MQL4 and MQL5 Programming Articles

This article presents Pivot Mean Oscillator (PMO), an implementation of the cumulative moving average (CMA) as a trading indicator for the MetaTrader platforms. In particular, we first introduce Pivot Mean (PM) as a normalization index for timeseries that computes the fraction between any data point and the CMA. We then build PMO as the difference between the moving averages applied to two PM signals. Some preliminary experiments carried out on the EURUSD symbol to test the efficacy of the proposed indicator are also reported, leaving ample space for further considerations and improvements.

Upgrade your market reading with the Candle-Range Theory suite for MetaTrader 5, a fully MQL5-native solution that converts raw price bars into real-time volatility intelligence. The lightweight CRangePattern library benchmarks each candle’s true range against an adaptive ATR and classifies it the instant it closes; the CRT Indicator then projects those classifications on your chart as crisp, color-coded rectangles and arrows that reveal tightening consolidations, explosive breakouts, and full-range engulfment the moment they occur.

This article discusses the CSignal and CSignals classes which will be used in cross-platform expert advisors. It examines the differences between MQL4 and MQL5 on how particular data needed for evaluation of trade signals are accessed to ensure that the code written will be compatible with both compilers.

The Strategy Tester in the MetaTrader 5 trading platform provides only two optimization options: complete search of parameters and genetic algorithm. This article proposes a new method for optimizing trading strategies — Simulated annealing. The method's algorithm, its implementation and integration into any Expert Advisor are considered. The developed algorithm is tested on the Moving Average EA.

The article develops the ideas proposed in the previous part and considers them further. It describes the problems of yield distributions, plotting and studying statistical regularities.

Efficiency of any trading robot depends on the correct selection of its parameters (optimization). However, parameters that are considered optimal for one time interval may not retain their effectiveness in another period of trading history. Besides, EAs showing profit during tests turn out to be loss-making in real time. The issue of continuous optimization comes to the fore here. When facing plenty of routine work, humans always look for ways to automate it. In this article, I propose a non-standard approach to solving this issue.

In this article we will create the first and main element of the graphical interface - a form for controls. Multiple controls can be attached to this form anywhere and in any combination.

Let us consider the button control. We will discuss examples of several classes for creating a simple button, buttons with extended functionality (icon button and split button) and interconnected buttons (button groups and radio button). Added to that, we will introduce some additions to existing classes for controls to broaden their capability.

This article explores how to build an Opening Range Breakout (ORB) Expert Advisor in MQL5. It explains how the EA identifies breakouts from the market’s initial range and opens trades accordingly. You’ll also learn how to control the number of positions opened and set a specific cutoff time to stop trading automatically.

When you subscribe to signals, such situation may occur: your trade account has a leverage of 1:100, the provider has a leverage of 1:500 and trades using the minimal lot, and your trade balances are virtually equal — but the copy ratio will comprise only 10% to 15%. This article describes how to increase the copy rate in such cases.

In this article, we will learn how to create an indicator that detects, draws, and alerts on the mitigation of order blocks. We will also take a detailed look at how to identify these blocks on the chart, set accurate alerts, and visualize their position using rectangles to better understand the price action. This indicator will serve as a key tool for traders who follow the Smart Money Concepts and the Inner Circle Trader methodology.

The MQL5.com website brings together traders from all over the world. Users publish articles, share free codes, sell products in the Market, perform Freelance orders and copy trading signals. You can communicate with them on the Forum, in trader chats and in MetaTrader channels.

In this article, we create an Inverse Fair Value Gap (IFVG) detection system in MQL5 that identifies bullish/bearish FVGs on recent bars with minimum gap size filtering, tracks their states as normal/mitigated/inverted based on price interactions (mitigation on far-side breaks, retracement on re-entry, inversion on close beyond far side from inside), and ignores overlaps while limiting tracked FVGs.

This article presents an adaptive parallel channel detection and breakout system in MQL5. It explains how swing points are identified, channels are constructed and dynamically recalculated, and breakouts are confirmed and visualized with persistent signals. The framework integrates trendline geometry, ATR-based filtering, and retest validation to provide reliable, real-time price action analysis for professional charting and trading decisions.

In this article we will perform an experiment: we will color optimization results. The color is determined by three parameters: the levels of red, green and blue (RGB). There are other color coding methods, which also use three parameters. Thus, three testing parameters can be converted to one color, which visually represents the values. Read this article to find out if such a representation can be useful.

How to be aware of what happens in the terminal and on your account without permanent looking at the monitor. System events; custom events; wave and executable files; electronic messages; setting up SMTP server access; publications; setting up FTP server access.

In the article, we will apply Reinforcement learning to develop self-learning Expert Advisors. In the previous article, we considered the Random Decision Forest algorithm and wrote a simple self-learning EA based on Reinforcement learning. The main advantages of such an approach (trading algorithm development simplicity and high "training" speed) were outlined. Reinforcement learning (RL) is easily incorporated into any trading EA and speeds up its optimization.

The article gives a description of ways of use of the multiple regression analysis for development of trading systems. It demonstrates the use of the regression analysis for strategy search automation. A regression equation generated and integrated in an EA without requiring high proficiency in programming is given as an example.

Today we'll see how to create an Expert Advisor that simply and safely works in automatic mode.

After we send a trading order to the server, we need to check the error codes or the absence of errors. In this article, we will consider handling errors returned by the trade server and prepare for creating pending trading requests.

Many researchers do not pay enough attention to determining the price behavior. At the same time, complex methods are used, which very often are simply “black boxes”, such as machine learning or neural networks. The most important question arising in that case is what data to submit for training a particular model.

The article dwells on gaps — significant differences between a close price of a previous timeframe and an open price of the next one, as well as on forecasting a daily bar direction. Applying the GetOpenFileName function by the system DLL is considered as well.

This article describes the construction of the custom optimization criterion R-squared. This criterion can be used to estimate the quality of a strategy's balance curve and to select the most smoothly growing and stable strategies. The work discusses the principles of its construction and statistical methods used in estimation of properties and quality of this metric.

Mini Market Emulator is an indicator designed for partial emulation of work in the terminal. Presumably, it can be used to test "manual" strategies of market analysis and trading.

This article introduces the “Multi-Timeframe Harmony Index”—an advanced Expert Advisor for MetaTrader 5 that calculates a weighted bias from multiple timeframes, smooths the readings using EMA, and displays the results in a clean chart panel dashboard. It includes customizable alerts and automatic buy/sell signal plotting when strong bias thresholds are crossed. Suitable for traders who use multi-timeframe analysis to align entries with overall market structure.

The article provides the description of a simple HTML code parsing library using third-party components. In particular, it covers the possibilities of accessing data which cannot be retrieved using GET and POST requests. We will select a website with not too large pages and will try to obtain interesting data from this site.

In this article, we will consider the main aspects of integration of neural networks and the trading terminal, with the purpose of creating a fully featured trading robot.

This article describes the MQL5 Standard Library extension, which allows to create Expert Advisors, place orders, Stop Losses and Take Profits using the MQL5 Wizard by the prices received from included modules. This approach does not apply any additional restrictions on the number of modules and does not cause conflicts in their joint work.

The MetaTrader 5 platform features functionality for saving trading reports, as well as Expert Advisor testing and optimization reports. Trading and testing reports can be saved in two formats: XLSX and HTML, while the optimization report can be saved in XML. In this article we consider the HTML testing report, the XML optimization report and the HTML trading history report.

Is it allowed to trade this symbol on Monday? Is there enough money to open position? How big is the loss if Stop Loss triggers? How to limit the number of pending orders? Was the trade operation executed at the current bar or at the previous one? If a trade robot cannot perform this kind of verifications, then any trade strategy can turn into a losing one. This article shows the examples of verifications that are useful in any Expert Advisor.

The concept of diversification of assets on financial markets is quiet old, and has always attracted beginner traders. In this article, the author proposes a maximally simple approach to a construction of a multi-currency Expert Advisor, for an initial introduction to this direction of trading strategies.

This is the first article in a series, in which I am going to describe a toolkit which enables manual application of chart graphics by utilizing keyboard shortcuts. It is very convenient: you press one key and a trendline appears, you press another key — this will create a Fibonacci fan with the necessary parameters. It will also be possible to switch timeframes, to rearrange layers or to delete all objects from the chart.

This is the must read article for anyone wanting to improve their programming career. This article series is aimed at making you the best programmer you can possibly be, no matter how experienced you are. The discussed ideas work for MQL5 programming newbies as well as professionals.