Articles on trading system automation in MQL5

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Read articles on the trading systems with a wide variety of ideas at the core. Learn how to use statistical methods and patterns on candlestick charts, how to filter signals and where to use semaphore indicators.

The MQL5 Wizard will help you create robots without programming to quickly check your trading ideas. Use the Wizard to learn about genetic algorithms.

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Expert System 'Commentator'. Practical Use of Embedded Indicators in an MQL4 Program
Expert System 'Commentator'. Practical Use of Embedded Indicators in an MQL4 Program

Expert System 'Commentator'. Practical Use of Embedded Indicators in an MQL4 Program

The article describes the use of technical indicators in programming on MQL4.
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Testing and optimization of binary options strategies in MetaTrader 5

Testing and optimization of binary options strategies in MetaTrader 5

In this article, I will check and optimize binary options strategies in MetaTrader 5.
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Self-Learning Expert Advisor with a Neural Network Based on a Markov State-Transition Matrix

Self-Learning Expert Advisor with a Neural Network Based on a Markov State-Transition Matrix

Self-training EA with a neural network based on a state matrix. We combine Markov chains with a multilayer neural network MLP developed using the ALGLIB MQL5 library. How can Markov chains and neural networks be combined for Forex forecasting?
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Building a Trading System (Part 4): How Random Exits Influence Trading Expectancy

Building a Trading System (Part 4): How Random Exits Influence Trading Expectancy

Many traders have experienced this situation, often stick to their entry criteria but struggle with trade management. Even with the right setups, emotional decision-making—such as panic exits before trades reach their take-profit or stop-loss levels—can lead to a declining equity curve. How can traders overcome this issue and improve their results? This article will address these questions by examining random win-rates and demonstrating, through Monte Carlo simulation, how traders can refine their strategies by taking profits at reasonable levels before the original target is reached.
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Neural networks made easy (Part 33): Quantile regression in distributed Q-learning

Neural networks made easy (Part 33): Quantile regression in distributed Q-learning

We continue studying distributed Q-learning. Today we will look at this approach from the other side. We will consider the possibility of using quantile regression to solve price prediction tasks.
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Developing a multi-currency Expert Advisor (Part 22): Starting the transition to hot swapping of settings

Developing a multi-currency Expert Advisor (Part 22): Starting the transition to hot swapping of settings

If we are going to automate periodic optimization, we need to think about auto updates of the settings of the EAs already running on the trading account. This should also allow us to run the EA in the strategy tester and change its settings within a single run.
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Building AI-Powered Trading Systems in MQL5 (Part 3): Upgrading to a Scrollable Single Chat-Oriented UI

Building AI-Powered Trading Systems in MQL5 (Part 3): Upgrading to a Scrollable Single Chat-Oriented UI

In this article, we upgrade the ChatGPT-integrated program in MQL5 to a scrollable single chat-oriented UI, enhancing conversation history display with timestamps and dynamic scrolling. The system builds on JSON parsing to manage multi-turn messages, supporting customizable scrollbar modes and hover effects for improved user interaction.
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Price Action Analysis Toolkit Development (Part 23): Currency Strength Meter

Price Action Analysis Toolkit Development (Part 23): Currency Strength Meter

Do you know what really drives a currency pair’s direction? It’s the strength of each individual currency. In this article, we’ll measure a currency’s strength by looping through every pair it appears in. That insight lets us predict how those pairs may move based on their relative strengths. Read on to learn more.
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Data Science and ML (Part 41): Forex and Stock Markets Pattern Detection using YOLOv8

Data Science and ML (Part 41): Forex and Stock Markets Pattern Detection using YOLOv8

Detecting patterns in financial markets is challenging because it involves seeing what's on the chart, something that's difficult to undertake in MQL5 due to image limitations. In this article, we are going to discuss a decent model made in Python that helps us detect patterns present on the chart with minimal effort.
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Building a Candlestick Trend Constraint Model (Part 8): Expert Advisor Development (I)

Building a Candlestick Trend Constraint Model (Part 8): Expert Advisor Development (I)

In this discussion, we will create our first Expert Advisor in MQL5 based on the indicator we made in the prior article. We will cover all the features required to make the process automatic, including risk management. This will extensively benefit the users to advance from manual execution of trades to automated systems.
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Timeseries in DoEasy library (part 52): Cross-platform nature of multi-period multi-symbol  single-buffer standard indicators

Timeseries in DoEasy library (part 52): Cross-platform nature of multi-period multi-symbol single-buffer standard indicators

In the article, consider creation of multi-symbol multi-period standard indicator Accumulation/Distribution. Slightly improve library classes with respect to indicators so that, the programs developed for outdated platform MetaTrader 4 based on this library could work normally when switching over to MetaTrader 5.
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Larry Williams Market Secrets (Part 6): Measuring Volatility Breakouts Using Market Swings

Larry Williams Market Secrets (Part 6): Measuring Volatility Breakouts Using Market Swings

This article demonstrates how to design and implement a Larry Williams volatility breakout Expert Advisor in MQL5, covering swing-range measurement, entry-level projection, risk-based position sizing, and backtesting on real market data.
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Automating Trading Strategies in MQL5 (Part 38): Hidden RSI Divergence Trading with Slope Angle Filters

Automating Trading Strategies in MQL5 (Part 38): Hidden RSI Divergence Trading with Slope Angle Filters

In this article, we build an MQL5 EA that detects hidden RSI divergences via swing points with strength, bar ranges, tolerance, and slope angle filters for price and RSI lines. It executes buy/sell trades on validated signals with fixed lots, SL/TP in pips, and optional trailing stops for risk control.
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Volumetric neural network analysis as a key to future trends

Volumetric neural network analysis as a key to future trends

The article explores the possibility of improving price forecasting based on trading volume analysis by integrating technical analysis principles with LSTM neural network architecture. Particular attention is paid to the detection and interpretation of anomalous volumes, the use of clustering and the creation of features based on volumes and their definition in the context of machine learning.
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Swing Extremes and Pullbacks in MQL5 (Part 2): Automating the Strategy with an Expert Advisor

Swing Extremes and Pullbacks in MQL5 (Part 2): Automating the Strategy with an Expert Advisor

Built on lower-timeframe market structure, and then orchestrated on the higher-timeframe, this indicator detects swing extremes where price becomes statistically vulnerable to reversal. It visualizes overextension and pullback zones, offering early insight into mean-reversion behavior.
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Neural networks made easy (Part 55): Contrastive intrinsic control (CIC)

Neural networks made easy (Part 55): Contrastive intrinsic control (CIC)

Contrastive training is an unsupervised method of training representation. Its goal is to train a model to highlight similarities and differences in data sets. In this article, we will talk about using contrastive training approaches to explore different Actor skills.
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Price Action Analysis Toolkit Development (Part 30): Commodity Channel Index (CCI), Zero Line EA

Price Action Analysis Toolkit Development (Part 30): Commodity Channel Index (CCI), Zero Line EA

Automating price action analysis is the way forward. In this article, we utilize the Dual CCI indicator, the Zero Line Crossover strategy, EMA, and price action to develop a tool that generates trade signals and sets stop-loss (SL) and take-profit (TP) levels using ATR. Please read this article to learn how we approach the development of the CCI Zero Line EA.
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Design Patterns in software development and MQL5 (Part 3): Behavioral Patterns 1

Design Patterns in software development and MQL5 (Part 3): Behavioral Patterns 1

A new article from Design Patterns articles and we will take a look at one of its types which is behavioral patterns to understand how we can build communication methods between created objects effectively. By completing these Behavior patterns we will be able to understand how we can create and build a reusable, extendable, tested software.
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Integrate Your Own LLM into EA (Part 1): Hardware and Environment Deployment

Integrate Your Own LLM into EA (Part 1): Hardware and Environment Deployment

With the rapid development of artificial intelligence today, language models (LLMs) are an important part of artificial intelligence, so we should think about how to integrate powerful LLMs into our algorithmic trading. For most people, it is difficult to fine-tune these powerful models according to their needs, deploy them locally, and then apply them to algorithmic trading. This series of articles will take a step-by-step approach to achieve this goal.
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Developing a Replay System — Market simulation (Part 20): FOREX (I)

Developing a Replay System — Market simulation (Part 20): FOREX (I)

The initial goal of this article is not to cover all the possibilities of Forex trading, but rather to adapt the system so that you can perform at least one market replay. We'll leave simulation for another moment. However, if we don't have ticks and only bars, with a little effort we can simulate possible trades that could happen in the Forex market. This will be the case until we look at how to adapt the simulator. An attempt to work with Forex data inside the system without modifying it leads to a range of errors.
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Developing a trading Expert Advisor from scratch (Part 20): New order system (III)

Developing a trading Expert Advisor from scratch (Part 20): New order system (III)

We continue to implement the new order system. The creation of such a system requires a good command of MQL5, as well as an understanding of how the MetaTrader 5 platform actually works and what resources it provides.
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Modified Grid-Hedge EA in MQL5 (Part III): Optimizing Simple Hedge Strategy (I)

Modified Grid-Hedge EA in MQL5 (Part III): Optimizing Simple Hedge Strategy (I)

In this third part, we revisit the Simple Hedge and Simple Grid Expert Advisors (EAs) developed earlier. Our focus shifts to refining the Simple Hedge EA through mathematical analysis and a brute force approach, aiming for optimal strategy usage. This article delves deep into the mathematical optimization of the strategy, setting the stage for future exploration of coding-based optimization in later installments.
Expert Advisors Based on Popular Trading Systems and Alchemy of Trading Robot Optimization (Part  V)
Expert Advisors Based on Popular Trading Systems and Alchemy of Trading Robot Optimization (Part  V)

Expert Advisors Based on Popular Trading Systems and Alchemy of Trading Robot Optimization (Part V)

In this article the author offers ways to improve trading systems described in his previous articles. The article will be interesting for traders that already have some experience of writing Expert Advisors.
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Developing a Calendar-Based News Event Breakout Expert Advisor in MQL5

Developing a Calendar-Based News Event Breakout Expert Advisor in MQL5

Volatility tends to peak around high-impact news events, creating significant breakout opportunities. In this article, we will outline the implementation process of a calendar-based breakout strategy. We'll cover everything from creating a class to interpret and store calendar data, developing realistic backtests using this data, and finally, implementing execution code for live trading.
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MQL5 Trading Toolkit (Part 3): Developing a Pending Orders Management EX5 Library

MQL5 Trading Toolkit (Part 3): Developing a Pending Orders Management EX5 Library

Learn how to develop and implement a comprehensive pending orders EX5 library in your MQL5 code or projects. This article will show you how to create an extensive pending orders management EX5 library and guide you through importing and implementing it by building a trading panel or graphical user interface (GUI). The expert advisor orders panel will allow users to open, monitor, and delete pending orders associated with a specified magic number directly from the graphical interface on the chart window.
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Neural Networks in Trading: Enhancing Transformer Efficiency by Reducing Sharpness (SAMformer)

Neural Networks in Trading: Enhancing Transformer Efficiency by Reducing Sharpness (SAMformer)

Training Transformer models requires large amounts of data and is often difficult since the models are not good at generalizing to small datasets. The SAMformer framework helps solve this problem by avoiding poor local minima. This improves the efficiency of models even on limited training datasets.
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Developing a Trading System Based on the Order Book (Part I): Indicator

Developing a Trading System Based on the Order Book (Part I): Indicator

Depth of Market is undoubtedly a very important element for executing fast trades, especially in High Frequency Trading (HFT) algorithms. In this series of articles, we will look at this type of trading events that can be obtained through a broker on many tradable symbols. We will start with an indicator, where you can customize the color palette, position and size of the histogram displayed directly on the chart. We will also look at how to generate BookEvent events to test the indicator under certain conditions. Other possible topics for future articles include how to store price distribution data and how to use it in a strategy tester.
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Developing a Replay System (Part 38): Paving the Path (II)

Developing a Replay System (Part 38): Paving the Path (II)

Many people who consider themselves MQL5 programmers do not have the basic knowledge that I will outline in this article. Many people consider MQL5 to be a limited tool, but the actual reason is that they do not have the required knowledge. So, if you don't know something, don't be ashamed of it. It's better to feel ashamed for not asking. Simply forcing MetaTrader 5 to disable indicator duplication in no way ensures two-way communication between the indicator and the Expert Advisor. We are still very far from this, but the fact that the indicator is not duplicated on the chart gives us some confidence.
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Neural Networks in Trading: A Parameter-Efficient Transformer with Segmented Attention (PSformer)

Neural Networks in Trading: A Parameter-Efficient Transformer with Segmented Attention (PSformer)

This article introduces the new PSformer framework, which adapts the architecture of the vanilla Transformer to solving problems related to multivariate time series forecasting. The framework is based on two key innovations: the Parameter Sharing (PS) mechanism and the Segment Attention (SegAtt).
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Building A Candlestick Trend Constraint Model (Part 9): Multiple Strategies Expert Advisor (I)

Building A Candlestick Trend Constraint Model (Part 9): Multiple Strategies Expert Advisor (I)

Today, we will explore the possibilities of incorporating multiple strategies into an Expert Advisor (EA) using MQL5. Expert Advisors provide broader capabilities than just indicators and scripts, allowing for more sophisticated trading approaches that can adapt to changing market conditions. Find, more in this article discussion.
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Price Action Analysis Toolkit Development (Part 61): Structural Slanted Trendline Breakouts with 3-Swing Validation

Price Action Analysis Toolkit Development (Part 61): Structural Slanted Trendline Breakouts with 3-Swing Validation

We present a slanted trendline breakout tool that relies on three‑swing validation to generate objective, price‑action signals. The system automates swing detection, trendline construction, and breakout confirmation using crossing logic to reduce noise and standardize execution. The article explains the strategy rules, shows the MQL5 implementation, and reviews testing results; the tool is intended for analysis and signal confirmation, not automated trading.
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From Novice to Expert: Automating Base-Candle Geometry for Liquidity Zones in MQL5

From Novice to Expert: Automating Base-Candle Geometry for Liquidity Zones in MQL5

This article implements an MQL5 module that analyzes the lower‑timeframe bars inside each liquidity‑zone base candle. It detects swing points and applies objective rules to classify the internal structure as an ascending, descending, or symmetrical triangle; a rectangle; M; W; or undefined. The indicator displays geometry labels on the chart and adds the pattern to alerts, reducing manual lower‑timeframe inspection.
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Neural Networks in Trading: Models Using Wavelet Transform and Multi-Task Attention (Final Part)

Neural Networks in Trading: Models Using Wavelet Transform and Multi-Task Attention (Final Part)

In the previous article, we explored the theoretical foundations and began implementing the approaches of the Multitask-Stockformer framework, which combines the wavelet transform and the Self-Attention multitask model. We continue to implement the algorithms of this framework and evaluate their effectiveness on real historical data.
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Advanced Memory Management and Optimization Techniques in MQL5

Advanced Memory Management and Optimization Techniques in MQL5

Discover practical techniques to optimize memory usage in MQL5 trading systems. Learn to build efficient, stable, and fast-performing Expert Advisors and indicators. We’ll explore how memory really works in MQL5, the common traps that slow your systems down or cause them to fail, and — most importantly — how to fix them.
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Automating Trading Strategies in MQL5 (Part 28): Creating a Price Action Bat Harmonic Pattern with Visual Feedback

Automating Trading Strategies in MQL5 (Part 28): Creating a Price Action Bat Harmonic Pattern with Visual Feedback

In this article, we develop a Bat Pattern system in MQL5 that identifies bullish and bearish Bat harmonic patterns using pivot points and Fibonacci ratios, triggering trades with precise entry, stop loss, and take-profit levels, enhanced with visual feedback through chart objects
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MQL5 Wizard Techniques you should know (Part 83):  Using Patterns of Stochastic Oscillator and the FrAMA — Behavioral Archetypes

MQL5 Wizard Techniques you should know (Part 83): Using Patterns of Stochastic Oscillator and the FrAMA — Behavioral Archetypes

The Stochastic Oscillator and the Fractal Adaptive Moving Average are another indicator pairing that could be used for their ability to compliment each other within an MQL5 Expert Advisor. We look at the Stochastic for its ability to pinpoint momentum shifts, while the FrAMA is used to provide confirmation of the prevailing trends. In exploring this indicator pairing, as always, we use the MQL5 wizard to build and test out their potential.
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Price Action Analysis Toolkit Development (Part 58): Range Contraction Analysis and Maturity Classification Module

Price Action Analysis Toolkit Development (Part 58): Range Contraction Analysis and Maturity Classification Module

Building on the previous article that introduced the market state classification module, this installment focuses on implementing the core logic for identifying and evaluating compression zones. It presents a range contraction detection and maturity grading system in MQL5 that analyzes market congestion using price action alone.
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Developing a Replay System — Market simulation (Part 04): adjusting the settings (II)

Developing a Replay System — Market simulation (Part 04): adjusting the settings (II)

Let's continue creating the system and controls. Without the ability to control the service, it is difficult to move forward and improve the system.
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Neural networks made easy (Part 18): Association rules

Neural networks made easy (Part 18): Association rules

As a continuation of this series of articles, let's consider another type of problems within unsupervised learning methods: mining association rules. This problem type was first used in retail, namely supermarkets, to analyze market baskets. In this article, we will talk about the applicability of such algorithms in trading.
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Build Self Optimizing Expert Advisors in MQL5 (Part 2): USDJPY Scalping Strategy

Build Self Optimizing Expert Advisors in MQL5 (Part 2): USDJPY Scalping Strategy

Join us today as we challenge ourselves to build a trading strategy around the USDJPY pair. We will trade candlestick patterns that are formed on the daily time frame because they potentially have more strength behind them. Our initial strategy was profitable, which encouraged us to continue refining the strategy and adding extra layers of safety, to protect the capital gained.