MQL4 Programming Articles

All indicators can be divided into two groups: static indicators, the displaying of which, once shown, always remains the same in history and does not change with new incoming quotes, and dynamic indicators that display their status for the current moment only and are fully redrawn when a new price comes. The efficiency of a static indicator is directly visible on the chart. But how can we check whether a dynamic indicator works ok? This is the question the article is devoted to.

In this article the author continues to analyze implementation algorithms of simplest trading systems and introduces backtesting automation. The article will be useful for beginning traders and EA writers.

It may be news to many our readers that all preparations for writing an EA can be performed once and then used continuously.

In this article the author continues to analyze implementation algorithms of simplest trading systems and describes some relevant details of using optimization results. The article will be useful for beginning traders and EA writers.

The first demonstration of testing results of a strategy based on 0.1 lot is becoming a standard de facto in the Forum. Having received "not so bad" from professionals, a beginner sees that "0.1" testing brings rather modest results and decides to introduce an aggressive money management thinking that positive mathematic expectation automatically provides positive results. Let's see what results can be achieved. Together with that we will try to construct several artificial balance graphs that are very instructive.

The article describes an Expert Advisor that allows conducting the comparative analysis of 30 indicators and oscillators aiming at the formation of an effective package of indexes for trading.

This article dwells on implementation algorithm of simplest trading systems. The article will be useful for beginning traders and EA writers.

The article describes a simple, accessible language of graphical trading requests compatible with traditional technical analysis. The attached Gterminal is a half-automated Expert Advisor using in trading results of graphical analysis. Better used for self-education and training of beginning traders.

It is usually easier to show, than to explain. We offer a simple and free way to create a video clip using CamStudio for publishing it in MQL.community forums.

Not all traders are programmers. And not all of the programmers are really good ones. So, what should be done, if you need to automate your system by do not have time and desire to study MQL4?

Time based pattern analysis can be used in the currency market to determine a better time to enter a trade or time in which trading should be avoided at all. Here we use MetaTrader 4 to analyze history market data and produce optimization results that can be useful for application in mechanical trading systems.

The article dwells on the method of constructing charts, at which each bar consists of the equal number of ticks.

The article dwells on the notion of "market intuition" and ways of developing it. The method described in the article is based on the modeling of financial betting in the form of a simple game.

This is the fifth article from the series "MQL4 Languages for Newbies". Today we will learn to use graphical objects - a very powerful development tool that allows to widen substantially possibilities of using indicators. Besides, they can be used in scripts and Expert Advisors. We will learn to create objects, change their parameters, check errors. Of course, I cannot describe in details all objects - there are a lot of them. But you will get all necessary knowledge to be able to study them yourself. This article also contains a step-by-step guide-example of creating a complex signal indicator. At that, many parameters will be adjustable which will make it possible to change easily the appearance of the indicator.

This article contains the description of writing a simple and convenient indicator displaying in a working area the main economic events from external Internet resources.

Hard to interpret Ichimoku signals? This article introduces some principles of formalizing values and signals of Ichimoku Kinko Hyo. For visualization of its usage the author chose the currency pair EURUSD based on his own preferences. However, the indicator can be used on any currency pair.

This is the fourth article from the series "MQL4 Languages for Newbies". Today we will learn to write custom indicators. We will get acquainted with the classification of indicator features, will see how these features influence the indicator, will learn about new functions and optimization, and, finally, we will write our own indicators. Moreover, at the end of the article you will find advice on the programming style. If this is the first article "for newbies" that you are reading, perhaps it would be better for you to read the previous ones. Besides, make sure that you have understood properly the previous material, because the given article does not explain the basics.

The article describes the way of connecting to the remote PC with installed MT4 Client Terminal via a PDA.

This article will be interesting first of all for programmers both beginners and professionals working in MQL environment. Also it would be useful if this article were read by MQL environment developers and ideologists, because questions that are analyzed here may become projects for future implementation of MetaTrader and MQL.

Pivot Points (PP) analysis is one of the simplest and most effective strategies for high intraday volatility markets. It was used as early as in the precomputer times, when traders working at stocks could not use any ADP equipment, except for counting frames and arithmometers.

It is not a secret that for an efficient operation of Expert Advisors we need to find a suitable brokerage company. This article describes a system approach to this search. You will get acquainted with the process of creating a program with dll for working with different terminals.

This article is devoted to the topic "Widening possibilities of MQL4 programs by using functions of operating systems and other means of program development". The article describes an example of a program system that implements the task of the synchronization of several terminal copies based on a single source template.

The articles describes and provides a library of functions that allows a trader to optimize his or her Expert Advisor's inputs by launching optimization directly from the EA.

Everyone starting to work in Forex tries to answer these questions. But not everyone finds the answer, even after many years of hard work and search. I personally have answered this question, as well as many other questions of this article. As a result of these answers a way of creating an efficient trading strategy was determined.

This is the final article, devoted to transferring an indicator code into an Expert Advisor code. Here the author transforms on a certain example a code of an Expert Advisor so, that this EA is presented in a single file without calling custom indicators.

The article deals with the ways of how to send internal messages and SMSes from an Expert Advisor to mobile phones using Skype.

This article dwells on the ways of transferring an indicator code into an Expert Advisor Code and on writing Expert Advisors with no calling to custom indicators, and with the whole program code for the calculation of necessary indicator values inside the Expert Advisor. This article gives a general scheme of Expert Advisor changing and the idea of building an indicator function based on a custom indicator. The article is intended for readers, already having experience of programming in MQL4 language.

At present, technical analysis along with the fundamental one is the most important method to analyze stock market. Being one of the predicting methods of stock market pricing dynamics, the technical analysis has a large amount of disadvantages that cast some doubt on its practical applicability.

This article dwells on the ways of transferring an indicator code into an Expert Advisor Code and on writing Expert Advisors with no calling to custom indicators, and with the whole program code for the calculation of necessary indicator values inside the Expert Advisor. This article gives a general scheme of an indicator structure, emulation of indicator buffers in an Expert Advisor and substitution of the function IndicatorCounted(). The article is intended for readers, already having experience of programming in MQL4 language.

The most of traders use special programs to protect their PCs. Unfortunately, these programs don't only protect computers against intrusions, viruses and Trojans, but also consume a significant amount of resources. This relates to network traffic, first of all, which is wholly controlled by various intelligent antiviruses and firewalls. The reason for writing this article was that traders complained of slowed MetaTrader 4 Client Terminal when working with Outpost Firewall. We decided to make our own research using Kaspersky Antivirus 6.0 and Outpost Firewall Pro 4.0.

How to set up Alternative Ichimoku correctly? Read the description of parameters setting up. The article will help you understand the methods of setting up parameters not only of the indicator Ichimoku. Certainly you will also better understand how to set up the standard Ichimoku Kinko Hyo.

In Export Advisors development, the questions of code errors detection and recovery are very important. The peculiarity is that a not detected in time error may ruin a precious idea of a trading system already on the stage of its first testings. That is why any sensible EA developer takes into account such problems from the very beginning. This article dwells on some approaches, helping in this difficult matter.

In this article we will write a simple library for the construction of 3D graphs and their further viewing in Microsoft Excel. We will use standard MQL4 options to prepare and export data into *.csv file.

Cluster indicators are sets of indicators that divide currency pairs into separate currencies. Indicators allow to trace the relative currency fluctuation, determine the potential of forming new currency trends, receive trade signals and follow medium-term and long-term positions.

An idea of testing the hedge Expert Advisors using the strategy tester.

The article describes how to use indicators to watch the situation on financial markets online.

The article describes the usage of virtual trading as an integral part of trade opening filter.

The article describes the methods of how to understand the tester optimization results better. It also gives some tips that help to avoid "harmful optimization".

The article will help newbies in trading to create flexibly adjustable Expert Advisors.

This article contains the concept of operation time that allows to receive more even price flow. It also contains the code of the changed moving average with an allowance for this time transformation.