Articles on data analysis and statistics in MQL5

Reinforcement Learning is one of the three main tenets in machine learning, alongside supervised learning and unsupervised learning. It is therefore concerned with optimal control, or learning the best long-term policy that will best suit the objective function. It is with this back-drop, that we explore its possible role in informing the learning-process to an MLP of a wizard assembled Expert Advisor.

The article explores the bird swarm-based algorithm (BSA) inspired by the collective flocking interactions of birds in nature. The different search strategies of individuals in BSA, including switching between flight, vigilance and foraging behavior, make this algorithm multifaceted. It uses the principles of bird flocking, communication, adaptability, leading and following to efficiently find optimal solutions.

Eagle Strategy is an algorithm that mimics the eagle's two-phase hunting strategy: global search via Levy flights using Mantegna method, alternating with intense local exploitation using the firefly algorithm, a mathematically sound approach to balancing exploration and exploitation, and a bioinspired concept that combines two natural phenomena into a single computational method.

When we develop something in xlwings or any other package that allows reading and writing directly to Excel, we must note that all programs, functions, or procedures execute and then complete their task. They do not remain in a loop, no matter how hard we try to do things differently.

Eagle Strategy is an algorithm that mimics the eagle's two-phase hunting strategy: global search via Levy flights using Mantegna method, alternating with intense local exploitation using the firefly algorithm, a mathematically sound approach to balancing exploration and exploitation, and a bioinspired concept that combines two natural phenomena into a single computational method.

This series of articles introduces several time series labeling methods, which can create data that meets most artificial intelligence models, and targeted data labeling according to needs can make the trained artificial intelligence model more in line with the expected design, improve the accuracy of our model, and even help the model make a qualitative leap!

The article examines the theoretical and practical aspects of the singular spectrum analysis (SSA) method, which is an efficient method of time series analysis that allows one to represent the complex structure of a series as a decomposition into simple components, such as trend, seasonal (periodic) fluctuations and noise.

Artificial Cooperative Search (ACS) is an innovative method using a binary matrix and multiple dynamic populations based on mutualistic relationships and cooperation to find optimal solutions quickly and accurately. ACS unique approach to predators and prey enables it to achieve excellent results in numerical optimization problems.

In this article, we develop a custom indicator in MQL5 for hybrid Time Price Opportunity (TPO) market profiles, supporting multiple session timeframes such as intraday, daily, weekly, monthly, and fixed periods with timezone adjustments. The indicator quantizes prices into a grid, tracks session data including highs, lows, opens, and closes, and calculates key elements like the point of control and value area based on TPO counts. It renders profiles visually on the chart with customizable colors for TPO letters, single prints, value areas, POC, and close markers, enabling detailed session analysis

Previously, we evaluated the selection of a group of trading strategy instances, with the aim of improving the results of their joint operation, only on the same time period, in which the optimization of individual instances was carried out. Let's see what happens in the forward period.

This article presents the development of an arbitrage analysis panel in MQL5. How to get fair exchange rates on Forex in different ways? Create an indicator to obtain deviations of market prices from fair exchange rates, as well as to assess the benefits of arbitrage ways of exchanging one currency for another (as in triangular arbitrage).

The article enhances an MQL5 footprint indicator with a compact box above each candle that summarizes net delta, total volume, and buy/sell percentages. We implement supersampled anti‑aliased rendering, rounded corners via arc and quadrilateral rasterization, and per‑pixel alpha compositing. Supporting utilities include ARGB conversion, scanline fills, and box‑filter downsampling. The box delivers fast sentiment reads that stay legible across zoom levels.

Data classification for purposes of analysis and forecasting is a very diverse arena within machine learning and it features a large number of approaches and methods. This piece looks at one such approach, namely Agglomerative Hierarchical Classification.

Category Theory is a diverse and expanding branch of Mathematics which is only recently getting some coverage in the MQL5 community. These series of articles look to explore and examine some of its concepts & axioms with the overall goal of establishing an open library that provides insight while also hopefully furthering the use of this remarkable field in Traders' strategy development.

In this article, we will implement the first solution that will allow us to determine when a new bar may appear on the chart. This solution is applicable in a wide variety of situations. Understanding its development will help you grasp several important aspects. The content presented here is intended solely for educational purposes. Under no circumstances should the application be viewed for any purpose other than to learn and master the concepts presented.

In the previous article I explained how you can manipulate template data for use in OBJ_CHART. In that article, I only outlined the topic without going into details, since in that version the work was done in a very simplified way. This was done to make it easier to explain the content, because despite the apparent simplicity of many things, some of them were not so obvious, and without understanding the simplest and most basic part, you would not be able to truly understand the entire picture.

The first part was devoted to the well-known and popular algorithm - simulated annealing. We have thoroughly considered its pros and cons. The second part of the article is devoted to the radical transformation of the algorithm, which turns it into a new optimization algorithm - Simulated Isotropic Annealing (SIA).

The article describes a complete pipeline that uses data analysis for finding low-frequency lead/lag trading opportunities. It goes into building a cross-correlation-based Lead/Lag analyser step-by-step, with special attention to the most common errors beginners may commit while developing cross-asset diffusion queries. After screening dozens of cointegrated and correlated pairs, a trading candidate pair is chosen, and its tradeability is evaluated in a pure SQL backtest. Once it is qualified, the strategy is backtested on the MetaTester for parameter optimization. The Expert Advisor with respective backtest settings and optimization inputs is provided, along with Python and SQL scripts.

In this article we present an algorithm for permuting price bars and detail how permutation tests can be used to recognize instances where strategy performance has been fabricated to deceive potential buyers of Expert Advisors.

In this article, we will get acquainted with the ALGLIB library optimization methods for MQL5. The article includes simple and clear examples of using ALGLIB to solve optimization problems, which will make mastering the methods as accessible as possible. We will take a detailed look at the connection of such algorithms as BLEIC, L-BFGS and NS, and use them to solve a simple test problem.

This article proposes using Rolling Windows Eigenvector Comparison for early imbalance diagnostics and portfolio rebalancing in a mean-reversion statistical arbitrage strategy based on cointegrated stocks. It contrasts this technique with traditional In-Sample/Out-of-Sample ADF validation, showing that eigenvector shifts can signal the need for rebalancing even when IS/OOS ADF still indicates a stationary spread. While the method is intended mainly for live trading monitoring, the article concludes that eigenvector comparison could also be integrated into the scoring system—though its actual contribution to performance remains to be tested.

In this article, we'll complicate things a little. Using what was shown in the previous articles, we will start to open up the template file so that the user can use their own template. However, I will be making changes gradually, as I will also be refining the indicator to reduce the load on MetaTrader 5.

Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) are a powerful class of probabilistic models designed to analyze sequential data, where observed events depend on some sequence of unobserved (hidden) states that form a Markov process. The main assumptions of HMM include the Markov property for hidden states, meaning that the probability of transition to the next state depends only on the current state, and the independence of observations given knowledge of the current hidden state.

In the previous article, we made some fixes and added tests to our replication system to ensure the best possible stability. We also started creating and using a configuration file for this system.

We are close to completing this challenge. However, before we begin, I want you to try to understand these two articles—this one and the previous one. That way, you will truly understand the next article, in which I will cover exclusively the part related to MQL5 programming. But I will also try to make it understandable. If you do not understand these last two articles, it will be difficult for you to understand the next one, because the material accumulates. The more things there are to do, the more you need to create and understand in order to achieve the goal.

This article presents a sample MQL5 Service implementation for updating a newly created database used as source for data analysis and for trading a basket of cointegrated stocks. The rationale behind the database design is explained in detail and the data dictionary is documented for reference. MQL5 and Python scripts are provided for the database creation, schema initialization, and market data insertion.

Here we are going to develop a script from scratch that simplifies unloading print screens of deals for analyzing trading entries. All the necessary information on a single deal is to be conveniently displayed on one chart with the ability to draw different timeframes.