Reversal patterns: Testing the Double top/bottom pattern
Reversal patterns: Testing the Double top/bottom pattern
Traders often look for trend reversal points since the price has the greatest potential for movement at the very beginning of a newly formed trend. Consequently, various reversal patterns are considered in the technical analysis. The Double top/bottom is one of the most well-known and frequently used ones. The article proposes the method of the pattern programmatic detection. It also tests the pattern's profitability on history data.
Gap - a profitable strategy or 50/50?
Gap - a profitable strategy or 50/50?
The article dwells on gaps — significant differences between a close price of a previous timeframe and an open price of the next one, as well as on forecasting a daily bar direction. Applying the GetOpenFileName function by the system DLL is considered as well.
EA remote control methods
EA remote control methods
The main advantage of trading robots lies in the ability to work 24 hours a day on a remote VPS server. But sometimes it is necessary to intervene in their work, while there may be no direct access to the server. Is it possible to manage EAs remotely? The article proposes one of the options for controlling EAs via external commands.
100 best optimization passes (part 1). Developing optimization analyzer
100 best optimization passes (part 1). Developing optimization analyzer
The article dwells on the development of an application for selecting the best optimization passes using several possible options. The application is able to sort out the optimization results by a variety of factors. Optimization passes are always written to a database, therefore you can always select new robot parameters without re-optimization. Besides, you are able to see all optimization passes on a single chart, calculate parametric VaR ratios and build the graph of the normal distribution of passes and trading results of a certain ratio set. Besides, the graphs of some calculated ratios are built dynamically beginning with the optimization start (or from a selected date to another selected date).
Reversing: The holy grail or a dangerous delusion?
Reversing: The holy grail or a dangerous delusion?
In this article, we will study the reverse martingale technique and will try to understand whether it is worth using, as well as whether it can help improve your trading strategy. We will create an Expert Advisor to operate on historic data and to check what indicators are best suitable for the reversing technique. We will also check whether it can be used without any indicator as an independent trading system. In addition, we will check if reversing can turn a loss-making trading system into a profitable one.
Using indicators for optimizing Expert Advisors in real time
Using indicators for optimizing Expert Advisors in real time
Efficiency of any trading robot depends on the correct selection of its parameters (optimization). However, parameters that are considered optimal for one time interval may not retain their effectiveness in another period of trading history. Besides, EAs showing profit during tests turn out to be loss-making in real time. The issue of continuous optimization comes to the fore here. When facing plenty of routine work, humans always look for ways to automate it. In this article, I propose a non-standard approach to solving this issue.
MQL5 Cookbook: Getting properties of an open hedge position
MQL5 Cookbook: Getting properties of an open hedge position
MetaTrader 5 is a multi-asset platform. Moreover, it supports different position management systems. Such opportunities provide significantly expanded options for the implementation and formalization of trading ideas. In this article, we discuss methods of handling and accounting of position properties in the hedging mode. The article features a derived class, as well as examples showing how to get and process the properties of a hedge position.
Elder-Ray (Bulls Power and Bears Power)
Elder-Ray (Bulls Power and Bears Power)
The article dwells on Elder-Ray trading system based on Bulls Power, Bears Power and Moving Average indicators (EMA — exponential averaging). This system was described by Alexander Elder in his book "Trading for a Living".
50,000 completed orders in the MQL5.com Freelance service
50,000 completed orders in the MQL5.com Freelance service
Members of the official MetaTrader Freelance service have completed more than 50,000 orders as at October 2018. This is the world's largest Freelance site for MQL programmers: more than a thousand developers, dozens of new orders daily and 7 languages localization.
Combining trend and flat strategies
Combining trend and flat strategies
There are numerous trading strategies out there. Some of them look for a trend, while others define ranges of price fluctuations to trade within them. Is it possible to combine these two approaches to increase profitability?
950 websites broadcast the Economic Calendar from MetaQuotes
950 websites broadcast the Economic Calendar from MetaQuotes
The widget provides websites with a detailed release schedule of 500 indicators and indices, of the world's largest economies. Thus, traders quickly receive up-to-date information on all important events with explanations and graphs in addition to the main website content.
Universal RSI indicator for working in two directions simultaneously
Universal RSI indicator for working in two directions simultaneously
When developing trading algorithms, we often encounter a problem: how to determine where a trend/flat begins and ends? In this article, we try to create a universal indicator, in which we try to combine signals for different types of strategies. We will try to simplify the process of obtaining trade signals in an expert as much as possible. An example of combining several indicators in one will be given.
Custom presentation of trading history and creation of report diagrams
Custom presentation of trading history and creation of report diagrams
The article describes custom methods for assessing the trading history. Two classes have been written for downloading and analyzing history. The first of them collects the trading history and represents it as a summary table. The second one deals with statistics: it calculates a number of variables and builds charts for a more efficient evaluation of trading results.
14,000 trading robots in the MetaTrader Market
14,000 trading robots in the MetaTrader Market
The largest store of ready-made applications for algo-trading now features 13,970 products. This includes 4,800 robots, 6,500 indicators, 2,400 utilities and other solutions. Almost half of the applications (6,000) are available for rent. Also, a quarter of the total number of products (3,800) can be downloaded for free.
Integrating MQL-based Expert Advisors and databases (SQL Server, .NET and C#)
Integrating MQL-based Expert Advisors and databases (SQL Server, .NET and C#)
The article describes how to add the ability to work with Microsoft SQL Server database server to MQL5-based Expert Advisors. Import of functions from a DLL is used. The DLL is created using the Microsoft .NET platform and the C# language. The methods used in the article are also suitable for experts written in MQL4, with minor adjustments.
Visualizing optimization results using a selected criterion
Visualizing optimization results using a selected criterion
In the article, we continue to develop the MQL application for working with optimization results. This time, we will show how to form the table of the best results after optimizing the parameters by specifying another criterion via the graphical interface.
Deep Neural Networks (Part VII). Ensemble of neural networks: stacking
Deep Neural Networks (Part VII). Ensemble of neural networks: stacking
We continue to build ensembles. This time, the bagging ensemble created earlier will be supplemented with a trainable combiner — a deep neural network. One neural network combines the 7 best ensemble outputs after pruning. The second one takes all 500 outputs of the ensemble as input, prunes and combines them. The neural networks will be built using the keras/TensorFlow package for Python. The features of the package will be briefly considered. Testing will be performed and the classification quality of bagging and stacking ensembles will be compared.
How to create Requirements Specification for ordering a trading robot
How to create Requirements Specification for ordering a trading robot
Are you trading using your own strategy? If your system rules can be formally described as software algorithms, it is better to entrust trading to an automated Expert Advisor. A robot does not need sleep or food and is not subject to human weaknesses. In this article, we show how to create Requirements Specification when ordering a trading robot in the Freelance service.
Implementing indicator calculations into an Expert Advisor code
Implementing indicator calculations into an Expert Advisor code
The reasons for moving an indicator code to an Expert Advisor may vary. How to assess the pros and cons of this approach? The article describes implementing an indicator code into an EA. Several experiments are conducted to assess the speed of the EA's operation.
Comparative analysis of 10 flat trading strategies
Comparative analysis of 10 flat trading strategies
The article explores the advantages and disadvantages of trading in flat periods. The ten strategies created and tested within this article are based on the tracking of price movements inside a channel. Each strategy is provided with a filtering mechanism, which is aimed at avoiding false market entry signals.
Applying the Monte Carlo method for optimizing trading strategies
Applying the Monte Carlo method for optimizing trading strategies
Before launching a robot on a trading account, we usually test and optimize it on quotes history. However, a reasonable question arises: how can past results help us in the future? The article describes applying the Monte Carlo method to construct custom criteria for trading strategy optimization. In addition, the EA stability criteria are considered.
Deep Neural Networks (Part VI). Ensemble of neural network classifiers: bagging
Deep Neural Networks (Part VI). Ensemble of neural network classifiers: bagging
The article discusses the methods for building and training ensembles of neural networks with bagging structure. It also determines the peculiarities of hyperparameter optimization for individual neural network classifiers that make up the ensemble. The quality of the optimized neural network obtained in the previous article of the series is compared with the quality of the created ensemble of neural networks. Possibilities of further improving the quality of the ensemble's classification are considered.
Expert Advisor featuring GUI: Creating the panel (part I)
Expert Advisor featuring GUI: Creating the panel (part I)
Despite the fact that many traders still prefer manual trading, it is hardly possible to completely avoid the automation of routine operations. The article shows an example of developing a multi-symbol signal Expert Advisor for manual trading.
How to analyze the trades of the Signal selected in the chart
How to analyze the trades of the Signal selected in the chart
The trade Signals service develops in leaps and bounds. Trusting our funds to a signal provider, we would like to minimize the risk of losing our deposit. So how to puzzle out in this forest of trade signals? How to find the one that would produce profits? This paper proposes to create a tool for visually analyzing the history of trades on trade signals in a symbol chart.
Improving Panels: Adding transparency, changing background color and inheriting from CAppDialog/CWndClient
Improving Panels: Adding transparency, changing background color and inheriting from CAppDialog/CWndClient
In this article, we continue studying the use of CAppDialog. Now we will learn how to set color for the background, borders and header of the dialog box. Also, this article provides a step-by-step description of how to add transparency for an application window when dragging it within the chart. We will consider how to create child classes of CAppDialog or CWndClient and analyze new specifics of working with controls. Finally, we will review new Projects from a new perspective.
Social Trading. Can a profitable signal be made even better?
Social Trading. Can a profitable signal be made even better?
Most subscribers choose a trade signal by the beauty of the balance curve and by the number of subscribers. This is why many today's providers care of beautiful statistics rather than of real signal quality, often playing with lot sizes and artificially reducing the balance curve to an ideal appearance. This paper deals with the reliability criteria and the methods a provider may use to enhance its signal quality. An exemplary analysis of a specific signal history is presented, as well as methods that would help a provider to make it more profitable and less risky.
Visual strategy builder. Creating trading robots without programming
Visual strategy builder. Creating trading robots without programming
This article presents a visual strategy builder. It is shown how any user can create trading robots and utilities without programming. Created Expert Advisors are fully functional and can be tested in the strategy tester, optimized in the cloud or executed live on real time charts.
Processing optimization results using the graphical interface
Processing optimization results using the graphical interface
This is a continuation of the idea of processing and analysis of optimization results. This time, our purpose is to select the 100 best optimization results and display them in a GUI table. The user will be able to select a row in the optimization results table and receive a multi-symbol balance and drawdown graph on separate charts.
Random Decision Forest in Reinforcement learning
Random Decision Forest in Reinforcement learning
Random Forest (RF) with the use of bagging is one of the most powerful machine learning methods, which is slightly inferior to gradient boosting. This article attempts to develop a self-learning trading system that makes decisions based on the experience gained from interaction with the market.