Advice on where/how to learn MQL4 ?

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Hello everyone

I want to ask if there is any course or a guide for MQL4 programming for a beginner. I searched on google I haven't found any, though I see many MQL4 developer but wonder from where did they learned all language skills. I know C#, C and SQl if it comes to basic programming other than that I am not really into IT much as I had been just focusing on trading only.

I am ready to put my time to learn the language but I just don't find any book or guide or anything that is not too much basic, for example I do know what is int, data types, functions, variables etc but I do not find anything above it.

Any help is appreciated.

 

https://book.mql4.com/

MQL4 Tutorial
MQL4 Tutorial
  • book.mql4.com
MQL4 Tutorial
 
nicholishen:

https://book.mql4.com/

Right, but a bit obsolete and full of errors/typos.
 
Suleman Khan:

Hello everyone

I want to ask if there is any course or a guide for MQL4 programming for a beginner. I searched on google I haven't found any, though I see many MQL4 developer but wonder from where did they learned all language skills. I know C#, C and SQl if it comes to basic programming other than that I am not really into IT much as I had been just focusing on trading only.

I am ready to put my time to learn the language but I just don't find any book or guide or anything that is not too much basic, for example I do know what is int, data types, functions, variables etc but I do not find anything above it.

Any help is appreciated.

This is how I started off ... by reading this book, together with the Official Documentation:

Forum on trading, automated trading systems and testing trading strategies

Something Interesting to Read

Sergey Golubev, 2017.09.16 05:40

Expert Advisor Programming for MetaTrader 4


This book will teach you the following concepts:

  • The basic of the MLQ4 language, including variables and data types, operations, conditional and loop operators, functions, classes and objects, event handlers and more.
  • Place, modify and close market and pending orders.
  • Add a stop loss and/or take profit price to an individual order, or to multiple orders.
  • Close orders individually or by order type.
  • Get a total of all currently opened orders.
  • Work with OHLC bar data and locate basic candlestick patterns.
  • Find the highest high and lowest low of recent bars.
  • Work with MetaTrader’s built-in indicators, as well as custom indicators.
  • Add a trailing stop or break even stop feature to an expert advisor.
  • Use money management and lot size verification techniques.
  • Add a flexible trading timer to an expert advisor.
  • Construct several types of trading systems, including trend, counter-trend and breakout systems.
  • Add alert, emails, sounds and other notifications.
  • Add and manipulate chart objects.
  • Read and write to CSV files.
  • Construct basic indicators, scripts and libraries.
  • Learn how to effective debug your programs, and use the Strategy Tester to test your strategies.

All of the source code in this book is available for download, including an expert advisor framework that allows you to build robust and fully-featured expert advisors with minimal effort.


MQL4 Reference
MQL4 Reference
  • docs.mql4.com
MQL4 Reference
 
Fernando Carreiro:

This is how I started off ... by reading this book, together with the Official Documentation:

Hi
I also want to learn how to build expert advisors and automated trading systems. I already have a background in java, perl, python coding etc and have been trading forex for 10 years but want to understand whether I should learn how to code mql5 or does one need to learn mql4 first? 
Also what are the best resource, books for such.

Thanks
 
kullym:

Please do not put replies inside the quotation box. I have edited your post and moved it outside.

There is no need to learn mql4 if you want to learn mql5.

 
kullym:
I also want to learn how to build expert advisors and automated trading systems. I already have a background in java, perl, python coding etc and have been trading forex for 10 years but want to understand whether I should learn how to code mql5 or does one need to learn mql4 first?
I have a similar coding background and started with MQL4, it's quite easy to catch up with since its syntax is based on C++. MQL5 syntax is exactly the same, but the order handling goes - for my impression - a bit overboard. MQL4 just knows open orders and closed (historical) orders, in MQL5 you'll have to cope with orders, deals and positions as well as asynchronous calls and respective callbacks. My suggestion is to start with 4, build some small indicators and EAs and once your comfortable with the language move over to 5.
 
lippmaje:
I have a similar coding background and started with MQL4, it's quite easy to catch up with since its syntax is based on C++. MQL5 syntax is exactly the same, but the order handling gets - in my impression - a bit overboard. MQL4 just knows open orders and closed (historical) orders, in MQL5 you'll have to cope with orders, deals and positions. My suggestion is to start with 4, build some small indicators and EAs and once your comfortable with the language move over to 5.
Thanks. What are the best rources online and books you would recommend
 
Keith Watford:

Please do not put replies inside the quotation box. I have edited your post and moved it outside.

There is no need to learn mql4 if you want to learn mql5.

Thank Keith. Apart from online resources on this site any other books or website your would
recommend for learning mql
 
The best place to start was that MACD Sample.mq4 that comes with MT4 and there's also some simple indicators that you could dig up. The MQL4 / MQL5 reference is available in the editor, that's also a great source because it features numerous code samples to illustrate their appropriate function usage. This I'd consider the basis to start with coding. If there's any issue to be clarified you can rely on the forum here, it's quite responsive regarding help - and Dr Google around the corner of course.
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