

Interview with Vitaly Antonov (ATC 2011)
It was only this summer that Vitaly Antonov (beast) has learned about the upcoming Automated Trading Championship and got to know MetaTrader 5 terminal. Time was running out, besides, Vitaly was a newcomer. So, he randomly chose GBPUSD currency pair to develop his trading system. And the choice turned out to be successful. It would have been impossible to use other symbols with the strategy.

Creating an MQL5-Telegram Integrated Expert Advisor (Part 4): Modularizing Code Functions for Enhanced Reusability
In this article, we refactor the existing code used for sending messages and screenshots from MQL5 to Telegram by organizing it into reusable, modular functions. This will streamline the process, allowing for more efficient execution and easier code management across multiple instances.

Neural networks made easy (Part 68): Offline Preference-guided Policy Optimization
Since the first articles devoted to reinforcement learning, we have in one way or another touched upon 2 problems: exploring the environment and determining the reward function. Recent articles have been devoted to the problem of exploration in offline learning. In this article, I would like to introduce you to an algorithm whose authors completely eliminated the reward function.

Integrating MQL5 with data processing packages (Part 5): Adaptive Learning and Flexibility
This part focuses on building a flexible, adaptive trading model trained on historical XAUUSD data, preparing it for ONNX export and potential integration into live trading systems.

Hidden Markov Models for Trend-Following Volatility Prediction
Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) are powerful statistical tools that identify underlying market states by analyzing observable price movements. In trading, HMMs enhance volatility prediction and inform trend-following strategies by modeling and anticipating shifts in market regimes. In this article, we will present the complete procedure for developing a trend-following strategy that utilizes HMMs to predict volatility as a filter.

MQL5 Trading Tools (Part 1): Building an Interactive Visual Pending Orders Trade Assistant Tool
In this article, we introduce the development of an interactive Trade Assistant Tool in MQL5, designed to simplify placing pending orders in Forex trading. We outline the conceptual design, focusing on a user-friendly GUI for setting entry, stop-loss, and take-profit levels visually on the chart. Additionally, we detail the MQL5 implementation and backtesting process to ensure the tool’s reliability, setting the stage for advanced features in the preceding parts.


Interview with Antonio Morillas (ATC 2011)
Antonio Morillas from Spain (sallirom, by the way - it is reversed surname!) was first who doubled his starting balance from the beginning of the Championship and thus attracted our attention. His trading strategy is extremely risky. We decided to talk to Antonio about risk and luck as these are part and parcel of Automated Trading Championship.

From Basic to Intermediate: Array (I)
This article is a transition between what has been discussed so far and a new stage of research. To understand this article, you need to read the previous ones. The content presented here is intended solely for educational purposes. Under no circumstances should the application be viewed for any purpose other than to learn and master the concepts presented.

Trading Insights Through Volume: Trend Confirmation
The Enhanced Trend Confirmation Technique combines price action, volume analysis, and machine learning to identify genuine market movements. It requires both price breakouts and volume surges (50% above average) for trade validation, while using an LSTM neural network for additional confirmation. The system employs ATR-based position sizing and dynamic risk management, making it adaptable to various market conditions while filtering out false signals.

Neural Networks in Trading: Enhancing Transformer Efficiency by Reducing Sharpness (Final Part)
SAMformer offers a solution to the key drawbacks of Transformer models in long-term time series forecasting, such as training complexity and poor generalization on small datasets. Its shallow architecture and sharpness-aware optimization help avoid suboptimal local minima. In this article, we will continue to implement approaches using MQL5 and evaluate their practical value.

MQL5 Trading Tools (Part 6): Dynamic Holographic Dashboard with Pulse Animations and Controls
In this article, we create a dynamic holographic dashboard in MQL5 for monitoring symbols and timeframes with RSI, volatility alerts, and sorting options. We add pulse animations, interactive buttons, and holographic effects to make the tool visually engaging and responsive.

Creating a market making algorithm in MQL5
How do market makers work? Let's consider this issue and create a primitive market-making algorithm.

Developing a Replay System (Part 59): A New Future
Having a proper understanding of different ideas allows us to do more with less effort. In this article, we'll look at why it's necessary to configure a template before the service can interact with the chart. Also, what if we improve the mouse pointer so we can do more things with it?

MQL5 Trading Toolkit (Part 2): Expanding and Implementing the Positions Management EX5 Library
Learn how to import and use EX5 libraries in your MQL5 code or projects. In this continuation article, we will expand the EX5 library by adding more position management functions to the existing library and creating two Expert Advisors. The first example will use the Variable Index Dynamic Average Technical Indicator to develop a trailing stop trading strategy expert advisor, while the second example will utilize a trade panel to monitor, open, close, and modify positions. These two examples will demonstrate how to use and implement the upgraded EX5 position management library.

Developing a Replay System (Part 32): Order System (I)
Of all the things that we have developed so far, this system, as you will probably notice and eventually agree, is the most complex. Now we need to do something very simple: make our system simulate the operation of a trading server. This need to accurately implement the way the trading server operates seems like a no-brainer. At least in words. But we need to do this so that the everything is seamless and transparent for the user of the replay/simulation system.

Using association rules in Forex data analysis
How to apply predictive rules of supermarket retail analytics to the real Forex market? How are purchases of cookies, milk and bread related to stock exchange transactions? The article discusses an innovative approach to algorithmic trading based on the use of association rules.

Master MQL5 from beginner to pro (Part IV): About Arrays, Functions and Global Terminal Variables
The article is a continuation of the series for beginners. It covers in detail data arrays, the interaction of data and functions, as well as global terminal variables that allow data exchange between different MQL5 programs.

Reimagining Classic Strategies (Part III): Forecasting Higher Highs And Lower Lows
In this series article, we will empirically analyze classic trading strategies to see if we can improve them using AI. In today's discussion, we tried to predict higher highs and lower lows using the Linear Discriminant Analysis model.


Simultaneous Displaying of the Signals of Several Indicators from the Four Timeframes
While manual trading you have to keep an eye on the values of several indicators. It is a little bit different from mechanical trading. If you have two or three indicators and you have chosen a one timeframe for trading, it is not a complicated task. But what will you do if you have five or six indicators and your trading strategy requires considering the signals on the several timeframes?


ATC Champions League: Interview with Olexandr Topchylo (ATC 2011)
Interview with Olexandr Topchylo (Better) is the second publication within the "ATC Champions League" project. Having won the Automated Trading Championship 2007, this professional trader caught the attention of investors. Olexandr says that his first place in the ATC 2007 is one of the major events of his trading experience. However, later on this popularity helped him discover the biggest disappointment - it is so easy to lose investors after the first drawdown on an investor account.

Neural networks made easy (Part 60): Online Decision Transformer (ODT)
The last two articles were devoted to the Decision Transformer method, which models action sequences in the context of an autoregressive model of desired rewards. In this article, we will look at another optimization algorithm for this method.

Neural Networks in Trading: Transformer with Relative Encoding
Self-supervised learning can be an effective way to analyze large amounts of unlabeled data. The efficiency is provided by the adaptation of models to the specific features of financial markets, which helps improve the effectiveness of traditional methods. This article introduces an alternative attention mechanism that takes into account the relative dependencies and relationships between inputs.


ATC Champions League: Interview with Roman Zamozhniy (ATC 2011)
This is the first interview in the "ATC Champions League" project. Roman Zamozhniy (Rich) from Ukraine was the winner of the first Automated Trading Championship in 2006. In addition, he is a regular participant of our Championships - he has not missed a single contest. In this interview, we talked about Roman's first place and tried to figure out what is necessary for successful participation.

MQL5 Wizard Techniques you should know (Part 78): Using Gator Oscillator and the Accumulation/Distribution Oscillator
The Gator Oscillator by Bill Williams and the Accumulation/Distribution Oscillator are another indicator pairing that could be used harmoniously within an MQL5 Expert Advisor. We use the Gator Oscillator for its ability to affirm trends, while the A/D is used to provide confirmation of the trends via checks on volume. We are following up our last article where we introduced 5 signal patterns by introducing another 5 to complete our typical set of 10. As always, we use the MQL5 wizard to build and test out their potential.

MQL5 Wizard Techniques you should know (Part 44): Average True Range (ATR) technical indicator
The ATR oscillator is a very popular indicator for acting as a volatility proxy, especially in the forex markets where volume data is scarce. We examine this, on a pattern basis as we have with prior indicators, and share strategies & test reports thanks to the MQL5 wizard library classes and assembly.

Developing a Replay System (Part 48): Understanding the concept of a service
How about learning something new? In this article, you will learn how to convert scripts into services and why it is useful to do so.

Developing a Replay System (Part 26): Expert Advisor project — C_Terminal class
We can now start creating an Expert Advisor for use in the replay/simulation system. However, we need something improved, not a random solution. Despite this, we should not be intimidated by the initial complexity. It's important to start somewhere, otherwise we end up ruminating about the difficulty of a task without even trying to overcome it. That's what programming is all about: overcoming obstacles through learning, testing, and extensive research.

Category Theory in MQL5 (Part 7): Multi, Relative and Indexed Domains
Category Theory is a diverse and expanding branch of Mathematics which is only recently getting some coverage in the MQL5 community. These series of articles look to explore and examine some of its concepts & axioms with the overall goal of establishing an open library that provides insight while also hopefully furthering the use of this remarkable field in Traders' strategy development.

Automating Trading Strategies in MQL5 (Part 28): Creating a Price Action Bat Harmonic Pattern with Visual Feedback
In this article, we develop a Bat Pattern system in MQL5 that identifies bullish and bearish Bat harmonic patterns using pivot points and Fibonacci ratios, triggering trades with precise entry, stop loss, and take-profit levels, enhanced with visual feedback through chart objects

Neural Networks in Trading: Practical Results of the TEMPO Method
We continue our acquaintance with the TEMPO method. In this article we will evaluate the actual effectiveness of the proposed approaches on real historical data.


Grouped File Operations
It is sometimes necessary to perform identical operations with a group of files. If you have a list of files included into a group, then it is no problem. However, if you need to make this list yourself, then a question arises: "How can I do this?" The article proposes doing this using functions FindFirstFile() and FindNextFile() included in kernel32.dll.

GIT: What is it?
In this article, I will introduce a very important tool for developers. If you are not familiar with GIT, read this article to get an idea of what it is and how to use it with MQL5.

Price Action Analysis Toolkit Development (Part 5): Volatility Navigator EA
Determining market direction can be straightforward, but knowing when to enter can be challenging. As part of the series titled "Price Action Analysis Toolkit Development", I am excited to introduce another tool that provides entry points, take profit levels, and stop loss placements. To achieve this, we have utilized the MQL5 programming language. Let’s delve into each step in this article.

Introduction to MQL5 (Part 11): A Beginner's Guide to Working with Built-in Indicators in MQL5 (II)
Discover how to develop an Expert Advisor (EA) in MQL5 using multiple indicators like RSI, MA, and Stochastic Oscillator to detect hidden bullish and bearish divergences. Learn to implement effective risk management and automate trades with detailed examples and fully commented source code for educational purposes!

MQL5 Trading Tools (Part 2): Enhancing the Interactive Trade Assistant with Dynamic Visual Feedback
In this article, we upgrade our Trade Assistant Tool by adding drag-and-drop panel functionality and hover effects to make the interface more intuitive and responsive. We refine the tool to validate real-time order setups, ensuring accurate trade configurations relative to market prices. We also backtest these enhancements to confirm their reliability.

Developing a multi-currency Expert Advisor (Part 14): Adaptive volume change in risk manager
The previously developed risk manager contained only basic functionality. Let's try to consider possible ways of its development, allowing us to improve trading results without interfering with the logic of trading strategies.


Idleness is the Stimulus to Progress. Semiautomatic Marking a Template
Among the dozens of examples of how to work with charts, there is a method of manual marking a template. Trend lines, channels, support/resistance levels, etc. are imposed in a chart. Surely, there are some special programs for this kind of work. Everyone decides on his/her own which method to use. In this article, I offer you for your consideration the methods of manual marking with subsequent automating some elements of the repeated routine actions.

Finding custom currency pair patterns in Python using MetaTrader 5
Are there any repeating patterns and regularities in the Forex market? I decided to create my own pattern analysis system using Python and MetaTrader 5. A kind of symbiosis of math and programming for conquering Forex.

Practicing the development of trading strategies
In this article, we will make an attempt to develop our own trading strategy. Any trading strategy must be based on some kind of statistical advantage. Moreover, this advantage should exist for a long time.


Interview with Andrei Moraru (ATC 2011)
Ukrainian programmer Andrei Moraru (enivid) is an active participant of the Automated Trading Championship beginning from 2007. Andrei had already come in our view at that time and now we have decided to find out if there occured any changes in his attitude towards trading and selection of trading strategies for the past four years, and also to know about his new Expert Advisor.