MQL5 Programming Articles

The MQL5 programming language primarily targets the creation of automated trading systems and complex instruments of technical analyses. But aside from this, it allows us to create interesting information systems for tracking market situations, and provides a return connection with the trader. The article describes the MQL5 Standard Library components, and shows examples of their use in practice for reaching these objectives. It also demonstrates an example of using Google Chart API for the creation of charts.

In order to develop an expert to participate in Automated Trading Championship 2010, let's use a template of ready expert advisor. Even novice MQL5 programmer will be capable of this task, because for your strategies the basic classes, functions, templates are already developed. It's enough to write a minimal amount of code to implement your trading idea.

The optimization process can require significant resources of your computer or even of the MQL5 Cloud Network test agents. This article comprises some simple ideas that I use for work facilitation and improvement of the MetaTrader 5 Strategy Tester. I got these ideas from the documentation, forum and articles.

An automated system will not be successful without proper security. However, security will not be ensured without a good understanding of certain things. In this article, we will explore why achieving maximum security in automated systems is such a challenge.

In this article, I will create a separate class for the shadow object, which is a descendant of the graphical element object, as well as add the ability to fill the object background with a gradient fill.

In this article, I will complete working with chart object classes and their collection. I will also implement auto tracking of changes in chart properties and their windows, as well as saving new parameters to the object properties. Such a revision allows the future implementation of an event functionality for the entire chart collection.

The article describes a way of programming without using templates but keeping the style of programming iherenet to them. It tells about implementation of templates using custom methods and has a ready-made script attached for creating a code on the basis of specified templates.

This article explains the idea of multi-mode trading robot programming in MQL5. Every mode is implemented with the object-oriented approach. Instances of both mode classes hierarchy and classes for testing are provided. Multi-mode programming of trading robots is supposed to take into account all peculiarities of every operational mode of an EA written in MQL5. Functions and enumeration are created for identifying the mode.

The second article of the "Custom Graphical Controls" series introduces a control library for handling the main problems arising in interaction between a program (Expert Advisor, script, indicator) and a user. The library contains a great number of classes (CInputBox, CSpinInputBox, CCheckBox, CRadioGroup, CVSсrollBar, CHSсrollBar, CList, CListMS, CComBox, CHMenu, CVMenu, CHProgress, CDialer, CDialerInputBox, CTable) and examples of their use.

In this article, I will start the improvement of the indicator buffer objects and collection class for working in multi-period and multi-symbol modes. I am going to consider the operation of buffer objects for receiving and displaying data from any timeframe on the current symbol chart.

An anti-aliasing algorithm of the CCanvas class is the base for all constructions where anti-aliasing is being used. The article contains information about how this algorithm operates, and provides relevant examples of visualization. It also covers drawing shades of graphic objects and has a detailed algorithm developed for drawing shades on canvas. The numerical analysis library ALGLIB is used for calculations.

The article regards spindle chart plotting and its usage in trading strategies and experts. First let's discuss the chart's appearance, plotting and connection with japanese candlestick chart. Next we analyze the indicator's implementation in the source code in the MQL5 language. Let's test the expert based on indicator and formulate the trading strategy.

This article is a continuation and completion of the topic discussed in the previous article: the MVC pattern in MQL programs. In this article, we will consider a diagram of possible interaction between the three components of the pattern.

In the article "Dr. Tradelove..." we created an Expert Advisor, which independently optimizes parameters of a pre-selected trading system. Moreover, we decided to create an Expert Advisor that can not only optimize parameters of one trading system underlying the EA, but also select the best one of several trading systems. Let's see what can come of it...

This article considers creation of documentation for MQL5 code starting with the automated markup of required tags. It also provides the description of how to use the Doxygen software, how to properly configure it and how to receive results in different formats, including html, HtmlHelp and PDF.

This article is intended to get its readers acquainted with a possible variant of using graphical objects of the MQL5 language. It analyses an indicator, which implements a panel of managing a simple spectrum analyzer using the graphical objects. The article is meant for readers acquianted with basics of MQL5.

We usually analyze the market using candlesticks or bars that slice the price series into regular intervals. Doesn't such discretization method distort the real structure of market movements? Discretization of an audio signal at regular intervals is an acceptable solution because an audio signal is a function that changes over time. The signal itself is an amplitude which depends on time. This signal property is fundamental.

If you think automated systems are simple, then you probably don't fully understand what it takes to create them. In this article, we will talk about the problem that kills a lot of Expert Advisors. The indiscriminate triggering of orders is a possible solution to this problem.

We have earlier discussed some types of neural network implementations. In the considered networks, the same operations are repeated for each neuron. A logical further step is to utilize multithreaded computing capabilities provided by modern technology in an effort to speed up the neural network learning process. One of the possible implementations is described in this article.

It is time to start the integration of the already created objects into the previously created library objects. This will ultimately endow each library object with its own graphical object allowing users to interact with the program.

In the previous chapters of the eighth part of the series, our library has been reinforced by several classes for developing mouse pointers, calendars and tree views. The current article deals with the file navigator control that can also be used as part of an MQL application graphical interface.

The MQL5 language keeps evolving, and its new features for working with data are constantly being added. Due to innovation it has recently become possible to operate with ZIP archives using regular MQL5 tools without getting third party DLL libraries involved. This article focuses on how this is done and provides the CZip class, which is a universal tool for reading, creating and modifying ZIP archives, as an example.

The article shows an example of how to develop an MQL5-program implementing the adaptive algorithm of clustering called Growing neural gas (GNG). The article is intended for the users who have studied the language documentation and have certain programming skills and basic knowledge in the area of neuroinformatics.

As the library grows, its code must be optimized again in order to reduce its size. The version of the library described in this article has become even more object-oriented. This made the code easier to learn. A detailed description of the latest changes will allow the readers to develop the library independently based on their own needs.

Estimation of statistical parameters of a sequence is very important, since most of mathematical models and methods are based on different assumptions. For example, normality of distribution law or dispersion value, or other parameters. Thus, when analyzing and forecasting of time series we need a simple and convenient tool that allows quickly and clearly estimating the main statistical parameters. The article shortly describes the simplest statistical parameters of a random sequence and several methods of its visual analysis. It offers the implementation of these methods in MQL5 and the methods of visualization of the result of calculations using the Gnuplot application.

This article starts an extensive topic of creating controls in Windows Forms style using MQL5. My first object of interest is creating the panel class. It is already becoming difficult to manage things without controls. Therefore, I will create all possible controls in Windows Forms style.

When developing a trading system, there usually arises a problem of selecting the best combination of indicators and their signals. Discriminant analysis is one of the methods to find such combinations. The article gives an example of developing an EA for market data collection and illustrates the use of the discriminant analysis for building prognostic models for the FOREX market in Statistica software.

The previous chapter of part VIII on graphical interfaces has focused on the elements of static and drop-down calendar. The second chapter will be dedicated to an equally complex element — a tree view, that is included in every complete library used for creating graphical interfaces. A tree view implemented in this article contains multiple flexible settings and modes, thus allowing to adjust this element of control to your needs.