I live and breathe autotrading forex, and have done it for a very long time. I assure you it can be done, and money can be made.
That being said, it is the number one thing I enjoy most in life. I love every part of it, think about it every waking moment, and go to sleep thinking about how to solve that evenings little problem. I just love the whole thing. Combine that with the fact that I can write code as easy I am writing this little post. It comes easy to me, and I really, really enjoy writing code too.
So the point of that whole paragraph is that for some reason I am built for it, and it works for me. When I meet people at seminars and things and they find out what I do, everyone wants to do it too and ask how to start.
The best analogy I could think of is playing the violin. If you wanted to play the violin for a living, you could take lessons, read every book, hire a mentor and the whole nine yards.
But, if you are approaching it like a job, I can tell you that the violin thing will never work out for you. It's one thing to make sound come out of a violin, and an entirely different thing to make music come out of it. But if you truly love it, and have some talent, you will get music to come out of it (not just that scratchy sound that hurts our ears).
So ask yourself how much you really enjoy forex and trading. If you do enjoy it, then hire a mentor, buy every book, it won't matter. You will enjoy the process, have fun the whole way, and eventually you will make music.
Lastly I can say that autotrading is only "a way" of trading. Paramount to all trading is money management. I see people with commercial EAs blow out their accounts because they we were underfunded, and see others doing well and surviving the ebbs and flows. I also know some who cracked things like FAP, made it their own and are doing really well. But those people use awesome money management, have multiple EA's and don't live or die by any EA or any trade.
But bottom line to it all is to do what you love.
Trader 5of7