Articles with examples of trading robots developed in MQL5

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An Expert Advisor is the 'pinnacle' of programming and the desired goal of every automated trading developer. Read the articles in this section to create your own trading robot. By following the described steps you will learn how to create, debug and test automated trading systems.

The articles not only teach MQL5 programming, but also show how to implement trading ideas and techniques. You will learn how to program a trailing stop, how to apply money management, how to get the indicator values, and much more.

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Neural networks made easy (Part 15): Data clustering using MQL5

Neural networks made easy (Part 15): Data clustering using MQL5

We continue to consider the clustering method. In this article, we will create a new CKmeans class to implement one of the most common k-means clustering methods. During tests, the model managed to identify about 500 patterns.
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Neural networks made easy (Part 32): Distributed Q-Learning

Neural networks made easy (Part 32): Distributed Q-Learning

We got acquainted with the Q-learning method in one of the earlier articles within this series. This method averages rewards for each action. Two works were presented in 2017, which show greater success when studying the reward distribution function. Let's consider the possibility of using such technology to solve our problems.
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Timeseries in DoEasy library (part 54): Descendant classes of abstract base indicator

Timeseries in DoEasy library (part 54): Descendant classes of abstract base indicator

The article considers creation of classes of descendant objects of base abstract indicator. Such objects will provide access to features of creating indicator EAs, collecting and getting data value statistics of various indicators and prices. Also, create indicator object collection from which getting access to properties and data of each indicator created in the program will be possible.
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Automating The Market Sentiment Indicator

Automating The Market Sentiment Indicator

In this article, we automate a custom market sentiment indicator that classifies market conditions into bullish, bearish, risk-on, risk-off, and neutral. The Expert Advisor delivers real-time insights into prevailing sentiment while streamlining the analysis process for current market trends or direction.
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Understanding Programming Paradigms (Part 2): An Object-Oriented Approach to Developing a Price Action Expert Advisor

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.
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Automating Trading Strategies in MQL5 (Part 15): Price Action Harmonic Cypher Pattern with Visualization

Automating Trading Strategies in MQL5 (Part 15): Price Action Harmonic Cypher Pattern with Visualization

In this article, we explore the automation of the Cypher harmonic pattern in MQL5, detailing its detection and visualization on MetaTrader 5 charts. We implement an Expert Advisor that identifies swing points, validates Fibonacci-based patterns, and executes trades with clear graphical annotations. The article concludes with guidance on backtesting and optimizing the program for effective trading.
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Introduction to MQL5 (Part 4): Mastering Structures, Classes, and Time Functions

Introduction to MQL5 (Part 4): Mastering Structures, Classes, and Time Functions

Unlock the secrets of MQL5 programming in our latest article! Delve into the essentials of structures, classes, and time functions, empowering your coding journey. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced developer, our guide simplifies complex concepts, providing valuable insights for mastering MQL5. Elevate your programming skills and stay ahead in the world of algorithmic trading!
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Build Self Optimizing Expert Advisors in MQL5 (Part 5): Self Adapting Trading Rules

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.
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How to create a simple Multi-Currency Expert Advisor using MQL5 (Part 3): Added symbols prefixes and/or suffixes and Trading Time Session

How to create a simple Multi-Currency Expert Advisor using MQL5 (Part 3): Added symbols prefixes and/or suffixes and Trading Time Session

Several fellow traders sent emails or commented about how to use this Multi-Currency EA on brokers with symbol names that have prefixes and/or suffixes, and also how to implement trading time zones or trading time sessions on this Multi-Currency EA.
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Neural Networks in Trading: A Multi-Agent System with Conceptual Reinforcement (FinCon)

Neural Networks in Trading: A Multi-Agent System with Conceptual Reinforcement (FinCon)

We invite you to explore the FinCon framework, which is a a Large Language Model (LLM)-based multi-agent system. The framework uses conceptual verbal reinforcement to improve decision making and risk management, enabling effective performance on a variety of financial tasks.
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Developing a trading Expert Advisor from scratch (Part 9): A conceptual leap (II)

Developing a trading Expert Advisor from scratch (Part 9): A conceptual leap (II)

In this article, we will place Chart Trade in a floating window. In the previous part, we created a basic system which enables the use of templates within a floating window.
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Ready-made templates for including indicators to Expert Advisors (Part 2): Volume and Bill Williams indicators

Ready-made templates for including indicators to Expert Advisors (Part 2): Volume and Bill Williams indicators

In this article, we will look at standard indicators of the Volume and Bill Williams' 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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Developing a trading Expert Advisor from scratch (Part 13): Time and Trade (II)

Developing a trading Expert Advisor from scratch (Part 13): Time and Trade (II)

Today we will construct the second part of the Times & Trade system for market analysis. In the previous article "Times & Trade (I)" we discussed an alternative chart organization system, which would allow having an indicator for the quickest possible interpretation of deals executed in the market.
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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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Neural Networks in Trading: Parameter-Efficient Transformer with Segmented Attention (Final Part)

Neural Networks in Trading: Parameter-Efficient Transformer with Segmented Attention (Final Part)

In the previous work, we discussed the theoretical aspects of the PSformer framework, which includes two major innovations in the classical Transformer architecture: the Parameter Shared (PS) mechanism and attention to spatio-temporal segments (SegAtt). In this article, we continue the work we started on implementing the proposed approaches using MQL5.
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Neural networks made easy (Part 76): Exploring diverse interaction patterns with Multi-future Transformer

Neural networks made easy (Part 76): Exploring diverse interaction patterns with Multi-future Transformer

This article continues the topic of predicting the upcoming price movement. I invite you to get acquainted with the Multi-future Transformer architecture. Its main idea is to decompose the multimodal distribution of the future into several unimodal distributions, which allows you to effectively simulate various models of interaction between agents on the scene.
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News Trading Made Easy (Part 1): Creating a Database

News Trading Made Easy (Part 1): Creating a Database

News trading can be complicated and overwhelming, in this article we will go through steps to obtain news data. Additionally we will learn about the MQL5 Economic Calendar and what it has to offer.
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Introduction to MQL5 (Part 19): Automating Wolfe Wave Detection

Introduction to MQL5 (Part 19): Automating Wolfe Wave Detection

This article shows how to programmatically identify bullish and bearish Wolfe Wave patterns and trade them using MQL5. We’ll explore how to identify Wolfe Wave structures programmatically and execute trades based on them using MQL5. This includes detecting key swing points, validating pattern rules, and preparing the EA to act on the signals it finds.
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How to build and optimize a volatility-based trading system (Chaikin Volatility - CHV)

How to build and optimize a volatility-based trading system (Chaikin Volatility - CHV)

In this article, we will provide another volatility-based indicator named Chaikin Volatility. We will understand how to build a custom indicator after identifying how it can be used and constructed. We will share some simple strategies that can be used and then test them to understand which one can be better.
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Graph Theory: Dijkstra's Algorithm Applied in Trading

Graph Theory: Dijkstra's Algorithm Applied in Trading

Dijkstra's algorithm, a classic shortest-path solution in graph theory, can optimize trading strategies by modeling market networks. Traders can use it to find the most efficient routes in the candlestick chart data.
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Developing a multi-currency Expert Advisor (Part 1): Collaboration of several trading strategies

Developing a multi-currency Expert Advisor (Part 1): Collaboration of several trading strategies

There are quite a lot of different trading strategies. So, it might be useful to apply several strategies working in parallel to diversify risks and increase the stability of trading results. But if each strategy is implemented as a separate Expert Advisor (EA), then managing their work on one trading account becomes much more difficult. To solve this problem, it would be reasonable to implement the operation of different trading strategies within a single EA.
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Build Self Optimizing Expert Advisors in MQL5  (Part 3): Dynamic Trend Following and Mean Reversion Strategies

Build Self Optimizing Expert Advisors in MQL5 (Part 3): Dynamic Trend Following and Mean Reversion Strategies

Financial markets are typically classified as either in a range mode or a trending mode. This static view of the market may make it easier for us to trade in the short run. However, it is disconnected from the reality of the market. In this article, we look to better understand how exactly financial markets move between these 2 possible modes and how we can use our new understanding of market behavior to gain confidence in our algorithmic trading strategies.
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Introduction to MQL5 (Part 14): A Beginner's Guide to Building Custom Indicators (III)

Introduction to MQL5 (Part 14): A Beginner's Guide to Building Custom Indicators (III)

Learn to build a Harmonic Pattern indicator in MQL5 using chart objects. Discover how to detect swing points, apply Fibonacci retracements, and automate pattern recognition.
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Neural networks made easy (Part 31): Evolutionary algorithms

Neural networks made easy (Part 31): Evolutionary algorithms

In the previous article, we started exploring non-gradient optimization methods. We got acquainted with the genetic algorithm. Today, we will continue this topic and will consider another class of evolutionary algorithms.
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Continuous walk-forward optimization (Part 8): Program improvements and fixes

Continuous walk-forward optimization (Part 8): Program improvements and fixes

The program has been modified based on comments and requests from users and readers of this article series. This article contains a new version of the auto optimizer. This version implements requested features and provides other improvements, which I found when working with the program.
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Creating an EA that works automatically (Part 10): Automation (II)

Creating an EA that works automatically (Part 10): Automation (II)

Automation means nothing if you cannot control its schedule. No worker can be efficient working 24 hours a day. However, many believe that an automated system should operate 24 hours a day. But it is always good to have means to set a working time range for the EA. In this article, we will consider how to properly set such a time range.
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Neural networks made easy (Part 49): Soft Actor-Critic

Neural networks made easy (Part 49): Soft Actor-Critic

We continue our discussion of reinforcement learning algorithms for solving continuous action space problems. In this article, I will present the Soft Actor-Critic (SAC) algorithm. The main advantage of SAC is the ability to find optimal policies that not only maximize the expected reward, but also have maximum entropy (diversity) of actions.
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Formulating Dynamic Multi-Pair EA (Part 4): Volatility and Risk Adjustment

Formulating Dynamic Multi-Pair EA (Part 4): Volatility and Risk Adjustment

This phase fine-tunes your multi-pair EA to adapt trade size and risk in real time using volatility metrics like ATR boosting consistency, protection, and performance across diverse market conditions.
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Neural Networks in Trading: An Agent with Layered Memory

Neural Networks in Trading: An Agent with Layered Memory

Layered memory approaches that mimic human cognitive processes enable the processing of complex financial data and adaptation to new signals, thereby improving the effectiveness of investment decisions in dynamic markets.
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Developing a trading Expert Advisor from scratch (Part 11): Cross order system

Developing a trading Expert Advisor from scratch (Part 11): Cross order system

In this article we will create a system of cross orders. There is one type of assets that makes traders' life very difficult for traders — futures contracts. But why do they make life difficult?
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Build Self Optimizing Expert Advisors in MQL5 (Part 6): Stop Out Prevention

Build Self Optimizing Expert Advisors in MQL5 (Part 6): Stop Out Prevention

Join us in our discussion today as we look for an algorithmic procedure to minimize the total number of times we get stopped out of winning trades. The problem we faced is significantly challenging, and most solutions given in community discussions lack set and fixed rules. Our algorithmic approach to solving the problem increased the profitability of our trades and reduced our average loss per trade. However, there are further advancements to be made to completely filter out all trades that will be stopped out, our solution is a good first step for anyone to try.
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Implementing the Generalized Hurst Exponent and the Variance Ratio test in MQL5

Implementing the Generalized Hurst Exponent and the Variance Ratio test in MQL5

In this article, we investigate how the Generalized Hurst Exponent and the Variance Ratio test can be utilized to analyze the behaviour of price series in MQL5.
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Introduction to MQL5 (Part 6): A Beginner's Guide to Array Functions in MQL5 (II)

Introduction to MQL5 (Part 6): A Beginner's Guide to Array Functions in MQL5 (II)

Embark on the next phase of our MQL5 journey. In this insightful and beginner-friendly article, we'll look into the remaining array functions, demystifying complex concepts to empower you to craft efficient trading strategies. We’ll be discussing ArrayPrint, ArrayInsert, ArraySize, ArrayRange, ArrarRemove, ArraySwap, ArrayReverse, and ArraySort. Elevate your algorithmic trading expertise with these essential array functions. Join us on the path to MQL5 mastery!
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Creating a Dynamic Multi-Symbol, Multi-Period Relative Strength Indicator (RSI) Indicator Dashboard in MQL5

Creating a Dynamic Multi-Symbol, Multi-Period Relative Strength Indicator (RSI) Indicator Dashboard in MQL5

In this article, we develop a dynamic multi-symbol, multi-period RSI indicator dashboard in MQL5, providing traders real-time RSI values across various symbols and timeframes. The dashboard features interactive buttons, real-time updates, and color-coded indicators to help traders make informed decisions.
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Risk manager for algorithmic trading

Risk manager for algorithmic trading

The objectives of this article are to prove the necessity of using a risk manager and to implement the principles of controlled risk in algorithmic trading in a separate class, so that everyone can verify the effectiveness of the risk standardization approach in intraday trading and investing in financial markets. In this article, we will create a risk manager class for algorithmic trading. This is a logical continuation of the previous article in which we discussed the creation of a risk manager for manual trading.
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Trading with the MQL5 Economic Calendar (Part 2): Creating a News Dashboard Panel

Trading with the MQL5 Economic Calendar (Part 2): Creating a News Dashboard Panel

In this article, we create a practical news dashboard panel using the MQL5 Economic Calendar to enhance our trading strategy. We begin by designing the layout, focusing on key elements like event names, importance, and timing, before moving into the setup within MQL5. Finally, we implement a filtering system to display only the most relevant news, giving traders quick access to impactful economic events.
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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.
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Price Action Analysis Toolkit Development (Part 7): Signal Pulse EA

Price Action Analysis Toolkit Development (Part 7): Signal Pulse EA

Unlock the potential of multi-timeframe analysis with 'Signal Pulse,' an MQL5 Expert Advisor that integrates Bollinger Bands and the Stochastic Oscillator to deliver accurate, high-probability trading signals. Discover how to implement this strategy and effectively visualize buy and sell opportunities using custom arrows. Ideal for traders seeking to enhance their judgment through automated analysis across multiple timeframes.
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From Novice to Expert: Trading the RSI with Market Structure Awareness

From Novice to Expert: Trading the RSI with Market Structure Awareness

In this article, we will explore practical techniques for trading the Relative Strength Index (RSI) oscillator with market structure. Our focus will be on channel price action patterns, how they are typically traded, and how MQL5 can be leveraged to enhance this process. By the end, you will have a rule-based, automated channel-trading system designed to capture trend continuation opportunities with greater precision and consistency.
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Master MQL5 from Beginner to Pro (Part VI): Basics of Developing Expert Advisors

Master MQL5 from Beginner to Pro (Part VI): Basics of Developing Expert Advisors

This article continues the series for beginners. Here we will discuss the basic principles of developing Expert Advisors (EAs). We will create two EAs: the first one will trade without indicators, using pending orders, and the second one will be based on the standard MA indicator, opening deals at the current price. Here I assume that you are no longer a complete beginner and have a relatively good command of the material from the previous articles.