TradePad. Instructions and opportunities – Other – 7 December 2022

TradePad is an Expert Advisor utility for manual and semi-automatic trading for the MetaTrader 5 trading terminal. There are many such solutions on the market, but nevertheless, the utility contains a number of useful tools necessary for everyday work, which will be discussed below. In the arsenal of tools, the trader has access to:

• “Trading levels markup tool” for calculating the risk and potential profit when opening a position or placing a pending order;
• “Hot key manager” for managing trading operations, switching between periods of the main chart, switching between utility tools;
• “Pending orders manager” for managing pending orders – setting a single or a group (network) of pending orders, group deletion both by order type and all types on a single symbol or on a trading account;
• “Position manager” for managing a position/positions (depending on the type of account) – group closing of all positions – only profitable / losing, short / long or all. Maintenance of positions – trailing stop and moving the Stop Loss to the breakeven level;
• “MultiCharts” indicator for visual monitoring of several trading symbols, as well as receiving trading signals;
• “Information module” for an overview of trading statistics for any period of history with the ability to generate an extended HTML report, display the specification of a trading symbol, information about a trading account;

Before proceeding to the description of each tool separately, I will start with the main thing – with a description of the external parameters of the utility and the main form of the application.

1. External parameters

As you can see, there are not so many external parameters, I’ll tell you more about each in more detail.

• Broker company name – short name of your broker, for example – MQ. Used in PUSH notifications: “(MQ) – Market closed!”; “(MQ) – [EURUSD] – Trailing stop activated!”; “(MQ) – EURUSD profit: 200 USD [tp]” etc. This parameter can be used when several terminals from different brokers are working. If you set the value – ‘?’ (default), the full name of the company will be displayed. You can leave this field blank;
• Allow algorithmic trading – allow algorithmic trading;
• Confirm manual trade operations – confirmation of trading operations. When making trading operations, the user will receive confirmation requests for these operations.
• Off – confirmations are disabled;
• Open position – issue a request to open a position;
• Close and delete operations – issue a request to close a position and delete orders;
• Reverse position – issue a request to reverse the position;
• All operations – issue a request for any operations;
• Enable dragging of marking lines with – enable dragging of marking lines with the Shift or Ctrl key;
• Unique ID(0..255) – unique ID of the panel from 0 to 255, required if several copies of the panel are used simultaneously on one terminal. Each copy has its own UID;

2. Main form

The main form of the application consists of three tabs – Trade, Setup stops, Options. Let’s talk in more detail about each of them and interface elements.

“Trade” tab and window control buttons.

1. Application close button – removes the application from the chart;
2. Window state switching button – maximize/collapse;
3. “Options” – shows the application settings window;
4. Shows/hides the tool for marking trading levels;
5. Shows the information module;
6. Opens the MultiCharts indicator;
7. Shows “Pending Orders Manager”;
8. Shows “Position manager”;
9. Executes a command to make a sell deal and displays the bid price (Bid);
10. The lowest bid price for the current day (Bid Low);
11. Lot volume management: can be specified using the arrows to the right and left of the field, or using the keyboard;
12. Current spread;
13. The highest offer price for the current day (Ask High);
14. Executes a command to make a deal to buy and displays the offer price (Ask);
15. Changing the price of an instrument. Shows the percentage difference between the last price of an instrument and the closing price of the previous session. If the period of the main chart up to Daily inclusive is selected, then the price change for the current day will be shown. And accordingly, if the period of the main chart is Weekly, then the price change for the current week will be shown. The same for the Monthly period is the price change for the current month.

Depending on the quotes, the button for making trading operations is painted in different colors:

• Blue – if the current price is higher than the previous one;
• Red – if the current price is lower than the previous one;
• Gray – if the price has not changed in the last 15 seconds;
• Black – if the trading operation is prohibited;

Setup stops tab

On this tab, you can set the Take Profit and Stop Loss values, you can also specify the Stop Loss to Take Profit ratio. Values can be specified using the arrows to the right of the entry field, or using the keyboard.

1. Management of Take Profit value;
2. Stop Loss value management;
3. Controlling the value of the Stop Loss to Take Profit ratio;

Options tab

Here you can specify additional options when placing an order, such as:

1. Expert ID (magic);
2. Comment to the order;

3. Settings

The detailed settings window with allowed algorithmic trading (Allow algorithmic trading=Yes) looks like this:

If algorithmic trading is not allowed (Allow algorithmic trading=No), then the Algotrading and Scheduler tabs are not available:

I will tell you in more detail about each tab and the interface elements located on them.

General tab

On this tab, you have the ability to enable/disable PUSH – notifications generated by the application during operation by checking the “Push notifications” checkbox. The next element – “Track all orders and positions” enables/disables tracking of positions, orders with different identifiers (magic). When disabled, the application will track only “own” positions and orders with the ID specified earlier (Main form-> Options tab-> Expert ID). To track positions and orders with different identifiers, check the box “Track all orders and positions” and specify all identifiers separated by commas in the Expert ID’s field.

On this tab, you can set the risk percentage for automatic calculation of the lot volume when using the trading level markup tool.

Save the current settings by clicking on the “Apply” button.

“Hotkeys” tab

Here you can set hotkeys for most trading operations, switching periods of the main chart, as well as calling various application tools.

To set the key, press the “Set” button or double-click on the selected operation. The “Reset” button resets the key. The “Clear” button removes a set of hotkeys. After the changes, save the set by clicking on the “Save” button.

MultiCharts tab

On this tab, you create a list of symbols for the MultiCharts tool that you need to monitor and receive trading signals for automatically placing pending orders. Just select a symbol from the “Market Watch” list, specify the required period and add it to the “Selected symbols” list using the button   To remove a symbol from the “Selected symbols” list, select it in the list and click the button   After all the changes, save the list of symbols by clicking on the “Save” button. I’ll talk about the capabilities of the “MultiCharts” tool a little later.

“Algotrading” tab

On this tab, you can configure the parameters of pending orders, as well as the parameters of the trading signal confirmation filter when received from the “MultiCharts” instrument. The tab contains other tabs – “Orders settings” and “Signal confirmation params”. Let’s talk about them in more detail.

“Order settings” tab

As you can see, here are the elements for filling in the parameters of pending orders.

1. Volume – initial order volume;
2. Placing distance – distance from the current price at which the initial order will be placed;
3. Stop Loss – Stop Loss level;
4. Orders count – number of orders;
5. Take Profit –   level   take profit;
6. Orders offset – distance between orders;
7. Expiration – expiration of a pending order: GTC – the order is valid indefinitely until its explicit cancellation; Today – the order is valid until the end of the day;
8. Lot volume step – step for changing the lot volume for subsequent orders;

“Signal confirmation params“ tab

Here are the elements for managing the parameters of the confirmation filter – the Trend filter indicator.

Confirmation period – period from 1 Hour to Monthly on which the filter is calculated. If confirmation is not needed, then select the item – Without confirmation.

Confirmation trend filter MA type – indicator type for filter calculation:

• SMA – simple moving average;
• EMA – exponential moving average;
• DEMA – double exponential moving average;
• TEMA – triple exponential moving average;

Confirmation trend filter period – period of the Trend filter indicator.

“Scheduler” tab

Using this tab, you can set the schedule according to which automatic trading will be carried out. Hours are marked in blue when trading is allowed. To switch all hours of a certain day, press the button at the end of the line.

4. Trading levels markup tool

First of all, it is a tool for assessing risk and potential profit.

Helps you to set Take Profit and Stop Loss levels when opening positions and placing orders, calculate lot volume depending on the set risk percentage and Stop Loss level.

The tool is called by the button (3) on the main form of the application or by a hot key, if it is set.

Button (4) opens a window for setting the risk percentage value.

This button will not be available on the toolbar of the main window if the Volume calculate parameter is set to not calculated in the application settings.

Levels contain controls

1. Fixing levels – allows you to fix the level at a certain price;
2. Reverse – changes the order type to the opposite Sell->Buy, Sell Stop->Buy Limit, Sell Limit-> Buy Stop and vice versa;
3. Setting a pending order;

5. Position Manager

The position manager displays up-to-date information on open positions on the current symbol and gives you the ability to manage them:

• group operations – closing by position type (Long/Short); closing on profit (Profitable/Losing); closing all positions;
• reversal of position (not available on hedging accounts);
• position tracking – trailing stop and moving the position to the breakeven level

The form of the position manager depends on the account type.

For a hedging account, the form looks like this

The Short and Long tabs show all aggregated information for the respective positions.

(1) Closing all long positions;

(1) – closing of all positions depending on the chosen type (2) – All, Losing, Profitable;

(3) – fixed trailing stop;

(4) – settings and activation of the breakeven level;

(5) – total profit for all open positions on the current symbol;

For a netting account:

(1) – position closing;

(2) – reversal of position;

(3) – cancel Stop Loss;

(4) – canceling Take Profit;

Actions tab

Several types of trailing are available – fixed, based on technical indicators – Parabolic SAR, Moving Average, ATR.

Checking the “Show indicator on chart” checkbox controls the display on the chart of the technical indicator selected as the basis for the trailing calculation.

6. Order Manager

Gives you the opportunity to place both single orders and groups of orders (grids). Group deletion of orders by order type is provided, both on the current symbol and on the account.

The manager form has “Actions” and “Grids builder” tabs. The “Actions” tab contains elements for managing order properties and deleting orders.

The “Grids builder” tab contains elements for setting up a group of orders.

7. Information module

Designed to review trading statistics for any period of history with the ability to create an extended HTML report; trade symbol specification review; trading account information;

“Trade statistics” tab

Overview of trade statistics. Select a history period from the drop-down list or set a time interval. Generate a report by clicking on the “Report” button. A form for saving the report will appear, where you can select the information you need to include in the report:

• Include positions list – add a list of positions to the report;
• Include orders list – add a list of orders to the report;
• Include deals list – add a list of deals to the report;
• Profit distribution – add profit distribution by symbols to the report;
• Show deal markers – show deal markers in the report on the balance chart;

Specify a name for the report and save by clicking the “Save” button. The report file will be saved in the Reports folder:

…Data Folder/MQL5/Files/TradePad/Unique ID/Account number/Reports, where Unique ID is an external application parameter Unique ID(0..255), Account number is your trading account number.

Using the filter, you can generate an overview of statistics for any symbols and any identifiers available in the history.

It is also possible to see the distribution of profits by symbols. To do this, just click on the “Details” button.

“Account information” tab

This is where information about your trading account is collected.

“Symbol specification” tab

Trading instrument specification.

8.MultiCharts

A tool for multi-currency monitoring and generating trading signals from your chosen trading pairs. This tool allows you to show up to 6 charts of different symbols.

Open the settings window using the button 

The “General” tab contains elements for managing the properties of the main chart – the Default and Advanced switches, which hide (Advanced mode)/show (Default mode) the price scale and the time scale of the main chart, as well as the chart properties of the MultiCharts tool.

• Prices scale – show the price scale;
• Dates scale – show the time scale;
• Countdown – show the time counter until the end of the bar;
• Height – the height of the subwindow containing MultiCharts;
• Caption – additional text in the window title;

On the “Indicators” tab, you can select the indicators that will be placed on the charts of the MultiCharts instrument.

At the moment, the set of indicators includes:

• oscillators – RSI, Stochastic, CCI;
• trend indicators – Bollinger Bands, Moving Average, Trend filter, SDL (Slope Direction Line);
• custom – Candle hunter;

The set of indicators may change over time. You can attach indicators both to a single symbol and to all symbols by checking the “All symbols” checkbox. To generate trading signals, trend indicators are used – Trend filter and SDL. In the indicator settings, check the “Trade notification” element.

The Trend filter indicator is also used as a confirmation filter when receiving signals, the parameters of which can be changed in the application settings on the “Algotrading” -> “Signal confirmation params” tab.

You can download the demo to see how the application works. This version is fully functional, but with one limitation – it only works on a demo account.

Demo installation instructions:

1. Download the demo from the link at the bottom of the page;
2. Open the MetaTrader5 terminal;
3. In the terminal ‘s “File” menu, go to the “Open data directory” submenu;
4. In the window that opens, go to the “MQL5/Experts” folder;
5. Place the file in the “Experts” folder TradePad_Demo.ex5;
6. Close the folder and refresh the Navigator window of the terminal;