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Most accurate ZigZag indicator?

  • #81
  • Edited 9:21am Jan 23, 2026 1:39am | Edited 9:21am
Quoting emmzett
{quote} You can definitely use the last uploaded version here, if it works for you. Some traders with a terminal not running in portable mode experience a nasty bug which needs to be fixed. But if it works, then all good. At the moment I have little time for the forum because I'm in the process of starting a new project which will occupy me for at least another week.
Would you please describe briefly what this non-portable mode "nasty bug" with MT4 is? (Or is it something specific about your zigzag code in non-portable mode?)

I only use portable mode so I'll apparently never see it, but still, I like to write code which works either way. Thx.
  • #82
  • Jan 24, 2026 6:42am Jan 24, 2026 6:42am
Quoting pips4life
{quote} Would you please describe briefly what this non-portable mode "nasty bug" with MT4 is? (Or is it something specific about your zigzag code in non-portable mode?) I only use portable mode so I'll apparently never see it, but still, I like to write code which works either way. Thx.

  1. In portable mode the terminal stores history data, MQL programs, chart templates (user data) in the installation folder ("%InstallDir%").
  2. In non-portable mode (default) the installation folder typically is "%ProgramFiles%\MetaTrader4". However, applications can only be installed in that folder, they cannot write user data to it. For this reason user data in non-portable mode is stored in "%UserProfile%\AppData\Roaming\MetaQuotes\Terminal\{id}".

The MT4Expander needs to find out in which mode the terminal is operating to correctly access config files/sound files/MQL files. The detection logic had a bug which made the Expander assume that the terminal is running in portable mode when in fact it was running in non-portable mode. The bug was UAC related. So, the Expander accessed the wrong paths and this made MQL programs (my ZigZag) fail with a DLL exception. Such an exception showed up on the screen top-left.

This error became visible only in non-portable mode. Portable mode was not affected.

@see GetTerminalDataPathW()

It takes blood, sweat and enough tears to wash away the blood.
  • #83
  • Jan 25, 2026 5:46am Jan 25, 2026 5:46am
Quoting pips4life
{quote} Would you please describe briefly what this non-portable mode "nasty bug" with MT4 is? (Or is it something specific about your zigzag code in non-portable mode?) I only use portable mode so I'll apparently never see it, but still, I like to write code which works either way. Thx.
Here is the latest version. All significant issues are fixed. Remaining open issues (minor ones) are documented here: ZigZag issues
Attached File(s)
File Type: zip ZigZag-rsf.bin.zip   2.0 MB | 182 downloads
File Type: zip ZigZag-rsf.src.zip   236 KB | 182 downloads
It takes blood, sweat and enough tears to wash away the blood.
  • #84
  • Edited 11:56am Jan 26, 2026 11:31am | Edited 11:56am
Quoting emmzett
{quote} Here is the latest version. All significant issues are fixed. Remaining open issues (minor ones) are documented here: ZigZag issues {file} {file}
Thanks for your response. You have some great code, and there would be opportunities for me to use and contribute, but I am on the latest MT4, not <= b509.

I've wondered if any AI tool could be told to "rename all the variables containing a period to be an underscore" (or double-underscore if you prefer). Or perhaps some clever use of sed or awk perhaps? A long time ago I used such tools to make repetitive text changes.

As you may know, in 2017, I converted hanover's function library from b509 to b600+ here. It was just one-by-one, tackling each compiler error, and renaming his extensive use of periods in var names among other things. Of course, there were some subtle differences and that took some time and debugging to find the root cause. (His coding style may have been more susceptible to subtle behaviors?? I don't know). Yours would be a much bigger amount of code, but maybe possible, and ... perhaps worthwhile to you? Certainly to others like me.

Regarding the location of (just) custom sound files, I've used #resource:
#resource "\\Files\\Resources\\file.wav" // To use: PlaySound("::Files\\Resources\\file.wav"); // Location: "...\MQL4\Files\Resources\file.wav"

When compiled, the .ex4 already contains the .wav file, so it never needs to look in the MT4 folder structure, whether Portable or not. It also makes it easy to share such .ex4 files.

I don't know whether this would be helpful syntax to you or not. I didn't notice any use of #resource in what I checked of your zigzag code.

Thanks again.
Kent
  • #85
  • Edited Jan 27, 2026 12:19am Jan 26, 2026 12:31pm | Edited Jan 27, 2026 12:19am
Thank you for your kind words.

Quoting pips4life
...I've wondered if any AI tool could be told to "rename all the variables containing a period to be an underscore" (or double-underscore if you prefer). Or perhaps some clever use of sed or awk perhaps...
Renaming some vars would be a rather small issue of the framework. The heavy lifting happens in the DLL when managing init cycles of loaded MQL programs. It's the DLL that works arround many MQL bugs and issues. Implementing this for MQL4.5 is possible but requires a lot of reverse engineering of the latest terminal versions. That's the main reason I stick with MQL4.0 because I invested so much development time into MQL4.0. Simply said, I don't want to invest the time as long as I can make money with MQL4.0. But as you can see there are rudimentary folder structures for MQL4.5 and MQL5.0 in the repo, so over time it will grow. Just not as fast as many wish.

btw: There is now also a cross-compiler script in the repo which is capable of compiling all three MQL versions (MQL4.0, MQL4.5 and MQL5). It just compiles what you throw at it. Even a directory tree. For details see the CI workflow.

Quoting pips4life
...Regarding the location of (just) custom sound files...I don't know whether this would be helpful syntax to you or not...
The disadvantages of the MetaQuotes way of playing sounds are:

  1. MQL cannot play multple sounds in parallel. Playing one sound will immediately stop other sounds from playing, from all MQL programs currently running. Imagine you have an order tracker to notify you of executed trades and/or limits. During a breakout ZigZag signal and order execution may be triggered at the same time. Now you can't simply show an alert box because the alert sound immediately stops the sound of your trade execution signal. This happens in microseconds, so you don't even hear the first sound and miss that "suppressed" signal. Instead playing sounds must work like an MP3 player in the background, fully transparently. For this reason usefulness of the MQL sound function is rather limited.
  2. MQL only supports playing .WAV files. That's a minor issue but it's nice to be able to play whatever sound type comes along. The DLL can even play the audio track of a video file.

It takes blood, sweat and enough tears to wash away the blood.
  • #86
  • Jun 5, 2026 11:33am Jun 5, 2026 11:33am
Quoting emmzett
{quote} Here is the latest version. All significant issues are fixed. Remaining open issues (minor ones) are documented here: ZigZag issues {file} {file}
Than you so much. Could you please share for MT5?.
  • #87
  • Jun 5, 2026 3:17pm Jun 5, 2026 3:17pm
Quoting sureshhacker
{quote} Thank you so much. Could you please share for MT5?.
Currently there are no plans to support MT5 in the near future. That doesn't mean it won't happen at all. But right now, I don't have enough time for it.
Thank you!
It takes blood, sweat and enough tears to wash away the blood.
  • #88
  • Last Post: Jun 9, 12:43am (15 hr ago) Jun 9, 12:43am (15 hr ago)
Quoting emmzett
{quote} Currently there are no plans to support MT5 in the near future. That doesn't mean it won't happen at all. But right now, I don't have enough time for it. Thank you!
Hi! Can you please take a look? Based on your algorithm idea, but since I use the futures market (as far as I know, due to certain limitations in MetaTrader 4, futures brokers use MetaTrader 5), I've run into issues where there's an opening from Friday to Monday plus a short session on Sunday, which mere mortals don't see. I've fixed that.
Attached File(s)
File Type: ex5 ZigZag-rsf.ex5   14 KB | 3 downloads
File Type: mq5 ZigZag-rsf.mq5   12 KB | 2 downloads
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