Articles on the MQL5 programming and use of technical indicators

Automation of trading strategies involving graphical patterns requires the ability to search for extreme points on the charts for further processing and interpretation. Existing tools do not always provide such an ability. The algorithms described in the article allow finding all extreme points on charts. The tools discussed here are equally efficient both during trends and flat movements. The obtained results are not strongly affected by a selected timeframe and are only defined by a specified scale.

The article discusses the possibility of plotting statistical distribution histograms of market conditions with the help of the graphical memory meaning no indicator buffers and arrays are applied. Sample histograms are described in details and the "hidden" functionality of MQL5 graphical objects is shown.

Scalping automatic systems are rightfully regarded the pinnacle of algorithmic trading, but at the same time their code is the most difficult to write. In this article we will show how to build strategies based on analysis of incoming ticks using the built-in debugging tools and visual testing. Developing rules for entry and exit often require years of manual trading. But with the help of MetaTrader 5, you can quickly test any such strategy on real history.

The article describes the application of text files for storing dynamic objects, arrays and other variables used as properties of Expert Advisors, indicators and scripts. The files serve as a convenient addition to the functionality of standard tools offered by MQL languages.

The article details TD points and TD lines discovered by Thomas DeMark. Their practical implementation is revealed. In addition to that, a process of writing three indicators and two Expert Advisors using the concepts of Thomas DeMark is demonstrated.

The article reveals how the "Rope" indicator is created based on "The Small Encyclopedia of Trader" by Erik L. Nayman. This indicator shows the direction of the trend using the calculated values of bulls and bears over a specified period of time. The article also contains principles of creating and calculating indicators along with the examples of codes. Other subjects covered include building an Expert Advisor based on the indicator, and the optimization of external parameters.

A logically complete market theory that would cover all types and varieties of markets for goods and services, micro and macro markets like Forex, hasn't been available until now. This article covers the essence of a new market theory based on the profit analysis, reveals patterns of the current price change and the principle of the mechanism operation that allows the price to find its most optimal value by forming a chain of virtual prices that can develop the controlling influence on the actual price. Mechanisms of formation and change of market trends are also identified here.

What should your program do, if graphic control panels have been removed or modified by someone else? In this article we will show you how not to have "ownerless" objects on the chart, and how not to lose control over them in cases of renaming or deleting programmatically created objects after the application is deleted.

This article presents an alternative method of GUI creation based on layouts and containers, using one layout manager — the CGrid class. The CGrid class is an auxiliary control that acts as a container for other containers and controls using a grid layout.

We can find dial gauges in cars and airplanes, in industrial production and everyday life. They are used in all spheres which require quick response to behavior of a controlled value. This article describes the library of dial gauges for MetaTrader 5.

This step-by-step guide provides tips and tricks for better understanding and searching for a required product. The article makes an attempt to puzzle out different methods of searching for an appropriate product, sorting out unwanted products, determining product efficiency and essentiality for you.

The article provides a review of an idea based on the analysis of prices' movement direction and their speed. We have performed its formalization in the MQL4 language presented as an expert advisor to explore viability of the strategy being under consideration. We also determine the best parameters via check, examination and optimization of an example given in the article.

This article is dedicated to a new and perspective direction in machine learning - deep learning or, to be precise, deep neural networks. This is a brief review of second generation neural networks, the architecture of their connections and main types, methods and rules of learning and their main disadvantages followed by the history of the third generation neural network development, their main types, peculiarities and training methods. Conducted are practical experiments on building and training a deep neural network initiated by the weights of a stacked autoencoder with real data. All the stages from selecting input data to metric derivation are discussed in detail. The last part of the article contains a software implementation of a deep neural network in an Expert Advisor with a built-in indicator based on MQL4/R.

This article is dedicated to the Three Line Break chart, suggested by Steve Nison in his book "Beyond Candlesticks". The greatest advantage of this chart is that it allows filtering minor fluctuations of a price in relation to the previous movement. We are going to discuss the principle of the chart construction, the code of the indicator and some examples of trading strategies based on it.

Developers of trading robots no longer need to market their services to traders that require Expert Advisors - as now they will find you. Already, thousands of traders place orders to MQL5 freelance developers, and pay for work in on MQL5.com. For 4 years, this service facilitated three thousand traders to pay for more than 10 000 jobs performed. And the activity of traders and developers is constantly growing!

A few weeks ago we published the infographic on Freelance service. We also promised to reveal some statistics of the MetaTrader Market. Now, we invite you to examine the data we have gathered.

On the occasion of the MQL5 Freelance Service fourth birthday, we have prepared an info-graphic demonstrating the service results for the entire time of its existence. The figures speak for themselves: more than 10 000 orders worth about $600,000 in total have been executed to date, while 3 000 customers and 300 developers have already used the service.

MQL5 Freelance is an online service where developers get paid for creating trading applications ordered by traders. Now, traders understand the difference between all the services on MQL5.com: a ready-made Trading Robot can be bought from the MetaTrader Market, while a unique Expert Advisor that trades based on a specific user-defined strategy can be ordered in the Freelance service. Experienced developers compete for traders' order implementation, so that a trader can select the one who offers the best time and cost conditions. Since the launch of the service, traders have paid a total of $600,000 for 10,000 jobs performed

Algorithmic trading becomes more popular and needed, which naturally led to a demand for exotic algorithms and unusual tasks. To some extent, such complex applications are available in the Code Base or in the Market. Although traders have simple access to those apps in a couple of clicks, these apps may not satisfy all needs in full. In this case, traders look for developers who can write a desired application in the MQL5 Freelance section and assign an order.

A short life span of futures contracts complicates their technical analysis. It is difficult to technically analyze short charts. For example, number of bars on the day chart of the UX-9.13 Ukrainian Stock index future is more than 100. Therefore, trader creates synthetic long futures contracts. This article explains how to splice futures contracts with different dates in the MetaTrader 5 terminal.

In this article, we will consider the development of a multi-symbol indicator to analyze price divergence in a specified period of time. The core topics have been already discussed in the previous article on the programming of multi-currency indicators "MQL5 Cookbook: Developing a Multi-Symbol Volatility Indicator in MQL5". So this time we will dwell only on those new features and functions that have been changed dramatically. If you are new to the programming of multi-currency indicators, I recommend you to first read the previous article.

The article describes one of the approaches to determining a useful signal (trend) in stream data. Small filtering (smoothing) tests applied to market quotes demonstrate the potential for creating non-lagging digital filters (indicators) that are not redrawn on the last bars.

In this article, we will consider the development of a multi-symbol volatility indicator. The development of multi-symbol indicators may present some difficulties for novice MQL5 developers which this article helps to clarify. The major issues arising in the course of development of a multi-symbol indicator have to do with the synchronization of other symbols' data with respect to the current symbol, the lack of some indicator data and the identification of the beginning of 'true' bars of a given time frame. All of these issues will be closely considered in the article.

In this article, technical indicators are treated as digital filters. Operation principles and basic characteristics of digital filters are explained. Also, some practical ways of receiving the filter kernel in MetaTrader 5 terminal and integration with a ready-made spectrum analyzer proposed in the article "Building a Spectrum Analyzer" are considered. Pulse and spectrum characteristics of the typical digital filters are used as examples.

MQL5 Standard Library makes your life as a developer easier. Nevertheless, it does not implement all the needs of all developers in the world, so if you feel that you need some more custom stuff you can take a step further and extend. This article walks you through integrating MetaQuotes' Zig-Zag technical indicator into the Standard Library. We get inspired by MetaQuotes' design philosophy to achieve our goal.

The article examines the possibility of creating an advanced ZigZag indicator. The idea of identifying nodes is based on the use of the Envelopes indicator. We assume that we can find a certain combination of input parameters for a series of Envelopes, whereby all ZigZag nodes lie within the confines of the Envelopes bands. Consequently, we can try to predict the coordinates of the new node.

The article describes the method of fast visual testing of trading ideas. The method is based on the combination of a price chart, a signal indicator and a balance calculation indicator. I would like to share my method of searching for trading ideas, as well as the method I use for fast testing of these ideas.

Support Vector Machines have long been used in fields such as bioinformatics and applied mathematics to assess complex data sets and extract useful patterns that can be used to classify data. This article looks at what a support vector machine is, how they work and why they can be so useful in extracting complex patterns. We then investigate how they can be applied to the market and potentially used to advise on trades. Using the Support Vector Machine Learning Tool, the article provides worked examples that allow readers to experiment with their own trading.

In this article we are going to show how to explore the Standard Library of Trading Strategy Classes and how to add Custom Strategies and Filters/Signals using the Patterns-and-Models logic of the MQL5 Wizard. In the end you will be able easily add your own strategies using MetaTrader 5 standard indicators, and MQL5 Wizard will create a clean and powerful code and fully functional Expert Advisor.

A product from the MetaTrader Market can be purchased on the MQL5.com website or straight from the MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 trading platforms. Choose a desired product that suits your trading style, pay for it using your preferred payment method, and activate the product.

The Accumulation/Distribution (A/D) Indicator has one interesting feature - a breakout of the trend line plotted in this indicator chart suggests, with a certain degree of probability, a forthcoming breakout of the trend line in the price chart. This article will be useful and interesting for those who are new to programming in MQL4. Having this in view, I have tried to present the information in an easy to grasp manner and use the simplest code structures.

MQL5.community Market provides Expert Advisors developers with the already formed market consisting of thousands of potential customers. This is the best place for selling trading robots and technical indicators!

A proverbial wisdom often attributed to various famous people says: "He who makes no mistakes never makes anything." Unless you consider idleness itself a mistake, this statement is hard to argue with. But you can always analyze the past mistakes (your own and of others) to minimize the number of your future mistakes. We are going to attempt to review possible situations arising when executing jobs in the same-name service.

This article seeks to upgrade the indicator created earlier on and briefly deals with a method for estimating forecast confidence intervals using bootstrapping and quantiles. As a result, we will get the forecast indicator and scripts to be used for estimation of the forecast accuracy.

This article describes how object-oriented programming can be used for creating multi-timeframe and multi-currency panels for MetaTrader 5. The main goal is to build a universal panel, which can be used for displaying many different kinds of data, such as prices, price changes, indicator values or custom buy/sell conditions without the need to modify the code of the panel itself.

The article deals with the methods of indicators computational algorithms optimization. Everyone will find a method that suits his/her needs best. Three methods are described here.One of them is quite simple, the next one requires solid knowledge of Math and the last one requires some wit. Indicators or MetaTrader5 terminal design features are used to realize most of the described methods. The methods are quite universal and can be used not only for acceleration of the linear regression calculation, but also for many other indicators.

The article presents the indicators, described in the book by William Blau "Momentum, Direction, and Divergence". William Blau's approach allows us to promptly and accurately approximate the fluctuations of the price curve, to determine the trend of the price movements and the turning points, and eliminate the price noise. Meanwhile, we are also able to detect the overbought/oversold states of the market, and signals, indicating the end of a trend and reversal of the price movement.

This article will describe advanced adaptive indicators and their implementation in MQL5: Adaptive Cyber Cycle, Adaptive Center of Gravity and Adaptive RVI. All indicators were originally presented in "Cybernetic Analysis for Stocks and Futures" by John F. Ehlers.

This article presents connecting MetaTrader 5 to ENCOG - Advanced Neural Network and Machine Learning Framework. It contains description and implementation of a simple neural network indicator based on a standard technical indicators and an Expert Advisor based on a neural indicator. All source code, compiled binaries, DLLs and an exemplary trained network are attached to the article.