I Will Learn Coding in 1 Month - Give me the 80/20 of MT4 Coding

Learning how to code MT4 has been on my ''to do list'' for the past few years. I've spent countless hours back-testing simple systems by hand that I could easily program in code. Enough of that!

Give me the 20% of tasks to achieve 80% of results. I will learn to code MT4 in one month. I plan to spend 45 minutes per day on this task. Follow this thread for my progress.

Let's start from the beginning, in your opinion, what should I read first as a beginner course? My plan is to get the basics down then start coding and get good at it through trial and error. How does this sound?

Please share your tips and suggestions below. Thank you very much!

MetaEditor > F1

You didn't state your coding experience. MQL4 is one of the easiest languages to learn for an experienced coder. For a begginner, MT4 is not a good first language to learn due to its lack of proper documentation and tutorials to say nothing of basic concepts like structuring code properly.

None. I took a basic class on c+ or smth similar in high school and did great. I haven't done any programming or anything similar since.

I did find the lack of documentation you speak of a major hurdle whenever I would try to get into MQL. Is the situation the same now?

I have given up on MQL since the 600+ builds.

I would suggest relearnng what you knew before and then tackling MQL. Almost any language has better learning resources than MQL. Codeacademy for instance is where I learned javascript.

I am currently doing the same thing, I have been at it for about a month now, I started with C, and plan to go to Java eventually in 1 year. Like you I had to gather information the hard way that could have been gotten with a few lines of code. Anyways good luck.

I found this book very helpful when i started:

Expert Advisor Programming: Creating Automated Trading Systems in MQL for MetaTrader 4
by Andrew R. Young

It was written before ver 6xx, but still worth a look

Fred

thanks for that! It has very good reviews on amazon, but no kindle version I may pick it up if I get stuck with free resources.

I in fact never "learn" MQL.
I simply look up things as I need them.
There's nothing special about MQL; basically it is a (simplyfied) C-derivative e.g. old-school imperative language; if you know one, you know them all. Its (or rather MT4's) functionality is implemented through functions. That means you simply have to know what function you want or need to use - a matter of look-up. Dokumentation is there and sufficient.
You'd learn by looking at code, fortunately there's plenty of it and probably more than you could read in your lifetime. Then, you try out your own. Yes, there is a certain program metrics (structure) but it's simple.

However, there's another aspect to it of course. The whole thing isn't about MQL, rather it is about the data that you have at hand and how it is organised and what it means (you have to understand the market), expecially what you can do with it. And what you be able to do with it much depends on intelligence, that is, what level of abstraction your brain is capable of.

It is like with talent; if you got talent in doing something, you will still need to do the hard work (practising) but you will achieve far more than someone who has less or no talent, no matter how hard those try.

BTW, there's no "new" MQL. There are additional features implemented (and only few things have been changed, such as the organisation of some data), but you do not need to use them, it is merely an option. None of the functions of the whole thing is OOP or something, still all is the same as before.

fxsafe6,

I will say to you that the book is WORTH EVERY PENNY. You seriously going to ..save 26$ by not buying the book when you use the knowledge from the book
to make million $ lol...

Do not CUT back on education.....


great book => Expert Advisor Programming: Creating Automated Trading Systems in MQL for MetaTrader 4
by Andrew R. Young

---

P.S

Don't even bother wasting time on free resource it can not beat that book.

hi, you could also read http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=485460

DAY 3 UPDATE:

Thanks everyone for your tips. Keep em coming!

Things are going good so far. I decided to split this into smaller tasks.

The first task is to learn how to create a simple breakout EA. I found this EA online and I'm basically doing what rockin suggested. I lookup what each function does. Total time spent so far 2h and 15min.

Subscribe to this thread to stay updated! Here are some of the links I've found useful:

http://book.mql4.com/programm/execution

http://book.mql4.com/variables/types

How's your studying going?

whts wrong with the code..i bought the book mql4(andrew young)..bt i get error whn i code...kindly help me out

//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
//| saoirsemq4 |
//| Copyright 2016, saoirseCorp. |
//| https://www.mql4.com |
//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
#property copyright "Copyright 2016, mql4Corp."
#property link "https://www.mql4.com"
#property version "1.00"
#property strict
//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
//| GLOBAL |
//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
double EquityPercent=2;
bool DynamicLotSize=true;
double FixedLotSize=0.1;
double TakeProfit=1.0;
double StopLoss=100000;
int Slippage=5;
int MagicNumber=1133;
//***
int BuyTicket;
int SellTicket;
double UsePoint;
int UseSlippage;

//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
//| INIT |
//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
int init()
{
UsePoint =PipPoint(Symbol());
UseSlippage=GetSlippage(Symbol(),Slippage);
return(0);

}
//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
//| START |
//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
void OnStart()
{
double FastMA=iMA(NULL,0,10,0,0,0,1);
double SlowMA=iMA(NULL,0,25,0,0,0,1);




//**LotSize Calculation
if(DynamicLotSize ==true)
{
double RiskAmount=AccountEquity() *(EquityPercent/100);
double TickValue=MarketInfo(Symbol(),MODE_TICKVALUE);
if(Point ==0.001 || Point =0.00001) TickValue *10;
double CalcLots=(RiskAmount/StopLoss)/TickValue;
double LotSize=CalcLots;
}
else
LotSize =FixedLotSize;


//Lotsize verification
if(LotSize <MarketInfo(Symbol(),MODE_MINLOT))
{
LotSize=MarketInfo(Symbol(),MODE_MINLOT);
}
else
if(LotSize>MarketInfo(Symbol(),MODE_MAXLOT));
{
LotSize=MarketInfo(Symbol(),MODE_MAXLOT);
}



if(MarketInfo(Symbol(),MODE_LOTSTEP) == 0.1)
{
LotSize=NormalizeDouble(LotSize,1);
}
else
LotSize=NormalizeDouble(LotSize,2);






//***BuyTrade
if(FastMA>SlowMA && BuyTicket==0)
{
//CloseOrder
OrderSelect(SellTicket,SELECT_BY_TICKET);
if(OrderCloseTime==0 && SellTicket>0)
{
double CloseLots=OrderLots();
double ClosePrice=Ask;
while (IsTradeContextBusy()) Sleep(10);
RefreshRates();
bool OdrClose=OrderClose(SellTicket,CloseLots,ClosePrice,UseSlippage,Red);

if(OdrClose == false)
{
print( "Failed to Close Order" " " ErrorCode=GetLastError());
}

}


//openbuyorder
while (IsTradeContextBusy()) Sleep(10);
RefreshRates();
bool BuyTicket=OrderSend(Symbol(),OP_BUY,LotSize,UseSlippage,0,0,"BANGBANG",MagicNumber,0,Blue);

if(BuyTicket== -1 )
{
print( "Failed to Send Order" " " ErrorCode=GetLastError());
}
else

{
OrderSelect(BuyTicket,SELECT_BY_TICKET);

//calculate stop level
double StopLevel=MarketInfo(Symbol(),MODE_STOPLEVEL) *Point;
double UpperStopLevel=Ask+StopLevel;
double LowerStopLevel=Bid-StopLevel;
double MinStop=5*UsePoint;


//calculate stoploss,takeprofit
double OpenPrice=OrderOpenPrice();
double BuyStopLoss=OpenPrice-(StopLoss*UsePoint);
double BuyTakeProfit=OpenPrice+(StopLoss*UsePoint);


//Verify stoploss & takeprofit
if(BuyStoploss >LowerStopLevel)
{
BuyStopLoss=LowerStoplevel -MinStop;
}


if(BuyTakeProfit <UpperStopLevel)
{
BuyTakeProfit =UpperStopLevel+MinStop;
}



//Modify order

if(BuyStopLoss >0 || BuyTakeProfit>0)
{
double OpenPrice=OrderOpenPrice();
bool TicketMod=OrderModify(BuyTicket,OpenPrice,BuyStopLoss,BuyTakeProfit,0);

if(TicketMod ==false)

{
print( "Failed to Send Order" " " ErrorCode=GetLastError());

}

}
}

}




//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


if(FastMA<SlowMA && SellTicket==0)
{
//CloseOrder
OrderSelect(BuyTicket,SELECT_BY_TICKET);
if(OrderCloseTime==0 && BuyTicket>0)
{
double CloseLots=OrderLots();
double ClosePrice=Bid;
while (IsTradeContextBusy()) Sleep(10);
RefreshRates();
bool OdrClose=OrderClose(BuyTicket,CloseLots,ClosePrice,UseSlippage,Red);

if(OdrClose == false)
{
print( "Failed to Close Order" " " ErrorCode=GetLastError());
}

}

while (IsTradeContextBusy()) Sleep(10);
RefreshRates();

bool Sellicket=OrderSend(Symbol(),OP_SELL,LotSize,UseSlippage,0,0,"BANGBANG",MagicNumber,0,Blue);

if(SellTicket == -1 )
{
print( "Failed to Send Order" " " ErrorCode=GetLastError());
}


else

{
OrderSelect(SellTicket,SELECT_BY_TICKET);

//calculate stop level
double StopLevel=MarketInfo(Symbol(),MODE_STOPLEVEL) *Point;
double UpperStopLevel=Ask+StopLevel;
double LowerStopLevel=Bid-StopLevel;
double MinStop=5*UsePoint;


//calculate stoploss,takeprofit
double OpenPrice=OrderOpenPrice();
double BuyStopLoss=OpenPrice+(StopLoss*UsePoint);
double BuyTakeProfit=OpenPrice-(StopLoss*UsePoint);


//Verify stoploss & takeprofit
if(SellStoploss <UpperStopLevel)
{
SellStopLoss=UpperStoplevel +MinStop;
}


if( SellTakeProfit >LowerStopLevel)
{
SellTakeProfit =LowerStopLevel-MinStop;
}



//Modify order

if(SellStopLoss >0 || SellTakeProfit>0)
{
double OpenPrice=OrderOpenPrice();
bool TicketMod=OrderModify(SellTicket,OpenPrice,SellStopLoss,SellTakeProfit,0);

if(TicketMod ==false)

{
print( "Failed to Send Order" " " ErrorCode=GetLastError());

}


}
}
}

//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
//| CUSTOM |
//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
double PipPoint(string currency)
{
int CalcDigits=MarketInfo(Currency,MODE_DIGITS);
if(CalcDigits==2 || Digits ==3) CalcPoint=0.01;
else
if(CalcDigits==4 || Digits==5) CalcPoint=0.0001;
return(CalcPoint);
}


int GetSlippage(string Currency,int SlippagePips)
{
int CalcDigits=MarketInfo(Currency,MODE_DIGITS);
if(CalcDigits==2 || CalcDigits ==3) CalcSlippage=SlippagePips;;
if(CalcDigits==4 || CalcDigits==5) CalcSlippage=SlippagePips*10;
return(CalcSlippage);
}

Think you should read this..

http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=615209

Probably learning MT5 may be a better option if you already understand 'C'

M.