Currency Strength Duel User Guide: How Strength Is Calculated, Reading the VS Duel and Ranking, Alerts and Every Setting
What Currency Strength Duel is
Currency Strength Duel is a free indicator that ranks the eight major currencies (USD, EUR, GBP, JPY, AUD, NZD, CAD and CHF), and optionally gold and Bitcoin, from strongest to weakest in one panel. It calculates the strength of each currency from the pairs formed by these currencies that your broker offers (up to 28 for the eight majors, plus the gold and Bitcoin pairs when those rows are on). It puts two of them side by side in a VS duel with the symbol that connects them, and can alert you when the strongest or the weakest currency changes. It does not trade, and the ranking describes past price movement only.
Quick start
- Open any chart and drag the indicator onto it from the Navigator. It reads the whole market, so the chart's own symbol does not matter. It is an indicator, so it can share a chart with an Expert Advisor.
- In the inputs, pick Language / 言語. The other defaults are a reasonable place to start: one hour, price change over 24 closed bars, alerts by popup and sound.
- Click OK. The panel opens in the top-right corner and is recalculated every two seconds by default.
- The bottom line should read pairs 28/28. A smaller first number means some pairs were not found on your broker; see Symbols and suffixes below.
If something looks wrong, see Frequently asked questions further down; the questions are written as symptoms.
How the strength is calculated
For every pair it finds, the indicator measures one number on the timeframe you choose (Timeframe, one hour by default). With the price-change method (chg on the panel) this is the percentage change of the close over the last 24 bars (Price-change lookback (bars)). With the moving-average method (MA) it is the percentage distance of the close from a 50-bar simple moving average (MA period (MA-distance method)). By default the last closed bar is used, so the numbers change mainly when a new bar starts; Use forming bar (false = last closed) set to true includes the bar that is still forming.
A currency's strength is the average of those numbers over all pairs it belongs to, counted as positive when it is the first currency of the pair and negative when it is the second. The result is a percentage: +0.31 means that, on average, the currency rose about 0.31% against the others over that period. Nothing else is adjusted, so a naturally more volatile currency tends to show larger numbers, and the two methods produce different kinds of numbers that should not be compared with each other.
Bitcoin pairs count only toward Bitcoin, so switching on the Bitcoin row does not change the values of the other currencies, although Bitcoin itself can take the top or the bottom place and then appears in the duel, the bottom line and the alerts. Gold pairs count toward gold and toward the other currency of each gold pair, so switching on gold changes the values of the currencies that have a gold pair, which at most brokers means mainly USD. From version 1.49, setting Gold pairs also count in USD/other averages to false treats gold like Bitcoin: gold pairs then count only toward gold, and switching on gold no longer changes the values of the other currencies. A pair whose history the terminal has not delivered yet is left out of that calculation, and a currency with no usable pair at all shows 0.00 and sits in the middle of the ranking.
Reading the panel
Top row
From the right: _ collapses the panel ([] restores it), the corner button (TL, TR, BR, BL) moves the panel to the next corner clockwise, A+ and A- change the size, ♪ switches the alerts on (green) or off, and the suffix button chooses how symbols are looked up: Auto, · for no suffix, or #, . or m. The dotted grip at the left of this row is only a picture; the panel is moved from the title row below.
Title row
The green dot at the left opens the About card. Next to Currency Strength are three chips. The first is the duel mode (AUTO, LOCK or PICK), the second the timeframe, which cycles through M15, M30, H1, H4 and D1, and the third the method, chg or MA. Each click moves to the next choice, and the new ranking appears at once, without the inputs dialog.
Drag this row to put the panel anywhere; the panel then stays where you left it instead of following a corner. Dragging stops at the edges of the chart, so the panel cannot be dragged off it. If a saved position no longer fits the chart, for example because the chart is smaller than before, the panel is pulled back onto the chart the next time the indicator starts. Double-click it to send the panel back to the corner set in Start corner, which also makes it follow that corner again.
VS duel
The band under the title shows two currencies with their flags and values, the stronger on the left in green and the weaker on the right in red. Which two depends on the mode. In AUTO they are the strongest and the weakest of the whole ranking, labelled Strongest and Weakest. In LOCK they are the two currencies of this chart's symbol, for example EUR and USD on EURUSD, labelled Stronger and Weaker with a green frame. In PICK they are two rows you tap in the ranking, with a blue frame. In LOCK, if the chart's symbol does not consist of two currencies in the ranking (gold without the gold row, an index, Bitcoin without the Bitcoin row), the band looks like AUTO and shows the strongest and the weakest of the whole ranking, and the left part of the bottom line reads AUTO (LOCK not applicable) (in the Japanese panel 自動（この銘柄は固定できません）). The mode chip still shows LOCK, your choice. Up to version 1.48 the band silently kept the green LOCK colours and the labels Stronger and Weaker in this case. With gold included, LOCK also works on a gold chart whose symbol is named GOLD, for example GOLD#; the symbol is read as XAUUSD.
In the middle is the symbol on your broker that connects the two currencies, with BUY when the stronger currency is the first currency of that symbol and SELL when it is the second, for example SELL USDJPY when JPY is stronger than USD. This describes which side of the symbol the stronger currency is on; it is not a trade signal. When the broker has no symbol for the two currencies, their codes are shown instead, in grey. Below it, gap is the difference between the two values. A small green triangle pointing up means the gap is wider than at the end of the previous bar, a red one pointing down means it is narrower, and no triangle means little change, or that no bar has closed yet since the panel was loaded or one of the chips was clicked.
Clicking the band, when a symbol is shown with an underline, switches this chart to that symbol and to the calculation timeframe. It does not open a new chart, and the indicator reloads on the new symbol.
Ranking
Each row shows a currency, a bar growing right in green for positive values or left in red for negative ones, and the value. The strongest currency is at the top, marked green, and the weakest at the bottom, marked red. The bars are scaled to the largest value among the currencies other than Bitcoin, so the Bitcoin bar may simply reach full width. In PICK mode, tap a row to choose it: the row you tap and the one you tapped before it form the duel, and both are shaded blue.
Bottom line
The bottom line names the strongest and the weakest currency of the whole ranking, whatever the duel mode, and then pairs N/M (from version 1.49). N is the number of symbols found (resolved) on your broker, and M is the number of pairs the shown currencies need: 28 for the eight, 36 when gold or Bitcoin is shown as a row, 45 when both are. M counts every possible pair of the shown currencies, so with gold or Bitcoin on, N is lower than M unless your broker offers all of those pairs. In PICK mode the count is replaced by the hint tap two rows. When LOCK is not applicable (see VS duel), the names are replaced by AUTO (LOCK not applicable), and the band above shows the strongest and the weakest.
N counts symbols found, not symbols with data. The text pairs N/M turns amber while the data of a resolved pair is stale or could not be read. A pair is stale when its newest bar is two or more bars of the calculation timeframe behind the newest bar among the pairs of the eight majors. The colour only reports the data: a stale pair that could be read is still used in the calculation, and a pair that could not be read is left out. Each time the list of such pairs changes, one line starting with [CSD] pairs is written to the Experts log, naming them or saying that all resolved pairs are up to date.
Collapsed panel
Collapsed, the panel keeps the top row and the title row, and the chips still work; the green dot opens the About card only while the panel is expanded. Alerts keep working while the panel is collapsed; this was fixed in version 1.45, and earlier versions stayed silent until the panel was expanded again.
About card and rating card
The green dot in the title row opens the About card with the version, the licence type, where to get support (the Comments tab of the product page) and a button to rate the product. After some real use, a card may ask for a rating. It appears at most three times, weeks apart, and never in the Strategy Tester. Don't ask again, or Show a one-time rating reminder (after a while) set to false, stops it.
Symbols and suffixes
Brokers name the same pair differently, for example EURUSD, EURUSD# or EURUSDm. With Auto, the default, the indicator tries each pair without a suffix and then with a list of common suffixes, and uses the first name the broker offers. Gold is also looked for as GOLD, and Bitcoin against the US dollar as Bitcoin, BITCOIN or BTCUSDT. If the first number after pairs in the bottom line is lower than expected, press the suffix button to try no suffix, #, . or m directly. Symbols with a prefix instead of a suffix are not found.
Every symbol the indicator finds is added to the Market Watch window, and stays there after the indicator is removed.
Alerts
There is one kind of alert: the strongest or the weakest currency of the whole ranking has changed. It does not depend on the duel mode. The text names the calculation timeframe and the currency, for example [Currency Strength Duel H1] EUR is now the strongest, or with the Japanese panel [Currency Strength Duel H1] EURが最強に. If the strongest and the weakest change on the same update, one alert carries both, for example [Currency Strength Duel H1] EUR is now the strongest; JPY is now the weakest, or with the Japanese panel [Currency Strength Duel H1] EURが最強に、JPYが最弱に. Up to version 1.48 this sent two alerts back to back.
Popup shows it in the terminal's Alert window, Sound plays Sound file, Push (MetaQuotes ID) sends it to the MetaTrader app on your phone, which needs your MetaQuotes ID in the terminal settings, and Email sends it with the terminal's email settings. If the terminal could not send a push notification or an email, a line starting with [CSD SEND] is written to the Experts log (from version 1.49); the send is not retried. The check runs on the refresh timer against the calculated ranking, only while the terminal is running, and whether the panel is expanded or collapsed.
The ♪ button on the panel switches all alerts on or off. Alert when strongest/weakest changes set to false also stops them, even though the ♪ button still shows on. When you switch the timeframe or the method on the panel, or press the suffix button, the next ranking becomes the new starting point and does not itself trigger an alert. A ranking is judged only once its data is complete (from version 1.47): after attaching the indicator, changing the timeframe, the method or the suffix, nothing is compared and no starting point is taken until every pair has been read in the same refresh. If a pair never loads, the wait ends after 60 seconds as soon as every currency has at least one readable pair, and the Experts log gets one line starting with [CSD] data ready. Earlier versions could announce a false change on the first complete refresh. With the forming bar included, or when two currencies are nearly equal, the top or bottom place can change back and forth and each change is announced.
What the panel remembers
The panel keeps its position, size, corner and collapsed state per chart, together with the choices made on the panel: the timeframe, the method, the duel mode and the two picked currencies, the suffix button and the ♪ button. They are saved when you use the panel and stay in the terminal's global variables after the indicator is removed.
Once they have been saved on a chart, the panel's choices are used instead of the matching inputs, with one exception: from version 1.47, a value you change in the Inputs dialog wins. The indicator remembers, for each chart, the value these inputs had when it last started; if a value is different now, you have changed it, and the new value is used and replaces the saved one. This covers Timeframe, Method, VS duel: start in LOCK (current pair); cycle AUTO/LOCK/PICK on panel, Broker symbol suffix (e.g. # ; empty = auto), Master alert switch and Start size (a new size keeps the panel's position). An input you have left alone does not override what you chose with the chips and buttons on the panel. Start corner is the exception: it applies only until a position has been saved, and changing it later does not move the panel. The first start after updating to 1.47 only records the current values and changes nothing. After the panel has been dragged, reopened from a saved position, or after the suffix button has been pressed, it stays at its pixel position when the chart is resized; press the corner button or double-click the title row to make it follow a corner again.
Frequently asked questions
A currency shows 0.00 and sits in the middle.
No pair of that currency could be calculated. Right after attaching or switching the timeframe, the terminal may still be loading the history of other symbols; wait a few refreshes. If it stays, check the numbers after pairs and try the suffix button. With gold switched on, an XAU row at 0.00 means no gold symbol was found.
The text pairs 28/28 is amber.
At least one resolved pair has data that is stale (see Bottom line) or could not be read. The Experts log line starting with [CSD] pairs names those pairs. Right after attaching or switching the timeframe, the terminal may still be loading the history of other symbols; wait a few refreshes. A stale pair that could be read is still used in the calculation; a pair that could not be read is left out.
I changed the Timeframe input and nothing changed.
From version 1.47, a value changed in the Inputs dialog is used at once and replaces the choice the panel had saved; the same applies to the method, the duel mode, the suffix, the ♪ button and the size. If nothing changed, check that the version is 1.47 or later and that the value you picked differs from the one the indicator was last started with. On earlier versions the timeframe chip's saved choice kept winning; click the chip to reach the timeframe you want.
Clicking the VS band changed my chart.
That is what the click does: it switches this chart to the symbol shown in the band and to the calculation timeframe. Use the chart's own symbol list to go back.
LOCK shows currencies that are not on my chart, and the bottom line says AUTO (LOCK not applicable).
The chart's symbol does not consist of two currencies in the ranking, for example gold without the gold row or an index. LOCK then shows the strongest and the weakest of the whole ranking, looking like AUTO, and from version 1.49 the bottom line says so; in 1.48 and earlier the band kept the green LOCK colours. To use LOCK on a gold chart, switch on Include Gold (XAU) in the ranking.
The Bitcoin row does not appear.
No Bitcoin symbol was found on your broker. Try the suffix button, or check that your account offers Bitcoin.
Switching on gold changed the other currencies.
That is the default. Gold pairs (such as XAUUSD) also count toward the other currency of the pair, usually USD, so the values, and possibly the order, of the currencies that have a gold pair change. From version 1.49, set Gold pairs also count in USD/other averages to false to treat gold like Bitcoin, so that gold pairs count only toward gold.
Do alerts work while the panel is collapsed?
Yes, from version 1.45. Check that the ♪ button is green and that Alert when strongest/weakest changes is true.
Can an Expert Advisor read the values?
No. The indicator has no buffers, so nothing appears in the Data Window and there is nothing to read with iCustom.
All settings
The table is generated from the shipped source, so it lists every input as the terminal shows it.
General
Language, symbol lookup and the rating card.
| Setting (as shown in MT5) | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Language / 言語 | LANG_EN | Language of the panel, the alert text and the rating card. LANG_JP also switches the font to Yu Gothic UI. The buttons in the top row, the timeframe chip, the currency codes, VS, BUY or SELL with the symbol, the word pairs in the bottom line, the start of each alert text and the input names stay in English. Choices: LANG_EN, LANG_JP |
| Broker symbol suffix (e.g. # ; empty = auto) | (empty) | Empty means Auto: the indicator tries each pair without a suffix and then with #, ., m, micro, pro, +, _i and c, and uses the first name the broker offers. #, . or m fixes that one suffix. Any other text is ignored and Auto is used, and symbols with a prefix are not found. The suffix button on the panel does the same job; once it has been pressed on a chart, its choice is used instead of this input, until you change this input in the Inputs dialog (from 1.47); the new value then wins. |
| Show a one-time rating reminder (after a while) | true | Despite the words one-time, the card asking for a rating can appear up to three times, weeks apart. The first ask comes no earlier than 45 minutes after the first start, after 45 minutes of use and after at least one alert (or seven days), and only while the mouse has moved over the chart in the last two minutes. Rating, or Don't ask again, ends it for good. false switches the card off; the dot at the left of the panel title still opens the About card with its rate button. |
Currencies
Which currencies take part in the ranking, and the starting mode of the VS duel.
| Setting (as shown in MT5) | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Include Gold (XAU) in the ranking | false | Adds gold (XAU) as a row. The indicator looks for XAU against each currency, and for XAUUSD also for GOLD. Gold pairs count toward gold and toward the other currency, so switching gold on changes the values, and possibly the order, of the currencies that have a gold pair, usually USD. Set Gold pairs also count in USD/other averages (the last input) to false to treat gold like Bitcoin instead. If no gold symbol is found, the XAU row stays at 0.00. |
| Include Bitcoin (BTC) in the ranking | false | Adds Bitcoin (BTC) as a row. The indicator looks for BTC against each currency, and for BTCUSD also for Bitcoin, BITCOIN and BTCUSDT. Bitcoin pairs count only toward BTC, so the values and the order of the other currencies do not change, but BTC itself can become the strongest or the weakest and then appears in the VS duel, the bottom line and the alerts. Its bar is capped at full width. If the broker has no Bitcoin symbol, the row is left out. |
| VS duel: start in LOCK (current pair); cycle AUTO/LOCK/PICK on panel | false | true starts the VS duel in LOCK (the two currencies of this chart's symbol) instead of AUTO. If the chart's symbol is not a pair of two shown currencies (for example gold with gold not included, or an index), the duel looks like AUTO and the bottom line says AUTO (LOCK not applicable). The mode chip on the panel switches between AUTO, LOCK and PICK at any time, and once it has been used on a chart, its choice is used instead of this input, until you change this input in the Inputs dialog (from 1.47); the new value then wins. |
Calculation
How the strength of each currency is calculated. The timeframe and the method can also be switched on the panel, and once they have been switched there, the panel's choice is used instead of these inputs.
| Setting (as shown in MT5) | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Timeframe | 1 Hour | The timeframe the strength is calculated on. It does not have to match the chart. The timeframe chip on the panel cycles through M15, M30, H1, H4 and D1; once it has been used on a chart, its choice is used instead of this input, until you change this input in the Inputs dialog (from 1.47); the new value then wins. A timeframe outside these five, for example M5, is used and shown as it is, and the next click on the chip goes to H1. |
| Method | CSM_PCT | CSM_PCT: percentage change of each pair over the lookback. CSM_MA: percentage distance of each pair's close from its simple moving average. The two give different kinds of numbers that should not be compared with each other. The method chip on the panel (chg or MA) switches it; once it has been used on a chart, its choice is used instead of this input, until you change this input in the Inputs dialog (from 1.47); the new value then wins. Choices: CSM_PCT, CSM_MA |
| Price-change lookback (bars) | 24 | For the price-change method: how many bars back the change is measured. 24 on H1 is roughly the last day of closed bars. Use a value of 1 or more. A value below 1 is treated as 1 (from version 1.48), with one line in the Experts log when the indicator starts. |
| MA period (MA-distance method) | 50 | For the moving-average method: the number of bars in the simple moving average. Use a value of 1 or more. A value below 1 is treated as 1 (from version 1.48), with one line in the Experts log when the indicator starts. |
| Use forming bar (false = last closed) | false | false (default) calculates on the last closed bar, so the numbers change mainly when a new bar starts. true includes the bar that is still forming, so the numbers move with every refresh and the strongest or weakest currency can change back and forth more often, with an alert each time. |
Alerts
The only notification is a change of the strongest or the weakest currency. These inputs choose how it reaches you.
| Setting (as shown in MT5) | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Master alert switch | true | The starting state of the ♪ button on the panel. Once the ♪ button has been pressed on a chart, its saved state is used instead of this input, so an alert that stays silent may simply have the ♪ button switched off. From 1.47, changing this input in the Inputs dialog sets the bell to the new value. |
| Popup | true | Shows the alert in the terminal's Alert window. |
| Sound | true | Plays the sound file set below. |
| Push (MetaQuotes ID) | false | Sends the alert to the MetaTrader app on your phone. The terminal needs your MetaQuotes ID in its notification settings. If the terminal could not send it, a line starting with [CSD SEND] is written to the Experts log (from version 1.49). |
| false | Sends the alert by email with the subject Currency Strength Duel. The terminal's email settings must be filled in. If the terminal could not send it, a line starting with [CSD SEND] is written to the Experts log (from version 1.49). | |
| Sound file | alert.wav | The sound file played when Sound is on, from the terminal's Sounds folder. |
| Alert when strongest/weakest changes | true | Alerts when the strongest or the weakest currency of the whole ranking changes. This is the only kind of alert, so false stops all alerts, even though the ♪ button on the panel still shows on. |
Position & size
Where the panel starts, how large it is and how often everything is recalculated.
| Setting (as shown in MT5) | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Start corner | C_TR | The corner the panel snaps to the first time it runs on a chart (C_TL top left, C_TR top right, C_BR bottom right, C_BL bottom left). Once the panel has a saved position on that chart, the saved position is used, and changing this input does not move the panel. Double-clicking the panel title sends the panel back to this corner. Choices: C_TL, C_TR, C_BR, C_BL |
| Start size | SZ_M | The panel size the first time it runs on a chart: SZ_S, SZ_M, SZ_L or SZ_XL. Afterwards the A- and A+ buttons decide, and the size is saved per chart. From 1.47, changing this input in the Inputs dialog resizes the panel on a chart that already has a saved state; its position is kept. Choices: SZ_S, SZ_M, SZ_L, SZ_XL |
| Corner margin (px) | 16 | Distance in pixels between the panel and the edge of the chart when it snaps to a corner. |
| Extra right gap for the price scale (px) | 64 | Extra pixels between a right-hand corner and the panel while the price scale is shown. It has no effect on the left corners or when the price scale is hidden, and negative values count as 0. The price scale does not cover the panel, so this only moves the panel further left; with 0, only the corner margin separates the panel from the scale. |
| Refresh seconds | 2 | Seconds between recalculations (1 or more; smaller values count as 1). The panel and the alerts are updated on this timer, not on every tick. |
Currencies (advanced)
How gold pairs are counted. Added at the end of the list in version 1.49; existing inputs and saved panel settings are unchanged.
| Setting (as shown in MT5) | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Gold pairs also count in USD/other averages (false = like BTC) | true | Added in version 1.49 at the end of the list. true (default) works as before: a gold pair such as XAUUSD also counts toward the other currency of the pair, so with gold included it also moves the USD and other currency averages and can change the order of the eight. false treats gold like Bitcoin: gold pairs count only toward gold, and switching gold on no longer changes the values of the other currencies. It has no effect while gold is not included. |
What it does not do, and where it stops
It does not trade and gives no signals. BUY and SELL in the duel only say which side of the symbol the stronger currency is on, and a strong or weak reading says nothing about what the price will do next. It works only while the terminal is running and recalculates on a timer, on closed bars by default, so what you see can be up to one refresh interval and, by default, up to one bar old.
The values are plain averages of percentage moves, with no adjustment for volatility. Pairs that cannot be read are left out of the calculation. The first number after pairs counts the symbols found, not the symbols with data; from version 1.49 the amber colour and a line in the Experts log show when a resolved pair is stale or could not be read. Two copies of the indicator on the same chart share one panel name and one set of saved settings, so use one per chart.
Apart from drawing, it adds the symbols it finds to Market Watch, saves its panel settings to the terminal's global variables, keeps the rating card's state in a small file in the terminals' shared Common\Files folder, and turns on mouse-move events for its chart. It leaves them on when it is removed, so other programs on the same chart keep their mouse handling; versions up to 1.46 switched them off, which could stop another panel product on the same chart until that product was reloaded. If it is removed in the middle of a drag, it gives the chart's mouse scrolling back. It uses no DLL and no web request.
Related product
Currency Strength Duel has no Pro edition. Its sister product Trend Dashboard reads the trend of each symbol across timeframes; see its own user guide.
Support
Post on the Comments tab of the product page. The broker, the symbol names it uses, the timeframe and what the panel showed, including the numbers after pairs (for example 28/28), are enough to start.
This guide describes Currency Strength Duel 1.49.
