The classic Turtle Trading Indicator
This is a powerful addition to your MetaTrader 4 toolkit designed to optimize market analysis and performance. This technical indicator acts as a specialized analysis tool designed to visualize market data. It helps traders identify emerging trends, momentum shifts, and key support or resistance levels by plotting statistical calculations directly onto price charts.
How to Setup and Use The classic Turtle Trading Indicator
1. Installation: Place your file in the MQL/Indicators folder via "Open Data Folder" and restart your terminal.
2. Loading: Find the indicator in the Navigator, drag it onto your chart, and configure the input parameters in the popup window.
3. Customization: Press Ctrl+I to open the indicator list, select your tool, and click "Properties" to change colors, levels, or visual styles.
4. Updating: Replace the old file in the Indicators folder with the new version and restart the platform to apply changes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Why is my indicator not showing? A: Verify the file is in the MQL/Indicators folder, or try right-clicking the "Indicators" tree in the Navigator and clicking "Refresh."
Q: Do custom indicators slow down the platform? A: Too many complex indicators can impact performance; remove unused ones via the "Indicator List" (Ctrl+I).
Q: Can I use MT4 indicators on MT5? A: No, MQL4 and MQL5 are distinct languages; ensure the indicator is compiled specifically for your platform version.
Description & Settings
This trend following system was designed by Dennis Gartman and Bill Eckhart, and relies on breakouts of historical highs and lows to take and close trades: it is the complete opposite to the "buy low and sell high" approach. This trend following system was taught to a group of average and normal individuals, and almost everyone turned into a profitable trader.
The main rule is "Trade an N-day breakout and take profits when an M-day high or low is breached (N must me above M)". Examples:
Buy a 10-day breakout and close the trade when price action reaches a 5-day low.
Go short a 20-day breakout and close the trade when price action reaches a 10-day high.
In this indicator, entry and exit signals are displayed as arrows and dots. Original system is:
Go long on
blue arrows
Go short short on
red arrows
Exit long positions when a
blue dot
appears
Exit short positions when a
red dot
appears
This indicator should be used together with my other indicator: , to represent the same period or the failsafe trading system. The important function about this indicator is that it actually checks if your last trade has been stopped out and gives further entry signals along the trend. So it is the perfect addition to the trading channel for a complete Turtle Trading approach.
Both indicators implement trading alerts, enable or disable them at will depending on your trading setup.
This is what your trading setup shoud look like using the channel and the classic indicator.
Aditionally, this indicator also implements entry/exit alerts.
Parameters:
TradePeriod: Donchian channel period for trading signals
StopPeriod: Donchian channel period for exit signals
StrictEntry: Apply strict entry parameters like the Turtles did
StrictExit: Apply strict exit parameters like the Turtles did
StrictStop: Apply strict stop-loss like the turtled did
Greedy: Do not exit a trade unless it is in profit or the SL is hit
EvaluateStoploss: Check if we have been stopped out and show future signals
ATRPeriod: ATRPeriod to set the stop-loss
ATRStopNumber: N.Factor to calculate the stop-loss
DisplayAlerts: You know...
Recommendations:
Please, refer to indicator to read the full and original trading rules
It can be used to get entry signals of the S1 system or indicate the S2 (failsafe) system
Changelog:
2012-06-12: Updated the indicator adding several strict options for entries, exits, stops and so on. Is the Turtle Trading System profitable?
The performance of the Turtle Trading system has been always doubted. The following is an EURUSD (1995-2012) backtest trading all signals of this indicator -without filtering out any trade-, trading only after the current bar has closed, decreasing the exposure according to the original turtle rules, adding to positions and trailing the stop-loss using ATR*2.
And finally, the same system with a 5% initial risk for each trade (maybe too much, but fun to watch)
