Articles with MQL5 programming examples
Access a huge collection of articles with code examples showing how to create indicators and trading robots for the MetaTrader platform in the MQL5 language. Source codes are attached to the articles, so you can open them in MetaEditor and run them to see how the applications work.
These articles will be useful both for those who have just started exploring automated trading and for professional traders with programming experience. They feature not only examples, but also contain new ideas.
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Master MQL5 from Beginner to Pro (Part VI): Basics of Developing Expert Advisors
This article continues the series for beginners. Here we will discuss the basic principles of developing Expert Advisors (EAs). We will create two EAs: the first one will trade without indicators, using pending orders, and the second one will be based on the standard MA indicator, opening deals at the current price. Here I assume that you are no longer a complete beginner and have a relatively good command of the material from the previous articles.
Expert Advisor based on the universal MLP approximator
The article presents a simple and accessible way to use a neural network in a trading EA that does not require deep knowledge of machine learning. The method eliminates the target function normalization, as well as overcomes "weight explosion" and "network stall" issues offering intuitive training and visual control of the results.
SP500 Trading Strategy in MQL5 For Beginners
Discover how to leverage MQL5 to forecast the S&P 500 with precision, blending in classical technical analysis for added stability and combining algorithms with time-tested principles for robust market insights.
Bill Williams Strategy with and without other indicators and predictions
In this article, we will take a look to one the famous strategies of Bill Williams, and discuss it, and try to improve the strategy with other indicators and with predictions.
Integrating ML models with the Strategy Tester (Conclusion): Implementing a regression model for price prediction
This article describes the implementation of a regression model based on a decision tree. The model should predict prices of financial assets. We have already prepared the data, trained and evaluated the model, as well as adjusted and optimized it. However, it is important to note that this model is intended for study purposes only and should not be used in real trading.
How to Use Crashlogs to Debug Your Own DLLs
25 to 30% of all crashlogs received from users appear due to errors occurring when functions imported from custom dlls are executed.
Build Self Optimizing Expert Advisors in MQL5 (Part 2): USDJPY Scalping Strategy
Join us today as we challenge ourselves to build a trading strategy around the USDJPY pair. We will trade candlestick patterns that are formed on the daily time frame because they potentially have more strength behind them. Our initial strategy was profitable, which encouraged us to continue refining the strategy and adding extra layers of safety, to protect the capital gained.
Developing a trading Expert Advisor from scratch (Part 25): Providing system robustness (II)
In this article, we will make the final step towards the EA's performance. So, be prepared for a long read. To make our Expert Advisor reliable, we will first remove everything from the code that is not part of the trading system.
Price Action Analysis Toolkit Development (Part 20): External Flow (IV) — Correlation Pathfinder
Correlation Pathfinder offers a fresh approach to understanding currency pair dynamics as part of the Price Action Analysis Toolkit Development Series. This tool automates data collection and analysis, providing insight into how pairs like EUR/USD and GBP/USD interact. Enhance your trading strategy with practical, real-time information that helps you manage risk and spot opportunities more effectively.
DoEasy. Controls (Part 30): Animating the ScrollBar control
In this article, I will continue the development of the ScrollBar control and start implementing the mouse interaction functionality. In addition, I will expand the lists of mouse state flags and events.
Price Action Analysis Toolkit Development (Part 11): Heikin Ashi Signal EA
MQL5 offers endless opportunities to develop automated trading systems tailored to your preferences. Did you know it can even perform complex mathematical calculations? In this article, we introduce the Japanese Heikin-Ashi technique as an automated trading strategy.
Understand and Efficiently use OpenCL API by Recreating built-in support as DLL on Linux (Part 2): OpenCL Simple DLL implementation
Continued from the part 1 in the series, now we proceed to implement as a simple DLL then test with MetaTrader 5. This will prepare us well before developing a full-fledge OpenCL as DLL support in the following part to come.
Population optimization algorithms: Cuckoo Optimization Algorithm (COA)
The next algorithm I will consider is cuckoo search optimization using Levy flights. This is one of the latest optimization algorithms and a new leader in the leaderboard.
Population optimization algorithms: Firefly Algorithm (FA)
In this article, I will consider the Firefly Algorithm (FA) optimization method. Thanks to the modification, the algorithm has turned from an outsider into a real rating table leader.
Build Self Optimizing Expert Advisors With MQL5 And Python (Part II): Tuning Deep Neural Networks
Machine learning models come with various adjustable parameters. In this series of articles, we will explore how to customize your AI models to fit your specific market using the SciPy library.
Timeseries in DoEasy library (part 57): Indicator buffer data object
In the article, develop an object which will contain all data of one buffer for one indicator. Such objects will be necessary for storing serial data of indicator buffers. With their help, it will be possible to sort and compare buffer data of any indicators, as well as other similar data with each other.
Introduction to MQL5 (Part 16): Building Expert Advisors Using Technical Chart Patterns
This article introduces beginners to building an MQL5 Expert Advisor that identifies and trades a classic technical chart pattern — the Head and Shoulders. It covers how to detect the pattern using price action, draw it on the chart, set entry, stop loss, and take profit levels, and automate trade execution based on the pattern.
Understand and efficiently use OpenCL API by recreating built-in support as DLL on Linux (Part 1): Motivation and validation
Bulit-in OpenCL support in MetaTrader 5 still has a major problem especially the one about device selection error 5114 resulting from unable to create an OpenCL context using CL_USE_GPU_ONLY, or CL_USE_GPU_DOUBLE_ONLY although it properly detects GPU. It works fine with directly using of ordinal number of GPU device we found in Journal tab, but that's still considered a bug, and users should not hard-code a device. We will solve it by recreating an OpenCL support as DLL with C++ on Linux. Along the journey, we will get to know OpenCL from concept to best practices in its API usage just enough for us to put into great use later when we deal with DLL implementation in C++ and consume it with MQL5.
Example of Auto Optimized Take Profits and Indicator Parameters with SMA and EMA
This article presents a sophisticated Expert Advisor for forex trading, combining machine learning with technical analysis. It focuses on trading Apple stock, featuring adaptive optimization, risk management, and multiple strategies. Backtesting shows promising results with high profitability but also significant drawdowns, indicating potential for further refinement.
Formulating Dynamic Multi-Pair EA (Part 1): Currency Correlation and Inverse Correlation
Dynamic multi pair Expert Advisor leverages both on correlation and inverse correlation strategies to optimize trading performance. By analyzing real-time market data, it identifies and exploits the relationship between currency pairs.
Implementing the SHA-256 Cryptographic Algorithm from Scratch in MQL5
Building DLL-free cryptocurrency exchange integrations has long been a challenge, but this solution provides a complete framework for direct market connectivity.
Developing a trading Expert Advisor from scratch (Part 26): Towards the future (I)
Today we will take our order system to the next level. But before that, we need to solve a few problems. Now we have some questions that are related to how we want to work and what things we do during the trading day.
DoEasy. Controls (Part 16): TabControl WinForms object — several rows of tab headers, stretching headers to fit the container
In this article, I will continue the development of TabControl and implement the arrangement of tab headers on all four sides of the control for all modes of setting the size of headers: Normal, Fixed and Fill To Right.
StringFormat(). Review and ready-made examples
The article continues the review of the PrintFormat() function. We will briefly look at formatting strings using StringFormat() and their further use in the program. We will also write templates to display symbol data in the terminal journal. The article will be useful for both beginners and experienced developers.
Price Action Analysis Toolkit Development (Part 2): Analytical Comment Script
Aligned with our vision of simplifying price action, we are pleased to introduce another tool that can significantly enhance your market analysis and help you make well-informed decisions. This tool displays key technical indicators such as previous day's prices, significant support and resistance levels, and trading volume, while automatically generating visual cues on the chart.
Build Self Optimizing Expert Advisors in MQL5 (Part 8): Multiple Strategy Analysis
How best can we combine multiple strategies to create a powerful ensemble strategy? Join us in this discussion as we look to fit together three different strategies into our trading application. Traders often employ specialized strategies for opening and closing positions, and we want to know if our machines can perform this task better. For our opening discussion, we will get familiar with the faculties of the strategy tester and the principles of OOP we will need for this task.
From Novice to Expert: Animated News Headline Using MQL5 (II)
Today, we take another step forward by integrating an external news API as the source of headlines for our News Headline EA. In this phase, we’ll explore various news sources—both established and emerging—and learn how to access their APIs effectively. We'll also cover methods for parsing the retrieved data into a format optimized for display within our Expert Advisor. Join the discussion as we explore the benefits of accessing news headlines and the economic calendar directly on the chart, all within a compact, non-intrusive interface.
Developing a Trading System Based on the Order Book (Part I): Indicator
Depth of Market is undoubtedly a very important element for executing fast trades, especially in High Frequency Trading (HFT) algorithms. In this series of articles, we will look at this type of trading events that can be obtained through a broker on many tradable symbols. We will start with an indicator, where you can customize the color palette, position and size of the histogram displayed directly on the chart. We will also look at how to generate BookEvent events to test the indicator under certain conditions. Other possible topics for future articles include how to store price distribution data and how to use it in a strategy tester.
DoEasy. Controls (Part 24): Hint auxiliary WinForms object
In this article, I will revise the logic of specifying the base and main objects for all WinForms library objects, develop a new Hint base object and several of its derived classes to indicate the possible direction of moving the separator.
Monitoring trading with push notifications — example of a MetaTrader 5 service
In this article, we will look at creating a service app for sending notifications to a smartphone about trading results. We will learn how to handle lists of Standard Library objects to organize a selection of objects by required properties.
Population optimization algorithms: Saplings Sowing and Growing up (SSG)
Saplings Sowing and Growing up (SSG) algorithm is inspired by one of the most resilient organisms on the planet demonstrating outstanding capability for survival in a wide variety of conditions.
MQL5 Wizard Techniques you should know (Part 17): Multicurrency Trading
Trading across multiple currencies is not available by default when an expert advisor is assembled via the wizard. We examine 2 possible hacks traders can make when looking to test their ideas off more than one symbol at a time.
Self Optimizing Expert Advisor With MQL5 And Python (Part V): Deep Markov Models
In this discussion, we will apply a simple Markov Chain on an RSI Indicator, to observe how price behaves after the indicator passes through key levels. We concluded that the strongest buy and sell signals on the NZDJPY pair are generated when the RSI is in the 11-20 range and 71-80 range, respectively. We will demonstrate how you can manipulate your data, to create optimal trading strategies that are learned directly from the data you have. Furthermore, we will demonstrate how to train a deep neural network to learn to use the transition matrix optimally.
DoEasy. Controls (Part 28): Bar styles in the ProgressBar control
In this article, I will develop display styles and description text for the progress bar of the ProgressBar control.
Gain An Edge Over Any Market (Part II): Forecasting Technical Indicators
Did you know that we can gain more accuracy forecasting certain technical indicators than predicting the underlying price of a traded symbol? Join us to explore how to leverage this insight for better trading strategies.
MQL5 Trading Toolkit (Part 3): Developing a Pending Orders Management EX5 Library
Learn how to develop and implement a comprehensive pending orders EX5 library in your MQL5 code or projects. This article will show you how to create an extensive pending orders management EX5 library and guide you through importing and implementing it by building a trading panel or graphical user interface (GUI). The expert advisor orders panel will allow users to open, monitor, and delete pending orders associated with a specified magic number directly from the graphical interface on the chart window.
Simplifying Databases in MQL5 (Part 1): Introduction to Databases and SQL
We explore how to manipulate databases in MQL5 using the language's native functions. We cover everything from table creation, insertion, updating, and deletion to data import and export, all with sample code. The content serves as a solid foundation for understanding the internal mechanics of data access, paving the way for the discussion of ORM, where we'll build one in MQL5.
Deconstructing examples of trading strategies in the client terminal
The article uses block diagrams to examine the logic of the candlestick-based training EAs located in the Experts\Free Robots folder of the terminal.
DRAW_ARROW drawing type in multi-symbol multi-period indicators
In this article, we will look at drawing arrow multi-symbol multi-period indicators. We will also improve the class methods for correct display of arrows showing data from arrow indicators calculated on a symbol/period that does not correspond to the symbol/period of the current chart.
Brain Storm Optimization algorithm (Part II): Multimodality
In the second part of the article, we will move on to the practical implementation of the BSO algorithm, conduct tests on test functions and compare the efficiency of BSO with other optimization methods.