can this be done with MetaTrader? | Forex Factory

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can this be done with MetaTrader?

  • #1
  • First Post: Jul 3, 2008 11:31am Jul 3, 2008 11:31am
Can the following be done with MetaTrader:

I want to run a program from the command line that will call a MetaTrader program to buy 1 lot of EURUSD and then exit.

That's it. It just calls a program to place an order. No conditional statements or anything.

Can someone help with this?

Thanks,

Frank
  • #2
  • Jul 3, 2008 12:07pm Jul 3, 2008 12:07pm
I think yes.

One way would be to have your program write a line of text to a file. Use an EA on Metatrader to look for a comand in this file, read the command, execute, then erase the line in the file. Only catch is that the EA only runs when a tic come in on the chart the EA is attached, so there might be some lag from the time when your 'other' program calls for an order, and when Metatrader places the order.

I am not up to this level of programing yet, but I know at least 2 or 3 others here who should have no problem showing you how.

Rusty
  • #3
  • Jul 3, 2008 12:17pm Jul 3, 2008 12:17pm
Thanks Rusty. I appreciate the reply and your idea. That is definitely one way to do it. However, it has to be very quick. I want to buy at the exact price that it is when I run the program. I wonder how much time opening, reading, and closing a file would take?


Thanks,

Frank
  • #4
  • Jul 3, 2008 12:32pm Jul 3, 2008 12:32pm
Set a script in metatrader, map it to a hotkey, and have a macro or similar play that hotkey back when your external program wants to.
  • #5
  • Jul 3, 2008 3:29pm Jul 3, 2008 3:29pm
This is the best idea. I believe Raygun here is experienced in windows environment.

Quoting Ronald Raygun
Set a script in metatrader, map it to a hotkey, and have a macro or similar play that hotkey back when your external program wants to.
Keep your hands up, and use your pant! - FxMatics
  • #6
  • Jul 3, 2008 5:41pm Jul 3, 2008 5:41pm
Ronald,

Thanks! I'll give this a try and see how it goes.


Frank


Quoting Ronald Raygun
Set a script in metatrader, map it to a hotkey, and have a macro or similar play that hotkey back when your external program wants to.
  • #7
  • Jul 4, 2008 6:22pm Jul 4, 2008 6:22pm
How do you map a script to a hotkey? The script has to run from the command line.


Frank

Quoting Ronald Raygun
Set a script in metatrader, map it to a hotkey, and have a macro or similar play that hotkey back when your external program wants to.
  • #8
  • Edited 7:55pm Jul 4, 2008 7:23pm | Edited 7:55pm
Why the command line? Can you explain some more of the entire process?
ps: Rusty's idea will work. An EA must wait for a tick to start it, however a script does not. You could have a script sit in a sleep loop and look for the text file he is talking about. It will eat some cpu cycles while it looks, sleeps, looks, etc. But if the sleep is just 1 second, it is probably fast enough. Another approach, is to place the sleep in a DLL and call it from the script. The command line program would call the DLL and issue the wake-up.
  • #9
  • Jul 4, 2008 8:05pm Jul 4, 2008 8:05pm
Kenz987,

I am using Excel to determine when to place trades. I want Excel to execute my trade using a Excel VBA (Excel Macro). Excel VBA can call a shell program when certain rules change.

I basically need Excel to call the MetaTrader script. I could do the textfile thing, but if there is a quicker way, that would be easier. My Excel program is very busy and I don't want it to compete with file opens/closes every second.


Frank


Quoting Kenz987
Why the command line? Can you explain some more of the entire process?
ps: Rusty's idea will work. An EA must wait for a tick to start it, however a script does not. You could have a script sit in a sleep loop and look for the text file he is talking about. It will eat some cpu cycles while it looks, sleeps, looks, etc. But if the sleep is just 1 second, it is probably fast enough. Another approach, is to place the sleep in a DLL and call it from the script. The command line program would call the DLL and issue the wake-up.
  • #10
  • Jul 4, 2008 8:13pm Jul 4, 2008 8:13pm
The text file approach is a quick start. It will buy you some time until you get the DLL built. I've not done DLLs in MT, but expect there is a programmer here that has.
  • #11
  • Jul 4, 2008 8:24pm Jul 4, 2008 8:24pm
How would a MetaTrader DLL work? What do I program it in?

Thanks,

Frank

Quoting Kenz987
The text file approach is a quick start. It will buy you some time until you get the DLL built. I've not done DLLs in MT, but expect there is a programmer here that has.
  • #12
  • Edited 9:28pm Jul 4, 2008 8:34pm | Edited 9:28pm
I'm hoping a more experienced programmer will contribute right about here. The best language would probably be some version of C. I don't know if MT has some funny linkage requirements or not, but basically it would accept a command from the script to wait on an event, and the command line program would post that event. I do not know the syntax to do that, just that it is possible.
ps: Found this link earlier today somewhere else in this forum (don't remember where now, but Thanks to the poster):
It shows how to build a basic DLL and where to get a free compiler.
http://www.metatrader.info/node/160
ps2: The example also shows how to call user32 dll and use the keyboard commands. Maybe this can be simplified to 1) set a hotkey to run the script as suggested above (how I don't know), 2) have the command-line program call the user32 and send the hotkey command (note - just prior to doing the send, issue another api call to make sure MT has focus).
ps3: OK, this just gets easier as I think about it. You don't need to shell out to a command line program, you can issue the api call directly from VBA. I probably have code that is very close to doing that already - will search for it tomorrow. In the meantime, maybe you can figure out how to assign a hotkey to a script. More tomorrow. Ken.
  • #13
  • Jul 4, 2008 10:17pm Jul 4, 2008 10:17pm
Kenz987,

I appreciate all of this info. I will start looking at the link you sent me.
I am hoping an expert with DLL will reply also. I do not have any experience writing DLLs and very little with C or C++.


Frank

Quoting Kenz987
I'm hoping a more experienced programmer will contribute right about here. The best language would probably be some version of C. I don't know if MT has some funny linkage requirements or not, but basically it would accept a command from the script to wait on an event, and the command line program would post that event. I do not know the syntax to do that, just that it is possible.
ps: Found this link earlier today somewhere else in this forum (don't remember where now, but Thanks to the poster):
It shows how to build a basic DLL and where to get a free compiler.
http://www.metatrader.info/node/160
ps2: The example also shows how to call user32 dll and use the keyboard commands. Maybe this can be simplified to 1) set a hotkey to run the script as suggested above (how I don't know), 2) have the command-line program call the user32 and send the hotkey command (note - just prior to doing the send, issue another api call to make sure MT has focus).
ps3: OK, this just gets easier as I think about it. You don't need to shell out to a command line program, you can issue the api call directly from VBA. I probably have code that is very close to doing that already - will search for it tomorrow. In the meantime, maybe you can figure out how to assign a hotkey to a script. More tomorrow. Ken.
  • #14
  • Jul 4, 2008 10:26pm Jul 4, 2008 10:26pm
Quoting frank99
How do you map a script to a hotkey? The script has to run from the command line.


Frank

  1. Right click on the script you want to run
  2. Click "Set Hotkey"
  3. Setup your hotkey
  4. Have your program run a macro or similar to play back the hotkey when necessary. (Make sure Metatrader is made the active window).

I personally have been able to do this with a small batch file playing back the recorded keys and linked the batch file to asterisk, so I could easily call my computer, and execute trades from school without using the school equipment, and violating the school internet use policy.

  • #15
  • Edited 10:51pm Jul 4, 2008 10:32pm | Edited 10:51pm
Hey Frank, Look at this:
In your script:
int win_handle = WindowHandle(Symbol(),Period());
int ret = MessageBox("Test for symbol: " + Symbol() + ", period: " + Period() + ", handle:" + win_handle,"Test Script",MB_YESNO|MB_ICONQUESTION);
write it to a file.

VBA:
Declare Function SetForegroundWindow Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long) As Long
Get the handle from the text file - only need to do this once.
Dim lRtn As Long, lHandle As Long
'lHandle = ? 'get this from MT thru a text file
lRtn = SetForegroundWindow(lHandle)
SendKeys "%(T)", True 'hotkey set to Alt-T
ps: I've heard this will not work in Vista - you have to use the api call.
ps again: I did this in Access, hope it works in Excel, if not there is another way.! ;-) Ken.
  • #16
  • Jul 5, 2008 12:21am Jul 5, 2008 12:21am
Kenz987,

Hey. Thanks for all of your help. I am running Windows Vista, but if this will do what I want, I will easily switch back to XP.

Can you confirm or describe what the code below is doing?

In the first part, you said to put it in the script, but then you said, "write to a file". What gets written to a file?

Can the hotkey be called from Excel VBA?

Thanks,

Frank


Quoting Kenz987
Hey Frank, Look at this:
In your script:
int win_handle = WindowHandle(Symbol(),Period());
int ret = MessageBox("Test for symbol: " + Symbol() + ", period: " + Period() + ", handle:" + win_handle,"Test Script",MB_YESNO|MB_ICONQUESTION);
write it to a file.

VBA:
Declare Function SetForegroundWindow Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long) As Long
Get the handle from the text file - only need to do this once.
Dim lRtn As Long, lHandle As Long
'lHandle = ? 'get this from MT thru a text file
lRtn = SetForegroundWindow(lHandle)
SendKeys "%(T)", True 'hotkey set to Alt-T
ps: I've heard this will not work in Vista - you have to use the api call.
ps again: I did this in Access, hope it works in Excel, if not there is another way.! ;-) Ken.
  • #17
  • Jul 5, 2008 9:33am Jul 5, 2008 9:33am
Well it's coming along. ;-) This is still a little kludgy, but I can make it better and I think even Vista will approve. The code above: It actually requires two scripts. The first one you run manually when you start MT. It gets the window handle and places it in a text file. The second one is the one that does the OrderSend and is assigned a hotkey. Then when Excel starts, it gets the handle for later use. When it's time to submit an order it uses the handle to bring MT into focus so the keyboard command (sendkey) will work. I've been told Sendkeys do not work on Vista, but that's ok because there's a cleaner way to do this. I have to dig thru my archives to find a little more code, but just for fun you can try to get this version of it running and double check if Vista complains or not. What version of Office/Excel are you running? Later. Ken.
  • #18
  • Jul 5, 2008 11:41am Jul 5, 2008 11:41am
Kenz987,

I see what you're doing now. This is an excellent idea!

I will be out most of the day, but I will start working on this tonight.
I can't wait to see if it works or not.

Thanks so much for all of your help. This is brilliant.



Frank

Quoting Kenz987
Well it's coming along. ;-) This is still a little kludgy, but I can make it better and I think even Vista will approve. The code above: It actually requires two scripts. The first one you run manually when you start MT. It gets the window handle and places it in a text file. The second one is the one that does the OrderSend and is assigned a hotkey. Then when Excel starts, it gets the handle for later use. When it's time to submit an order it uses the handle to bring MT into focus so the keyboard command (sendkey) will work. I've been told Sendkeys do not work on Vista, but that's ok because there's a cleaner way to do this. I have to dig thru my archives to find a little more code, but just for fun you can try to get this version of it running and double check if Vista complains or not. What version of Office/Excel are you running? Later. Ken.
  • #19
  • Jul 5, 2008 12:06pm Jul 5, 2008 12:06pm
I tried these exact steps and nothing happens when I press the hotkey. I tried multiple hotkeys including ALT N, ALT I, ALT1, etc.

I do have Allow Live Trading checked under Expert Advisors.

I compiled the script, exited, and then opened up Metatrader again and did the "execute on chart".

Frank


Quoting Ronald Raygun

  1. Right click on the script you want to run
  2. Click "Set Hotkey"
  3. Setup your hotkey
  4. Have your program run a macro or similar to play back the hotkey when necessary. (Make sure Metatrader is made the active window).

I personally have been able to do this with a small batch file playing back the recorded keys and linked the batch file to asterisk, so I could easily call my computer, and execute trades from school without using the school equipment, and violating the school internet use policy.

  • #20
  • Jul 5, 2008 6:14pm Jul 5, 2008 6:14pm
you can do this using a program called autohotkey with or without setting a hotkey in mt..
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