Trading with the MetaTrader expert advisors requires a great deal of testing and dedication. When I first began to live-test the EAs to find the one Id finally use on the live account Ive encountered a lot of problems and almost all these problems were connected with the uninterrupted and smooth running of the trading platform. Although I keep my desktop PC on almost all the time, the daily routine of using it requires restarts, turning it off, or causes the critical Windows errors that all interrupt the runtime of the expert advisors. A nice solution to such problems are the dedicated third-party servers that would run MT4 platform for you. Today I received an e-mail message from one company that offers such services — www.forexvps.com. It provides dedicated Windows servers with the possibility of the remote desktop administration with the pre-installed MetaTrader platform. A Forex trader can easily use such server to test the EAs and even to trade on the live account. Actually, the price of the service (from $35/month for 512 MB RAM server and 500 GB bandwidth) suggests that its better to be used for real trading with some good initial funding — in order to cover the costs of the server. Its definitely a service with a very high potential demand and more such companies will start providing their dedicated MetaTrader servers to the public. Perhaps, the price will also go down.
There is one serious drawback in such services, in my opinion. Its the security of your private information. Not only your account details can be stolen (not like its easy to withdraw the funds to some third-party account if you trade with the real Forex broker), but also your expert advisor can be copied. So, use such service only if you trust the company that provides it. Try to approach to the process of selecting your dedicated MT4 server with the responsibility as youd do with the Forex brokers.
Update: changed the link to affiliate link as I am now their official partner.
