There are doubts that you will find professional developers on in various thematic forums. Finding a qualified programmer is a problem. There are developers who understand you perfectly and know your next action. There are developers with whom you can discuss the project for weeks and not...
Did you not like it? What exactly? Metatrader 4 is considered an excellent platform for beginners, many traders started with it, and few of them later abandoned it.
In my opinion, Metatrader 4 is great for beginners. It has everything that beginners need, and at the same time there are no additional, advanced functions that can interfere with the first stage of acquaintance with trading platforms.
Finding a good MQL developer was also a problem for me. I spent many hours discussing my strategy with programmers, and as I found out, not all of them can realize complex ideas. Be prepared that the price of a really high-quality EA will be from $ 250. In the market of professional developers...
The EA has a limited period during which it makes a profit. You need to constantly optimize your trading strategy for changing market conditions. This work should continue all the time. In addition, one strategy cannot be used for success; You must have a portfolio of strategies to diversify...
I dont think you can put a time scale on it as its down to how you feel. I would advise staying on demo until you are consistently making a profit, once going live i would also suggest keeping a relatively small account until you get a good feel for it.