Recent Strength indicator
Requirements and Conditions
#61623; All code is provided FREE of charge. It may NOT be distributed or sold commercially.
#61623; Software is offered on an'as is' basis. I'm not supplying a programming or troubleshooting service. Source code isn't currently offered.
#61623; There is not any guarantee that the software is fit for purpose, or free of errors. Download and use the indior(s) at your own risk; I accept no liability for personal harm or financial losses.
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The was written and compiled with MT4 build 509. Some of the settings might not work exactly as described in construct 600 or later. As explained below, the indior requires a lot of personal source, and it might take quite a while for MT4 to load enough data to get it into plot properly. If you're having problems running the indior #8212; the data plots are not appearing after a few seconds #8212; then you might find a solution in these posts: #70, #72, #81, #97, #116, #129. Otherwise, you will want to find a different potency indior**, or switch to a different br0ker (you will find more than 200 MT4 br0kers listed http://www.100forexbrokers.com/mt4forexbrokers).
** In case you can't get the to perform (it can be difficult to set this up correctly), then perhaps try some of these:
#61623; CCFp (see http://articles.mql4.com/422 http://codebase.mql4.com/5862 and http://articles.mql4.com/484). Several recent models here.
#61623; FerruFX has developed a very versatile strength meter .
#61623; There's a mixture of lineup predicated strength indys, and histogr, in this particular thread.
#61623; There's also a lineup based asset indior http://www.stevehopwoodforex.com/php....php?f=45t=629 (2. Currency Slope Strength).
#61623; FiatFap has developed an amazing tool , that comprises a power indior (see post #4 to get a screenshot).
#61623; Kang Gun has also developed a RSI-based power plot. Try this post as a starting point.
#61623; More power indiors and data in this thread, and much more by honestknave (and others) in this thread.
#61623; Longer power dashboards, by GVC along with many others, in this particular thread.
#61623; Another currency meter (from ) here (and more power meters in each of the 3 articles after ).
#61623; ForexProfitSupreme Meter posted by jegas here.
#61623; CSW daily basket indior here.
#61623; Pair Strength Analyzer here.
#61623; Latest version of CSM here, and'Currency power - Giraia' here.
Past MT4 indiors:
#61623; Oanda's power heatmap http://fxtrade.oanda.com/analysis/currency-heatmap.
#61623; Finviz futures charts show currency strength at a glance (http://finviz.com/futures_charts.ashx?t=CURRENCIESp=d1). (additionally, click on chart to view COT information ).
#61623; Another futures/COT alternative http://cotbase.com/.
#61623; MATAF currency index https://www.mataf.net/en/forex/tools/currency-index.
Or if, after reading this, you still feel that spending money will buy you a higher quality product, here are a few you might want to attempt:
#61623; http://www.newsprofiteer.com/newsprofiteer-meter.html (Henry Liu's strength meter is seemingly free, but it's a vendor-like revenue page; see too video http://www.currencynewstrading.com/7...trength-meter/)
#61623; http://www.forextradermark.com/apoll...trength-meter/ by Mark Boardman
#61623; http://www.accustrength.com/ by Tom Yeomans
#61623; http://www.pointzero-trading.com/Pro...ZCurrencyMeter (Arturo Perez is a really good developer, IMHO)
#61623; http://pitview.com/index.php/pitview.../fx-totalview/ power heatmap
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INSTRUCTIONS
Latest update: version 1.09, uploaded July 17, 2010
Latest changes for this post in red typeface
Disclaimer: The attached indior is provided'as is', at no cost. No guarantee or obligation of service is implied. Download and use it at your own risk. I hope that you find it useful. It is the first v1.0 release, please feel welcome to post queries, and report any bugs or shortcomings in this particular thread.
Care programmers: it's now possible to use values in the Recent Strength plots in your EAs. For information on how to interface Energetic Strength to an EA, see here.
Note: if you are interested in getting the RS alarms indy, download and unzip RSsetup.zip and run RSsetup.exe. Provided that you pick the'Destination folder' as your br0ker's MT4 folder, the installation program will install ALL of the files needed to conduct Recent Strength in the correct folders. Then simply restart MT4 and you are all set. To find out more about RS alarms, please see post #323.
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Originally designed as a companion to the Recent Candles indior, the plots the comparative strengths of each currency against each other, on any timeframe(s) that you choose. Each colored line represents the strength of a currency averaged across (possibly ) all the related pairs offered by your MT4 broker. You can use it to (1) trade the most powerful, or most quickly strengthening currency/ies, contrary to the weakest ones; (2) establish which currency is'driving' a pair (e.g. if GBPUSD is climbing, determine whether it's because GBP is strengthening, USD is weakening, or both); and (3) observe correlations between currencies (e.g. determine the degree to which currencies move in unison, or whether specific currencies tend to lead/lag every other). To learn more, please see articles #20 and 59 below.
The indior can potentially be utilized as an adjunct to some trading platform, assisting you to choose which pair(s) to concentrate your trading on. The screenshot below (configurations: NumPoints = 25, SmoothingSMA = 3) illues how you could have improved profit across the D1 timeframe recently, simply by trading the NZDJPY long, with no other TA. The W1 plot shows how JPY changed dramatically from being the most powerful currency to the weakest currency (decreasing most strongly at the right of this plot). Read'The calculation works...' paragraph under, experiment with the settings, form your own conclusions, and use the indior however you see fit.
To install, copy the connected Presets--Recent Strength.TXT file into the.../experts/files folder; replicate the connected Recent Strength.ex4 file into the.../experts/indiors folder, and then restart MT4. Press Ctrl-N to start the Navigator, and drag the indior (under the'Custom Indiors' shrub ) onto your chart. Establish the parameters to match (see the'PARAMETERS' section below), and then click OK.
You can set the parameters by using MT4's built-in dialog, when you join the indior; or simply by overriding these settings together with the Presets--Recent Strength.TXT document (use a text editor such as Notepad into view/edit the file). Employing the document permits you to save preset values, keeping them for every upcoming time you join the indior. To disable an entry into the document, start the line with two slashes (//). To re-enable it, then remove the slashes. You may use any variety of embedded spaces or underscores, or any mix of lower or upper case, to help readability, however you desire. Every line MUST end with a semi-colon (; ). To save and enhance accuracy, copy/paste the sample lines in the document. To disable the whole document, rename it, or delete its content; if the document doesn't exist, then the Parameter Dialog entries (when you attach/edit the indior) will be utilized. To possess any changes take immediate impact, either (1) re-attach the indior for a chart; (2) edit the indior (press Ctrl-I); or (3) toggle between timeframes.
To expand/compress the plot(s) horizontally, zoom in/out with the /#8211; keys.
To expand/compress the plot(s) vertically, drag the window separator upward/downward.
The calculation works as follows. Each colored line represents a specified currency (see legend at right of chart). Require AUD as an example. Each'constituent' AUD-based pair that you specify (and that is given by your broker) #8211; e.g. AUDCAD, AUDCHF, etc 8211; includes its final price on every candle, expressed as a percentage of the final price of the initial candle plotted (or the BasePoint candle, if specified), and multiplied by the weight which you input (see the'PARAMETERS' section below to get more information on weights). These principles are all added together, and the total divided by the total of all of the weights. The pair of the parent chart (the chart to which the indior is attached) can be used to align candle times of their constituent pairs, to work around the potential problem of lost data. When a currency is'inverted' (e.g. GBPAUD rather than AUDJPY), then the reciprocal (1/n) is summed, so that an upward plot will constantly indie a strengthening AUD, along with a downward plot a weakening AUD. In case the SmoothingSMA parameter (see below) is set to some value gt; 1, then additional prior points are utilized to smooth the first values being plotted. Finally the values are then re-scaled to some value between 0 and 100 (comparative to ALL values being plotted in a given timeframe). See post #7 to learn more.
Note that the accuracy of these plots is limited to the pairs, along with the data (on every pair/timeframe), supplied by your broker. More pairs will result in a more comprehensive plot. Missing data will lead to an inaccurate curve being plotted. Use MT4's history center (press F2) and/or temporarily view charts of part pairs/timeframes (use the PageUp key to add more data to the left of the chart) to gather more data for plotting. Amongst MT4 brokers, http://www.migfx.com is one candidate whose MT4 provides ALL possible 28 pair combos involving the major currencies (AUD, CAD, CHF, EUR, GBP, JPY, NZD, USD) from which to collect data (this is not necessarily an endorsement to exchange with them, however ).
Notice that it might take 15-30 minutes to build the plots from the br0ker's servers. This is because the indior have to download and process data from around 9 timeframes of all 28 different currency pairs. This procedure should happen only once. If you would like to ensure that all of the essential data is loaded from the br0ker's servers, do the following**:
Load a new chart without a indys attached, and then press the minus key to zoom out as far as you can. Then open the Market Watch window (press Ctrl-M) and drag the first pair onto the chart, i.e. altering the chart to that pair. Subsequently cycle through each phase (M1, M5,.... MN), also for each timframe hold the PageUp key down for a few seconds before the price window is full of candle info. Then repeat the entire procedure 28 times by dragging every one of the 28 pairs onto the chart, and loading data for each timeframe. (That usually means that you force MT4 to load data for all 9 timeframes x 28 pairs = 252 days ). The entire job took me about 10 minutes, a one-time installation procedure, i.e. once all the data was loaded, the indy itself will not ever have to retrieve it from the servers. It ensures that the indy has plenty of data to utilize, on all pairs along with all timeframes, right from the outset.
[** Notice: there is now an appliion (macro) that performs this task automatically ]
PARAMETERSParameterFile - if left blank, the parameter file Presets--Recent Strength.TXT is going to be used. Settings in this file will override all those entered in the conversation window once the indior is attached/edited. Should you enter a value (e.g. XXX), then the parameter file Presets--Recent Strength.XXX is going to be used instead. This makes it easy to change between a lot of different settings. All parameter files have to live in the.../experts/files folder. More info here TimeFrames - select the timeframes you wish to see, separated by commas. If displaying just one interval, a trailing comma is not required. Leaving this parameter blank defaults into the timeframe of the chart to which the indior is attached. The distances are optional, and are included merely for clarity. Upper/lowercase might be used interchangeably (e.g. H1 or h1). Time frames will exhibit from the left-to-right order in which you form them. See note below on pc functionality NumPoints #8211; how many factors (candles) back from the currently forming one, that you need to see. By way of example, to see the currently forming data stage, and the previous 3 factors, type 3. Typing a single value will show the number of candles for many timeframes. Typing a number of values, separated by commas, allows a different variety of candles for each interval (by matching the NumPoints entry with the corresponding TimeFrames entrance ). The above generates a rolling window of the past'n' candles. Alternatively, you can specify a fixed starting point, and thus have a progressively growing window of data points. To achieve this, input the starting point in one of these kinds: (1) YYYY.MM.DD HH:MM or (2) YYYY.MM.DD (this assumes starting from MT4 midnight at the specified date) or (3) HH:MM (this can start from the specified MT4 time, now, after it's been reached) or (4 ) ) any of these timeframes M5, M15, M30, H1, H4, D1, W1, MN (this will create a window that exists for the life of the interval, then restarts over again, on the first tick of the following occurrence of the timeframe). As with the amount of candles, you might specify a different starting point for each stage BasePoint #8211; the'anchor' point used as a reference, from which ratios are calculated, counting back from the rightmost candle. A negative value means that BasePoint will be put equivalent to NumPoints, i.e. that the leftmost stage is also the base point. A zero value means that the rightmost stage is that the base point. Typing a single value will show that BasePoint for many timeframes. Typing a number of values, separated by commas, allows another BasePoint for each interval (by matching the BasePoint entry with the corresponding TimeFrames entrance ). Watch the illuive illustration screenshots below HistoricalShift #8211; input 0 to show the current plot. Enter a positive number to show the plot as it would have appeared X points (candles) past. Typing a single value will show that HistoricalShift for many timeframes. Typing a number of values, separated by commas, allows another HistoricalShift for each interval (by matching the HistoricalShift entry with the corresponding TimeFrames entrance ). This will likely be required, e.g. to see the plots since they were 4 hours before, you would need to type 1,4,8,16,48 for the H4,H1,M30,M15,M5 timeframes, respectively SmoothingSMA #8211; implements a simple moving average (SMA) to smooth the data being plotted. Default value of 1 effectively means no smoothing. The bigger the value, the greater the smoothness (and also the clearer the perspective ), but the higher the lag. Applies to all selected currencies and timeframes. The sum of NumPoints SmoothingSMA should NOT exceed 2,000 SetBaseCurrency #8211; leave blank for a'normal' plot. Otherwise, type in the symbol of one of the currencies plotted, to have that currency's plot appear as a horizontal line (zero point), and all of the other currencies' plots re-scaled relative to that currency. In typing the symbol, upper/lowercase might be used interchangeably (e.g. USD or usd). Permissible abbreviations include: A=AUD; C=CAD; E=EUR; F=CHF; G=GBP; J=JPY; N=NZD; U=USD; H=HKD; S=SGD; Z=ZAR. That means you might type G or g rather than GBP, for example. If the currency name typed is not exactly 1 character, the abbreviation will not be known UseTickvolForWgt #8211; if set to FALSE, this can cause the weights at the Cn_Pairs_Wgts to be used, to burden the plot according to each constituent pair. If set to TRUE, the tick volume for each constituent pair is going to probably be summed across the factors that are being plotted, and this value will override the Cn_Pairs_Wgts value ShowPointCount #8211; if set to TRUE, displays a counter above the plot, showing the amount of candles from the BasePoint. If set to FALSE, the date/time of each data point will be displayed instead LegendValues #8211; if non-blank, this will show the numeric values of plots at the specified data stage, in most timeframes (0 is the latest stage, 1 the next most recent, and so on leftwards; -1 means the leftmost point). To have the listing ranked from the lowest to highest value, or highest to lowest, comprise a (upper or lowercase) D or A, for an ascending or descending sort by value LegendVertSpacing #8211; a lower number means that the things will be squashed closer together vertically; a greater amount widens the spacing between them. It is also possible to include any of (upper or lowercase) T, B, L, or to have the legend display on very top, bottom, left or right of each timeframe window. Items are color-coded to coincide with their respective plots. The TextFont and TextSize parameters determine the exact font that will be used Text Color/Font/Size #8211; should be self explanatory. Font name must be spelled correctly for Windows to recognize it. Color has to be spelled correctly, but might contain embedded spaces, and upper/lower case might be used interchangeably. Colors in the parameter file can alternatively be entered in R###G###B### format, e.g. b255r255 will produce magenta RefreshEveryXMins #8211; if set to 0, this may cause the window to update itself immediately a new tick occurs. If set to 1, 5, 15, 30, 60, or 240, this may create the window to update itself immediately a new candle seems about the'parent' pair's chart (the chart to that the indior is attached). See note below on pc functionality OutputFile #8211; if left blank, no output occurs. Otherwise, typing in the name of the file here can cause CSV output of values plotted to be exported into the file name that you specify, in folder.../experts/files, whenever that the indior refreshes. The content of this file could then be erased by means of an EA, or from having an appliion like Excel, for use in further analysis CurrencyN #8211; the currency you would like plotted in buffer# N. MT4 permits a maximum of 8 buffers, conveniently letting all 8 major currencies to plot on precisely the exact same chart. To disable a currency from being plotted, set this entry to clean. In typing the symbol, upper/lowercase might be used interchangeably (e.g. USD or usd). Permissible abbreviations include: A=AUD; C=CAD; E=EUR; F=CHF; G=GBP; J=JPY; N=NZD; U=USD; H=HKD; S=SGD; Z=ZAR. That means you might type G or g rather than GBP, for example. If the currency name typed is not exactly 1 character, the abbreviation will not be recognized. Reducing the currencies plotted to just those that you're considering, creates the tangled mess more easily viewable Cn_Color, Cn_Style #8211; the color and design for every single plot. Color has to be spelled correctly, but might contain embedded spaces, and upper/lower case might be used interchangeably. Valid values for style are: 10 = solid line of diameter 1; 11 = dashed line; 12 = dotted lineup; 13 = dash-dot; 14 = dash-dot-dot; 20, 30, 40, 50 = solid line of width 2, 3, 4, 5 respectively Cn_Pairs_Wgts #8211; a listing of the constituent pairs that will be summed to form the plot of a specific currency, along with the weight attached to each. A maximum of 20 pairs/weights might be included. The format has to be lt;pair1gt;,lt;weight1gt;,lt;pair2gt;,lt;weight2gt ;, etc, with ALL commas correctly set up. The entry may optionally be ended with a final comma. Embedded spaces might be used to help readability. Pair IDs that are mis-spelled, spelled'backward' (e.g. USDGBP rather than GBPUSD), or aren't supplied or accepted by your broker's MT4, will probably be ignored. But, upper/lowercase may be used properly (e.g. USDCHF or usdchf), and you may also use these abbreviations: A=AUD; C=CAD; E=EUR; F=CHF; G=GBP; J=JPY; N=NZD; U=USD; H=HKD; S=SGD; Z=ZAR. So you could type GJ or gj instead of GBPJPY, for example. If the currency name typed isn't exactly two figures, the abbreviation won't be recognized. A burden of 100 is'ordinary'. To get a part pair contribute twice its weight to the point being plotted, input 200 following the pair title; 75 percent of its weight, input 75; and so on. To get a pair omitted from consideration, possibly place its weight to 0, or eliminate it from the list. Trimming the list of constituent pairs to just those provided by your broker, will improve computer functionality (see note below) Cn_ScaleFactor #8211; default values are 100, which imply that the indior functions exactly as before. Use this parameter to re-scale the currency's plot, aligning it more accurately with real pip movement, instead of a percentage average. A value of 200 would double the diameter of a plot, relative to the other currencies' plots; a value of 50 would halve it; and so on
COMPUTER PERFORMANCE
This indior has the capability to slow down your MT4 down dramatically, since it has to collect data from several constituent pairs, and timeframes, to create the plotted curves. If performance becomes unacceptably slow, try the following #8211;attach the indior to a single chart just avoid setting RefreshEveryXMins to 0. A value of 1 or 5 will ensure that the charts are just re-checked once weekly, or 5, 5 minutes reduce the Amount of timeframes being plotted, i.e. that the TimeFrames parameter trim the list of constituent pairs to just those provided by your MT4 broker
AUTOMATED PARAMETER FILE BUILD
The Build Strength Preset File.MQ4 script may be used to automatically build your parameter file (Presets--Recent Strength.TXT).
Please be aware this is a script, NOT an indior, and should therefore be downloaded in to folder.../experts/scripts.
The parameter settings should be fairly self-explanatory. You are able to experiment and inspect the output, then re-run the script as many times as necessary (the given parameter file has overwritten each time), until you get something which looks right. The key parameters include:
Currencies #8211; the first eight of them become the eight coloured lines on the chart. They're also used to find every combination of those that are being given by your broker, to build the Cn_Pairs_Wgts parameter automatically, that's the major time saving this script provides.
PairSuffix #8211; your entry is appended to each pair, to create the pairs compatible with the symbols used by your broker. Some brokers (IBFX is an example) offer mini accounts where the pair is suffixed by an am', e.g. GBPJPYm instead of GBPJPY. Hence you would type m into this parameter. A few bokers (e.g. Latitude FX) append a period (.) Following the pair titles, e.g. GBPJPY. Instead of GBPJPY. So you would kind. Into this parameter. And so on.
The Weight value is included multiple times across every Cn_Pairs_Wgts parameter. If you would like to assign unique weights, you'll need to adjust the values from the parameter file manually (use a text editor like Notepad).
The Colors, Styles, and Scale Factors contrasts with their various Currencies entries, and should likewise be separated by commas. Of course you could always edit those manually, too.
All the additional parameters (TimeFrames onward) can be put here, or edited manually later.
CHANGE HISTORY
v 1.00: First release.
V 1.01: Fixed bugs explained in post #9. Added BasePoint parameter.
V 1.02: Added ShowPointCount parameter (see post #17 for screenshot). Increased max NumPoints SmoothingSMA value from 200 to 500.
V 1.03: Added Cn_ScaleFactor parameter.
V 1.04: Added UseTickvolForWgt, SetBaseCurrency and HistoricalShift parameters. Can have another NumPoints, BasePoint, and HistoricalShift value for each timeframe. TimeFrames now display left-to-right from the order which you type them. Abbreviated currency/pair symbols (e.g. EU, GJ) can be entered. Indior ShortName was abbreviated.
V 1.05: Added ParameterFile option, allowing multiple user-selectable parameter documents. Date/time now displayed above each data point if ShowPointCount = FALSE
v 1.06: Added OuputFile option (see above for details)
v 1.07:
1. Fixed bug described in post #97.
2. Added Build Strength Preset File.mq4 script (see relevant section above).
V 1.08: Now displays currency names in Data Window. Watch notes/screenshot in post #142.
v 1.09:
1. In the parameter file, colours may now alternatively be entered from the form (e.g.) r255b0g127 i.e. defining a redblue and green value (0-255) for each primary color in the desired mix.
2. New parameters LegendValues and LegendVertSpacing now allow a color-coded display of plot values in any given point, and their relevant currency, on each timeframe.
3. Instead of a rolling window of NumPoints candles, a predetermined starting point could optionally be specified, for each timeframe. This means that the window will grow horizontally as additional time points are progressively added. The starting point may be specified as YYYY.MM.DD HH:MM, or as a timeframe identifier (M5, M15, etc), meaning that the window will automatically refresh itself in the onset of each such timeframe.
4. Increased max NumPoints SmoothingSMA value from 500 to 2,000.
CSM and other strength indiors (written by )
CSM (Currency Strength Meter) is an alternate strength indy, which plots a histogram instead of a line of constant values.Latest edition of CSM could be downloaded here. CSM calculations are explained here as well as here. J4D strength indior, an offshoot of CSM, may be downloaded here. This uses another set of calculations, according to weighted moving averages, to determine strength. Latest edition of'Currency strength - Giraia' indy could be downloaded here. More information here and here. This indy displays numerical values instead of a histogram. Since the forerunner of CSM, it uses much the same calculations. Recent Oscillator Strength (ROS) indior are available here (download documents and instructions). RS Alerts indior are available here. More information here. Recent Prices indior here. Pair Power Saver (PSA) indior here.
Additional useful articles in the thread
Post #428 #8212; Info about Steve Hopwood's EA that uses output from the Recent Strength indy.
Post #445, #447 #8212; Links to the way the calculations work for RS and CSM.
Articles #469, #484 #8212; Suggestions for trading strategies using currency strength.
Post #474 #8212; Things to try if you are having trouble installing CSM.
Articles #491, #520 #8212; Links to additional strength indiors.
Post #480 #8212; Screenshot EA. Writes snapshots of your screen every X minutes to a named series of documents.
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MT4 Indiors/EAs by Hanover:
Recent Strength #8212; display line-based plot of weighted average of currency (instead of pair) power
Recent Prices #8212; display line-based plots of almost any mix of pairs/timeframes on your current chart, to compare their relative strength
Recent Candles #8212; display candles of any mix of pairs/timeframes on your current chart
Recent SR #8212; auto-plot horizontal support/resistance lines based on a wide variety of configurations
Recent News #8212; display upcoming and/or historic news announcements from FF calendar; countdown/alert forthcoming statements
Daily Lines/Boxes #8212; auto-plot horizontal or vertical lines, symbols, boxes on user-defined times, days of the week, etc
Display Info all pairs #8212; display spread, daily range, dollars/pip, swap rates etc for pairs
Spaced Lines #8212; auto-plot horizontal lines on your charts
Stealth Master EA #8212; hide your SL and TP from unscrupulous br0kers!
Do-it-yourself alerts builder kit #8212; code template which you could copy/paste which will add pop-up or email alerts to most'standard' indiors
https://www.cliqforex.com/attachment...4791070524.png
https://www.cliqforex.com/attachment...6422320795.png
https://www.cliqforex.com/attachment...1037120042.png
https://www.cliqforex.com/attachment...1088622553.ex4
https://www.cliqforex.com/attachment...3476774970.txt
https://www.cliqforex.com/attachment...2103011973.mq4
https://www.cliqforex.com/attachment...8945515183.zip
