MQL5 Programming Articles

With new version of MQL programming language available not only the approach of dealing with indicators have changed, but there are also new ways of how to create indicators. Furthermore, you have additional flexibility working with indicator's buffers - now you can specify the desired direction of indexing and get exactly as many indicator's values as you want. This article explains the basic methods of calling indicators and retrieving data from the indicator's buffers.

The article considers the classic method for divergence construction and provides an additional divergence interpretation method. A trading strategy was developed based on this new interpretation method. This strategy is also described in the article.

Now not so many developers remember how to write a simple DLL, and what are special features of different system binding. Using several examples, I will try to show the entire process of the simple DLL's creation in 10 minutes, as well as to discuss some technical details of our binding implementation. I will show the step-by-step process of DLL creation in Visual Studio with examples of exchanging different types of variables (numbers, arrays, strings, etc.). Besides I will explain how to protect your client terminal from crashes in custom DLLs.

The purpose of this article is to create the most simple trading strategy that implements the "All or Nothing" gaming principle. We don't want to create a profitable Expert Advisor - the goal is to increase the initial deposit several times with the highest possible probability. Is it possible to hit the jackpot on ForEx or lose everything without knowing anything about technical analysis and without using any indicators?

In order to obtain values of a built-in or custom indicator in an Expert Advisor, first its handle should be created using the corresponding function. Examples in the article show how to use this or that technical indicator while creating your own programs. The article describes indicators that are built n the MQL5 language. It is intended for those who don't have much experience in the development of trading strategies and offers simple and clear ways of working with indicators using the offered library of functions.

Members of the official MetaTrader Freelance service have completed more than 50,000 orders as at October 2018. This is the world's largest Freelance site for MQL programmers: more than a thousand developers, dozens of new orders daily and 7 languages localization.

Any new subject seems complicated and hard-to-learn for a newbie. Subjects that we know seem very simple and clear to us. But we simply do not remember, that everyone has to study something from scratch, and even our native language. The same is with the MQL5 programming language that offers wide possibilities of developing one's own trading strategies - you can start learning it from basic notions and simplest examples. Interaction of a technical indicator with the MetaTrader 5 client terminal is consider in this article on the example of the simple custom indicator SMA.

We have launched the service for selling MetaTrader 5 trading applications paying much attention to security issues. We have minimized all associated risks to allow you to concentrate on more important matters - searching for the most suitable trading robot!

Let us reveal a little secret: MQL5.com website visitors spend most of their time on Johnpaul77 signal's page. It is a leader of our signal rating having about 900 subscribers with the total funds of $5.7 million on real accounts. We have interviewed the signal's providers. As it turned out, there are four of them! How are duties distributed among the team members? What technical tools do they use? Why do they call themselves John Paul? And finally, how have common gamers from Indonesia become providers of the top signal on MQL5.com? Find out all that in the article.

The article examines the possibility of creating an advanced ZigZag indicator. The idea of identifying nodes is based on the use of the Envelopes indicator. We assume that we can find a certain combination of input parameters for a series of Envelopes, whereby all ZigZag nodes lie within the confines of the Envelopes bands. Consequently, we can try to predict the coordinates of the new node.

The article provides an example of how to implement an indicator for drawing support and resistance lines based on formalized conditions. In addition to having a ready-to-use indicator, you will see how simple the indicator creation process is. You will also learn how to formulate conditions for drawing any desired line by changing the indicator code.

Price trends form price channels that can be observed on financial symbol charts. The breakout of the current channel is one of the strong trend reversal signals. In this article, I suggest a way to automate the process of finding such signals and see if the channel breakout pattern can be used for creating a trading strategy.

Fuzzy logic expands our boundaries of mathematical logic and set theory. This article reveals the basic principles of fuzzy logic as well as describes two fuzzy inference systems using Mamdani-type and Sugeno-type models. The examples provided will describe implementation of fuzzy models based on these two systems using the FuzzyNet library for MQL5.

This article covers the main principles set fourth in evolutionary algorithms, their variety and features. We will conduct an experiment with a simple Expert Advisor used as an example to show how our trading system benefits from optimization. We will consider software programs that implement genetic, evolutionary and other types of optimization, and provide examples of application when optimizing a predictor set and parameters of the trading system.

MetaTrader 5 allows us to simulate automatic trading, within an embedded strategy tester, by using Expert Advisors and the MQL5 language. This type of simulation is called testing of Expert Advisors, and can be implemented using multithreaded optimization, as well as simultaneously on a number of instruments. In order to provide a thorough testing, a generation of ticks based on the available minute history, needs to be performed. This article provides a detailed description of the algorithm, by which the ticks are generated for the historical testing in the MetaTrader 5 client terminal.

We are pleased to announce that MetaTrader 5 now features Trading Signals, thus giving a powerful tool to investors and managers. While you are following the trades of a successful trader, the terminal will be automatically reproducing them in your account!

This article deals with seven types of moving averages (MA) and a trading strategy to work with them. We also test and compare various MAs at a single trading strategy and evaluate the efficiency of each moving average compared to others.

The article describes an example of Renko charting and its implementation in MQL5 as an indicator. Modifications of this indicator distinguish it from a classic chart. It can be constructed both in the indicator window and on the main chart. Moreover, there is the ZigZag indicator. You can find a few examples of the chart implementation.

The article deals with the concept of night trading, as well as trading strategies and their implementation in MQL5. We perform tests and make appropriate conclusions.

The largest store of ready-made applications for algo-trading now features 13,970 products. This includes 4,800 robots, 6,500 indicators, 2,400 utilities and other solutions. Almost half of the applications (6,000) are available for rent. Also, a quarter of the total number of products (3,800) can be downloaded for free.

The article dwells on the development of an application for selecting the best optimization passes using several possible options. The application is able to sort out the optimization results by a variety of factors. Optimization passes are always written to a database, therefore you can always select new robot parameters without re-optimization. Besides, you are able to see all optimization passes on a single chart, calculate parametric VaR ratios and build the graph of the normal distribution of passes and trading results of a certain ratio set. Besides, the graphs of some calculated ratios are built dynamically beginning with the optimization start (or from a selected date to another selected date).

It has been over a year since MQL5 started providing native support for OpenCL. However not many users have seen the true value of using parallel computing in their Expert Advisors, indicators or scripts. This article serves to help you install and set up OpenCL on your computer so that you can try to use this technology in the MetaTrader 5 trading terminal.

The article provides a brief overview of ten trend following strategies, as well as their testing results and comparative analysis. Based on the obtained results, we draw a general conclusion about the appropriateness, advantages and disadvantages of trend following trading.

Is it possible to develop an Expert Advisor able to optimize position open and close conditions at regular intervals according to the code commands? What happens if we implement a neural network (multilayer perceptron) in the form of a module to analyze history and provide strategy? We can make the EA optimize a neural network monthly (weekly, daily or hourly) and continue its work afterwards. Thus, we can develop a self-optimizing EA.

Subscribers often search for an appropriate signal by analyzing the total growth on the signal provider's account, which is not a bad idea. However, it is also important to analyze potential risks of a particular trading strategy. In this article we will show a simple and efficient way to evaluate a Trading Signal based on its performance values.

This article is the beginning of another series concerning development of graphical interfaces. Currently, there is not a single code library that would allow quick and easy creation of high quality graphical interfaces within MQL applications. By that, I mean the graphical interfaces that we are used to in familiar operating systems.

This article focuses on the object oriented approach to doing what we did in the article "Step-By-Step Guide to writing an Expert Advisor in MQL5 for Beginners" - creating a simple Expert Advisor. Most people think this is difficult, but I want to assure you that by the time you finish reading this article, you will be able to write your own Expert Advisor which is object oriented based.

In this article, I would like to give an example of what a trader's program can be like as well as what results can be achieved in 9 months, having started to learn MQL5 from scratch. This example will also show how multi-functional and informative such a program can be for a trader while taking minimum space on the price chart. And we will be able to see just how colorful, bright and intuitively clear to the user trade information panels can get. As well as many other features...

The article is based on 'The Mathematics of Money Management' by Ralph Vince. It provides the description of empirical and parametric methods used for finding the optimal size of a trading lot. Also the article features implementation of trading modules for the MQL5 Wizard based on these methods.

What should your program do, if graphic control panels have been removed or modified by someone else? In this article we will show you how not to have "ownerless" objects on the chart, and how not to lose control over them in cases of renaming or deleting programmatically created objects after the application is deleted.

In this article, we will have a look at Merrill patterns' model and try to evaluate their current relevance. To do this, we will develop a tool to test the patterns and apply the model to various data types such as Close, High and Low prices, as well as oscillators.

The MQL5 program usability is determined by both its rich functionality and an elaborate graphical user interface. Visual perception is sometimes more important than fast and stable operation. Here is a step-by-step guide to creating display panels on the basis of the Standard Library classes on your own.

The purpose of this article is to create a custom tool, which would enable users to receive and use the entire array of information about patterns discussed earlier. We will create a library of pattern related functions which you will be able to use in your own indicators, trading panels, Expert Advisors, etc.

The article provides a review of AutoElliottWaveMaker - the first development for Elliott Wave analysis in MetaTrader 5 that represents a combination of manual and automatic wave labeling. The wave analysis tool is written exclusively in MQL5 and does not include external dll libraries. This is another proof that sophisticated and interesting programs can (and should) be developed in MQL5.

For successful trading, we almost always need indicators that can separate the main price movement from noise fluctuations. In this article, we consider one of the most promising digital filters, the Kalman filter. The article provides the description of how to draw and use the filter.

The article introduces a structure for an Expert Advisor that trades multiple symbols and uses several trading systems simultaneously. If you already identified the optimal input parameters for all your EAs and got good backtesting results for each of them separately, ask yourself what results you would get if testing all EAs simultaneously, with all your strategies put together.

The article discusses how to write your own class of trading signals with the implementation of signals on the crossing of the price and the moving average, and how to include it to the generator of trading strategies of the MQL5 Wizard, as well as describes the structure and format of the description of the generated class for the MQL5 Wizard.