MQL5 Programming Articles

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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.

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Building A Candlestick Trend Constraint Model(Part 2): Merging Native Indicators

Building A Candlestick Trend Constraint Model(Part 2): Merging Native Indicators

This article focuses on taking advantage of in-built meta trader 5 indicators to screen out off-trend signals. Advancing from the previous article we will explore how to do it using MQL5 code to communicate our idea to the final program.
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Engineering Trading Discipline into Code (Part 2): Building a Daily Trade Limit Enforcer for All Trades in MQL5

Engineering Trading Discipline into Code (Part 2): Building a Daily Trade Limit Enforcer for All Trades in MQL5

We have developed a system that enforces a daily trade limit to keep you aligned with your trading rules. It monitors all executed trades across the account and automatically intervenes once the defined limit is reached, preventing any further activity. By embedding control directly into the platform, the system ensures discipline is maintained even when market pressure rises.
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Gradient boosting in transductive and active machine learning

Gradient boosting in transductive and active machine learning

In this article, we will consider active machine learning methods utilizing real data, as well discuss their pros and cons. Perhaps you will find these methods useful and will include them in your arsenal of machine learning models. Transduction was introduced by Vladimir Vapnik, who is the co-inventor of the Support-Vector Machine (SVM).
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Risk Management (Part 1): Fundamentals for Building a Risk Management Class

Risk Management (Part 1): Fundamentals for Building a Risk Management Class

In this article, we'll cover the basics of risk management in trading and learn how to create your first functions for calculating the appropriate lot size for a trade, as well as a stop-loss. Additionally, we will go into detail about how these features work, explaining each step. Our goal is to provide a clear understanding of how to apply these concepts in automated trading. Finally, we will put everything into practice by creating a simple script with an include file.
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Learn how to design a trading system by Accumulation/Distribution (AD)

Learn how to design a trading system by Accumulation/Distribution (AD)

Welcome to the new article from our series about learning how to design trading systems based on the most popular technical indicators. In this article, we will learn about a new technical indicator called Accumulation/Distribution indicator and find out how to design an MQL5 trading system based on simple AD trading strategies.
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Building a Dynamic ATR-Based Trend Channel Indicator in MQL5

Building a Dynamic ATR-Based Trend Channel Indicator in MQL5

This article develops a dynamic ATR-based trend channel indicator in MQL5 that responds to current market volatility. It derives True Range, applies a two-step ATR smoothing, and constructs adaptive upper and lower boundaries to track trend shifts. The tool also renders a trailing trend line, trend-colored candles, and reversal arrows, offering a usable code base for volatility-aware analysis and further indicator design.
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MQL5 Cookbook — Services

MQL5 Cookbook — Services

The article describes the versatile capabilities of services — MQL5 programs that do not require binding graphs. I will also highlight the differences of services from other MQL5 programs and emphasize the nuances of the developer's work with services. As examples, the reader is offered various tasks covering a wide range of functionality that can be implemented as a service.
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Custom Indicator Workshop (Part 1): Building the Supertrend Indicator in MQL5

Custom Indicator Workshop (Part 1): Building the Supertrend Indicator in MQL5

Build a non‑repainting Supertrend in MQL5 for MetaTrader 5 from first principles. We use an iATR handle and CopyBuffer for volatility, bind buffers with SetIndexBuffer, and configure plots (DRAWCOLORCANDLES plus two line bands) via PlotIndexSetInteger. The logic updates only on closed bars with EMPTY_VALUE to suppress inactive bands, exposing atrPeriod and atrMultiplier inputs. You get a clean, EA‑ready overlay with documented buffers for strategies and signals.
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MQL5 Wizard techniques you should know (Part 01): Regression Analysis

MQL5 Wizard techniques you should know (Part 01): Regression Analysis

Todays trader is a philomath who is almost always (either consciously or not...) looking up new ideas, trying them out, choosing to modify them or discard them; an exploratory process that should cost a fair amount of diligence. This clearly places a premium on the trader's time and the need to avoid mistakes. These series of articles will proposition that the MQL5 wizard should be a mainstay for traders. Why? Because not only does the trader save time by assembling his new ideas with the MQL5 wizard, and greatly reduce mistakes from duplicate coding; he is ultimately set-up to channel his energy on the few critical areas of his trading philosophy.
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Visual evaluation of optimization results

Visual evaluation of optimization results

In this article, we will consider how to build graphs of all optimization passes and to select the optimal custom criterion. We will also see how to create a desired solution with little MQL5 knowledge, using the articles published on the website and forum comments.
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Working with ONNX models in float16 and float8 formats

Working with ONNX models in float16 and float8 formats

Data formats used to represent machine learning models play a crucial role in their effectiveness. In recent years, several new types of data have emerged, specifically designed for working with deep learning models. In this article, we will focus on two new data formats that have become widely adopted in modern models.
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Data Science and Machine Learning (Part 04): Predicting Current Stock Market Crash

Data Science and Machine Learning (Part 04): Predicting Current Stock Market Crash

In this article I am going to attempt to use our logistic model to predict the stock market crash based upon the fundamentals of the US economy, the NETFLIX and APPLE are the stocks we are going to focus on, Using the previous market crashes of 2019 and 2020 let's see how our model will perform in the current dooms and glooms.
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Learn how to design a trading system by Chaikin Oscillator

Learn how to design a trading system by Chaikin Oscillator

Welcome to our new article from our series about learning how to design a trading system by the most popular technical indicator. Through this new article, we will learn how to design a trading system by the Chaikin Oscillator indicator.
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Developing a trading Expert Advisor from scratch (Part 31): Towards the future (IV)

Developing a trading Expert Advisor from scratch (Part 31): Towards the future (IV)

We continue to remove separate parts from our EA. This is the last article within this series. And the last thing to be removed is the sound system. This can be a bit confusing if you haven't followed these article series.
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Data Science and Machine Learning (Part 02): Logistic Regression

Data Science and Machine Learning (Part 02): Logistic Regression

Data Classification is a crucial thing for an algo trader and a programmer. In this article, we are going to focus on one of classification logistic algorithms that can probability help us identify the Yes's or No's, the Ups and Downs, Buys and Sells.
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Larry Williams Market Secrets (Part 5): Automating the Volatility Breakout Strategy in MQL5

Larry Williams Market Secrets (Part 5): Automating the Volatility Breakout Strategy in MQL5

This article demonstrates how to automate Larry Williams’ volatility breakout strategy in MQL5 using a practical, step-by-step approach. You will learn how to calculate daily range expansions, derive buy and sell levels, manage risk with range-based stops and reward-based targets, and structure a professional Expert Advisor for MetaTrader 5. Designed for traders and developers looking to transform Larry Williams’ market concepts into a fully testable and deployable automated trading system.
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Building a Research-Grounded Grid EA in MQL5: Why Most Grid EAs Fail and What Taranto Proved

Building a Research-Grounded Grid EA in MQL5: Why Most Grid EAs Fail and What Taranto Proved

This article implements a regime-adaptive grid trading EA based on the PhD research of Aldo Taranto. It presents a regime‑adaptive grid trading EA that constrains risk through restartable cycles and equity‑based safeguards. We explain why naive grids fail (variance growth and almost‑sure ruin), derive the loss formula for real‑time exposure, and implement regime‑aware gating, ATR‑dynamic spacing, and a live kill switch. Readers get the mathematical tools and production patterns needed to build, test, and operate a constrained grid safely.
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How to choose an Expert Advisor: Twenty strong criteria to reject a trading bot

How to choose an Expert Advisor: Twenty strong criteria to reject a trading bot

This article tries to answer the question: how can we choose the right expert advisors? Which are the best for our portfolio, and how can we filter the large trading bots list available on the market? This article will present twenty clear and strong criteria to reject an expert advisor. Each criterion will be presented and well explained to help you make a more sustained decision and build a more profitable expert advisor collection for your profits.
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MQL5 Wizard techniques you should know (Part 06): Fourier Transform

MQL5 Wizard techniques you should know (Part 06): Fourier Transform

The Fourier transform introduced by Joseph Fourier is a means of deconstructing complex data wave points into simple constituent waves. This feature could be resourceful to traders and this article takes a look at that.
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Formulating Dynamic Multi-Pair EA (Part 3): Mean Reversion and Momentum Strategies

Formulating Dynamic Multi-Pair EA (Part 3): Mean Reversion and Momentum Strategies

In this article, we will explore the third part of our journey in formulating a Dynamic Multi-Pair Expert Advisor (EA), focusing specifically on integrating Mean Reversion and Momentum trading strategies. We will break down how to detect and act on price deviations from the mean (Z-score), and how to measure momentum across multiple forex pairs to determine trade direction.
DIY technical indicator
DIY technical indicator

DIY technical indicator

In this article, I will consider the algorithms allowing you to create your own technical indicator. You will learn how to obtain pretty complex and interesting results with very simple initial assumptions.
Using Discriminant Analysis to Develop Trading Systems
Using Discriminant Analysis to Develop Trading Systems

Using Discriminant Analysis to Develop Trading Systems

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.
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Ready-made templates for including indicators to Expert Advisors (Part 3): Trend indicators

Ready-made templates for including indicators to Expert Advisors (Part 3): Trend indicators

In this reference article, we will look at standard indicators from the Trend Indicators category. We will create ready-to-use templates for indicator use in EAs - declaring and setting parameters, indicator initialization and deinitialization, as well as receiving data and signals from indicator buffers in EAs.
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Automating Trading Strategies in MQL5 (Part 2): The Kumo Breakout System with Ichimoku and Awesome Oscillator

Automating Trading Strategies in MQL5 (Part 2): The Kumo Breakout System with Ichimoku and Awesome Oscillator

In this article, we create an Expert Advisor (EA) that automates the Kumo Breakout strategy using the Ichimoku Kinko Hyo indicator and the Awesome Oscillator. We walk through the process of initializing indicator handles, detecting breakout conditions, and coding automated trade entries and exits. Additionally, we implement trailing stops and position management logic to enhance the EA's performance and adaptability to market conditions.
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How to add Trailing Stop using Parabolic SAR

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.
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Experiments with neural networks (Part 6): Perceptron as a self-sufficient tool for price forecast

Experiments with neural networks (Part 6): Perceptron as a self-sufficient tool for price forecast

The article provides an example of using a perceptron as a self-sufficient price prediction tool by showcasing general concepts and the simplest ready-made Expert Advisor followed by the results of its optimization.
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MetaTrader 5 Machine Learning Blueprint (Part 5): Sequential Bootstrapping—Debiasing Labels, Improving Returns

MetaTrader 5 Machine Learning Blueprint (Part 5): Sequential Bootstrapping—Debiasing Labels, Improving Returns

Sequential bootstrapping reshapes bootstrap sampling for financial machine learning by actively avoiding temporally overlapping labels, producing more independent training samples, sharper uncertainty estimates, and more robust trading models. This practical guide explains the intuition, shows the algorithm step‑by‑step, provides optimized code patterns for large datasets, and demonstrates measurable performance gains through simulations and real backtests.
Graphics in DoEasy library (Part 94): Moving and deleting composite graphical objects
Graphics in DoEasy library (Part 94): Moving and deleting composite graphical objects

Graphics in DoEasy library (Part 94): Moving and deleting composite graphical objects

In this article, I will start the development of various composite graphical object events. We will also partially consider moving and deleting a composite graphical object. In fact, here I am going to fine-tune the things I implemented in the previous article.
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Timeseries in DoEasy library (part 58): Timeseries of indicator buffer data

Timeseries in DoEasy library (part 58): Timeseries of indicator buffer data

In conclusion of the topic of working with timeseries organise storage, search and sort of data stored in indicator buffers which will allow to further perform the analysis based on values of the indicators to be created on the library basis in programs. The general concept of all collection classes of the library allows to easily find necessary data in the corresponding collection. Respectively, the same will be possible in the class created today.
Growing Neural Gas: Implementation in MQL5
Growing Neural Gas: Implementation in MQL5

Growing Neural Gas: Implementation in MQL5

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.
MQL5 Cloud Network: Are You Still Calculating?
MQL5 Cloud Network: Are You Still Calculating?

MQL5 Cloud Network: Are You Still Calculating?

It will soon be a year and a half since the MQL5 Cloud Network has been launched. This leading edge event ushered in a new era of algorithmic trading - now with a couple of clicks, traders can have hundreds and thousands of computing cores at their disposal for the optimization of their trading strategies.
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Creating an EA that works automatically (Part 03): New functions

Creating an EA that works automatically (Part 03): New functions

Today we'll see how to create an Expert Advisor that simply and safely works in automatic mode. In the previous article, we started to develop an order system that we will use in our automated EA. However, we have created only one of the necessary functions.
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Understanding functions in MQL5 with applications

Understanding functions in MQL5 with applications

Functions are critical things in any programming language, it helps developers apply the concept of (DRY) which means do not repeat yourself, and many other benefits. In this article, you will find much more information about functions and how we can create our own functions in MQL5 with simple applications that can be used or called in any system you have to enrich your trading system without complicating things.
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Crow Search Algorithm (CSA)

Crow Search Algorithm (CSA)

The Crow Search Algorithm (CSA) is an elegant metaheuristic inspired by crows’ ability to hide food and find other crows' caches, solving optimization problems by balancing following successful solutions with random exploration of the search space. Let's find out how well the algorithm performs.
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How to Create an Interactive MQL5 Dashboard/Panel Using the Controls Class (Part 2): Adding Button Responsiveness

How to Create an Interactive MQL5 Dashboard/Panel Using the Controls Class (Part 2): Adding Button Responsiveness

In this article, we focus on transforming our static MQL5 dashboard panel into an interactive tool by enabling button responsiveness. We explore how to automate the functionality of the GUI components, ensuring they react appropriately to user clicks. By the end of the article, we establish a dynamic interface that enhances user engagement and trading experience.
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Building AI-Powered Trading Systems in MQL5 (Part 2): Developing a ChatGPT-Integrated Program with User Interface

Building AI-Powered Trading Systems in MQL5 (Part 2): Developing a ChatGPT-Integrated Program with User Interface

In this article, we develop a ChatGPT-integrated program in MQL5 with a user interface, leveraging the JSON parsing framework from Part 1 to send prompts to OpenAI’s API and display responses on a MetaTrader 5 chart. We implement a dashboard with an input field, submit button, and response display, handling API communication and text wrapping for user interaction.
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Introduction to MQL5 (Part 10): A Beginner's Guide to Working with Built-in Indicators in MQL5

Introduction to MQL5 (Part 10): A Beginner's Guide to Working with Built-in Indicators in MQL5

This article introduces working with built-in indicators in MQL5, focusing on creating an RSI-based Expert Advisor (EA) using a project-based approach. You'll learn to retrieve and utilize RSI values, handle liquidity sweeps, and enhance trade visualization using chart objects. Additionally, the article emphasizes effective risk management, including setting percentage-based risk, implementing risk-reward ratios, and applying risk modifications to secure profits.
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Population optimization algorithms: Particle swarm (PSO)

Population optimization algorithms: Particle swarm (PSO)

In this article, I will consider the popular Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm. Previously, we discussed such important characteristics of optimization algorithms as convergence, convergence rate, stability, scalability, as well as developed a test stand and considered the simplest RNG algorithm.
Universal regression model for market price prediction (Part 2): Natural, technological and social transient functions
Universal regression model for market price prediction (Part 2): Natural, technological and social transient functions

Universal regression model for market price prediction (Part 2): Natural, technological and social transient functions

This article is a logical continuation of the previous one. It highlights the facts that confirm the conclusions made in the first article. These facts were revealed within ten years after its publication. They are centered around three detected dynamic transient functions describing the patterns in market price changes.
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Moving Average in MQL5 from scratch: Plain and simple

Moving Average in MQL5 from scratch: Plain and simple

Using simple examples, we will examine the principles of calculating moving averages, as well as learn about the ways to optimize indicator calculations, including moving averages.