Can an EA "see" what chart its on?

Hello all,

In programing (adjusting) my latest EA I came across an idea that I'd like to program to make my EA variable to the chart its placed on. Part of its function is to use the chart underneath it for an entry signal...meaning that if the chart is currently on the 4 hr chart that it would look at the hourly close to confirm an entry signal. Likewise if the EA was on the hourly chart it would look at the 15 min chart for its confirmation.

So here is the question...How can I tell the EA to define which chart it is on and similarly how can I tell it to look at the next lowest (or next defined lowest) time frame to take its entry signals...

I'm sure its something to do with the init section but I'm not sure how the mq4 language defines which chart it is currently placed on.

Anyone out there know?

Use the Period() function. Period() returns the number of minutes in a bar.

Then you'll need a small block of code defining all of the relations.

 

1. Month to week
2. Week to day
3. Day to 4 hr
4. etc.

Never mind...I figured it out...it really wan't that hard afterall...Sorry to waste your time reading...if anyone is interested in how...just reply...its not that tough.

I'm curious to know your solution, maybe it's more effective then my own =D

The solution was simple:

In the global variable section I placed an integer varialbe called, "embed_time".

//----declare global variables
int embed_time;

Then on the init section of the EA I placed the relationship I wanted for each time frame:

init()
//----check for chart time frame and adjust embedded trend time frame.
if (Period() == 1440)
{
embed_time = PERIOD_H4;
}
if (Period() == 240)
{
embed_time = PERIOD_H1;
}
if (Period() == 60)
{
embed_time = PERIOD_M15;
}

Finally I configured the close to read the embeded time frame NOT the time frame the chart was on. This was done as a double in the Start() section called "h1c1".

Start()
//----declare local variables
double h1c1;

h1c1 = iclose(NULL,embed_time,1);

Thats it...

When the EA is applied to the chart it will read the chart time frame and then adjust the "embed_time" variable to look for the close on the lower time frame. This will happen each time the chart is changed from one time frame to another or each time it is applied to a new chart.