Budget: what it costs to run
The price of the expert advisor is only part of the cost. Here is everything else you need, with the numbers we used and where they come from.
Our calculation, not investment advice. The account balances below come from a simple rule applied to the backtest: the largest drawdown plus a buffer. They do not know your situation. Future drawdowns can be larger than past ones, and only money you can afford to lose should be used.
At a glance, for 1 MNQ contract
| What | Cost | How often |
|---|---|---|
| Opening Bell Nasdaq MT5, direct subscription | $49 | Per month at the launch price, or $490 a year; or a licence on the MQL5 Market. See pricing |
| CME market data at AMP for MetaTrader 5 | $15 | Per month |
| MQL5 VPS (or your own always-on computer) | $10 to $15 | Per month ($15 monthly, $10 a month on a 12-month plan) |
| Commissions and fees, about 60 round turns a month | about $120 | Per month, already deducted in our backtest results |
| Account balance, our calculation | $3,500 | Kept in the trading account, not spent |
Prices checked on 17 October 2026 on the AMP and MQL5 websites. They can change; check them before you open an account.
Monthly running costs
Market data (MNQ and NQ)
A futures broker charges the exchange's fee for real-time prices. At AMP, MetaTrader 5 works with one plan only: the bundle of all CME markets, top of book, which costs $15 per month for non-professional users (AMP price list effective 1 June 2026). Exchanges charge the full month even if data is on for one day. A demo account does not need it. Other brokers have their own prices.
VPS
The expert advisor only works while MetaTrader 5 is running. The simplest option is the MQL5 virtual hosting built into MetaTrader 5: $15 per month on a monthly plan, $13 a month for 3 months, $10.83 a month for 6 months and $10 a month for 12 months. A computer of your own that stays on day and night also works, at the cost of electricity and the risk of power or internet cuts.
Commissions and fees
In the backtest the program made 1,877 trades in about 30 months, roughly 60 round turns a month. At AMP the measured cost was $1.95 per round turn per MNQ contract, all fees included, so about $120 a month. This cost is already deducted from every result on this site; it is listed here so you see it as a cash flow. On NQ the cost per contract is higher; check your broker.
Account balance: how we calculate it
Hypothetical backtest, not real trading
HYPOTHETICAL OR SIMULATED PERFORMANCE RESULTS HAVE CERTAIN LIMITATIONS. UNLIKE AN ACTUAL PERFORMANCE RECORD, SIMULATED RESULTS DO NOT REPRESENT ACTUAL TRADING. ALSO, SINCE THE TRADES HAVE NOT BEEN EXECUTED, THE RESULTS MAY HAVE UNDER-OR-OVER COMPENSATED FOR THE IMPACT, IF ANY, OF CERTAIN MARKET FACTORS, SUCH AS LACK OF LIQUIDITY. SIMULATED TRADING PROGRAMS IN GENERAL ARE ALSO SUBJECT TO THE FACT THAT THEY ARE DESIGNED WITH THE BENEFIT OF HINDSIGHT. NO REPRESENTATION IS BEING MADE THAT ANY ACCOUNT WILL OR IS LIKELY TO ACHIEVE PROFIT OR LOSSES SIMILAR TO THOSE SHOWN.
The rule: the largest drawdown in the backtest, plus a buffer so that the account can still open a position at the bottom of that drawdown. We use the cautious scenario (costs plus one tick of slippage on every entry and exit), because it has the deeper drawdown.
| Profile | Largest drawdown | Buffer | Balance, our calculation |
|---|---|---|---|
| MNQ, 1 contract | $2,954.50 | $500 | $3,454.50, about $3,500 |
| NQ, 1 contract (10 times MNQ) | $29,545 | $5,000 | $34,545, about $35,000 |
| NAS100 CFD (in testing), from $2 down to $0.10 per point | $3,842.46 to $192 | margin of one position | from about $250 to about $6,850, see below |
With costs but without slippage, the MNQ drawdown was $2,761.50, which gives $3,261.50 with the same buffer. The drawdowns are measured on closed trades; while a trade is open the loss can be deeper for a short time.
Why $500 on MNQ: the broker's margin
At AMP the day trading margin for MNQ is $100 per contract, and it applies in both the day and the overnight session. The exchange maintenance margin ($4,762 per MNQ contract on 17 October 2026) is only needed to hold a position through the daily close, which this program never does: it closes 5 minutes before the daily CME halt, as AMP asks.
One exception matters for Strategy 1, which trades at night: on the evenings before the CPI, PPI and US jobs reports and FOMC decisions, AMP raises the overnight margin of US index futures to 25% of the maintenance margin, about $1,190 per MNQ contract, until shortly after the release. With $500 left at the bottom of the worst drawdown, new orders on those nights could be refused for lack of margin, by the broker or by the expert advisor's own margin check, which skips an order it cannot afford and says so in the journal. If you want it to keep trading on those nights even then, the balance is about $4,150 ($2,954.50 + $1,190.50).
NAS100 CFD (in testing)
The CFD profile is not supported yet. The figures come from one broker's demo data (US100.cash, 1 April 2024 to 10 October 2026), tested at $2 per index point, the same exposure as 1 MNQ contract. There the largest drawdown on open equity was $3,842.46.
The big difference from futures: the position can be much smaller. On MNQ the smallest position is 1 contract, $2 per index point. On a CFD the smallest position depends on the broker's minimum lot and is often $0.10 per point or less. Stops and targets are in index points, so a smaller position changes only the money values: drawdown, margin, spread costs and profits all shrink in the same proportion.
On CFDs the margin depends on your leverage: 1:20 is the maximum for retail clients in the EU and the UK on major indices. The margins below assume the index around 30,000.
| Position size | Largest drawdown, scaled | Margin at 1:20 | Balance at 1:20 | Margin at 1:100 | Balance at 1:100 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $2 per point (= 1 MNQ) | $3,842.46 | $3,000 | about $6,850 | $600 | about $4,450 |
| $1 per point | $1,921.23 | $1,500 | about $3,450 | $300 | about $2,250 |
| $0.50 per point | $960.62 | $750 | about $1,750 | $150 | about $1,150 |
| $0.10 per point | $192.12 | $150 | about $350 | $30 | about $250 |
To set the size, find in the symbol specification how many dollars one lot moves per index point, then set Lots per trade accordingly. For example, where 1 lot is $1 per point, 0.10 lots is $0.10 per point. Or use Or size by risk to set the money lost at the stop of each trade.
What does not shrink. The VPS costs the same at any size. At $0.10 per point, the whole backtest result over the 30 months would have been about $815, while a VPS for the same period costs $300 to $450. Some brokers also charge a minimum commission per trade, which weighs more on very small positions. Small sizes are a way to learn how the program behaves with little money at risk, not a cheaper way to the same result.
The index level changes the margin: check the margin of one position in your platform before you start. There is no separate market data fee on most CFD accounts; the spread is the cost, and it is included in the test.
What this calculation does not cover
- A drawdown deeper than the one in the backtest. It can happen.
- Gaps and fast markets, where a stop fills beyond its level.
- Changes in margins, data fees or VPS prices.
- Other programs or manual trades on the same account, which use the same margin.
- Taxes and currency conversion.
See the risks and the risk disclosure.