Simple moving average
This is a powerful addition to your MetaTrader 5 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 Simple moving average
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
Back to the basics :
One might ask : "Why do we need the simple moving average when it is published already"?
There are multiple reasons :
existing sma calculations tend to have one of two issues (or both in some cases) :
when you increase the calculating period, they are slowing down - due to constant repeated usage of loops
if they do not use loops all the time, the, sometimes, the apply a "shortcut" that is simply an approximation when the exact simple moving average is never calculated. that can be frustrating at times
they are rather complicated to usePS: it could be made to run even faster (migrating the code from the class to main loop would do that), but that would make the whole code less flexible and the speed-up would be marginal compared to lack of flexibility / reusability
