Indicator Truth Lab – User Guide

Indicator Truth Lab — Northline Algo · product page · real MT5 demo video

Contents

1. Overview
2. Installation and first audit
3. Reading the panel
4. On the chart: the audited indicator and the erased values
5. The HTML report and the CSV file
6. Entering the settings of an indicator
7. Signal direction and the trade model
8. Input parameters
9. Messages and troubleshooting
10. Strategy Tester and demo
11. Honest limits and support

1. Overview

Many indicators look better in their history than they ever were live. Some repaint: an arrow shown when a bar closed is erased a few bars later, a pivot moves, a line is recalculated. Others are late: the signal appears two or three bars after the bar it is drawn on, and the history hides that delay.

Indicator Truth Lab measures this on any indicator you own, including indicators bought on the Market:

1. it copies the history of your chart to a temporary custom symbol;
2. it feeds that symbol bar by bar, so the audited indicator recalculates exactly as it would live;
3. at each bar close it records the value of every buffer;
4. at the end, it compares those values with the final history.

You get a verdict per buffer, the delay of the signals, and for signal buffers the same trades computed twice: as the history shows them, and as you could have seen them live.

The tool gives no trading signal and makes no forecast. It measures.

2. Installation and first audit

1. After purchase or rental, Indicator Truth Lab appears in Navigator → Expert Advisors → Market.
2. Open a chart of the symbol and timeframe you want to audit, for example EURUSD H1.
3. Drag Indicator Truth Lab onto the chart. In the inputs, type the path of the indicator in Indicator path:
   • a standard example: Examples\ZigZag
   • an indicator in your own folder: MyFolder\MyIndicator
   • an indicator bought on the Market: Market\Product Name (as it appears in Navigator → Indicators → Market)
   The path is relative to the MQL5\Indicators folder, without .ex5 .
4. Press OK. The panel appears at the top left and fills in during the replay, with the time left.

On H1, 1,500 bars take less than a minute. M1 and D1 are slower (about 2 to 4 minutes for long periods).

The EA does not trade on a live chart. Algo Trading does not need to be enabled.

3. Reading the panel

• Header: the audited indicator, its settings, the progress bar and the time left.
• Verdict: the worst result among the audited buffers.
  • Does not repaint (green): every value seen at bar close is identical in the final history.
  • Late by N bars (gold): nothing is erased, but signals appear N bars after the bar they are drawn on.
  • Repaints (red): values seen at bar close were later moved or erased. The share is shown.
  During the replay the verdict is provisional ("so far").
• Same signals, two views: for the first signal buffer, the trades computed from the history and from what was visible live. Number of trades, winning trades, average result per trade, worst losing streak and maximum drawdown, all in R (R = the amount risked per trade).
• Buffers found: one line per buffer, or per group of consecutive buffers with the same verdict ("Buffers 0-10 line repaints 100%").
• Report saved: the name of the HTML report.

4. On the chart: the audited indicator and the erased values

At the end of the audit:

• the audited indicator is added to the chart (main window, or a sub-window for oscillators), so you see its history as it draws it today;
• every value that was shown at bar close, then erased or moved, is marked in red: a ring for a signal, a dotted segment for a line. Hover a mark to read the value shown live and the final value;
• the chart scrolls to the end of the audited period.

Removing the EA removes the panel, the marks and the added indicator.

5. The HTML report and the CSV file

Each audit saves two files in File → Open Data Folder → MQL5 → Files → TruthLab:

• an HTML report that opens in any browser, on a computer or a phone: verdict, history-against-live curve, comparison table, every buffer, and what each verdict means;
• a CSV file with the raw counts per buffer, for your own analysis.

The file name contains the indicator, the symbol, the timeframe and the date, so successive audits never overwrite each other.

6. Entering the settings of an indicator

Leave Settings empty to audit the indicator with its default inputs. Otherwise, type one value per input, in the order of the indicator's inputs, separated by commas:

12,5,3

Rules:

• numbers with a decimal point are read as decimals ( 1.5 ), whole numbers as integers ( 50 ), true / false as booleans, anything else as text;
• a section title in the indicator's inputs (an "input group") also counts as one value: type any word, for example grp ;
• you can stop before the end: the remaining inputs keep their defaults.

Example with an indicator whose inputs start with a section title, then a period and a multiplier: grp,20,2.0 .

If the settings do not match the inputs, the panel says so and the audit stops before anything is created.

7. Signal direction and the trade model

To compute trades, the tool needs the direction of each signal. In auto mode:

• a value above the high of its bar is read as a sell (arrow above the candle);
• a value below the low is read as a buy (arrow below the candle).

If an indicator places its arrows elsewhere (for example on the close), set the direction per buffer: 0:buy,1:sell . When most signals have no readable direction, the panel shows no statistics and asks you to set it.

Each signal is then traded the same way in both views:

• entry at the open of the next bar (live view: the bar after the signal actually appeared);
• stop and target in ATR(14) multiples (default 1 and 1.5) or in points;
• exit after N bars (default 50) if neither is hit; the stop is checked first when both are touched in the same bar;
• cost per trade in points, deducted from every trade (default: the current spread of the chart).

8. Input parameters

9. Messages and troubleshooting

• "No indicator found at …": check the path, relative to MQL5\Indicators , without .ex5 . For a Market product, use the name shown in Navigator → Indicators → Market.
• "The settings do not match the inputs …": count the inputs again, including section titles (one grp each).
• "This chart has not enough history …": shorten the period (Bars to replay) or scroll the chart back to load more history.
• "No statistics: the direction of the signals could not be read …": set the direction per buffer (section 7).
• The indicator draws arrows but the panel shows no signal buffer: the indicator draws with chart objects instead of buffers. This version reads buffers only.
• The audit is slow: lower timeframes and long periods take longer; the panel shows the time left.

10. Strategy Tester and demo

The audit needs a temporary custom symbol, which the Strategy Tester does not provide. In the tester (and therefore in the free demo of the Market), the EA only displays how to use it, and opens one minimum-size position per day so the tester has something to show. To see the tool at work, watch the video on the product page or rent it for one month.

11. Honest limits and support

• The statistics describe the past on the audited symbol and period. They are not a forecast.
• A non-repainting indicator is not a profitable indicator: it is an honest one.
• Indicators that draw only with chart objects cannot be read in this version.
• Results depend on the settings you audit: audit the settings you actually trade.

Questions, a message that is not clear, an indicator that does not load: write to me through my MQL5 profile. I answer every message.