Discussing the article: "Creating Custom Indicators in MQL5 (Part 10): Enhancing the Footprint Chart with Per-Bar Volume Sentiment Information Box"

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Check out the new article: Creating Custom Indicators in MQL5 (Part 10): Enhancing the Footprint Chart with Per-Bar Volume Sentiment Information Box.

The article enhances an MQL5 footprint indicator with a compact box above each candle that summarizes net delta, total volume, and buy/sell percentages. We implement supersampled anti‑aliased rendering, rounded corners via arc and quadrilateral rasterization, and per‑pixel alpha compositing. Supporting utilities include ARGB conversion, scanline fills, and box‑filter downsampling. The box delivers fast sentiment reads that stay legible across zoom levels.

A completed bar contains information that price level rows do not summarize well. Net delta shows which side was more aggressive in aggregate, total volume shows whether that aggression happened on meaningful participation or thin activity, and the buy and sell split reveals the degree of imbalance. When these three numbers are visible above every candle in a compact, color-coded box, a trader can scan across dozens of bars in seconds and immediately identify which bars were dominated by one side, which were balanced, and whether the dominance was backed by high or low volume, without reading a single price level row.

In live trading, use the net delta displayed in the sentiment box as a first filter — a bar closing higher with a strongly negative delta is a warning that sellers were absorbing the move, making it a weaker long candidate than a bar with a matching positive delta. Watch for consecutive bars where the delta direction conflicts with the price direction, as persistent delta divergence often precedes reversals. Use the total volume figure to separate conviction bars from noise — a large delta on low total volume carries less weight than the same delta on high participation. The percentage split is particularly useful at key levels: an 80 percent buy bar rejecting a support level confirms strong absorption, while a near-50-50 split at the same level suggests indecision rather than conviction. Use the color intensity of the information box itself as a visual heatmap across the chart — a sequence of progressively deeper colors in one direction signals building momentum, while a sudden color shift signals a potential regime change.

We extend the footprint structure with bar-level delta, percentages, and cached colors, compute these values on every tick via a dedicated function, implement rounded corner geometry and precise arc drawing utilities, add a supersampled render-and-downsample pipeline for anti-aliased output, and composite the finished box onto the main canvas using per-pixel alpha blending. In brief, here is a visual representation of what we intend to build.

Author: Allan Munene Mutiiria