small, takes anywhere from 2-4+ weeks from the date of delivery. Some of that stems from our need to communicate consistently with all customers. Some of it results from waiting for the market to do something that causes the Expert Advisor to act incorrectly. 

EAtrifx Inc. answers tech support requests within 1-3 business days. 

CUSTOMER RIGHTS

 

All customers of atrifx.com will receive the original source code for programming projects. The customer is free to distribute the code in any way, including for profit. 

Many of our customers like to sell their Expert Advisors in order to cover the development costs. We can even show you how to distribute licensed versions of your trading system so that traders can only use it on one computer. 

Any trading algorithms sent to atrifx.com are held confidentially. We consider all price estimates and the ideas within them the customer’s intellectual property. We make no ownership claims on any ideas received or that we develop into code. You are paying us; you may use the code however you like. 

Each fixed cost purchase includes free, ongoing support for any errors or bugs in the code that conflict with the scope of work (SOW). In the unusual instance where a problem is difficult to solve, we work with you until the trading system follows the exact rules outlined by the customer. This does not apply to pay for time projects. 

We typically provide one or two free “tweaks” or minor modifications to the code at no additional cost. The number of tweaks depends on the number of hours originally purchased, the difficulty of implementing requested changes, total time spent on the project, etc. 

We strive to build ongoing relationships with our customers so that you use us for all your programming projects. We want to make sure that your trading ideas are as accurate and useful as possible 

Money Back Guarantee

 

  • You may request full refund if the delivery did not happen within 7 working days after the estimated time of delivery.
  • Our working days are defined as Monday through Friday excluding all major holidays. We strive to finish our customer’s work as fast as possible even if that means programming on non-work days when possible. However, non-work days should not be counted in our estimated time of delivery.
  • Our programming will commence after receiving 50% cleared payment. Clearing times will vary depending on the chosen payment method. We do not process any payments but use 3rd party payment processors. We have no control over the process and are not responsible for the time it takes for payments to clear.
  • If after receiving the completed program, you are not satisfied, we will attempt to reprogram your program free of charge as long as we are notified within 14 calendar days of the problem and the problem is caused by a fault in our programming.
  • All reprogramming will be done free of charge only if the error or trading issue is a result of incorrect programming done on our part. We will make every attempt to fix the program before any refund request is considered.
  • You may request a refund if we fail to complete the reprogramming within 7 days from the time of request.
  • You may request a full refund only if we have failed to make a program according to your specifications that is error free and have exhausted all efforts of reprogramming.
  • Refunds may be denied if you cannot provide evidence or supporting information that will help us investigate the problem and provide an update.
  • Refunds may be denied if you have problems installing, setting, running or testing the program due to a lack of experience or other factors that we have no control over.
  • Refunds will be denied if customer responsibilities are not met as described in the “Customer Responsibilities” section posted above.
  • Refunds will be denied due to issues with profitability. We program only according to our customer’s specifications and are not responsible for profitability.
  • Refunds may be denied in rare cases when the customer requires something that is not technically possible. We may not know or realize this until after starting on the job or delivering the program. If it is technically not possible to do something or if the customer requirements are not realistic then refunds may be denied. Examples of these situations may be caused by, but not limited to, the following: repainting or faulty custom indicators, broker limitations, broker rules, 3rd party software running at the same time as our program, technical limitations of internet connection, trading platform or computer, and MQL programming language limitations.
  • All valid refunds will be processed no later than 7 days after the valid request is made.
  • If after 14 calendar days, starting from the day we send you the program, we are not notified of any bugs/problems/issues we will assume that the program is operating correctly and will consider the job finished. In this event, all refund requests will become invalid.

Termination of Project

 

  • You are entitled to request a termination of the project anytime before full payment is sent.
  • Once full payment has been sent, you are not entitled to request termination of the project unless we fail to deliver the completed program to you within 7 days of the estimated time of completion. In such a case, we will promptly refund the full payment amount.
  •  We reserve the right to initiate the termination of the project at any time and for any reason. In such a case, we will promptly return your payment in full amount.
  •  We may, at our sole discretion, terminate a project due to a breach of our “Terms of Use” by the customer. In such an event, both parties will not be bound any longer by the “Terms of Use” and we may consider the project as finished.