Hello everybody
Just a quick question for you all. What is the best way to create my own ea? And what is the best way to learn mql4? See I have a manual trading strategy which has been doing alright for me but I think it will be even more efficient if I could automate it. And how long does it usually take to learn mql4 considering I have no programming experience or knowledge?
I assume you have opened a demo account with an MT4 broker. Go to the tools tab along the top of the screen, it will show you “MetaQuotes Language Editor”, after selecting this option, from inside of the editor, select “Help”. Under Help you will find “MQL4.Community”, after selecting this option, select “MQL$ Book”. I found this to be an excellent primer to learning the mql4 language. It took me about a month to work my way through the book and get my first EA up and running but everyone learns at a different pace and I only worked on it in my spare time. Obviously it will depend on your previous exposure to programing.
Good Luck…
or google mq4 documentation - -wonderful source
I wonder, can programs like:
Molanis Strategy Builder for MetaTrader
Forex Expert Advisor Generator for MetaTrader language. Create your MetaTrader EA and Script.
which don’t require any mql4 coding to create EAs, create profitable systems? Has anyone used them to create any EAs he/she is using? thanks!
never used them but I assume that learning the mql4 language is better and will enable you to make even finer tweeks to your system.
If you have a fairly simple system, those EA generators will work just fine. But if you have complex entry/exit strategies where you scale in and scale out while moving stops and limits around, I don’t think you’ll find those generators helpful.
Just remember when testing strategies on MT4, take account for the spread in your simulations (MT4 only stores the Bid price and guesses the Ask price.) I always subtract 1-2 pips from each backtested trade. This is very important for high frequency trading systems and less important the longer the time frame you are using. Just something to think about.
Good trading!
XIV
I’m also wondering how many people out there have built their own profitable ea?
I have, but it might be due to the amount of EAs I’ve made. There’s a saying about blind squirrels where I’m from…
One of my profitable EA trades a breakout of the high/low of the last 20 hours. I have a trend filter applied so that it only trades breakouts in the direction of the daily trend that cuts down on false breakouts. Some would say its simple, but the last year has shown me it gets the money.
XIV
wow, I can’t wait till I’m making eas too. It doesn’t matter whether the blind squirrel finds the nut through serendipity or through talent, just as long as it finds it. And I find that the simple strategies seem to be the most effective at time.
So do you trade for a living or do you also do something else?
My day job is my main source of income. I currently trade an account that is about 20% of my annual income. A serious enough amount of money that I take it very seriously, but not so much that it tugs at my emotions when I incur inevitable downswings.
As for simple strategies, there are tons of free downloads for very simple systems to use on MT4 that have open source code. If you learn basic code structure you could alter these strategies to develop your own ideas. Just use the free EAs as a base. I wouldn’t deal with anyone trying to sell you something. Lot of fraud IMO.
XIV
I think docs.mql4.com could be useful to learn about… Manual method trade is also good in forex trade! Learn before you start what you want!
what about has anybody have any experience with mql5 programming? Is it easier? Cuz I’ve been reading this mql4 book by S. Kovalyov and it isn’t piece of cake I can say. I just hope I’ll be able to put all my ideas into my ea.
Programming automated strategies is almost-easy, almost-hard. I think the worst of all is the speed of testing and debugging. MT4 and MT5 are not comfortable to do that. While working on EA, most of the time is spend in waiting for test to run, checking what’s happened and navigating in resulting orders in not so comfortable way. That’s why most of the strategies over the internet remains pretty simple.
MQL4 has some functions with good names. There are also unexpected things that happens sometimes. One also needs to spend energy in working with all the different data types (I am PHP fan, which is free of data types).
MQL5 can be better, but it is only usable if a programmer works with big libraries of custom functions. MQL5 is really not suitable for newbies.
I think you are right! Have a try on other platforms and move to MT5…