MQL5 Cookbook: Handling Custom Chart Events
This article considers aspects of design and development of custom chart events system in the MQL5 environment. An example of an approach to the events classification can also be found here, as well as a program code for a class of events and a class of custom events handler.
Graphical Control of External Parameters of Indicators
External variables of indicators are controlled using a special window where parameters can be changed and the indicator is then run again. The obvious inconvenience of these manipulations has given rise to the need for displaying the required parameters on the screen and controlling the indicator graphically.
Graphics in DoEasy library (Part 82): Library objects refactoring and collection of graphical objects
In this article, I will improve all library objects by assigning a unique type to each object and continue the development of the library graphical objects collection class.
Population optimization algorithms: Bacterial Foraging Optimization (BFO)
E. coli bacterium foraging strategy inspired scientists to create the BFO optimization algorithm. The algorithm contains original ideas and promising approaches to optimization and is worthy of further study.
Prices in DoEasy library (part 61): Collection of symbol tick series
Since a program may use different symbols in its work, a separate list should be created for each of them. In this article, I will combine such lists into a tick data collection. In fact, this will be a regular list based on the class of dynamic array of pointers to instances of CObject class and its descendants of the Standard library.
Price Action Analysis Toolkit Development (Part 52): Master Market Structure with Multi-Timeframe Visual Analysis
This article presents the Multi‑Timeframe Visual Analyzer, an MQL5 Expert Advisor that reconstructs and overlays higher‑timeframe candles directly onto your active chart. It explains the implementation, key inputs, and practical outcomes, supported by an animated demo and chart examples showing instant toggling, multi‑timeframe confirmation, and configurable alerts. Read on to see how this tool can make chart analysis faster, clearer, and more efficient.
Effective Averaging Algorithms with Minimal Lag: Use in Indicators and Expert Advisors
The article describes custom averaging functions of higher quality developed by the author: JJMASeries(), JurXSeries(), JLiteSeries(), ParMASeries(), LRMASeries(), T3Series() and MASeries(). The author considers the hot substitution of these functions in indicators using the call of the SmoothXSeries() function.
Enhancing the Quality of the Code with the Help of Unit Test
Even simple programs may often have errors that seem to be unbelievable. "How could I create that?" is our first thought when such an error is revealed. "How can I avoid that?" is the second question which comes to our mind less frequently. It is impossible to create absolutely faultless code, especially in big projects, but it is possible to use technologies for their timely detection. The article describes how the MQL4 code quality can be enhanced with the help of the popular Unit Testing method.
Electronic Tables in MQL5
The article describes a class of dynamic two-dimensional array that contains data of different types in its first dimension. Storing data in the form of a table is convenient for solving a wide range of problems of arrangement, storing and operation with bound information of different types. The source code of the class that implements the functionality of working with tables is attached to the article.
DoEasy. Controls (Part 13): Optimizing interaction of WinForms objects with the mouse, starting the development of the TabControl WinForms object
In this article, I will fix and optimize handling the appearance of WinForms objects after moving the mouse cursor away from the object, as well as start the development of the TabControl WinForms object.
Analytical Volume Profile Trading (AVPT): Liquidity Architecture, Market Memory, and Algorithmic Execution
Analytical Volume Profile Trading (AVPT) explores how liquidity architecture and market memory shape price behavior, enabling more profound insight into institutional positioning and volume-driven structure. By mapping POC, HVNs, LVNs, and Value Areas, traders can identify acceptance, rejection, and imbalance zones with precision.
Practical Use of the Virtual Private Server (VPS) for Autotrading
Autotrading using VPS. This article is intended exceptionally for autotraders and autotrading supporters.
Graphics in DoEasy library (Part 90): Standard graphical object events. Basic functionality
In this article, I will implement the basic functionality for tracking standard graphical object events. I will start from a double click event on a graphical object.
Fractal Analysis of Joint Currency Movements
How independent are currency quotes? Are their movements coordinated or does the movement of one currency suggest nothing of the movement of another? The article describes an effort to tackle this issue using nonlinear dynamics and fractal geometry methods.
Price Action Analysis Toolkit Development (Part 26): Pin Bar, Engulfing Patterns and RSI Divergence (Multi-Pattern) Tool
Aligned with our goal of developing practical price-action tools, this article explores the creation of an EA that detects pin bar and engulfing patterns, using RSI divergence as a confirmation trigger before generating any trading signals.
Marvel Your MQL5 Customers with a Usable Cocktail of Technologies!
MQL5 provides programmers with a very complete set of functions and object-oriented API thanks to which they can do everything they want within the MetaTrader environment. However, Web Technology is an extremely versatile tool nowadays that may come to the rescue in some situations when you need to do something very specific, want to marvel your customers with something different or simply you do not have enough time to master a specific part of MT5 Standard Library. Today's exercise walks you through a practical example about how you can manage your development time at the same time as you also create an amazing tech cocktail.
Reimagining Classic Strategies (Part 13): Minimizing The Lag in Moving Average Cross-Overs
Moving average cross-overs are widely known by traders in our community, and yet the core of the strategy has changed very little since its inception. In this discussion, we will present you with a slight adjustment to the original strategy, that aims to minimize the lag present in the trading strategy. All fans of the original strategy, could consider revising the strategy in accordance with the insights we will discuss today. By using 2 moving averages with the same period, we reduce the lag in the trading strategy considerably, without violating the foundational principles of the strategy.
Trend Lines Indicator Considering T. Demark's Approach
The indicator shows trend lines displaying the recent events on the market. The indicator is developed considering the recommendations and the approach of Thomas Demark concerning technical analysis. The indicator displays both the last direction of the trend and the next-to-last opposite direction of the trend.
Using Assertions in MQL5 Programs
This article covers the use of assertions in MQL5 language. It provides two examples of the assertion mechanism and some general guidance for implementing assertions.
Multiple indicators on one chart (Part 03): Developing definitions for users
Today we will update the functionality of the indicator system for the first time. In the previous article within the "Multiple indicators on one chart" we considered the basic code which allows using more than one indicator in a chart subwindow. But what was presented was just the starting base of a much larger system.
Ready-made templates for including indicators to Expert Advisors (Part 1): Oscillators
The article considers standard indicators from the oscillator category. We will create ready-to-use templates for their use in EAs - declaring and setting parameters, indicator initialization and deinitialization, as well as receiving data and signals from indicator buffers in EAs.
Reimagining Classic Strategies (Part 18): Searching For Candlestick Patterns
This article helps new community members search for and discover their own candlestick patterns. Describing these patterns can be daunting, as it requires manually searching and creatively identifying improvements. Here, we introduce the engulfing candlestick pattern and show how it can be enhanced for more profitable trading applications.
Better Programmer (Part 03): Give Up doing these 5 things to become a successful MQL5 Programmer
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.
Prices in DoEasy library (part 59): Object to store data of one tick
From this article on, start creating library functionality to work with price data. Today, create an object class which will store all price data which arrived with yet another tick.
Developing a trading Expert Advisor from scratch (Part 28): Towards the future (III)
There is still one task which our order system is not up to, but we will FINALLY figure it out. The MetaTrader 5 provides a system of tickets which allows creating and correcting order values. The idea is to have an Expert Advisor that would make the same ticket system faster and more efficient.
DoEasy. Controls (Part 3): Creating bound controls
In this article, I will create subordinate controls bound to the base element. The development will be performed using the base control functionality. In addition, I will tinker with the graphical element shadow object a bit since it still suffers from some logic errors when applied to any of the objects capable of having a shadow.
Developing an Expert Advisor from scratch (Part 30): CHART TRADE as an indicator?
Today we are going to use Chart Trade again, but this time it will be an on-chart indicator which may or may not be present on the chart.
Build Self Optimizing Expert Advisors With MQL5 And Python
In this article, we will discuss how we can build Expert Advisors capable of autonomously selecting and changing trading strategies based on prevailing market conditions. We will learn about Markov Chains and how they can be helpful to us as algorithmic traders.
New Opportunities with MetaTrader 5
MetaTrader 4 gained its popularity with traders from all over the world, and it seemed like nothing more could be wished for. With its high processing speed, stability, wide array of possibilities for writing indicators, Expert Advisors, and informatory-trading systems, and the ability to chose from over a hundred different brokers, - the terminal greatly distinguished itself from the rest. But time doesn’t stand still, and we find ourselves facing a choice of MetaTrade 4 or MetaTrade 5. In this article, we will describe the main differences of the 5th generation terminal from our current favor.
How to add Trailing Stop using Parabolic SAR
When creating a trading strategy, we need to test a variety of protective stop options. Here is where a dynamic pulling up of the Stop Loss level following the price comes to mind. The best candidate for this is the Parabolic SAR indicator. It is difficult to think of anything simpler and visually clearer.
The Kalman Filter for Forex Mean-Reversion Strategies
The Kalman filter is a recursive algorithm used in algorithmic trading to estimate the true state of a financial time series by filtering out noise from price movements. It dynamically updates predictions based on new market data, making it valuable for adaptive strategies like mean reversion. This article first introduces the Kalman filter, covering its calculation and implementation. Next, we apply the filter to a classic mean-reversion forex strategy as an example. Finally, we conduct various statistical analyses by comparing the filter with a moving average across different forex pairs.
Classification models in the Scikit-Learn library and their export to ONNX
In this article, we will explore the application of all classification models available in the Scikit-Learn library to solve the classification task of Fisher's Iris dataset. We will attempt to convert these models into ONNX format and utilize the resulting models in MQL5 programs. Additionally, we will compare the accuracy of the original models with their ONNX versions on the full Iris dataset.
Graphics in DoEasy library (Part 93): Preparing functionality for creating composite graphical objects
In this article, I will start developing the functionality for creating composite graphical objects. The library will support creating composite graphical objects allowing those objects have any hierarchy of connections. I will prepare all the necessary classes for subsequent implementation of such objects.
Population optimization algorithms: Harmony Search (HS)
In the current article, I will study and test the most powerful optimization algorithm - harmonic search (HS) inspired by the process of finding the perfect sound harmony. So what algorithm is now the leader in our rating?
Understanding Programming Paradigms (Part 2): An Object-Oriented Approach to Developing a Price Action Expert Advisor
Learn about the object-oriented programming paradigm and its application in MQL5 code. This second article goes deeper into the specifics of object-oriented programming, offering hands-on experience through a practical example. You'll learn how to convert our earlier developed procedural price action expert advisor using the EMA indicator and candlestick price data to object-oriented code.
Population optimization algorithms: Grey Wolf Optimizer (GWO)
Let's consider one of the newest modern optimization algorithms - Grey Wolf Optimization. The original behavior on test functions makes this algorithm one of the most interesting among the ones considered earlier. This is one of the top algorithms for use in training neural networks, smooth functions with many variables.
Reimagining Classic Strategies (Part 12): EURUSD Breakout Strategy
Join us today as we challenge ourselves to build a profitable break-out trading strategy in MQL5. We selected the EURUSD pair and attempted to trade price breakouts on the hourly timeframe. Our system had difficulty distinguishing between false breakouts and the beginning of true trends. We layered our system with filters intended to minimize our losses whilst increasing our gains. In the end, we successfully made our system profitable and less prone to false breakouts.
Build Self Optimizing Expert Advisors in MQL5 (Part 5): Self Adapting Trading Rules
The best practices, defining how to safely us an indicator, are not always easy to follow. Quiet market conditions may surprisingly produce readings on the indicator that do not qualify as a trading signal, leading to missed opportunities for algorithmic traders. This article will suggest a potential solution to this problem, as we discuss how to build trading applications capable of adapting their trading rules to the available market data.
How to create a simple Multi-Currency Expert Advisor using MQL5 (Part 7): ZigZag with Awesome Oscillator Indicators Signal
The multi-currency expert advisor in this article is an expert advisor or automated trading that uses ZigZag indicator which are filtered with the Awesome Oscillator or filter each other's signals.
MQL4 as a Trader's Tool, or The Advanced Technical Analysis
Trading is, first of all, a calculus of probabilities. The proverb about idleness being an engine for progress reveals us the reason why all those indicators and trading systems have been developed. It comes that the major of newcomers in trading study "ready-made" trading theories. But, as luck would have it, there are some more undiscovered market secrets, and tools used in analyzing of price movements exist, basically, as those unrealized technical indicators or math and stat packages. Thanks awfully to Bill Williams for his contribution to the market movements theory. Though, perhaps, it's too early to rest on oars.