MQL4 and MQL5 Programming Articles
Study the MQL5 language for programming trading strategies in numerous published articles mostly written by you - the community members. The articles are grouped into categories to help you quicker find answers to any questions related to programming: Integration, Tester, Trading Strategies, etc.
Follow our new publications and discuss them on the Forum!
Add a new article
You are missing trading opportunities:
- Free trading apps
- Over 8,000 signals for copying
- Economic news for exploring financial markets
Registration
Log in
You agree to website policy and terms of use
If you do not have an account, please register
Self Optimizing Expert Advisors in MQL5 (Part 12): Building Linear Classifiers Using Matrix Factorization
This article explores the powerful role of matrix factorization in algorithmic trading, specifically within MQL5 applications. From regression models to multi-target classifiers, we walk through practical examples that demonstrate how easily these techniques can be integrated using built-in MQL5 functions. Whether you're predicting price direction or modeling indicator behavior, this guide lays a strong foundation for building intelligent trading systems using matrix methods.
Developing a Replay System (Part 50): Things Get Complicated (II)
We will solve the chart ID problem and at the same time we will begin to provide the user with the ability to use a personal template for the analysis and simulation of the desired asset. The materials presented here are for didactic purposes only and should in no way be considered as an application for any purpose other than studying and mastering the concepts presented.
Neural networks made easy (Part 61): Optimism issue in offline reinforcement learning
During the offline learning, we optimize the Agent's policy based on the training sample data. The resulting strategy gives the Agent confidence in its actions. However, such optimism is not always justified and can cause increased risks during the model operation. Today we will look at one of the methods to reduce these risks.
Artificial Bee Hive Algorithm (ABHA): Theory and methods
In this article, we will consider the Artificial Bee Hive Algorithm (ABHA) developed in 2009. The algorithm is aimed at solving continuous optimization problems. We will look at how ABHA draws inspiration from the behavior of a bee colony, where each bee has a unique role that helps them find resources more efficiently.
MQL5 Wizard Techniques you should know (Part 63): Using Patterns of DeMarker and Envelope Channels
The DeMarker Oscillator and the Envelope indicator are momentum and support/resistance tools that can be paired when developing an Expert Advisor. We therefore examine on a pattern by pattern basis what could be of use and what potentially avoid. We are using, as always, a wizard assembled Expert Advisor together with the Patterns-Usage functions that are built into the Expert Signal Class.
The Group Method of Data Handling: Implementing the Combinatorial Algorithm in MQL5
In this article we continue our exploration of the Group Method of Data Handling family of algorithms, with the implementation of the Combinatorial Algorithm along with its refined incarnation, the Combinatorial Selective Algorithm in MQL5.
MQL5 Wizard Techniques you should know (Part 55): SAC with Prioritized Experience Replay
Replay buffers in Reinforcement Learning are particularly important with off-policy algorithms like DQN or SAC. This then puts the spotlight on the sampling process of this memory-buffer. While default options with SAC, for instance, use random selection from this buffer, Prioritized Experience Replay buffers fine tune this by sampling from the buffer based on a TD-score. We review the importance of Reinforcement Learning, and, as always, examine just this hypothesis (not the cross-validation) in a wizard assembled Expert Advisor.
Analyzing binary code of prices on the exchange (Part II): Converting to BIP39 and writing GPT model
Continuing tries to decipher price movements... What about linguistic analysis of the "market dictionary" that we get by converting the binary price code to BIP39? In this article, we will delve into an innovative approach to exchange data analysis and consider how modern natural language processing techniques can be applied to the market language.
Category Theory in MQL5 (Part 19): Naturality Square Induction
We continue our look at natural transformations by considering naturality square induction. Slight restraints on multicurrency implementation for experts assembled with the MQL5 wizard mean we are showcasing our data classification abilities with a script. Principle applications considered are price change classification and thus its forecasting.
Risk Management (Part 4): Completing the Key Class Methods
This is Part 4 of our series on risk management in MQL5, where we continue exploring advanced methods for protecting and optimizing trading strategies. Having laid important foundations in earlier articles, we will now focus on completing all remaining methods postponed in Part 3, including functions for checking whether specific profit or loss levels have been reached. In addition, we will introduce new key events that enable more accurate and flexible risk management.
Category Theory in MQL5 (Part 21): Natural Transformations with LDA
This article, the 21st in our series, continues with a look at Natural Transformations and how they can be implemented using linear discriminant analysis. We present applications of this in a signal class format, like in the previous article.
Gaussian Processes in Machine Learning: Regression Model in MQL5
We will review the basics of Gaussian processes (GP) as a probabilistic machine learning model and demonstrate its application to regression problems using synthetic data.
Poll: Traders’ Estimate of the Mobile Terminal
Unfortunately, there are no clear projections available at this moment about the future of the mobile trading. However, there are a lot of speculations surrounding this matter. In our attempt to resolve this ambiguity we decided to conduct a survey among traders to find out their opinion about our mobile terminals. Through the efforts of this survey, we have managed to established a clear picture of what our clients currently think about the product as well as their requests and wishes in future developments of our mobile terminals.
Neural Networks in Trading: Exploring the Local Structure of Data
Effective identification and preservation of the local structure of market data in noisy conditions is a critical task in trading. The use of the Self-Attention mechanism has shown promising results in processing such data; however, the classical approach does not account for the local characteristics of the underlying structure. In this article, I introduce an algorithm capable of incorporating these structural dependencies.
Overcoming The Limitation of Machine Learning (Part 1): Lack of Interoperable Metrics
There is a powerful and pervasive force quietly corrupting the collective efforts of our community to build reliable trading strategies that employ AI in any shape or form. This article establishes that part of the problems we face, are rooted in blind adherence to "best practices". By furnishing the reader with simple real-world market-based evidence, we will reason to the reader why we must refrain from such conduct, and rather adopt domain-bound best practices if our community should stand any chance of recovering the latent potential of AI.
Neural Networks in Trading: Injection of Global Information into Independent Channels (InjectTST)
Most modern multimodal time series forecasting methods use the independent channels approach. This ignores the natural dependence of different channels of the same time series. Smart use of two approaches (independent and mixed channels) is the key to improving the performance of the models.
Neural Networks in Trading: Memory Augmented Context-Aware Learning for Cryptocurrency Markets (Final Part)
The MacroHFT framework for high-frequency cryptocurrency trading uses context-aware reinforcement learning and memory to adapt to dynamic market conditions. At the end of this article, we will test the implemented approaches on real historical data to assess their effectiveness.
Event-Driven Architecture in MQL5: How to Turn an Expert Advisor into a Full-Fledged Trading System
The article is dedicated to the event-driven architecture in MQL5 and describes the transition from the monolithic OnTick model to distributed processing. We will consider predefined and custom events, services and messaging between programs, as well as common architectural errors. A practical example demonstrates how to organize interactions between indicators and an EA to reduce load, improve readability, and simplify maintenance.
MQL5 Wizard Techniques you should know (Part 39): Relative Strength Index
The RSI is a popular momentum oscillator that measures pace and size of a security’s recent price change to evaluate over-and-under valued situations in the security’s price. These insights in speed and magnitude are key in defining reversal points. We put this oscillator to work in another custom signal class and examine the traits of some of its signals. We start, though, by wrapping up what we started previously on Bollinger Bands.
Capital management in trading and the trader's home accounting program with a database
How can a trader manage capital? How can a trader and investor keep track of expenses, income, assets, and liabilities? I am not just going to introduce you to accounting software; I am going to show you a tool that might become your reliable financial navigator in the stormy sea of trading.
Market Simulation (Part 04): Creating the C_Orders Class (I)
In this article, we will start creating the C_Orders class to be able to send orders to the trading server. We'll do this little by little, as our goal is to explain in detail how this will happen through the messaging system.
Successful Restaurateur Algorithm (SRA)
Successful Restaurateur Algorithm (SRA) is an innovative optimization method inspired by restaurant business management principles. Unlike traditional approaches, SRA does not discard weak solutions, but improves them by combining with elements of successful ones. The algorithm shows competitive results and offers a fresh perspective on balancing exploration and exploitation in optimization problems.
Neural Networks in Trading: Point Cloud Analysis (PointNet)
Direct point cloud analysis avoids unnecessary data growth and improves the performance of models in classification and segmentation tasks. Such approaches demonstrate high performance and robustness to perturbations in the original data.
MQL5 Wizard Techniques you should know (Part 32): Regularization
Regularization is a form of penalizing the loss function in proportion to the discrete weighting applied throughout the various layers of a neural network. We look at the significance, for some of the various regularization forms, this can have in test runs with a wizard assembled Expert Advisor.
Developing an MQL5 RL agent with RestAPI integration (Part 3): Creating automatic moves and test scripts in MQL5
This article discusses the implementation of automatic moves in the tic-tac-toe game in Python, integrated with MQL5 functions and unit tests. The goal is to improve the interactivity of the game and ensure the reliability of the system through testing in MQL5. The presentation covers game logic development, integration, and hands-on testing, and concludes with the creation of a dynamic game environment and a robust integrated system.
Neural Networks in Trading: Piecewise Linear Representation of Time Series
This article is somewhat different from my earlier publications. In this article, we will talk about an alternative representation of time series. Piecewise linear representation of time series is a method of approximating a time series using linear functions over small intervals.
Hilbert-Schmidt Independence Criterion (HSIC)
The article discusses the non-parametric HSIC (Hilbert-Schmidt Independence Criterion) statistical test designed to identify linear and non-linear dependencies in data. Implementations of two algorithms for calculating HSIC in the MQL5 language are proposed: the exact permutation test and the gamma approximation. The method efficiency is demonstrated on synthetic data modeling a non-linear relationship between features and the target variable.
Reimagining Classic Strategies (Part IV): SP500 and US Treasury Notes
In this series of articles, we analyze classical trading strategies using modern algorithms to determine whether we can improve the strategy using AI. In today's article, we revisit a classical approach for trading the SP500 using the relationship it has with US Treasury Notes.
Overcoming The Limitation of Machine Learning (Part 9): Correlation-Based Feature Learning in Self-Supervised Finance
Self-supervised learning is a powerful paradigm of statistical learning that searches for supervisory signals generated from the observations themselves. This approach reframes challenging unsupervised learning problems into more familiar supervised ones. This technology has overlooked applications for our objective as a community of algorithmic traders. Our discussion, therefore, aims to give the reader an approachable bridge into the open research area of self-supervised learning and offers practical applications that provide robust and reliable statistical models of financial markets without overfitting to small datasets.
MQL5 Wizard Techniques you should know (Part 85): Using Patterns of Stochastic-Oscillator and the FrAMA with Beta VAE Inference Learning
This piece follows up ‘Part-84’, where we introduced the pairing of Stochastic and the Fractal Adaptive Moving Average. We now shift focus to Inference Learning, where we look to see if laggard patterns in the last article could have their fortunes turned around. The Stochastic and FrAMA are a momentum-trend complimentary pairing. For our inference learning, we are revisiting the Beta algorithm of a Variational Auto Encoder. We also, as always, do the implementation of a custom signal class designed for integration with the MQL5 Wizard.
Forecasting exchange rates using classic machine learning methods: Logit and Probit models
In the article, an attempt is made to build a trading EA for predicting exchange rate quotes. The algorithm is based on classical classification models - logistic and probit regression. The likelihood ratio criterion is used as a filter for trading signals.
Ensemble methods to enhance numerical predictions in MQL5
In this article, we present the implementation of several ensemble learning methods in MQL5 and examine their effectiveness across different scenarios.
Developing a Replay System (Part 40): Starting the second phase (I)
Today we'll talk about the new phase of the replay/simulator system. At this stage, the conversation will become truly interesting and quite rich in content. I strongly recommend that you read the article carefully and use the links provided in it. This will help you understand the content better.
Statistical Arbitrage Through Cointegrated Stocks (Final): Data Analysis with Specialized Database
The article shows how to pair SQLite (OLTP) with DuckDB (OLAP) for statistical arbitrage data processing. DuckDB’s columnar engine, ASOF JOIN, and array functions accelerate core tasks such as quote–trade alignment and RWEC, with measured speedups from 2x to 23x versus SQLite on larger inputs. You get simpler queries and faster analytics while keeping trade execution in SQLite.
From Basic to Intermediate: Indicator (IV)
In this article, we will explore how to easily create and implement an operational approach for coloring candles. This concept is highly valued by traders. When implementing such things, care must be taken to ensure that the bars or candles retain their original appearance and do not hinder reading candle by candle.
Creating a Trading Administrator Panel in MQL5 (Part X): External resource-based interface
Today, we are harnessing the capabilities of MQL5 to utilize external resources—such as images in the BMP format—to create a uniquely styled home interface for the Trading Administrator Panel. The strategy demonstrated here is particularly useful when packaging multiple resources, including images, sounds, and more, for streamlined distribution. Join us in this discussion as we explore how these features are implemented to deliver a modern and visually appealing interface for our New_Admin_Panel EA.
Developing a Replay System (Part 46): Chart Trade Project (V)
Tired of wasting time searching for that very file that you application needs in order to work? How about including everything in the executable? This way you won't have to search for the things. I know that many people use this form of distribution and storage, but there is a much more suitable way. At least as far as the distribution of executable files and their storage is concerned. The method that will be presented here can be very useful, since you can use MetaTrader 5 itself as an excellent assistant, as well as MQL5. Furthermore, it is not that difficult to understand.
Population optimization algorithms: Spiral Dynamics Optimization (SDO) algorithm
The article presents an optimization algorithm based on the patterns of constructing spiral trajectories in nature, such as mollusk shells - the spiral dynamics optimization (SDO) algorithm. I have thoroughly revised and modified the algorithm proposed by the authors. The article will consider the necessity of these changes.
Neural Networks in Trading: Transformer for the Point Cloud (Pointformer)
In this article, we will talk about algorithms for using attention methods in solving problems of detecting objects in a point cloud. Object detection in point clouds is important for many real-world applications.
Animal Migration Optimization (AMO) algorithm
The article is devoted to the AMO algorithm, which models the seasonal migration of animals in search of optimal conditions for life and reproduction. The main features of AMO include the use of topological neighborhood and a probabilistic update mechanism, which makes it easy to implement and flexible for various optimization tasks.