I also wanted to be able to display the current spread, so it is easily viewable from the chart window.

I have made the following varibles modifible when attaching the indicator to the chart:
fontColor – This is the colour of the price display if bidAsk=”False”.
spreadColor- This is the colour of the spread display.
fontSize – This is the size of the bid and spread prices.
corner- This controls which corner you want your price and spread detail displayed in.
bidAskColor- This is set to true by default, if you wish to display solid colour only set to false.

Below is a screenshot of SpreadPriceInd.mq4 in action:

The source code for the indicator is shown below:

//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
//|                                               SpreadPriceInd.mq4 |
//|                                  Copyright © 2010, TraineeTrader |
//|                                     http://www.traineetrader.com |
//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
#property copyright "Copyright © 2010, TraineeTrader"
#property link      "http://www.traineetrader.com"

#property indicator_chart_window
   // usr mod vars
   extern color     fontColor = Yellow;
   extern color     spreadColor = Blue;
   extern int       fontSize=24;
   extern string    font="Arial";
   extern int       corner=1;
   extern int       diffDig = 10;
   extern bool      bidAskColor = True;

   double           prevPrice; // easier if global

int init()
  {
   return(0);
  }

int deinit()
  {
   //kill chart objects
   ObjectDelete("nonFracPrice");
   ObjectDelete("fracPrice");
   ObjectDelete("marketSpread");
   return(0);
  }

int start()
  {
   int xOffset = fontSize - 8; // for fractional pip offset
   string priceBase; 

   if (bidAskColor == True)
   // shown movements in price by color change
   {
    if (Bid > prevPrice){ fontColor = LawnGreen; }
    else{ fontColor = Red; }
    prevPrice = Bid;
   }

   // Usually 5 or 3
   priceBase = DoubleToStr(Bid, Digits);
   int SLength = StringLen(priceBase);

   // Create chart objects
   ObjectCreate("nonFracPrice", OBJ_LABEL, 0, 0, 0);
   ObjectSetText("nonFracPrice", StringSubstr(priceBase, 0, SLength-1),
fontSize, font, fontColor);
   ObjectSet("nonFracPrice", OBJPROP_CORNER, corner);
   ObjectSet("nonFracPrice", OBJPROP_XDISTANCE, xOffset);
   ObjectSet("nonFracPrice", OBJPROP_YDISTANCE, 1);

   ObjectCreate("fracPrice", OBJ_LABEL, 0, 0, 0);
   ObjectSetText("fracPrice", StringSubstr(priceBase, SLength-1, 1),
 fontSize-diffDig, font, fontColor);
   ObjectSet("fracPrice", OBJPROP_CORNER, corner);
   ObjectSet("fracPrice", OBJPROP_XDISTANCE, 1);
   ObjectSet("fracPrice", OBJPROP_YDISTANCE, 1);

   ObjectCreate("marketSpread", OBJ_LABEL, 0, 0, 0);
   ObjectSetText("marketSpread", DoubleToStr(MarketInfo(Symbol(),
MODE_SPREAD)/10,2),fontSize, font, spreadColor);
   ObjectSet("marketSpread", OBJPROP_CORNER, corner);
   ObjectSet("marketSpread", OBJPROP_XDISTANCE, 1);
   ObjectSet("marketSpread", OBJPROP_YDISTANCE, 40);
   return(0);
  }

Display Info MT4 Indicator

This is an excellent indicator that can be configured and modified as desired. Hanover has done an excellent job as he does with all his indicators he has released. This indicator will display the following info, for all currency pairs offered by your broker:

• Symbol (A=AUD, C=CAD, E=EUR, F=CHF, G=GBP, J=JPY, N=NZD, U=USD)
• Current bid price
• Daily range to date:ave daily range (DR as a % of ADR) (note: Sunday candles not included in ADR)
• Spread (spread as a % of ADR)
• Dollars per pip (per full lot traded)
• Swap paid(+) or charged(-) by broker on long and short positions

The screenshot below shows the Display Info indicator in action.

Download Display Info MT4 Indicator

Plot News MT4 Indicator

The Plot News Indicator is one of the most useful indicators I have come across.  This indicator can be configured to alert you of up coming news events, it also allows you to see the market impact of every news announcement. Once again this indicator is written by hanover. The screenshot below shows the Plot News indicator in action.

Download Plot News MT4 Indicator

Auto-Session v1.5 MT4 Indicator

This indicator graphically displays the overlap between different trading sessions. The indicator also displays the pip range from the given session. The screenshot below shows the Auto-Session v1.5 indicator in action.

Download Auto-Session v1.5 MT4 Indicator

TimeZone Indicator

The TimeZone indicator displays time zones of the different currencies in a separate window. The screenshot below shows the Auto-Session v1.5 indicator in action.

Download TimeZone MT4 Indicator 

p4Clock MT4 Indicator

The p4clock indicator has been around for quite sometime and displays different time zones in your preferred corners. It also displays your brokers time and how long is left in the current bar. The screenshot below shows the p4Clock indicator in action.

Download p4Clock MT4 Indicator 

Forex Market Hours MT4 Indicator

Forex Market Hours Indicator graphically displays the market overlap and the time in GMT that markets open. The screenshot below shows the Forex Market Hours indicator in action.

Download Market Hours MT4 Indicator

Sample Pages

Download the eBook now FREE, just enter your details below and we will send you a FREE copy. A full table of contents is shown below.

Table Of Contents

1. What’s All This Talk about Money?

1.1. Introduction to Money

1.2. Characteristics of Money

1.3. Vodka as Money

1.4. Paying the Man

2. The Forex Market, Exchange Rate & Bid Ask Spreads

2.1. Introduction to the Forex Market

2.2. Over the Counter Markets

2.3. Example: Travel & the Exchange Rate

2.4. Exchange Rates: Indirect Quotes

2.5. Exchange Rates: Direct Quote

2.6. Base Currency or Commodity Currency

2.7. Exchange Rates: The Bid Price

2.8. Exchange Rates: The Ask Price

2.9. Why is the Ask price always more than the Bid price?

3. Pips, lots and a little bit of math

3.1. Introduction

3.2 What is a Pip?

3.3. How Much is a Pip worth?

3.4. What is a Lot?

3.4. Pip Calculation: Indirect Currency

3.5. Pip Calculation: Direct Currency

3.5. Pip Calculation Summary

4. Understanding the lingo

4.1. Introduction & Key Forex Terms

4.2. The Spot Market

4.3. The Long and Short of it

4.4. A Closer Look at Currency Symbols

4.5. Liquidity

5. The Big Three in Forex: Leverage, Margin & Equity

5.1. Introduction

5.2. Leverage

5.3. Margin

5.4. Equity

5.5. Final Word on Margin

6. The Best Trading Times in the 24 Hour Market 22

6.1. Introduction

6.2. When Can I Trade Forex?

6.3. Best Times to Trade Forex

6.4. Simple Time Zone Conversion

7. Putting it Into Practice

7.1. Setting up a Demo Account

7.2. MetaTrader Client Terminal

7.3. Creating a Chart in MetaTrader

7.4. Chart Time Frames

7.5. Charts Toolbar

7.6. Line Drawing Tools

7.7. Placing an Order

7.8. Modifying or Closing an Order

7.9. Moving Forward

Writing Pseudo Code in MeataEditor

For simplicity reasons we will write our trend following system pseudo code in MetaEditor. Open MetaEditor from “[drive]:/Program Files/MetaTrader4/” folder. Alternatively you can open MetaTrader and press F4 or Tools –> Meta Quotes Language Editor.

Step One

Create a New File of type Expert Advisor. File –> New or CTRL +N.

Step Two

Click Next an enter appropriate details for the system. Call your Expert Advisor Turtle System.

Finally, you should see a code window similar to the one below:

We will be following the pseudo code convention outlined in the pseudo standard presented in the previous article. We will enter the pseudo code as comments in MetaEditor, for simplicity we will use the quote modifier. Below is sample pseudo code I have written to implement most parts of the Turtle Trading system. This is the first iteration and there are errors present in the code. Can you find the errors in the pseudo code?

// Calculate True Range
FUNCTION trueRange WITH todaysHigh AND todaysLow AND pDayClose
    RETURN CALL findMax((todaysHigh - todaysLow), abs(todaysHigh - pDayClose), abs(pDayClose - todaysLow))
END FUNCTION       

// Calculate N
FUNCTION calcN WITH prevN and trueRange
    RETURN (19 * prevN + trueRange) / 20
END FUNCTION

// Detrmine the dollar value of a pip
// 1 lot = 100,000 base currency
// PPV = Per Pip Value
FUNCTION PPV WITH lotSize, currentPrice, accCurrency, pipVal
    inCurr = pipVal / currentPrice
    RETURN accCurrency * inCurr * (lotSize *100000)
END FUNCTION

// Calculate the dollar volatility of a currency pair
FUNCTION dollarVol WITH n AND ppv
    RETURN n * ppv
END FUNCTION

// Calculate unit value for given account
FUNCTION calcUnit WITH dollarVol, accBalance
    return (0.01 * accBalance) / dollarVol
END FUNCTION

// Misc rules
// max 12 units in one direction
// if account drops 10% reduce available equity by 20%

////////////////////// Entries ///////////////////
// System One A shorter term 20 period breakout
// buy or sell 20 period breakout
// buy or sell 1 unit
// if previous breakout winner skip trade
// losing if previous breakout 2N loss
// stops set at 2n below entry

IF currentPrice > 20periodHigh AND prevLongTradeLoser THEN
    CALL buyCurr
ELSE IF currentPrice < 20periodLow AND prevShortTradeLoser THEN
    CALL sellCurr
END

// System Two 55 period breakout entry
IF currentPrice > 55periodHigh AND THEN
    CALL buyCurr
ELSE IF currentPrice < 55periodLow THEN
    CALL sellCurr
END

// Adding units
// Additional units added stops raised by half n
// add a unit every 1n move
IF tradeLong AND currentPrice > (lngEntPrice + n) THEN
    CALL buyCurr
    CALL adjStop
ELSE IF tradeShort AND currentPrice < (lngEntPrice - n) THEN
    CALL sellCurr
    CALL adjStop
END

///////////////////Exits ///////////////////////
// System one
// 10 period low for long posn
// 10 period high for short posn 

IF s1tradeLong AND currentPrice < 10periodLow THEN
    CALL sellCurr
ELSE IF s1tradeShort AND currentPrice > 10periodHigh THEN
    CALL buyCurr
END

// System two exit
// 20 period low for long posn
// 20 period high for short posn

IF s2tradeLong AND currentPrice < 20periodLow THEN
    CALL sellCurr
ELSE IF s2tradeShort AND currentPrice > 20periodHigh THEN
    CALL buyCurr
END

As you can see this code gives us an excellent starting point for the development of our Turtle Trading system. In the next article we will go through the specifics of coding in MQL. I have provided a basic implementation of the code for this trading system but you will derive most benefit from creating your own implementations of this system.

Related Articles

• Building an Automated FOREX System: Designing a Simple Strategy and Introduction to Pseudo Code.
• Building an Automated FOREX System: Expert Advisors & Indicators
• Building an automated currency trading system from scratch.

Strategy Design

Designing a trading strategy could be the focus of whole encyclopedia, what we discuss here will simply be a quick overview. In it’s simplest from a trading strategy is simply  a set of predefined rules for executing trading decisions. By using an automated trading strategy emotional bias is removed. There are several different types of trading strategies that have been used over the years and usually fall into one of the following categories: 

• Fundamental Analysis based systems.
• Technical Analysis Based systems.
• Volatility based systems
• Mean reversion based systems.
• Trend Following systems.

Building a Trend Following Based System

We will be building a Trend Following system, this will be a very basic system and will help highlight the development process. When developing a trading system it is very tempting to try and re-invent the wheel, however we will start with a tried and tested system that is publically available. The trading system we will be implementing is the original Turtle Trading System and you will need to download a copy of the rules in order to continue with the tutorial.

Learning to Write Pseudo Code

Before reading any more make sure you have printed out and read through the original Turtle Trading System Rules document. This step is very important as the only way to learn this materiel is by taking action and carrying out the steps outlined.

STOP!

Now we can get on with our discussion of pseudo code. When it comes to writing computer programs or in this case automated trading systems translating English into programming code can be fraught with danger. Pseudo Code on the other hand refers to a more structured English for describing a process or program. It is important that you learn to write quality pseudo code as it will make a big difference when you come to coding your system your self or hiring a programmer.

There are many benefits in writing your algorithms or trading logic in pseudo code these include:

• You will gain a detailed understanding of the program or algorithm you are developing.
• Errors in logic picked up early.
• Not constrained by a single programming language.

Below is a brief example of pseudo code:

IF movingAverage1 == movingAverage2 THEN
    SEND buyOrder
END IF

Structured Pseudo Code

In order for us to write quality code we have to take a step back and think about what it is we are actually trying to achieve. Rather then using a trading example we will use an example that everyone is familiar with. Think about the process of going to the shop and buying 1 item let’s say it is milk. What I will ask you to do is sit down and write a step by step process that you could give to a an alien that describes the process in as much detail as possible.

STOP!

Do not move on until you have done this.  Below is the first iteration of solving the get milk problem:

Get into the car –> Start the car –> Drive to the closest shop that sells milk –> Get Out of Car –> Lock Car

Enter shop –> Locate milk –> Determine quantity –> Pay for milk –> Locate car –> Unlock Car –> Drive home.

As you can see if you think about the steps required to carry out this task it is much more complex then first thought. Let’s try and make this a bit more detailed iteration two:

DEFINE approxMilkCost

DEFINE moneyInWallet

 

IF moneyInWallet < approxMilkCost THEN

           CALL enterCar WITH keys

           CALL driveTo WITH bank

           CALL leaveCar

           CALL getMoneyFromBank WITH accountDetails

           CALL driveTo WITH shop

           CALL leaveCar

ELSE

          CALL enterCar WITH keys

          CALL driveTo WITH shop

          CALL leaveCar

ENDIF

 

enter shop

CALL locateItem WITH milk

CALL payForItem WITH money

leave shop

CALL enterCar WITH keys

CALL driveTo WITH home

CALL leaveCar

You can quickly see that by using a more formal language it breaks down complex tasks into simple steps. If we wanted to write a program to solve this problem we would probably go through several more iterations of pseudo code before actually starting coding. I have created a PDF file and have uploaded it so you can fully understand the pseudo code presented and can practice writing some pseudo code for yourself.  In the next article we will be looking at writing our trend following system out in pseudo code so make sure you review everything presented here.

MetaTrader 4

The current version that is most widely used and supported is MetaTrader 4 however beta versions of MetaTrader 5 are currently in testing. In order to build an automated trading system using MetaTrader 4 we will need to write a program that will run inside MetaTrader. There are three types of programs that run inside MetaTrader, these are Custom Indicators, Expert Advisors and Scripts. The screen shot on the right shows the built in indicators that ship with MetaTrader.

MetaTrader- MetaQuotes Language

Custom Indicators, Expert Advisors and scripts are all written in a programming language called MetaQuotes Language, often abbreviated MQL.  Although all three application types are written in MQL there are slight differences between program types.

MetaTrader- Indicators and Custom Indicators

Custom indicators are written in MQL the client terminal will execute the indicator every time a tick is received. The main use of indicators is to graphically display some user defined or built in data relationship. The most common use for indicators is for Technical Analysis. Below are some screenshots which show a built-in indicator being applied to the daily AUD/USD currency chart.

1. With AUD/USD chart open double click on desired indicator.
2. Enter parameter settings and execute.

MetaTrader- Expert Advisors

An Expert Advisor or EA for short share similar properties to Indicators. Expert Advisors or EA’s are written in MQL and are executed on tick data. Expert Advisors or EA’s have trade logic written into them. Basically an EA does everything an indicator can do, however an EA will also open, close and modify trades programmatically. To attach an EA to a currency pair the process is exactly the same as it is for an indicator. There are two sample EA’s that ship with MetaTrader 4 these are the MACD Sample and Moving Average.

MetaTrader- Scripts

Scripts are the final type of application that are available in MetaTrader. A script is designed to be executed only once. Scripts are usually used to automate client side non-trading actions, like modifying data. They can however be used to perform simple trade logic tasks.

MetaTrader – MetaEditor

All the code we write for our automated trading system will be done MetaTrader’s Integrated Development Environment called MetaEditor. MetaEditor allows you to store and manage source code for all projects in an easy to use way. If you are used to Visual Studio or X-Code IDE’s then you will be disappointed with the functionality of MetaEditor. MedEditor does offer syntax highlighting and code completion which is very handy. There is also a built in on-line library that covers most topics. Below is a screenshot of the IDE:

To open MetaEditor from MetaTrader simply press F4 or from the menu bar:

Tools –> MetaQuotes Language Editor

Home Work

Before next article make sure you understand the three different program types that are used in MetaTrader. Also try attaching and using some of the built in indicators in MetaTrader. Before moving on I would also recommend downloading the MQL4 book from MetaQuotes. This is a free book that covers the basics of programming in MQL and in later articles I will assume you are up to speed with the concepts presented in the book.

In the next article we will discuss designing a simple trading strategy and pseudo code.

Before you start

Before we start designing the automated trading system I will assume you are familiar with some basic FOREX or currency market concepts. If you are new to the finance world you may like to read the following articles.

• What’s all this talk about money?
• The FOREX market, the exchange rate and bid and ask spreads.
• Pip’s, Lot’s and a little bit of math.
• Understanding the lingo: Spot market, traded currencies and other FOREX terms.
• The big three in FOREX: Leverage, margin and equity.

To get you quickly up to speed with MetaTrader you can download the software from MetaQuotes. You may also benefit from reading the following basic articles.

• An introduction to MetaTrader Part One.
• An introduction to MetaTrader Part Two.
• An introduction to MetaTrader Part Three.

So now you have a basic understanding of the FOREX or currency market and have MetaTrader installed on your computer we are ready to get started. Below is a roadmap for next few articles.

• What is an automated Trading System and how can we build one in MetaTrader?
• Expert Advisors and Indicators in MetaTrader.
• Designing a simple strategy and pseudo code.
• From pseudo code to a basic trading system.
• Garbage in garbage out: improving modeling quality.
• Testing, Testing, Optimization and more testing.
• Forward testing and performance evaluation.
• Automated Trading System version 2.0.
• So you are ready to go live: Choosing a broker.
• So you are ready to go live: Setting up a Virtual Private Server.

As you can see there is a lot of content that needs to be covered and I am sure as this series progresses there will be content added or removed depending on your input. If there is any materiel you want covered please send me an email or comment below.

int handlFile;
handlFile = FileOpen(“symbol.csv”, FILE_CSV | FILE_WRITE | FILE_READ, ‘,’);
FileSeek(handlFile, 0, SEEK_END);
FileWrite(handlFile, Bid, Ask, Close[1], Volume[1]);
FileClose(handlFile);

Note: This code above is intended as a very rough solution. Time permitting I will write a proper EA with error checking and better features. This code however should be sufficient for basic tasks. For more information on EA coding I strongly recommend you download the getting started book:

MQL Tutorial

The Non EA Export Option

Can’t be bothered with that coding garbage? Never fear there is a very simple option. Go to the Tools Menu then History Centre a dialog box similar to the one shown below will appear simply chose the currency you wish to export and select a file name and your done. This process is shown below:

MetaTrader really is an excellent platform for learning the basics of trading and trading systems. I would recommend to anyone starting out in currency trading that they download MetaTrader and start exploring. If you want to learn more about Forex Trading I suggest you visit the Forex section of this website.

Placing an order in MetaTrader is very simple. You simply need to double click (in the market watch window) on the symbol of the security you wish to buy and the order window will be displayed. Or if you have a chart open for the security you wish to buy you can simply press F9 or go to menu Tools -> “New Order”. The order window will pop-up as shown below.

As you can see a tick chart is displayed on the right that shows both the Bid and Ask prices. The Bid price is shown in red and the Ask price is shown in blue. In this window you can change the security you wish to buy or sell. You can also change the volume of the order with one lot being the default. The order window also allows you to specify hard stop loss and take profit levels. The next field is the comment field this allows for comments to be attached to an order.

The type field allows for the specification of the type of order. The default is instant execution or a market order. The second type of order that can be specified is a pending order. If a pending order is selected you can select a Buy Limit, Sell Limit, Buy Stop and Sell Stop type the price and expiry can also be set. The price set must differ from the market price by at least five pips.

Returning to a standard market order we can choose to buy or sell the given security. The final property we can change is enabling a maximum deviation from a quoted price. This means in times of extreme volatility you can guarantee your order gets filled at a given price, similar to a pending order.

MetaTrader allows for orders to be modified after they have initially been sent to the broker. This allows for stop losses to be set or changed, orders to be closed and trailing stops to be set. This functionality is provided via the terminal. In the terminal the trade tab needs to be activated. To activate the trade tab you simply need to click on it.

You can now right click on the order you wish to change and a contextual menu will pop-up like the one shown below.

By clicking on modify or delete order this will bring up a window similar to the initial order window. As you can see below the only fields that can be modified are the stop loss and take profit. Once again these must be set at minimum five pips away from the current price.

After this modified order has been processed the chart window will be updated to reflect stop loss and take profit levels. On the chart the price in which was paid for the security is shown with a dashed green line. The stop loss and take profit level are shown with a dashed red line. In this example the stop loss was set at 0.8545 and take profit at 0.8570 and the price paid for the lot was 0.8552. this is depicted graphically below.

This ends our whirlwind tour of the very basics of MetaTrader. You should now be able to place orders, modify orders and understand the basics of the User Interface.

The first thing that we will look at in MetaTrader is charting. I have found that MetaTrader is one of the best free program for this purpose and it has a fairly large user base amongst the FOREX community.

Opening a Chart
In MetaTrader there are two ways to open a chart. The first is by left clicking on the new chart icon in the toolbar and selecting the chart you wish. Secondly you can right click a symbol in the market watch window and then select “Chart Window”. This is outlined below:

Chart Time Frames
The quickest way to change the timeframe for a chart is via the periodicity toolbar. This is the toolbar shown below:

On this toolbar it adjusts the period of the chart the period represents the difference between closing and opening times. M1 represents one minute, M5 represents two minutes, M30 represents 30 minutes, H1 represents 60 minutes or one hour, H4 represents four hours, D1 represents a day, W1 represents a week and MN represents a month.

The grayed out area in the toolbar lets you know what time period the chart is currently displaying.

Charts Toolbar
By clicking this icon the currently selected chart will be displayed as a bar chart. Keyboard shortcut ALT + 1.

By clicking this icon the currently selected chart will be displayed as a candlestick chart. Keyboard shortcut ALT + 2.

By clicking this icon the currently selected chart will be displayed as a line chart. Keyboard shortcut ALT + 3.

By clicking these icons you can zoom in or out of the currently selected chart. Keyboard shortcuts Zoom in: + and Zoom out: -

By clicking this icon AutoScroll will be enabled meaning the latest bar is always displayed.

These groups of icons allow for the adding of technical indicators to a chart, changing the time period of a chart and the final button allows for managing of templates.

Line Drawing Toolbar
The line drawing toolbar allows you to add various geometric shapes to a chart window. This can be helpful for technical analysis and for highlighting different features on a chart.

By clicking this icon the crosshair will be enabled in the chart window. The crosshair will graphically highlight the price and time at any given point on the chart. Shown Below:

By clicking on this icon a vertical line is placed on the chart window at the given point in which it has been drawn.

By clicking on this icon a horizontal line is placed on the chart window at the given point in which it has been drawn.

By clicking on this icon a trend line can be drawn in the chart window between to points. This is Shown below:

By clicking on this icon an equidistant channel is drawn on the chart from one point to another. This shown below:

By clicking on this icon a corresponding Fibonacci retracement lines can be added. Shown Below:

By clicking these icons text and arrow objects can be added to charts at a given area.

This is Part Two of a three part series on the basics of MetaTrader. Click to read the next article in the series A Basic Introduction to MetaTrader (Part Three).