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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Price Action Analysis Toolkit Development (Part 71): Weekend Gap Structure Mapping in MQL5

Price Action Analysis Toolkit Development (Part 71): Weekend Gap Structure Mapping in MQL5

The article delivers an object-based MQL5 implementation that detects weekend gaps from time discontinuities and renders them directly on the chart. It manages graphical objects, tracks state transitions (fresh, partial, reaction, filled), and preserves completed gaps as historical zones. The result is a reproducible framework for monitoring how price revisits and fills weekend gap structures.
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MQL5 Trading Tools (Part 37): Adding a Per-Object Property-Editing Ribbon to the Canvas Drawing Layer

MQL5 Trading Tools (Part 37): Adding a Per-Object Property-Editing Ribbon to the Canvas Drawing Layer

We add a descriptor-driven property stack and a floating ribbon that binds to the current selection on the drawing layer. The article covers the descriptor list for each tool, the engine get/set API with snapshot-and-restore live preview, and widget renderers for color, opacity, line width, line style, fonts, and level visibility. You get in-place, real-time editing of object appearance via a compact, draggable panel.
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Implementing Partial Position Closing in MQL5

Implementing Partial Position Closing in MQL5

This article develops a class for managing partial position closing in MQL5 and then integrates it into an Order Blocks Expert Advisor. It also presents test results comparing the strategy with and without partial position closing, and analyzes the conditions under which this approach can help provide and maximize profit. In conclusion, partial position closing can be highly beneficial in trading strategies, especially those focused on wider price movements.
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Beyond GARCH (Part I): Mandelbrot's MMAR versus Engle's GARCH

Beyond GARCH (Part I): Mandelbrot's MMAR versus Engle's GARCH

This article starts the MMAR pipeline on EURUSD M5 data. We load market data via the MetaTrader5 Python API and run partition-function analysis with non-overlapping intervals to test for multifractal scaling. The result is an evidence-based decision on fractality, a prerequisite for building MMAR and for choosing whether to proceed beyond GARCH.
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News Filtering with MetaTrader 5 Economic Calendar and CSV Fallback

News Filtering with MetaTrader 5 Economic Calendar and CSV Fallback

This article presents a self-contained news filter module for MetaTrader 5 built on the platform's economic calendar API. It implements symbol-to-currency mapping, pre- and post-event trading pauses, and optional position size reduction on high-impact days, with a CSV-based fallback for the Strategy Tester. A demo EA and live chart dashboard show integration and verification in both live and backtest environments.
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MQL5 Trading Tools (Part 37): Adding a Per-Object Property-Editing Ribbon to the Canvas Drawing Layer

MQL5 Trading Tools (Part 37): Adding a Per-Object Property-Editing Ribbon to the Canvas Drawing Layer

We add a descriptor-driven property stack and a floating ribbon that binds to the current selection on the drawing layer. The article covers the descriptor list for each tool, the engine get/set API with snapshot-and-restore live preview, and widget renderers for color, opacity, line width, line style, fonts, and level visibility. You get in-place, real-time editing of object appearance via a compact, draggable panel.
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MQL5 Wizard Techniques you should know (Part 93): Using Suffix Automation and an Auto Encoder in a Custom Money Management Class

MQL5 Wizard Techniques you should know (Part 93): Using Suffix Automation and an Auto Encoder in a Custom Money Management Class

For this article we switch to a custom MQL5 Wizard class implementation that explores Money Management. We are labelling our custom class ‘CMoneySuffixAE’ that we derive by combining the Suffix Automaton algorithm with an Autoencoder neural network. As always, this formulation is testable with MQL5 Wizard Assembled Expert Advisors that can be tuned with various entry signals and trailing stop approaches.
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Neural Networks in Trading: Actor—Director—Critic (Final Part)

Neural Networks in Trading: Actor—Director—Critic (Final Part)

The Actor–Director–Critic framework is an evolution of the classic agent learning architecture. The article presents practical experience of its implementation and adaptation to financial market conditions.
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Beyond GARCH (Part II): Measuring the Fractal Dimension of Markets

Beyond GARCH (Part II): Measuring the Fractal Dimension of Markets

Building on the partition function analysis from Part 1, this article deepens the theoretical foundation before completing the analytical pipeline. We first give a full treatment of the Hurst exponent: what it measures, what it implies about market memory, and why it matters for the MMAR. This is followed by an intuitive exploration of multifractal spectra and what f(α) reveals about volatility heterogeneity. We then move to implementation: extracting the scaling function τ(q), estimating H via R/S analysis, and fitting the multifractal spectrum across four candidate distributions. By the end, we have the complete parameter set needed to construct the MMAR process in Part 3. Part 2 of an eight-part series.
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MQL5 Trading Tools (Part 34): Replacing Native Chart Objects with an Interactive Canvas Drawing Layer

MQL5 Trading Tools (Part 34): Replacing Native Chart Objects with an Interactive Canvas Drawing Layer

We replace native MetaTrader chart objects with a canvas-based drawing engine that renders tools pixel-by-pixel on a full-chart bitmap layer. The article implements persistent object storage with per-tool style memory, precise hit testing, selection, whole-object dragging, and handle manipulation. It also adds new line tools, a reorganized category system with a one-click delete action, and a rubber-band preview for multi-click placement.
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Integrating MQL5 with Data Processing Packages (Part 9): Entropy-Based Adaptive Volatility

Integrating MQL5 with Data Processing Packages (Part 9): Entropy-Based Adaptive Volatility

This work presents an end-to-end pipeline: collect MetaTrader 5 data, engineer entropy/volatility/trend features, train a PyTorch classifier, and expose predictions through a Flask API. An MQL5 EA posts rolling prices each tick, receives probability and regime, and applies adaptive position sizing and stop distances. The result is a clear recipe for integrating ML inference with MetaTrader 5.
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Building a Trade Analytics System (Part 3): Storing MetaTrader 5 Trades in SQLite

Building a Trade Analytics System (Part 3): Storing MetaTrader 5 Trades in SQLite

This article extends a Flask backend to reliably receive, validate, and store closed trade data from MetaTrader 5 using SQLite and Flask‑SQLAlchemy. It implements required‑field checks, timestamp conversion, transaction‑safe persistence, and working retrieval endpoints for all trades and single records, plus a basic summary. The result is a complete data pipeline with local testing that records trades and exposes them through a structured API for further analysis.
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Trading with the MQL5 Economic Calendar (Part 11): Modular Canvas News Dashboard

Trading with the MQL5 Economic Calendar (Part 11): Modular Canvas News Dashboard

We rebuild the MQL5 Economic Calendar dashboard from a monolithic object-based panel into a modular canvas-based system split across four files. The update adds a dual light and dark theme, collapsible day groups, a resizable layout with pixel-based scrolling, revised value markers, and a live countdown with toast notifications. A candidate event cache and a fast-path timer that repaints only changed cells improve responsiveness and make the codebase easier to extend.
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MQL5 Wizard Techniques you should know (Part 95): Using Disjoint Set Union and Deep Belief Network in a Custom Signal Class

MQL5 Wizard Techniques you should know (Part 95): Using Disjoint Set Union and Deep Belief Network in a Custom Signal Class

For this article we switch to a custom MQL5 Wizard class that examines entry Signals. Our custom class is ‘CSignalDSUDBN’ this time around, and is coded by combining the Disjoint Set Union algorithm with a Deep Belief network. As has been the case throughout these series, our model is testable with MQL5 Wizard-Assembled Expert Advisors that can be tuned with different trailing stops and money management classes.
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Graph Theory: Network Flow of Commodities (Ford-Fulkerson Algorithm), Used as a Liquidity-Capacity Engine

Graph Theory: Network Flow of Commodities (Ford-Fulkerson Algorithm), Used as a Liquidity-Capacity Engine

The article presents an MQL5 Expert Advisor that adapts the Ford–Fulkerson max-flow method into a liquidity-capacity filter. Market structures—Swing Highs/Lows, Fair Value Gaps, Order Blocks, and Liquidity Pools—form a directed graph with edge capacities from volume, price reaction, distance, and structure quality. Maximum flow qualifies ICT setups, filters weak paths, and drives dynamic position sizing for a consistent, two-stage decision process.
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Neural Networks in Trading: Hierarchical Skill Discovery for Adaptive Agent Behavior (HiSSD)

Neural Networks in Trading: Hierarchical Skill Discovery for Adaptive Agent Behavior (HiSSD)

In this article, we explore the HiSSD framework, which combines hierarchical learning and multi-agent approaches to create adaptive systems. We examine in detail how this innovative methodology helps uncover hidden patterns in financial markets and optimize trading strategies in decentralized environments.
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Graph Theory: Network Flow of Commodities (Ford-Fulkerson Algorithm), Used as a Liquidity-Capacity Engine

Graph Theory: Network Flow of Commodities (Ford-Fulkerson Algorithm), Used as a Liquidity-Capacity Engine

The article presents an MQL5 Expert Advisor that adapts the Ford–Fulkerson max-flow method into a liquidity-capacity filter. Market structures—Swing Highs/Lows, Fair Value Gaps, Order Blocks, and Liquidity Pools—form a directed graph with edge capacities from volume, price reaction, distance, and structure quality. Maximum flow qualifies ICT setups, filters weak paths, and drives dynamic position sizing for a consistent, two-stage decision process.
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Beyond GARCH (Part III): Building the MMAR and the Verdict

Beyond GARCH (Part III): Building the MMAR and the Verdict

With the multifractal parameters from Part 2 in hand, this article builds the full MMAR process. We construct the multiplicative cascade for trading time, generate Fractional Brownian Motion via Davies-Harte FFT, and combine both into X(t) = B_H[theta(t)]. A 100-path Monte Carlo simulation produces the volatility forecast, which we then pit against GARCH on the same EURUSD M5 data. Does Mandelbrot's fractal architecture outforecast Engle's conditional variance framework? Part 3 of a eight-part series leading to a native MQL5 library and Expert Advisor.
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MQL5 Trading Tools (Part 35): Adding Channel, Pitchfork, Gann, and Fibonacci Tools to the Canvas Drawing Layer

MQL5 Trading Tools (Part 35): Adding Channel, Pitchfork, Gann, and Fibonacci Tools to the Canvas Drawing Layer

We extend the canvas drawing layer from the previous part with seven new categories of multi-anchor analytical drawing tools, covering three channel variants, three pitchfork variants, three Gann tools, and the six Fibonacci tools. We work through how each tool encodes its geometry on the canvas, how derived handles let users reshape compound shapes coherently, and how shared helpers handle ray clipping, scanline filling, and anti-aliased arc rendering. By the end, we will have a full set of analytical drawing tools that live on the same interactive canvas alongside the basic line tools from the previous part.
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Beyond the Clock (Part 2): Building Runs Bars in MQL5

Beyond the Clock (Part 2): Building Runs Bars in MQL5

We implement tick-, volume-, and dollar-runs bars in Python and MQL5 and align them with the existing bar‑building framework. The article details the dual‑accumulator update, offline calibration with per‑side seeds, state persistence for EAs, and parity verification to match Python and MQL5 outputs. Runs bars expose one‑sided bursts that net imbalance can hide, improving coverage during quiet sessions and for mean‑reversion models.
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Trading with the MQL5 Economic Calendar (Part 12): SQLite Storage and Deduplication

Trading with the MQL5 Economic Calendar (Part 12): SQLite Storage and Deduplication

In this article, we replace the embedded CSV snapshot with a SQLite layer that persists calendar events and triggered trade IDs across restarts. The database lives in the common terminal folder and is shared by live charts and the strategy tester, so both modes read the same data without recompiling. An on-demand downloader with a canvas progress bar fetches history from the calendar API and stores it for offline reuse.
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Beyond GARCH (Part IV): Partition Analysis in MQL5

Beyond GARCH (Part IV): Partition Analysis in MQL5

In this article, we shift from Python research to native MQL5 engineering. We build the first module of the MMAR library: a shared constants header, an SVD-based OLS regression class, a Generalized Hurst Exponent estimator, and the partition analysis engine that computes the partition function, extracts tau(q), estimates H via zero-crossing interpolation, and scores multifractality through three diagnostic tests. Tested on 500,000 bars of EURUSD M10, the engine correctly classifies the data as multifractal in under four seconds. Part 4 of an eight-part series. Part 5 fits the tau(q) curve to four candidate distributions via the Legendre transform.
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Beyond the Clock (Part 3): Building an Indicator Window for Alternative Bars in MQL5

Beyond the Clock (Part 3): Building an Indicator Window for Alternative Bars in MQL5

AlternativeBarsViewer is a subwindow indicator that renders all ten alternative bar types as color‑coded candles using the same CBarConstructor hierarchy as BarBuilderEA, ensuring identical bars. It supports three data sources (real ticks, synthetic OHLC ticks, or the EA's CSV) and two render modes (TIME and INDEX) toggleable at runtime. Degenerate bars are highlighted and summarized on a compact panel, enabling live calibration without leaving the terminal.
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Cross Recurrence Quantification Analysis (CRQA) in MQL5: Building a Complete Analysis Library

Cross Recurrence Quantification Analysis (CRQA) in MQL5: Building a Complete Analysis Library

This article extends the MQL5 RQA library to Cross-Recurrence Quantification Analysis (CRQA) for comparing two time series. We implement dual‑series embedding, cross‑recurrence matrix construction, adapted metrics (CRR, CDET, CLAM, CENTR, and others), and rolling‑window analysis, with optional GPU acceleration via OpenCL. A ready-to-use indicator compares two symbols in real time, supporting timestamp alignment and normalization for practical inter-market analysis.
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Position Management: A Reusable Trade Journal with Live Maximum Adverse Excursion, Maximum Favorable Excursion, and R-Multiple Tracking in MQL5

Position Management: A Reusable Trade Journal with Live Maximum Adverse Excursion, Maximum Favorable Excursion, and R-Multiple Tracking in MQL5

This article presents CTradeJournal, a self-contained MQL5 class for live tracking of open positions at tick frequency. It maintains MAE, MFE, and initial risk in money, calculates the R-multiple when a position closes, and writes a complete CSV record. The text explains the design choices, provides the implementation, and shows simple EA integration so you can analyze entries, stop placement, and outcome distribution.
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Building an Object-Oriented Z-Score Statistical Arbitrage Engine in MQL5

Building an Object-Oriented Z-Score Statistical Arbitrage Engine in MQL5

This article shows how to implement a production Z-Score engine in MQL5 using an object-oriented include file, the library computes a rolling mean and population standard deviation, exposes a shift parameter for historical queries, and avoids redundant tick work by running on bar close. An Expert Advisor executes rule-based entries at positive/negative sigma thresholds and closes on mean reversion; a custom indicator provides visual verification.
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Neural Networks in Trading: Anomaly Detection in the Frequency Domain (Final Part)

Neural Networks in Trading: Anomaly Detection in the Frequency Domain (Final Part)

We continue to work on implementing the CATCH framework, which combines the Fourier transform and frequency patching mechanisms, ensuring accurate detection of market anomalies. In this article, we complete the implementation of our own vision of the proposed approaches and test the new models on real historical data.
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Feature Engineering for ML (Part 5): Microstructural Features in Python

Feature Engineering for ML (Part 5): Microstructural Features in Python

This article implements the Chapter 19 microstructure suite in afml.features.microstructure and explains a two-layer design for OHLCV-only and tick-augmented workflows. We cover Roll and Corwin–Schultz spread/volatility, Kyle's, Amihud's, and Hasbrouck's lambdas, VPIN, and bar‑level imbalance features, all in Numba‑accelerated kernels. A single np.searchsorted pass resolves bar boundaries, enabling prange parallelization and producing a bar‑indexed feature matrix ready for downstream ML models.
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MQL5 Wizard Techniques you should know (Part 91): Using Skip Lists and a Hopfield Network in a Custom Trailing Class

MQL5 Wizard Techniques you should know (Part 91): Using Skip Lists and a Hopfield Network in a Custom Trailing Class

For our next Exploration on notions that are testable with the MQL5 Wizard we examine if Skip Lists and the Hopfield Network can give us a profit-guarding trailing strategy. Trailing Stop Management, as already argued, can be overlooked in most trading systems at the expense of Entry Signals or even Money Management. Trailing stops can make all the difference in certain situations such as trending markets, and thus we test this out with GBP USD.
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Carry Trade Logic in MQL5: Building an EA That Factors Swap Rates Into Position Sizing and Holding Decisions

Carry Trade Logic in MQL5: Building an EA That Factors Swap Rates Into Position Sizing and Holding Decisions

Most retail traders ignore overnight swap rates, but for long-term positions, these interest payments can make or break your strategy. This article shows you how to build a dynamic MQL5 module that retrieves real-time swap data and converts it into actual profit or loss in your account currency. You will learn how to program an Expert Advisor that automatically calculates if a trade is worth holding based on carry income and adjusts your position size to account for expected interest. It is a practical guide to turning a hidden cost into a mathematical advantage for your trading systems.
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Implementing a Fluent Interface Builder Pattern for MQL5 Order Construction

Implementing a Fluent Interface Builder Pattern for MQL5 Order Construction

Manual population of MqlTradeRequest leaves cross-field rules unchecked, creating silent misconfigurations at execution time. A fluent COrderBuilder for MQL5 adds pointer-based method chaining, per-field validation, and directional SL/TP checks against broker stop‑level constraints. Its Send() method runs a four-stage gate—flag completeness, cross-field consistency, OrderCheck(), then OrderSend()—so configuration errors are caught early and order code stays clear and reusable.
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Feature Engineering for ML (Part 6): Microstructural Features in MQL5

Feature Engineering for ML (Part 6): Microstructural Features in MQL5

The article introduces CMicrostructureFeatures, an MQL5 class for bar‑level microstructure features: Roll spread/impact, Corwin‑Schultz spread and sigma, Kyle's Lambda, Amihud's ILLIQ, and Hasbrouck's Lambda. Calculations rely solely on OHLCV using rolling windows. It clarifies the implications of MT5 tick volume for lambda estimators and keeps spread estimators volume‑independent. A validation script asserts sizing and basic bounds on outputs.
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MQL5 Wizard Techniques you should know (Part 97): Using Convex Hull and a miniature GRU Network in a Custom Trailing Stop Class

MQL5 Wizard Techniques you should know (Part 97): Using Convex Hull and a miniature GRU Network in a Custom Trailing Stop Class

For this article we look at a custom MQL5 Wizard class for Trailing Stops. Our implemented custom class ‘CTrailingConvexHullGRU’, is built from merging the Convex Hull algorithm with a GRU network. As always we seek to develop a model that is testable with MQL5 Wizard-Assembled Expert Advisors and can be tuned with various Money Management and entry Signals classes. Our testing is with the 'Envelopes' and the RSI classes for Signal.
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Market Simulation: Getting started with SQL in MQL5 (IV)

Market Simulation: Getting started with SQL in MQL5 (IV)

Many people tend to underestimate SQL, or even not use it at all, because they do not fully understand how it actually works. When running queries against an SQL database, we are not always looking for a universal answer; in some cases, we need a very specific and practical answer. If a database is created with a proper structure and data model, almost any type of information can be integrated into it.
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Beyond GARCH (Part V): Fitting the Multifractal Spectrum in MQL5

Beyond GARCH (Part V): Fitting the Multifractal Spectrum in MQL5

This article builds the Spectrum Fitter: from tau(q) we compute f(alpha) with a discrete Legendre transform, then fit Normal, Binomial, Poisson, and Gamma spectra under box constraints using BLEIC. The best model by SSE is selected, and its parameters (eg, alpha min, alpha max or alpha_0, gamma) become the cascade inputs for multifractal simulation.
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Implementing the Decorator Pattern in MQL5: Adding Logging, Timing, and Filtering to Any Indicator Non-Invasively

Implementing the Decorator Pattern in MQL5: Adding Logging, Timing, and Filtering to Any Indicator Non-Invasively

Cross-cutting concerns like logging, timing, and threshold filtering should not live inside indicator classes. We show how to apply the decorator pattern in MQL5 with a shared IIndicator interface, an owning CBaseDecorator, and concrete CLoggingDecorator, CTimingDecorator, and CThresholdFilterDecorator layers. You can stack behaviors per EA, keep computation code closed to modification, and get deterministic cleanup by deleting only the outermost decorator.
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Feature Engineering for ML (Part 7): Entropy Features in Python

Feature Engineering for ML (Part 7): Entropy Features in Python

The article provides production-ready entropy estimators (Shannon, plug-in, Lempel–Ziv, Kontoyiannis) operating on tick-rule–encoded sequences. It resolves three correctness and performance issues in the original code, verifies outputs against chapter references, and extends encoding with quantile and sigma options. Users gain reproducible results and markedly improved computation speed for large bar sets.
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MQL5 Trading Tools (Part 36): Adding Shape and Annotation Tools with In-Place Label Editing to the Canvas Drawing Layer

MQL5 Trading Tools (Part 36): Adding Shape and Annotation Tools with In-Place Label Editing to the Canvas Drawing Layer

We add eight shape tools and nine annotation tools to the canvas and implement a full in-place label-editing system. The article walks through geometry, AA rendering, shared word-wrap and supersampled text helpers, and the caret-driven state machine for typing, navigation, and selection. This yields a complete, consistent annotation toolkit with editable labels that plugs into the prior interaction pipeline.
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MQL5 Wizard Techniques you should know (Part 94): Using Reservoir Sampling and Linear Regression in a Custom Trailing Stop Class

MQL5 Wizard Techniques you should know (Part 94): Using Reservoir Sampling and Linear Regression in a Custom Trailing Stop Class

For this article we rotate to a custom MQL5 Wizard class implementation that explores Trailing Stops. Our custom class is ‘CTrailingReservoirLinReg’ that we derive by combining the Reservoir Sampling algorithm with a Linear Regression network. As has been the case throughout these series, this formulation is testable with MQL5 Wizard Assembled Expert Advisors that can be tuned with various entry signals and money management classes.
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Encoding Candlestick Patterns (Part 3): Frequency Analysis for Single Candlestick Type Structure

Encoding Candlestick Patterns (Part 3): Frequency Analysis for Single Candlestick Type Structure

This article introduces a frequency-analysis framework for encoded candlestick patterns in MQL5. By transforming candlesticks into alphabetic symbols, historical price action can be analyzed as a statistical sequence rather than a visual chart. Using GBPUSD and Gold across multiple timeframes, the study examines the occurrence frequency of individual candlestick types, identifies dominant market structures, and reveals the symmetry between bullish and bearish price movements. The results establish a quantitative foundation for pattern discovery and prepare the way for analyzing multi-candlestick sequences and their predictive potential in algorithmic trading systems.