MQL4 and MQL5 Programming Articles
Study the MQL5 language for programming trading strategies in numerous published articles mostly written by you - the community members. The articles are grouped into categories to help you quicker find answers to any questions related to programming: Integration, Tester, Trading Strategies, etc.
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Developing a Calendar-Based News Event Breakout Expert Advisor in MQL5
Volatility tends to peak around high-impact news events, creating significant breakout opportunities. In this article, we will outline the implementation process of a calendar-based breakout strategy. We'll cover everything from creating a class to interpret and store calendar data, developing realistic backtests using this data, and finally, implementing execution code for live trading.
Integrating MQL5 with data processing packages (Part 5): Adaptive Learning and Flexibility
This part focuses on building a flexible, adaptive trading model trained on historical XAUUSD data, preparing it for ONNX export and potential integration into live trading systems.
Statistical Arbitrage Through Mean Reversion in Pairs Trading: Beating the Market by Math
This article describes the fundamentals of portfolio-level statistical arbitrage. Its goal is to facilitate the understanding of the principles of statistical arbitrage to readers without deep math knowledge and propose a starting point conceptual framework. The article includes a working Expert Advisor, some notes about its one-year backtest, and the respective backtest configuration settings (.ini file) for the reproduction of the experiment.
MQL5 Wizard Techniques you should know (Part 44): Average True Range (ATR) technical indicator
The ATR oscillator is a very popular indicator for acting as a volatility proxy, especially in the forex markets where volume data is scarce. We examine this, on a pattern basis as we have with prior indicators, and share strategies & test reports thanks to the MQL5 wizard library classes and assembly.
MQL5 Trading Tools (Part 1): Building an Interactive Visual Pending Orders Trade Assistant Tool
In this article, we introduce the development of an interactive Trade Assistant Tool in MQL5, designed to simplify placing pending orders in Forex trading. We outline the conceptual design, focusing on a user-friendly GUI for setting entry, stop-loss, and take-profit levels visually on the chart. Additionally, we detail the MQL5 implementation and backtesting process to ensure the tool’s reliability, setting the stage for advanced features in the preceding parts.
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.
Data Science and ML (Part 26): The Ultimate Battle in Time Series Forecasting — LSTM vs GRU Neural Networks
In the previous article, we discussed a simple RNN which despite its inability to understand long-term dependencies in the data, was able to make a profitable strategy. In this article, we are discussing both the Long-Short Term Memory(LSTM) and the Gated Recurrent Unit(GRU). These two were introduced to overcome the shortcomings of a simple RNN and to outsmart it.
Neural networks made easy (Part 44): Learning skills with dynamics in mind
In the previous article, we introduced the DIAYN method, which offers the algorithm for learning a variety of skills. The acquired skills can be used for various tasks. But such skills can be quite unpredictable, which can make them difficult to use. In this article, we will look at an algorithm for learning predictable skills.
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.
Getting Started with MQL5 Algo Forge
We are introducing MQL5 Algo Forge — a dedicated portal for algorithmic trading developers. It combines the power of Git with an intuitive interface for managing and organizing projects within the MQL5 ecosystem. Here, you can follow interesting authors, form teams, and collaborate on algorithmic trading projects.
Building a Custom Market Regime Detection System in MQL5 (Part 2): Expert Advisor
This article details building an adaptive Expert Advisor (MarketRegimeEA) using the regime detector from Part 1. It automatically switches trading strategies and risk parameters for trending, ranging, or volatile markets. Practical optimization, transition handling, and a multi-timeframe indicator are included.
Interview with Francisco García García (ATC 2012)
Today we interview Francisco García García (chuliweb) from Spain. A week ago his Expert Advisor reached the 8th place, but the unfortunate logic error in programming threw it from the first page of the Championship leaders. As confirmed by statistics, such an error is not uncommon for many participants.
Data Science and Machine Learning (Part 19): Supercharge Your AI models with AdaBoost
AdaBoost, a powerful boosting algorithm designed to elevate the performance of your AI models. AdaBoost, short for Adaptive Boosting, is a sophisticated ensemble learning technique that seamlessly integrates weak learners, enhancing their collective predictive strength.
Building a Custom Market Regime Detection System in MQL5 (Part 1): Indicator
This article details creating an MQL5 Market Regime Detection System using statistical methods like autocorrelation and volatility. It provides code for classes to classify trending, ranging, and volatile conditions and a custom indicator.
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.
Matrix Utils, Extending the Matrices and Vector Standard Library Functionality
Matrix serves as the foundation of machine learning algorithms and computers in general because of their ability to effectively handle large mathematical operations, The Standard library has everything one needs but let's see how we can extend it by introducing several functions in the utils file, that are not yet available in the library
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.
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.
Neural networks made easy (Part 35): Intrinsic Curiosity Module
We continue to study reinforcement learning algorithms. All the algorithms we have considered so far required the creation of a reward policy to enable the agent to evaluate each of its actions at each transition from one system state to another. However, this approach is rather artificial. In practice, there is some time lag between an action and a reward. In this article, we will get acquainted with a model training algorithm which can work with various time delays from the action to the reward.
Developing a multi-currency Expert Advisor (Part 2): Transition to virtual positions of trading strategies
Let's continue developing a multi-currency EA with several strategies working in parallel. Let's try to move all the work associated with opening market positions from the strategy level to the level of the EA managing the strategies. The strategies themselves will trade only virtually, without opening market positions.
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.
Neural networks made easy (Part 50): Soft Actor-Critic (model optimization)
In the previous article, we implemented the Soft Actor-Critic algorithm, but were unable to train a profitable model. Here we will optimize the previously created model to obtain the desired results.
Interview with Alexander Arashkevich (ATC 2011)
The Championship fervour has finally subsided and we can take a breath and start rethinking its results again. And we have another winner Alexander Arashkevich (AAA777) from Belarus, who has won a special prize from the major sponsor of Automated Trading Championship 2011 - a 3 day trip to one of the Formula One races of the 2012 season. We could not miss the opportunity to talk with him.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Neural networks made easy (Part 38): Self-Supervised Exploration via Disagreement
One of the key problems within reinforcement learning is environmental exploration. Previously, we have already seen the research method based on Intrinsic Curiosity. Today I propose to look at another algorithm: Exploration via Disagreement.
ATC Champions League: Interview with Boris Odintsov (ATC 2011)
Interview with Boris Odintsov (bobsley) is the last one within the ATC Champions League project. Boris won the Automated Trading Championship 2010 - the first Championship held for the Expert Advisors in the new MQL5 language. Having appeared in the top ten already in the first week of the ATC 2010, his EA brought it to the finish and earned $77,000. This year, Boris participates in the competition with the same Expert Advisor with modified settings. Perhaps the robot would still be able to repeat its success.
Benefiting from Forex market seasonality
We are all familiar with the concept of seasonality, for example, we are all accustomed to rising prices for fresh vegetables in winter or rising fuel prices during severe frosts, but few people know that similar patterns exist in the Forex market.
Data Science and ML (Part 41): Forex and Stock Markets Pattern Detection using YOLOv8
Detecting patterns in financial markets is challenging because it involves seeing what's on the chart, something that's difficult to undertake in MQL5 due to image limitations. In this article, we are going to discuss a decent model made in Python that helps us detect patterns present on the chart with minimal effort.
Price Action Analysis Toolkit Development (Part 30): Commodity Channel Index (CCI), Zero Line EA
Automating price action analysis is the way forward. In this article, we utilize the Dual CCI indicator, the Zero Line Crossover strategy, EMA, and price action to develop a tool that generates trade signals and sets stop-loss (SL) and take-profit (TP) levels using ATR. Please read this article to learn how we approach the development of the CCI Zero Line EA.
MQL5 Wizard Techniques you should know (Part 73): Using Patterns of Ichimoku and the ADX-Wilder
The Ichimoku-Kinko-Hyo Indicator and the ADX-Wilder oscillator are a pairing that could be used in complimentarily within an MQL5 Expert Advisor. The Ichimoku is multi-faceted, however for this article, we are relying on it primarily for its ability to define support and resistance levels. Meanwhile, we also use the ADX to define our trend. As usual, we use the MQL5 wizard to build and test any potential these two may possess.
Moving to MQL5 Algo Forge (Part 4): Working with Versions and Releases
We'll continue developing the Simple Candles and Adwizard projects, while also describing the finer aspects of using the MQL5 Algo Forge version control system and repository.
Expert Advisors Based on Popular Trading Systems and Alchemy of Trading Robot Optimization (Part III)
In this article the author continues to analyze implementation algorithms of simplest trading systems and introduces backtesting automation. The article will be useful for beginning traders and EA writers.
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.
Neural networks made easy (Part 43): Mastering skills without the reward function
The problem of reinforcement learning lies in the need to define a reward function. It can be complex or difficult to formalize. To address this problem, activity-based and environment-based approaches are being explored to learn skills without an explicit reward function.
Interview with Ge Senlin (ATC 2011)
The Expert Advisor by Ge Senlin (yyy999) from China got featured in the top ten of the Automated Trading Championship 2011 in late October and hasn't left it since then. Not often participants from the PRC show good results in the Championship - Forex trading is not allowed in this country. After the poor results in the previous year ATC, Senlin has prepared a new multicurrency Expert Advisor that never closes loss positions and uses position increase instead. Let's see whether this EA will be able to rise even higher with such a risky strategy.
Introduction to MQL5 (Part 13): A Beginner's Guide to Building Custom Indicators (II)
This article guides you through building a custom Heikin Ashi indicator from scratch and demonstrates how to integrate custom indicators into an EA. It covers indicator calculations, trade execution logic, and risk management techniques to enhance automated trading strategies.
Non-linear regression models on the stock exchange
Non-linear regression models on the stock exchange: Is it possible to predict financial markets? Let's consider creating a model for forecasting prices for EURUSD, and make two robots based on it - in Python and MQL5.