How do I specify trading hours for my EA?

I would like my EA to open buy orders only within a certain time period such as 1900 to 2100 hrs.

What is the code to do that?

When you generate a signal simply check if CheckTradingTime() returns true.

Where do I define 1900 and 2100 as my time period?

Set startHour to 19 and EndHour to 21

Can I do this?

if (TimeCurrent() > 1900 && TimeCurrent() < 2100 && Buy1 > Buy2 && Buy3 < Buy4)
{
Order = SIGNAL_BUY;
}

What does TimeCurrent() do?

Or should I use the format 19:00:00 instead of 1900 when using TimeCurrent() to compare?

http://docs.mql4.com/dateandtime

Is there a function that I can use to obtain the current mt4/server time in the 24hour clock format?

In metatrader, time is the number of seconds after 00:00:00 January 1, 1970.

Adjust accordingly..

Then what is the code to check if the time is before or after a certain hour?

to get the current hour:

int CurrentHour = TimeHour(TimeCurrent());

then you just need the 24 hour time (0-23) and compare against CurrentHour

What about down to the minute?

Like 1930hrs? How do I check for the minute as well?

this is where you may want to start using string conversions.

datetime TimeCheck = StrToTime("12:34");

the compare TimeCheck against TimeCurrent()

So if I want to Open a Buy Order under the condition that the time is between 19:00 and 19:30, I should use the following code am I right?


datetime TimeCheck1 = StrToTime("19:00");
datetime TimeCheck2 = StrToTime("19:30");


if (TimeCurrent() > TimeCheck1 && TimeCurrent() < TimeCheck2 && Buy1 > Buy2 && Buy3 < Buy4)
{
Order = SIGNAL_BUY;
}

Yes.

Once you do something like this however, make sure the time specified is on the proper day. You need to make sure you handle midnight properly.

What problem may I face with midnight?

Would I run into problems if I was trying to specify a time period between 23:00 and 01:00?

Like this?

datetime TimeCheck1 = StrToTime("23:00");
datetime TimeCheck2 = StrToTime("01:00");


if (TimeCurrent() > TimeCheck1 && TimeCurrent() < TimeCheck2 && Buy1 > Buy2 && Buy3 < Buy4)
{
Order = SIGNAL_BUY;
}

23:00 and 01:00 would be of the same day (Let's say January 1) instead of January 1, 23:00 and January 2, 01:00

Would the code still work irregarless of the day?

That means it trades every single time between 23:00 and 01:00?

No.

You seem to be missing the point. To the EA, 01:00 and 23:00 happen on the same day. The EA effectively ignores midnight. To compensate for this, you need to check using StrToTime to determine if Stop Time comes before or after Start Time, and adjust the logic accordingly.

Then what is the code to trade only when the time is between 23:00 and 01:00 every day?