MA Toolkit - indicator for MetaTrader 5

MA Toolkit

The idea behind it

Moving averages are the building block of many trading tools, yet most traders only ever call a built-in function and never see how the numbers are produced. MA Toolkit calculates three classic averages by hand, so the code can serve as a clear example and as a base for your own indicators:

• SMA - the plain arithmetic mean of the last N prices.
• EMA - an exponential average that reacts faster by giving recent prices more weight through the smoothing factor 2 / (N + 1). Like the standard MetaTrader indicator, it starts from the first price of the history.
• LWMA - a linear weighted average: the newest price has weight N, the oldest has weight 1.

Two averages are drawn at once (fast and slow), each with its own type and period. The indicator recalculates only new and forming bars, so it stays light on long histories.

How to interpret it

• Fast MA (thick solid line) - colored by slope: blue when rising, orange-red when falling, gray when flat (the change per bar does not exceed the flat-slope threshold). In Fig. 1 the line is shown in white only, because the figure is black and white.
• Slow MA (thin dashed line) - the longer-term reference line. It can be hidden with the "Show the slow MA" input.
• Up arrow below a bar - the fast MA crossed above the slow MA on that bar (bullish crossover).
• Down arrow above a bar - the fast MA crossed below the slow MA on that bar (bearish crossover).
• Info panel (top-left corner) - the first line shows the selected MA types and periods; the second line shows whether the fast MA is above or below the slow MA and the current slope of the fast MA.
• Alerts - an optional pop-up alert is shown once per bar when the last closed bar contains a crossover. Alerts are never raised for historical bars.

Fig. 1. MA Toolkit with a fast EMA(20), a slow SMA(50) and crossover arrows (black and white image, as required by the Code Base image guidelines).

External variables (inputs)

Recommended use

• The indicator works on any symbol and timeframe. It does not trade, so the account type (netting or hedging) does not matter.
• Typical starting points: a fast EMA of 10-20 with a slow SMA or EMA of 50-200. Shorter periods give more signals and more false ones.
• Moving average crossovers lag the price and tend to produce many false signals in a sideways market. Use the arrows as a trend-change hint, not as a stand-alone trading system, and confirm them with other tools.
• Arrows on the current (forming) bar may appear and disappear until the bar closes. Alerts use the last closed bar only.
• The EMA depends on the whole history it starts from, so its first values may differ slightly from the same indicator on a chart with a different amount of loaded history.
• The indicator needs at least the larger period plus two bars of history. All chart objects it creates (the info panel) are removed when the indicator is deleted.