MetaTrader Global » programming language

MQL4 for Dummies

MetaTrader Global — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 22:25:13 +0000

Development of applications for the MetaTrader 4 Client Terminal requires the knowledge of MQL4. This programming language MetaQuotes Language 4 is a fourth-generation language that has also been developed by MetaQuotes Software Corp. from their own many years experience. MQL4 is the first programming language to consider all niceties of trading on financial markets.

This present textbook will help you create your own Expert Advisors, scripts and indicators and incarnate in them your ideas – your trading algorithms. The textbook is intended for a large number of readers without experience in programming that want to learn how to develop automated trading applications for MetaTrader 4 Client Terminal. The textbook is designed in such a method that to make learning MQL4 as convenient and consequent as possible.

Download the MQL4 for Dummies textbook

Changing the External Parameters of MQL4 Programs without Restarting

MetaTrader Global — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:30:18 +0000

Anybody who has ever launched an EA or an indicator for execution, faced the possibility to preliminarily set up external parameters that often underlay the success of the program. There is a possibility to change parameters during the program operation. But how can that be done without initialization? In some cases, this may affect managing the previously opened orders. In this article, we try to solve this problem as flexibly as possible.

Problem Statement

We will consider this problem for Expert Advisors rather than for indicators. For indicators, this problem is not so acute, although the methods are universal and you can apply them to any programs.

In the classical EA writing, the context must be created at every tick. There can be two kinds of contexts – the context of status and trading context. The context of status contains the current states of indicators and other elements underlying the decision making on opening/closing/modifying orders. Trading context contains the information about open orders, their statuses and quantities. After trading context has been analyzed, traders make decisions about what to do with their orders. Contexts are divided by types conditionally. This classification has been introduced for convenience.

To read the full article, please visit: http://articles.mql4.com/724

MQL4 Tutorial – Introductory Course

MetaTrader Global — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:18:30 +0000

Hundreds of thousands of traders worldwide have already judged the MetaTrader 4 Client Terminal on its merits. The use of its embedded programming language, MQL4, lifts traders to a new level of trading – to automated trading. Now, a trader can implement his or her ideas as an application program – write a custom indicator, a script to perform single operations, or create an Expert Advisor – an automated trading system (trading robot).

Download the MQL4 for Dummies textbook

Development of applications for MetaTrader 4 Client Terminal requires the knowledge of MQL4. Programming language MetaQuotes Language 4 is a fourth-generation language that has also been developed by MetaQuotes Software Corp. from their own many years experience. MQL4 is the first programming language to consider all niceties of trading on financial markets.

Download the MQL4 for Dummies textbook

What Is Automated Trading

MetaTrader Global — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 02:12:03 +0000

Modern technologies allow us not only to trade in financial markets using personal computers, but we can fully automate a trading system now. Using a computer program you can relieve yourself from the routine of analyzing financial markets and performing trades.

Our client terminal has all functions that allow you to develop, test and use your trading system. The development environment named MQL4 is integrated into the terminal. MQL4 consists of MetaEditor, Strategy Tester and Compiler.

Using these tools, you can develop:

Expert Advisors – programs that allow you to automate fully both analyzing and trading processes. Expert Advisors can relieve you from the routine of analyzing financial markets and performing trades;
Custom Indicators – applications similar to the embedded technical indicators that will help you to analyze markets;
Scripts – programs that automate single frequently repeated operations. For example, using a script you can close all positions by a single keystroke.

It is rather easy to develop trading systems using the development environment of MQL4. In MetaEditor, you will find detailed help topics and description of the programming language. Having developed your own trading system, you will be able to test it on historical data in the Strategy Tester. This can allow you to evaluate your trading system’s profitability, risk factor, and stability in a quick and easy way.

Naturally, it may be difficult to start developing one’s own trading system from scratch. The detailed description of the programming language is often insufficient for this. To make your initial steps to creating a trading system, you can visit the MQL4 Community website – www.mql4.com. This site represents a place where developers of trading systems meet, develop strategies, publish their articles and share their codes. You will find at the website of MQL4.Community:

Detailed description of the MQL4 programming language – docs.mql4.com
If you have any questions about any elements of the MQL4, visit this section. You will surely find the detailed description of the language construction you are interested in.
A huge database of ready-made Expert Advisors, technical indicators and scripts – codebase.mql4.com
Many developers publish their codes for free. The Code Base counts hundreds of useful Expert Advisors, indicators and scripts. You will find something interesting there for sure.
Articles about various problems of programming trading systems – articles.mql4.com
Developing a trading system, you may face one or another problem. Try to find a ready solution in the Articles section. Another developer might have experienced your problem before and has already published a solution for it. You can publish your own articles devoted to solving various problems. This will get you fame and money – authors are paid for their materials published.
Forum of developers of trading systems – forum.mql4.com
If you can?t find a solution for your problem in any sections described above, you can ask your question in the forum. Thousands of people participate in discussions, they will surely help you. Moreover, you can use the forum for just mixing with Community members or sharing your successes in the sphere of development of Expert Advisors.

As any other new phenomenon, automated trading has its critics and skeptics. However, automated trading is quite a serious technology. Visit the website of the Automated Trading Championship (championship.mql4.com) and you will see it yourself. This is an annual championship with total prize pool of USD$80,000. Hundreds of developers from all over the world participate in it. Their Expert Advisors operate fully independently within three months. Three Winners will share the total prize amount at the end of the contest. The Championship will showcase Expert Advisors and automated trading.

On the Championship website, you will find much useful practical information and see how different trading systems work under identical conditions. In the News section, various materials devoted to development and use of Expert Advisors are published on a daily basis. If you feel something to be unclear, you may ask any Participants about this. Moreover, you can participate in this Championship yourself and get one of three money prizes and the title of The Best Developer of Expert Advisors!