Overview of built-in indicators

The terminal provides a large set of popular indicators, which are also available through the API. So, you don't need to implement their algorithms in MQL5. Such indicators are created using built-in functions similar to iCustom. For example, we previously created our own versions of the WPR and EMA Triple Moving Average for educational purposes. However, the corresponding indicators can be used right out of the box via the iWPR and iTEMA functions. All the available indicators are listed in the table below.

All built-in indicators take a string with a working symbol and a timeframe as the first two parameters, and also return an integer which is the indicator descriptor. In general, the prototype of all functions looks like this:

int iFunction(const string symbol, ENUM_TIMEFRAMES timeframe, ...)

Instead of an ellipsis, specific parameters of a particular indicator follow. Their number and types differ. Some indicators do not have parameters.

For example, WPR has one parameter, as in our homemade version — a period: int iWPR(const string symbol, ENUM_TIMEFRAMES timeframe, int period). And the built-in fractal indicator, unlike our version, does not have special parameters: int iFractals(const string symbol, ENUM_TIMEFRAMES period). In this case, the order of fractals is hard coded and is equal to 2, that is, before the extremum (top or bottom) and after it, there must be at least two bars with less pronounced high and low prices, respectively.

It is allowed to set the value NULL instead of a symbol. NULL means the working symbol of the current chart, and the value 0 in the timeframe parameter corresponds to the current chart timeframe, since it is also the PERIOD_CURRENT value in the ENUM_TIMEFRAMES enumeration (see section Symbols and timeframes).

You should also keep in mind that different types of indicators have different numbers of buffers. For example, a moving average or WPR has only one buffer, while fractals have two. The number of buffers is also noted in the table in a separate column.

Function	Name of the indicator	Options	Buffers
iAC	Accelerator Oscillator	–	1*
iAD	Accumulation / Distribution	ENUM_APPLIED_VOLUME volume	1*
iADX	Average Directional Index	int period	3*
iADXWilder	Average Directional Index by Welles Wilder	int period	3*
iAlligator	Alligator	int jawPeriod, int jawShift, int teethPeriod,int teethShift, int lipsPeriod, int lipsShift, ENUM_MA_METHOD method, ENUM_APPLIED_PRICE price	3
iAMA	Adaptive Moving Average	int period, int fast, int slow, int shift, ENUM_APPLIED_PRICE price	1
iAO	Awesome Oscillator	–	1*
iATR	Average True Range	int period	1*
iBands	Bollinger Bands	int period, int shift, double deviation, ENUM_APPLIED_PRICE price	3
iBearsPower	Bears Power	int period	1*
iBullsPower	Bulls Power	int period	1*
iBWMFI	Market Facilitation Index by Bill Williams	ENUM_APPLIED_VOLUME volume	1*
iCCI	Commodity Channel Index	int period, ENUM_APPLIED_PRICE price	1*
iChaikin	Chaikin Oscillator	int fast, int slow, ENUM_MA_METHOD method, ENUM_APPLIED_VOLUME volume	1*
iDEMA	Double Exponential Moving Average	int period, int shift, ENUM_APPLIED_PRICE price	1
iDeMarker	DeMarker	int period	1*
iEnvelopes	Envelopes	int period, int shift, ENUM_MA_METHOD method, ENUM_APPLIED_PRICE price, double deviation	2
iForce	Force Index	int period, ENUM_MA_METHOD method, ENUM_APPLIED_VOLUME volume	1*
iFractals	Fractals	–	2
iFrAMA	Fractal Adaptive Moving Average	int period, int shift, ENUM_APPLIED_PRICE price	1
iGator	Gator Oscillator	int jawPeriod, int jawShift, int teethPeriod, int teethShift, int lipsPeriod, int lipsShift, ENUM_MA_METHOD method, ENUM_APPLIED_PRICE price	4*
iIchimoku	Ichimoku Kinko Hyo	int tenkan, int kijun, int senkou	5
iMomentum	Momentum	int period, ENUM_APPLIED_PRICE price	1*
iMFI	Money Flow Index	int period, ENUM_APPLIED_VOLUME volume	1*
iMA	Moving Average	int period, int shift, ENUM_MA_METHOD method, ENUM_APPLIED_PRICE price	1
iMACD	Moving Averages Convergence-Divergence	int fast, int slow, int signal, ENUM_APPLIED_PRICE price	2*
iOBV	On Balance Volume	ENUM_APPLIED_VOLUME volume	1*
iOsMA	Moving Average of Oscillator (MACD histogram)	int fast, int slow, int signal, ENUM_APPLIED_PRICE price	1*
iRSI	Relative Strength Index	int period, ENUM_APPLIED_PRICE price	1*
iRVI	Relative Vigor Index	int period	1*
iSAR	Parabolic Stop And Reverse System	double step, double maximum	1
iStdDev	Standard Deviation	int period, int shift, ENUM_MA_METHOD method, ENUM_APPLIED_PRICE price	1*
iStochastic	Stochastic Oscillator	int Kperiod, int Dperiod, int slowing, ENUM_MA_METHOD method, ENUM_APPLIED_PRICE price	2*
iTEMA	Triple Exponential Moving Average	int period, int shift, ENUM_APPLIED_PRICE price	1
iTriX	Triple Exponential Moving Averages Oscillator	int period, ENUM_APPLIED_PRICE price	1*
iVIDyA	Variable Index Dynamic Average	int momentum, int smooth, int shift, ENUM_APPLIED_PRICE price	1
iVolumes	Volumes	ENUM_APPLIED_VOLUME volume	1*
iWPR	Williams Percent Range	int period	1*

In the right column indicators with their own window are indicated with an asterisk * (they are displayed under the main chart).

The most commonly used parameters are those that define indicator periods (period, fast, slow and other variations), as well as line shift: when it is positive, the plots are shifted to the right, when it is negative they are shifted to the left by a given number of bars.

Many parameters have application enumeration types: ENUM_APPLIED_PRICE, ENUM_APPLIED_VOLUME, ENUM_MA_METHOD. We already got acquainted with ENUM_APPLIED_PRICE in the section Enumerations. All available types are presented below in tables with descriptions.

Identifier	Description	Value
PRICE_CLOSE	Bar closing price	1
PRICE_OPEN	Bar opening price	2
PRICE_HIGH	Bar high price	3
PRICE_LOW	Bar low price	4
PRICE_MEDIAN	Median price, (high+low)/2	5
PRICE_TYPICAL	Typical price, (high+low+close)/3	6
PRICE_WEIGHTED	Weighted average price, (high+low+close+close)/4	7

Indicators that work with volumes can operate with tick volumes (in fact, this is a tick counter) or real volumes (they are usually available only for exchange instruments). Both types are summarized in the ENUM_APPLIED_VOLUME enum.

Identifier	Description	Value
VOLUME_TICK	Tick volume	0
VOLUME_REAL	Trading volume	1

Many technical indicators smooth (or average) timeseries. The terminal supports the four most common smoothing methods, which are specified in MQL5 using the elements of the ENUM_MA_METHOD enumeration.

Identifier	Description	Value
MODE_SMA	Simple averaging	0
MODE_EMA	Exponential averaging	1
MODE_SMMA	Smoothed averaging	2
MODE_LWMA	Linearly weighted averaging	3

For the Stochastic indicator, an example of which we will consider in the next section, there are two calculation options: by Close prices or by High/Low prices. These values are provided in the special enumeration ENUM_STO_PRICE.

Identifier	Description	Value
STO_LOWHIGH	Calculation by Low/High prices	0
STO_CLOSECLOSE	Calculation by Close/Close prices	1

The purpose and numbering of buffers for those indicators that have more than one buffer is shown in the following table.

Indicators	Constants	Descriptions	Value
ADX, ADXW
	MAIN_LINE	Main line	0
	PLUSDI_LINE	Line +DI	1
	MINUSDI_LINE	Line -DI	2
iAlligator
	GATORJAW_LINE	Jaw line	0
	GATORTEETH_LINE	Teeth line	1
	GATORLIPS_LINE	Lip line	2
iBands
	BASE_LINE	Main line	0
	UPPER_BAND	Upper band	1
	LOWER_BAND	Lower band	2
iEnvelopes, iFractals
	UPPER_LINE	Upper line	0
	LOWER_LINE	Lower line	1
iGator
	UPPER_HISTOGRAM	Upper histogram	0
	LOWER_HISTOGRAM	Lower histogram	2
iIchimoku
	TENKANSEN_LINE	Tenkan-sen line	0
	KIJUNSEN_LINE	Kijun-sen line	1
	SENKOUSPANA_LINE	Senkou Span A Line	2
	SENKOUSPANB_LINE	Senkou Span B line	3
	CHIKOUSPAN_LINE	Chikou span line	4
iMACD, iRVI, iStochastic
	MAIN_LINE	Main line	0
	SIGNAL_LINE	Signal line	1

Formulas for calculating all indicators are given in MetaTrader 5 documentation.

Full technical information on calling indicator functions, including examples of source codes, can be found in MQL5 documentation. We will consider some examples in this book later.

Support for multiple symbols and timeframes

Using built-in indicators