Canadian retail FX firm OANDA has released its Beta version of MT4-fxLabs, which allows traders the option of utilizing one of several pre-existing custom indicators or scripts in their existing MetaTrader 4 platform, as well as the ability to create their own indicators and scripts by using the MQL4 API for fxLabs.
In order for MT4-fxLabs to be compatible with MetaTrader 4 client, users need to have the MetaQuotes build 600 or newer installed on their workstation. Thereafter, the software can be downloaded from OANDA’s MT4 account setup page.
As far as custom indicators are concerned, OANDA has generated a series of graphs which display full detail relating to historical position ratios on a monthly or daily basis, along with spread indication, order book detail and commitment of traders within a series of seperate graphs.
OANDA considers that MetaTrader 4 is limited to how it can show the orderbook data in a price vs time chart window, so the indicator does not display the same as what’s on the fxLabs page. It is, however, based on the same data.
In particular, the MetaTrader 4 indicator graphs two bars, similar to the Historical Position Ratios indicator. The top one is the percentage of long orders with trigger prices above the high price of the candle, and the lower bar is the percentage of short orders with trigger prices below the low price of the candle. This is intended to give an idea of how strong market sentiment is that the instrument’s price will increase or decrease.
This particular indicator supports AUD/JPY, AUD/USD, EUR/AUD, EUR/CHF, EUR/GBP, EUR/JPY, EUR/USD, GBP/CHF, GBP/JPY, GBP/USD, NZD/USD, USD/CAD, USD/CHF, USD/JPY, XAU/USD, and XAG/USD currency pairs.
The calendar demo script draws markers associated with significant forex calendar headlines overlaid on a chart window and is applicable to all available instruments, whilst the fxLabs HPR demo operates in a similar vein to the Historical Position Ratio indicator, except it will draw the HPR graph overlaid on the chart window, instead of drawing the graph in a separate indicator window.
Available instruments within the calendar demo are AUD/JPY, AUD/USD, EUR/AUD, EUR/CHF, EUR/GBP, EUR/JPY, EUR/USD, GBP/CHF, GBP/JPY, GBP/USD, NZD/USD, USD/CAD, USD/CHF, USD/JPY, XAU/USD, and XAG/USD.
In order for traders to write their own fxLabs tools in MetaTrader 4, the declaration #include <fxlabsnet.mqh> must be added to the beginning of each MQL4 source. The various methods that traders can call are documented inline in the fxlabsnet.mqh file.
By creating this system, OANDA has maintained its familiar and popular MetaTrader 4 platform, whilst leaning to the requirements of traders wishing to use open source functionality.
