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.
Follow our new publications and discuss them on the Forum!
Creating an assistant in manual trading
The number of trading robots used on the currency markets has significantly increased recently. They employ various concepts and strategies, however, none of them has yet succeeded to create a win-win...
Universal Expert Advisor: A Custom Trailing Stop (Part 6)
The sixth part of the article about the universal Expert Advisor describes the use of the trailing stop feature. The article will guide you through how to create a custom trailing stop module using...
Graphical Interfaces VI: the Slider and the Dual Slider Controls (Chapter 2)
In the previous article, we have enriched our library with four controls frequently used in graphical interfaces: checkbox, edit, edit with checkbox and check combobox. The second chapter of the sixth...
Self-optimization of EA: Evolutionary and genetic algorithms
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...
Graphical Interfaces VI: the Checkbox Control, the Edit Control and their Mixed Types (Chapter 1)
This article is the beginning of the sixth part of the series dedicated to the development of the library for creating graphical interfaces in the MetaTrader terminals. In the first chapter, we are...
Universal Expert Advisor: Pending Orders and Hedging Support (Part 5)
This article provides further description of the CStrategy trading engine. By popular demand of users, we have added pending order support functions to the trading engine. Also, the latest version of...
Graphical Interfaces V: The Combobox Control (Chapter 3)
In the first two chapters of the fifth part of the series, we developed classes for creating a scrollbar and a view list. In this chapter, we will speak about creating a class for the combobox control...
Self-organizing feature maps (Kohonen maps) - revisiting the subject
This article describes techniques of operating with Kohonen maps. The subject will be of interest to both market researchers with basic level of programing in MQL4 and MQL5 and experienced programmers...
Universal Expert Advisor: Trading in a Group and Managing a Portfolio of Strategies (Part 4)
In the last part of the series of articles about the CStrategy trading engine, we will consider simultaneous operation of multiple trading algorithms, will learn to load strategies from XML files, and...
Graphical Interfaces V: The List View Element (Chapter 2)
In the previous chapter, we wrote classes for creating vertical and horizontal scrollbars. In this chapter, we will implement them. We will write a class for creating the list view element, a compound...
Graphical Interfaces V: The Vertical and Horizontal Scrollbar (Chapter 1)
We are still discussing the development of the library for creating graphical interfaces in the MetaTrader environment. In the first article of the fifth part of the series, we will write classes for...
Calculator of signals
The calculator of signals operates directly from the MetaTrader 5 terminal, which is a serious advantage, since the terminal provides a preliminary selection and sorts out signals. This way, users can...
Graphical Interfaces IV: the Multi-Window Mode and System of Priorities (Chapter 2)
In this chapter, we will extend the library implementation to the possibility of creating multi-window interfaces for the MQL applications. We will also develop a system of priorities for left mouse...
Graphical Interfaces IV: Informational Interface Elements (Chapter 1)
At the current stage of development, the library for creating graphical interfaces contains a form and several controls that can be attached to it. It was mentioned before that one of the future...
MQL5 Cookbook - Programming sliding channels
This article presents a method of programming the equidistant channel system. Certain details of building such channels are being considered here. Channel typification is provided, and a universal...
Graphical Interfaces III: Groups of Simple and Multi-Functional Buttons (Chapter 2)
The first chapter of the series was about simple and multi-functional buttons. The second article will be dedicated to groups of interconnected buttons that will allow the creation of elements in an...
Graphical Interfaces III: Simple and Multi-Functional Buttons (Chapter 1)
Let us consider the button control. We will discuss examples of several classes for creating a simple button, buttons with extended functionality (icon button and split button) and interconnected...
Graphical Interfaces II: The Main Menu Element (Chapter 4)
This is the final chapter of the second part of the series about graphical interfaces. Here, we are going to consider the creation of the main menu. The development of this control and setting up...
Universal Expert Advisor: Custom Strategies and Auxiliary Trade Classes (Part 3)
In this article, we will continue analyzing the algorithms of the CStrategy trading engine. The third part of the series contains the detailed analysis of examples of how to develop specific trading...
Graphical Interfaces II: Setting Up the Event Handlers of the Library (Chapter 3)
The previous articles contain the implementation of the classes for creating constituent parts of the main menu. Now, it is time to take a close look at the event handlers in the principle base...
How to create an indicator of non-standard charts for MetaTrader Market
Through offline charts, programming in MQL4, and reasonable willingness, you can get a variety of chart types: "Point & Figure", "Renko", "Kagi", "Range bars", equivolume charts, etc. In this article,...
Evaluating the effectiveness of trading systems by analyzing their components
This article explores the effectiveness of complex trading systems by analyzing the efficiency of its individual components. Any analysis, whether it is graphic, based on indicators, or any other, is...
Applying fuzzy logic in trading by means of MQL4
The article deals with examples of applying fuzzy set theory in trading by means of MQL4. The use of FuzzyNet library for MQL4 in the development of an indicator and an Expert Advisor is described as...
Deep neural network with Stacked RBM. Self-training, self-control
This article is a continuation of previous articles on deep neural network and predictor selection. Here we will cover features of a neural network initiated by Stacked RBM, and its implementation in...
Enhancing the StrategyTester to Optimize Indicators Solely on the Example of Flat and Trend Markets
It is essential to detect whether a market is flat or not for many strategies. Using the well known ADX we demonstrate how we can use the Strategy Tester not only to optimize this indicator for our...
Thomas DeMark's contribution to technical analysis
The article details TD points and TD lines discovered by Thomas DeMark. Their practical implementation is revealed. In addition to that, a process of writing three indicators and two Expert Advisors...
Fuzzy logic to create manual trading strategies
This article suggests the ways of improving manual trading strategy by applying fuzzy set theory. As an example we have provided a step-by-step description of the strategy search and the selection of...
Price Action. Automating the Engulfing Pattern Trading Strategy
This article describes a process of creating an Expert Advisor for MetaTrader 4 based on the Engulfing pattern, as well as the pattern recognition principle, rules of setting pending orders and stop...
How to Develop a Profitable Trading Strategy
This article provides an answer to the question: "Is it possible to formulate an automated trading strategy based on history data with neural networks?".
Price Action. Automating the Inside Bar Trading Strategy
The article describes the development of a MetaTrader 4 Expert Advisor based on the Inside Bar strategy, including Inside Bar detection principles, as well as pending and stop order setting rules....
Managing the MetaTrader Terminal via DLL
The article deals with managing MetaTrader user interface elements via an auxiliary DLL library using the example of changing push notification delivery settings. The library source code and the...
Statistical Verification of the Labouchere Money Management System
In this article, we test the statistical properties of the Labouchere money management system. It is considered to be a less aggressive kind of Martingale, since bets are not doubled, but are raised...
Identifying Trade Setups by Support, Resistance and Price Action
This article shows how price action and the monitoring of support and resistance levels can be used for well-timed market entry. It discusses a trading system that effectively combines the two for the...
Trading Ideas Based on Prices' Direction and Movement Speed
The article provides a review of an idea based on the analysis of prices' movement direction and their speed. We have performed its formalization in the MQL4 language presented as an expert advisor to...
How we developed the MetaTrader Signals service and Social Trading
We continue to enhance the Signals service, improve the mechanisms, add new functions and fix flaws. The MetaTrader Signals Service of 2012 and the current MetaTrader Signals Service are like two...
Why Is It Important to Update MetaTrader 4 to the Latest Build by August 1?
From August 1, 2014, MetaTrader 4 desktop terminals older than build 600 will no longer be supported. However, many traders still work with outdated versions and are unaware of the updated platform's...
Common Errors in MQL4 Programs and How to Avoid Them
To avoid critical completion of programs, the previous version compiler handled many errors in the runtime environment. For example, division by zero or array out of range are critical errors and...
Upgrade to MetaTrader 4 Build 600 and Higher
The new version of the MetaTrader 4 terminal features the updated structure of user data storage. In earlier versions all programs, templates, profiles etc. were stored directly in terminal...
Data Structure in MetaTrader 4 Build 600 and Higher
MetaTarder 4 build 600 features the new structure and location of the client terminal files. Now, MQL4 applications are placed in separate directories according to the program type (Expert Advisors,...
Offline Charts in the New MQL4
Updated MQL4 has the new format for storing historical data and provides the appropriate MqlRates structure for convenient storage of Time, Open, Low, High, Close and Volume values. For many years,...