I've compiled a short list of ways of using MT4 which I feel have been major breakthroughs (if only for myself) in making trading easier and more intuitive. These include indicators, EAs and simple changes to program settings. I highly recommend that newbie and seasoned trader alike check these "tweaks" out; there might just be something for you.
My list is not exhaustive and you might know of similar ways to do the things I outline below. Feel free to post your own "quantum leaps".
N.B. you won't find any EAs to open trades for you in this post. Please don't add any below.
The post is structured as follows:
(1) Displaying market information
(2) Order management
(3) Viewing extra timeframes and tick charts
(4) Market replay & simulation
--------------------------------------------
(1) DISPLAYING MARKET INFORMATION
When you start up MT4 for the first time it won't be set up with your well-being in mind. It only plots the bid price, it will be autoscaled and the gridlines will be in stupid places (e.g. 1.04862). The following tweaks and indicators will help to put the price information in front of you in perspective.
(a) Setting your vertical zoom level
How it works: After several months of using MT4 I for some reason decided to fix my EURUSD M1 chart zoom level to 200 pips. That way I could suddenly see when the market was moving around a lot, and when the market was not going anywhere. Probably my biggest quantum leap in trading thus far.
Howto: Open your chart; press F8; tick the box marked "Scale fix"; input maximum and minimum pip values as required.
(b) Setting your horizontal zoom level
How it works: If you're looking at an M15 candlestick chart you are essentially binning the price by time. A nice price pattern like a double-top is not necessarily going to fall neatly into these M15 time bins; it may, for example, look like two candlesticks of the same height. This is where the skill of the candlestick chart reader comes into play. However, if you want to see what price is doing without the tedium of guessing what the candlestick formations mean there is another way - zoom out as far as you can. This way a zoomed-out M1 chart will have the rough equivalence of an M5 candlestick chart but showing all the information previously hidden inside those M5 candles.
Howto: Open your chart; press the minus (-) key until things stop happening.
(c) SweetSpots GOLD
(http://www.forexfactory.com/showthre...74#post3172774)
Not sure who coded this indicator (above link is just for the download).
How it works: SweetSpots GOLD draws horizontal lines on your chart at set intervals. In addition to setting your zoom level (see (1a) above) this helps you to see whether the market is moving or not. It also highlights psychological levels which price might use as support or resistance. Get rid of the standard MT4 grid first (Ctrl+G).
(d) Igel-Spread
(http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=105812)
How it works: Very simple. Displays the current spread in the top left-hand corner of the chart. Good for keeping tabs at news time.
(e) Monitoring Spread
(http://codebase.mql4.com/6183)
How it works: Monitoring Spread monitors spread. It does this in an indicator window and logs the realtime minimum, maximum and average spread for each bar. Good for: monitoring spread; especially during news releases and out of major market hours.
(f) Instrument (Old Version)
(http://codebase.mql4.com/6518)
How it works: If you have a fixed spread broker you can tweak a normal chart so that it displays both the bid and the ask. This can be useful to get a perspective of how price moves relative to the spread of your instrument (i.e. does the spread dwarf the extent to which price is moving?).
Howto: Attach Instrument to your chart; enter the instrument name, time frame, and in the VertShift field enter the spread of your instrument. I usually use this indicator with price zoomed out as far as it can go and the indicator colour set to black so it blends in with the chart candles.
(g) i-Sessions
(http://www.forexfactory.com/showthre...961#post261961)
Not sure who coded this indicator (above link is just for the download).
How it works: i-Sessions plots boxes on your chart for the US, European and Asian sessions. Start and finish times can be customised for if you want to plot e.g. Frankfurt session instead of London. Good for visually backtesting and developing ideas using historical data so you can ignore times when you will be asleep or when the market is usually slow. If you can, try not to be snoozing during the London session as this is often where the majority of the volatility happens for major pairs.
--------------------------------------------
(2) ORDER MANAGEMENT
MT4 has pretty limited functionality when it comes to automatic order management. To enter an order and its associated stop loss and take profit is pretty fiddly (involving typing numbers into the order screen and doing on the fly calculations in your head) and almost impossible when you need to do it fast before the market moves away from your entry price. The following EAs can turn MT4 into an extremely efficient tool, especially for shorter-term traders.
(a) Swiss Army EA
(http://www.forex-tsd.com/expert-advi...anagement.html)
How it works: Very versatile. Commonly used features are its ability to attach a stop loss, trailing stop, break even point and take profit to an order.
(b) Multi-Purpose Trade Management EA
(http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?p=2029899)
How it works: Same as Swiss Army EA but probably even more versatile. Includes hidden stops and an "always on" function which means you don't have to wait for a new tick before the EA adds your stop loss. Always good when the next tick after placing an order gaps wildly against your position
.
(c) EASY EA
(http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=98061)
How it works: EASY EA lets you enter pending orders by drawing lines on your chart. Stop loss and take profit can be set at predetermined levels. EASY EA can also calculate the lot size for your pending order based on your percentage risk. After the order is triggered EASY EA places lines on the chart for your stop loss and take profit which you can then move around at your leisure. Useful for moving to break even. Don't go widening that stop loss though!
(d) Luktom Visual Order Editor
(http://en.luktom.biz/Page/447/luktom...l-order-editor)
How it works: Haven't used this one. Similar to EASY EA in many ways with some added functionality. Luktom can work in "always on" mode in a similar way to the Multi-Purpose Trade Management EA. It can also close part of orders and provides a visual line after which the trade will move to break even and a visual line after which a pending order will be cancelled.
--------------------------------------------
(3) VIEWING EXTRA TIMEFRAMES AND TICK CHARTS
The ability to create additional timeframes and tick charts is a huge advance on the basic functionality of MT4. It brings MT4 charting onto a par with most other trading packages with the exception of those with Depth of Market information.
If you don't end up using 1 second or tick charts in your everyday trading they can often serve as a useful tool to learn how price moves and to better understand what is being shown on your standard MT4 chart.
(a) Extra timeframes - Flexichart
(http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=222230)
How it works: Flexichart allows you to view charts with timeframes ranging from tick and 1 second to 24 hours. For timeframes over one minute Flexichart can build your required timeframe from historical data. For timeframes under one minute Flexichart has to record tick data from scratch as MT4 doesn't store this on its own. However, after a minute of plotting a 1 second chart you'd have 60 bars of data on your screen so it soon builds up into something that can be analysed and traded. Flexichart also has the ability to build a chart using both the bid and the ask price but only when it's building the tick data from scratch.
(b) Tick charts - EqualVolumeBars & TickSave
(http://articles.mql4.com/548)
How it works: TickSave collects real-time ticks and stores them in a file. EqualVolumeBars uses those ticks to create a new chart with a user-defined number of ticks in each bar. Simples. There are other solutions to making tick charts. This is just that one that works for my setup.
--------------------------------------------
(4) MARKET REPLAY & SIMULATION
Being in tune with how the market moves and responds to certain events can take a lot of practise and, most importantly, a lot of screen-time. Looking at a historical chart is fine for developing ideas but it's very different to watching the chart unfold in realtime. There are several ways to replay the market which allow MT4-users to practise trading without spending months staring at the screen. They also allow you to fast forward through the market hours you wouldn't normally trade.
N.B. Beware of fractal interpolation which is discussed here (http://www.metatrader4.com/forum/2373). Make sure that you have the correct historical data loaded before you start to backtest. Ideally this historical data should go all the way down to M1 if you are doing your backtest with small intraday timeframes (e.g. <H1).
And remember although you have the ability to replay the market as and when and how you want, simulation and the pace of real-life trading are still worlds apart. To partially alleviate this problem here is an excellent post on coping with boredom when trading (http://www.trade2win.com/boards/psyc...tml#post102204).
(a) LFH Trading Simulator
(original post - http://www.forexforum.net/fx-article...simulator.html)
(download link - http://www.tradingsystemforex.com/sc...simulator.html)
How it works: Run the EA in the MT4 strategy tester and it will replay the market for you at whatever speed and in whichever timeframe you like. As the simulated market unfolds you can place trades using scripts that come as part of the simulator. You can also pause the market if you need to nip to the toilet or make a pot of coffee. Don't use it so much that you forget that you can't pause the real market.
(b) VHands Trading Simulator
(http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=60849)
How it works: I've never used this simulator but it has broadly the same functionality as the LFH Trading Simulator. Sounds a bit more complicated though.
(c) Quantem's Trading Simulator
(http://www.forexfactory.com/showthre...69#post1856969)
How it works: I haven't used this simulator either. Probably quite similar to the previous two. Try it out.
--------------------------------------------
My list is not exhaustive and you might know of similar ways to do the things I outline below. Feel free to post your own "quantum leaps".
N.B. you won't find any EAs to open trades for you in this post. Please don't add any below.
The post is structured as follows:
(1) Displaying market information
(2) Order management
(3) Viewing extra timeframes and tick charts
(4) Market replay & simulation
--------------------------------------------
(1) DISPLAYING MARKET INFORMATION
When you start up MT4 for the first time it won't be set up with your well-being in mind. It only plots the bid price, it will be autoscaled and the gridlines will be in stupid places (e.g. 1.04862). The following tweaks and indicators will help to put the price information in front of you in perspective.
(a) Setting your vertical zoom level
How it works: After several months of using MT4 I for some reason decided to fix my EURUSD M1 chart zoom level to 200 pips. That way I could suddenly see when the market was moving around a lot, and when the market was not going anywhere. Probably my biggest quantum leap in trading thus far.
Howto: Open your chart; press F8; tick the box marked "Scale fix"; input maximum and minimum pip values as required.
(b) Setting your horizontal zoom level
How it works: If you're looking at an M15 candlestick chart you are essentially binning the price by time. A nice price pattern like a double-top is not necessarily going to fall neatly into these M15 time bins; it may, for example, look like two candlesticks of the same height. This is where the skill of the candlestick chart reader comes into play. However, if you want to see what price is doing without the tedium of guessing what the candlestick formations mean there is another way - zoom out as far as you can. This way a zoomed-out M1 chart will have the rough equivalence of an M5 candlestick chart but showing all the information previously hidden inside those M5 candles.
Howto: Open your chart; press the minus (-) key until things stop happening.
(c) SweetSpots GOLD
(http://www.forexfactory.com/showthre...74#post3172774)
Not sure who coded this indicator (above link is just for the download).
How it works: SweetSpots GOLD draws horizontal lines on your chart at set intervals. In addition to setting your zoom level (see (1a) above) this helps you to see whether the market is moving or not. It also highlights psychological levels which price might use as support or resistance. Get rid of the standard MT4 grid first (Ctrl+G).
(d) Igel-Spread
(http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=105812)
How it works: Very simple. Displays the current spread in the top left-hand corner of the chart. Good for keeping tabs at news time.
(e) Monitoring Spread
(http://codebase.mql4.com/6183)
How it works: Monitoring Spread monitors spread. It does this in an indicator window and logs the realtime minimum, maximum and average spread for each bar. Good for: monitoring spread; especially during news releases and out of major market hours.
(f) Instrument (Old Version)
(http://codebase.mql4.com/6518)
How it works: If you have a fixed spread broker you can tweak a normal chart so that it displays both the bid and the ask. This can be useful to get a perspective of how price moves relative to the spread of your instrument (i.e. does the spread dwarf the extent to which price is moving?).
Howto: Attach Instrument to your chart; enter the instrument name, time frame, and in the VertShift field enter the spread of your instrument. I usually use this indicator with price zoomed out as far as it can go and the indicator colour set to black so it blends in with the chart candles.
(g) i-Sessions
(http://www.forexfactory.com/showthre...961#post261961)
Not sure who coded this indicator (above link is just for the download).
How it works: i-Sessions plots boxes on your chart for the US, European and Asian sessions. Start and finish times can be customised for if you want to plot e.g. Frankfurt session instead of London. Good for visually backtesting and developing ideas using historical data so you can ignore times when you will be asleep or when the market is usually slow. If you can, try not to be snoozing during the London session as this is often where the majority of the volatility happens for major pairs.
--------------------------------------------
(2) ORDER MANAGEMENT
MT4 has pretty limited functionality when it comes to automatic order management. To enter an order and its associated stop loss and take profit is pretty fiddly (involving typing numbers into the order screen and doing on the fly calculations in your head) and almost impossible when you need to do it fast before the market moves away from your entry price. The following EAs can turn MT4 into an extremely efficient tool, especially for shorter-term traders.
(a) Swiss Army EA
(http://www.forex-tsd.com/expert-advi...anagement.html)
How it works: Very versatile. Commonly used features are its ability to attach a stop loss, trailing stop, break even point and take profit to an order.
(b) Multi-Purpose Trade Management EA
(http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?p=2029899)
How it works: Same as Swiss Army EA but probably even more versatile. Includes hidden stops and an "always on" function which means you don't have to wait for a new tick before the EA adds your stop loss. Always good when the next tick after placing an order gaps wildly against your position
.(c) EASY EA
(http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=98061)
How it works: EASY EA lets you enter pending orders by drawing lines on your chart. Stop loss and take profit can be set at predetermined levels. EASY EA can also calculate the lot size for your pending order based on your percentage risk. After the order is triggered EASY EA places lines on the chart for your stop loss and take profit which you can then move around at your leisure. Useful for moving to break even. Don't go widening that stop loss though!
(d) Luktom Visual Order Editor
(http://en.luktom.biz/Page/447/luktom...l-order-editor)
How it works: Haven't used this one. Similar to EASY EA in many ways with some added functionality. Luktom can work in "always on" mode in a similar way to the Multi-Purpose Trade Management EA. It can also close part of orders and provides a visual line after which the trade will move to break even and a visual line after which a pending order will be cancelled.
--------------------------------------------
(3) VIEWING EXTRA TIMEFRAMES AND TICK CHARTS
The ability to create additional timeframes and tick charts is a huge advance on the basic functionality of MT4. It brings MT4 charting onto a par with most other trading packages with the exception of those with Depth of Market information.
If you don't end up using 1 second or tick charts in your everyday trading they can often serve as a useful tool to learn how price moves and to better understand what is being shown on your standard MT4 chart.
(a) Extra timeframes - Flexichart
(http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=222230)
How it works: Flexichart allows you to view charts with timeframes ranging from tick and 1 second to 24 hours. For timeframes over one minute Flexichart can build your required timeframe from historical data. For timeframes under one minute Flexichart has to record tick data from scratch as MT4 doesn't store this on its own. However, after a minute of plotting a 1 second chart you'd have 60 bars of data on your screen so it soon builds up into something that can be analysed and traded. Flexichart also has the ability to build a chart using both the bid and the ask price but only when it's building the tick data from scratch.
(b) Tick charts - EqualVolumeBars & TickSave
(http://articles.mql4.com/548)
How it works: TickSave collects real-time ticks and stores them in a file. EqualVolumeBars uses those ticks to create a new chart with a user-defined number of ticks in each bar. Simples. There are other solutions to making tick charts. This is just that one that works for my setup.
--------------------------------------------
(4) MARKET REPLAY & SIMULATION
Being in tune with how the market moves and responds to certain events can take a lot of practise and, most importantly, a lot of screen-time. Looking at a historical chart is fine for developing ideas but it's very different to watching the chart unfold in realtime. There are several ways to replay the market which allow MT4-users to practise trading without spending months staring at the screen. They also allow you to fast forward through the market hours you wouldn't normally trade.
N.B. Beware of fractal interpolation which is discussed here (http://www.metatrader4.com/forum/2373). Make sure that you have the correct historical data loaded before you start to backtest. Ideally this historical data should go all the way down to M1 if you are doing your backtest with small intraday timeframes (e.g. <H1).
And remember although you have the ability to replay the market as and when and how you want, simulation and the pace of real-life trading are still worlds apart. To partially alleviate this problem here is an excellent post on coping with boredom when trading (http://www.trade2win.com/boards/psyc...tml#post102204).
(a) LFH Trading Simulator
(original post - http://www.forexforum.net/fx-article...simulator.html)
(download link - http://www.tradingsystemforex.com/sc...simulator.html)
How it works: Run the EA in the MT4 strategy tester and it will replay the market for you at whatever speed and in whichever timeframe you like. As the simulated market unfolds you can place trades using scripts that come as part of the simulator. You can also pause the market if you need to nip to the toilet or make a pot of coffee. Don't use it so much that you forget that you can't pause the real market.
(b) VHands Trading Simulator
(http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=60849)
How it works: I've never used this simulator but it has broadly the same functionality as the LFH Trading Simulator. Sounds a bit more complicated though.
(c) Quantem's Trading Simulator
(http://www.forexfactory.com/showthre...69#post1856969)
How it works: I haven't used this simulator either. Probably quite similar to the previous two. Try it out.
--------------------------------------------