An Introduction to MQL

Introduction to MetaEditor
What is an Expert Advisor?
An expert advisor is an automated trading program written in MQL. Expert advisors (commonly
abbreviated as EA) can place, modify and close orders according to a trading system algorithm. EA’s
generally use indicators to generate trading signals. These indicators can be the ones that come with
MetaTrader, or they can be custom indicators.
An indicator is a technical analysis tool that calculates price data to give an interpretation of market
activity. An indicator draws lines or objects on the chart. Indicators cannot place, modify or close
orders. Examples of indicators include the moving average and stochastics.
A script is a simplified expert advisor that performs a single task, such as placing a pending order or closing all orders on a chart. A few useful scripts are included with MetaTrader.
File Formats
Files with the .mq4 extension are source code files. These are the files we edit in MetaEditor. When
an .mq4 file is compiled, an .ex4 file is produced.
Files with the .ex4 extension are executable files. These are the files we run in MetaTrader. These
files cannot be opened in MetaEditor. If you only have the .ex4 file for an EA or indicator, the icon
next to the file name in MetaTrader’s Navigator window will be grayed out.
Files with the .mqh extension are include files. These files contain user-created functions that are
referenced in an .mq4 file. During compilation, the compiler “includes” the contents of the .mqh file in
the .ex4 file. We’ll learn more about include files later.
The .mqt extension is used for template files. While these files can be opened in MetaTrader, the file
type is not associated with the program in Windows. Templates are used to create new files using the
Expert Advisor Wizard in MetaEditor.
You can create your own templates if you wish, but we will not be covering template creation in this
book. The MetaTrader documentation will tell you all you need to know about creating templates.
Indicators, expert advisors, libraries and scripts all share the .mq4 extension. The only way to tell
them apart is either by their save location, or by opening the file and examining them. By the time
you finish this book, you should be able to identify the difference between program types just by
looking at the source code.
File Locations
All MetaEditor files are stored inside the experts folder. The \experts folder is contained in the
MetaTrader installation directory, which is in C:\Program Files\. If your broker is Interbank FX, for
example, the MT4 installation folder would be C:\Program Files\Interbank FX Trader 4\.
The \experts folder contains the source code and executable files for the expert advisors. Using the
above example, the \experts folder would be located at C:\Program Files\Interbank FX Trader
4\experts\.
There are numerous folders inside the \experts folder that contain other types of source code and
executable files. Here’s a list of the save locations for all file types:
• \experts\indicators – Source code and executable files for your indicators are stored
here.
• \experts\include – Source code include files with the .mqh extension are stored here.
• \experts\libraries – Function libraries and DLLs are stored here.
• \experts\scripts – Source code and executable files for scripts are stored here.
• \experts\templates – Templates for source code files are stored here.
There are a few other folders inside the experts folder that you’ll want to be aware of too:
• \experts\logs – Activity logs for your expert advisors are stored here. These will be useful
for debugging your expert advisors.
• \experts\presets – Expert advisor settings that are saved or loaded from MetaTrader’s
Properties dialog are stored here.
• \experts\files – Any files used for input or output must be stored here.
MetaEditor
MetaEditor is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for MQL that comes packaged with
MetaTrader. It includes useful reference, search and auto-complete tools that makes coding in MQL a
lot easier.
The Editor window allows you to have multiple files open at once. You can minimize, maximize and
tab between several open windows. The Navigator window offers useful file-browsing and reference
features. The Toolbox window displays help contents, compilation errors, file search results, and
online access to articles and files at MQL4.com.
One of the most useful editing features is the Assistant. Simply type the first few characters of an
MQL function, operator or other language element, and a drop-down list will appear. Press Enter to
accept the highlighted suggestion and auto-complete the phrase.
The Files tab in the Navigator window is a simple file browser that allows you to open and edit any of
the MQL files in your \experts folder. The Dictionary tab features a built-in MQL reference, while the
Search tab is a search feature for the MQL reference.
The built-in MQL reference and the context-sensitive help will save you a lot of time when coding. If you need help remembering the syntax of a particular language element, select or place the text cursor on the element in the editor window. Press F1 on your keyboard and the help topic will appear in the Toolbox window.
The toolbar in MetaEditor features the standard complement of file and editing functions. The
Navigator and Toolbox windows can be shown or hidden using their respective buttons on the toolbar.
The Compile button compiles the current file in the editor. If there are any compilation errors, they will be shown in the Toolbox window. The Terminal button opens the trading terminal for testing.
Basic Concepts
We’re going to review some basic programming concepts that will make the rest of this book easier
to understand for new programmers. If you’re an experienced programmer, feel free to skip ahead to
the next section, Layout of an MQL File.
Syntax
If you’re familiar with programming in languages such as C++, PHP or one of the many languages
whose syntax is derived from C, you’ll be very comfortable programming in MQL. If your previous
programming experience is in a language such as Visual Basic, then you may need to make a few
adjustments.
In MQL, every statement is terminated with a semicolon. This is called an expression. An expression
can span multiple lines, but there must be a semicolon at the end.
double LastHigh = High[1];
string MultiLine = StringConcatenate(“This is a multi-line statement. “,
“For clarity, we will indent multiple lines in this book”);
If you’re new to programing, or accustomed to programming in a language that does not terminate
expressions with a semicolon, you’ll need to make sure you’re placing the semicolon at the end of
every statement. Not terminating lines with a semicolon is a common newbie mistake.
There are a few exceptions to this: Compound operators do not need a semi-colon. A compound
operator is a block of code that contains multiple expressions within braces {}. Examples of
compound operators include control operators (if, switch), cycle operators (for, while) and
function declarations.
if(Compound == true)
{
Print(“This is a compound expression”);
}
Note that there is no semicolon after the initial if operator, nor is there a semicolon after the closing brace. There is a semicolon after the Print() function, however. There can be one, or multiple
expressions inside the braces. Each must end with a semicolon.
Comments
Comments are useful for documenting your code, as well as for temporarily removing code while
testing and debugging. You can comment out a single line with two forward slashes:
// This is a comment
A multi-line comment begins with /* and ends with */. A multi-line comment can span any number
of lines, and everything between /* and */ is commented out.
/* This is a comment block
Everything here is commented out */
Identifiers
Identifiers are names given to variables and custom functions. An identifier can be any combination
of numbers, letters, and the underscore character (_). Identifiers can be up to 31 characters in
length.
You’ll want your identifiers to be descriptive of their function, but be sure your identifier doesn’t
match an MQL language element (also called a reserved word). Here’s an example of a variable
identifier and a custom function identifier. The identifier is in italics:
double StopLoss;
int Order_Count()
Identifiers in MQL are case-sensitive. This means that StopLoss and stoploss are different
variables! This is another common newbie mistake, so check those identifier names!
Variables
A variable is the basic storage unit of any programming language. Variables hold data necessary for
our program to function, such as prices, settings and indicator values.
Variables must be declared before they are used. To declare a variable, you specify it’s data type, an
identifier, and optionally a default value. If you declare a variable more than once, or not at all, you’ll
get a compilation error.
The data type specifies the type of information the variable holds, whether it be a number, a text
string, a date or a color. Here are the data types in MQL:
• int – A integer (whole number) such as 0, 3, or -5. Any number assigned to an integer
variable is rounded up to the next whole number.
• double – A fractional number such as 1.5765, 0.03 or -2.376. Use these for price data, or in
mathematical expressions involving division.
• string – A text string such as “The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog”.
Strings must be surrounded by double quotes.
• boolean – A true/false value. Can also be represented as 1 (true) or 0 (false). Use these
anytime you need to evaluate an binary, or on/off condition.
• datetime – A time and date value such as 2009.01.01 00:00. Internally, a datetime
variable is represented as the number of seconds passed since January 1, 1970.
• color – A constant representing a color, such as Red or DarkSlateBlue. These are generally
used for changing indicator or object colors.
Here’s an example of a variable declaration. This is an integer variable, with the identifier
MyVariable and a default value of 1.
int MyVariable = 1;
Once a variable has been declared, you can change its value by assigning a new value to it. Here’s an
example where we assign the number 5 to MyVariable:
MyVariable = 5;
You can also assign the value of one variable to another variable:
int YourVariable = 2;
MyVariable = YourVariable;
// MyVariable is 2
The assigned variable should be of the same data type. If a double is assigned to an integer variable,
for example, the double will be rounded to the nearest whole number. This may lead to an
undesirable result.
Constants
Just like its name suggests, a constant is a data value that never changes. For example, the number
5 is an integer constant, the letter ‘A’ is a character constant, and 2009.01.01 is a datetime constant
for January 1, 2009.
MQL has a wide variety of standard constants for things like price data, chart periods, colors and
trade operations. For example PERIOD_H1 is a constant for the H1 chart time frame, OP_BUY refers to
a buy market order, and Red is a color constant for the color red.
You can even create your own constants using the #define preprocessor directive. We’ll get to that
shortly. You can learn more about MQL’s standard constants in the Standard Constants section of the
MQL Reference.
Functions
Functions are the building blocks of modern programming languages. A function is a block of code
that is designed to carry out a certain task, such as placing an order or calculating a stop loss. MQL
has dozens of built-in functions for everything from technical indicators to order placement.
Functions are designed to be reused over and over again. Learning how to create functions for
common trading tasks is essential to productive programming. We will work on creating reusable
functions for many of the tasks that we will learn in this book.
Let’s start with a simple function called PipPoint(), that calculates the number of decimal points in
the current pair, and automatically adjusts for 3 and 5 digit brokers so that the result is always equal
to one pip. For Yen pairs (2 or 3 digits), the function returns 0.01. For all other pairs (4 and 5 digits),
the function returns 0.0001. Here’s how we would call the function from code:
double UsePoint;
UsePoint = PipPoint();
We declare a variable of type double named UsePoint. Then we call the PipPoint() function and
assign the result to UsePoint. Now we can use the value stored in UsePoint to calculate a stop loss,
for example.
Here is the code for the PipPoint() function:
double PipPoint()
{
if(Digits == 2 || Digits == 3) double UsePoint = 0.01;
else if(Digits == 4 || Digits == 5) UsePoint = 0.0001;
return(UsePoint);
}
The first line is our function declaration. Like variables, function declarations have a data type and an
identifier. Functions use the same data types as variables do. The data type is dependent on the type
of data the function returns. Since this function returns a fractional number, we use the double data
type.
The body of the function is contained within the brackets {}. We have an if-else statement that
evaluates the number of digits after the decimal place, and assigns the appropriate value to the
UsePoint variable. Following that, we have the return operator, which returns the value of
UsePoint to the calling function.
There is a special data type for functions that do not return a value. The void data type is used for
functions that carry out a specific task, but do not need to return a value to the calling function. Void functions do not require a return operator in the body of the function.
Let’s consider a simple function for placing a buy order. This function has arguments that need to be
passed to the function. This function will place a buy market order on the current symbol with the
specified lot size, stop loss and take profit.
int OpenBuyOrder(double LotSize, double StopLoss, double TakeProfit)
{
int Ticket = OrderSend(Symbol(),OP_BUY,LotSize,Ask,StopLoss,TakeProfit);
return(Ticket);
}
This function has three arguments, LotSize, StopLoss and TakeProfit. Arguments are variables
that are used only within the function. Their value is assigned by the calling function. Here’s how we
would call this function in code using constants:
OpenBuyOrder(2, 1.5550, 1.6050);
This will place a buy order of 2 lots, with a stop loss of 1.5550 and a take profit of 1.6050. Here’s
another example using variables. We’ll assume that the variables UseLotSize, BuyStopLoss and
BuyTakeProfit have the appropriate values assigned:
int GetTicket = OpenBuyOrder(UseLotSize,BuyStopLoss,BuyTakeProfit);
In this example, we are assigning the return value of OpenBuyOrder() to the variable GetTicket,
which the ticket number of the order we just placed. Assigning the output of a function to a variable
is optional. In this case, it is only necessary if you plan to do further processing using the ticket
number of the placed order.
Arguments can have default values, which means that if a parameter is not explicitly passed to the
function, the argument will take the default value. Default value arguments will always be at the end
of the argument list. Here is an example of a function with several default values:
int DefaultValFunc(int Ticket, double Price, int Number = 0, string Comment = NULL)
This function has two arguments with default values, Number and Comment, with default values of 0
and NULL respectively. If we want to use the default values for both Number and Comment, we simply
omit those arguments when calling the function:
DefaultValFunc(TicketNum,UsePrice);
Note that we only specified the first two arguments. Number and Comment use the default values of 0
and NULL. If we want to specify a value for Number, but not for Comment, we simply omit the last
argument:DefaultValFunc(TicketNum,UsePrice,UseNumber);
Again, Comment uses the default value of NULL. But, if we want to specify a value for Comment,
regardless of whether or not we want to use the default value for Number, we have to specify a value
for Number as well:
DefaultValFunc(TicketNum,UsePrice,0,”Comment String”);
In this example, we used 0 as the value for Number, which is the same as the default value, and a
string constant as the value for Comment. Remember that when you’re dealing with multiple
arguments that have default values, you can only omit arguments if you want to use the default
values for all of the remaining arguments!
Variable Scope
The scope of a variable determines which functions it is available to, and how long it stays in
memory. In MQL, scope can be local or global. A local variable can also be static.
A local variable is one that is declared inside a function. Local variables are only available inside the
function it is declared in. The variable is initialized every time the function runs. Once the function
exits, the variable and its data are cleared from memory.
An exception to this would be a static local variable. Static variables remain in memory even after the
function exits. When the function is run again, the variable is not reinitialized, but instead retains it’s
previous value.
A static variable is declared by typing static in front of the variable declaration. Here’s an example
of a static variable declaration:
static int MyStaticVar;
If a static variable needs to be made available to more than one function, use a global variable
instead. In this case you do not need to declare the variable as static.
A global variable is one that is available to all functions inside a program. As long as the program is running, the value of the global variable is maintained. Global variables are declared outside of a
function, generally at the top of the source code file.
There is no special method for initializing a global variable. The syntax is identical to that of a local variable.