delgado - forex: platform tips; meta trader

Tips & Tricks

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Table of Contents

CUSTOMISATION: .............................................................................................................................................................. 3

Windows Layout ........................................................................................................................................................... 3

Customising Charts ....................................................................................................................................................... 4

Setting a Default Chart ................................................................................................................................................. 4

Customising Toolbars ................................................................................................................................................... 5

WORKFLOW: ..................................................................................................................................................................... 7

Using Shortcuts ............................................................................................................................................................. 7

Portfolio Management ................................................................................................................................................. 8

Quickly find a symbol within the market‐watch .......................................................................................................... 8

Have complete Control of All of Your Markets ............................................................................................................ 8

Using Hotkeys ............................................................................................................................................................... 9

Access your new MT4 setup from ANY Internet Computer ......................................................................................... 9

Simple Modification of Indicators .............................................................................................................................. 10

Modifying the Indicator .............................................................................................................................................. 10

Favourite Indicators List ............................................................................................................................................. 11

Trading Checklist within MT4 .................................................................................................................................... 11

CHARTING TIPS: ............................................................................................................................................................... 12

Layering Indicators ..................................................................................................................................................... 12

Indicator of an Indicator ............................................................................................................................................. 12

Multi‐Time Frame Objects .......................................................................................................................................... 13

Analyse Faster and More Efficiently ........................................................................................................................... 13

TRADING: ........................................................................................................................................................................ 14

Scaling In ..................................................................................................................................................................... 14

Scaling Out .................................................................................................................................................................. 14

Trailing Stops .............................................................................................................................................................. 15

Alerts .......................................................................................................................................................................... 15

1‐Click Trading with Drag N’ Drop Stops .................................................................................................................... 16

TRADE ANALYSIS: ............................................................................................................................................................ 17

View historical Trades on your Charts ........................................................................................................................ 17

Exporting Trading History ........................................................................................................................................... 17

Tips & Tricks


RISK WARNING

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MT4 Tips & Tricks By Matt Simpson Copyright @ 2013 TF GLOBAL MARKETS (AUST) PTY LTD All Rights Reserved

Tips & Tricks


CUSTOMISATION:Below is your typical MT4 platform when you load it for the 1st time. This is my personal opinion, but I find it overwhelming, poorly laid out and too distracting and obstructive to trade with.

It is your duty as a trader to make your trading process as easy as possible. This will allow you to focus upon your trading more, as opposed to looking for features amongst many that you just do not use. Therefor it is important that you customise MT4 to suit your specific needs. The requirements of a manual trader like myself will be very different to one who trades with expert advisors (EA’s) and I honestly believe many traders do not use around 80% of the tools they have visible on their trading platform. So why have those present at all?

WindowsLayoutView Video

The chart should remain the centre‐piece but it makes more sense to surround the chart with the remaining windows, instead of keeping them all crammed together on the same side as each other. Also by keeping the market watch on the same side as the indicators list, one will always be stealing space from the other. You can freely drag the windows around and even remove them from the MT4 terminal if you wish. Market Watch: I keep this on the original position as most trading software puts symbols in this location. Navigator: I do not want to share the screen space with Market Watch as I need access to the list of indicators without the hassle of scrolling within the window so much. Therefor I drag it to the right hand side of the chart. Data Window: I rarely use this but I drag this over the chart if I ever do require it. Terminal: This stays at the bottom of the chart as you will need the full width available to view all of the information for trade history, open positions etc.

Tips & Tricks


CustomisingChartsView Video

Many Professional Traders will argue that the most important piece on a chart is price (and I would have to agree). Therefore it should be the most prominent component of your chart and indicators, period separators and grid’s etc. should only be added when and if required, instead of cluttering up price. Additionally the grid feature is of little use in my opinion as the horizontal levels do not represent levels of any significance (such as round numbers) and remains fixed if you adjust the size of your charts. For that reason alone I strongly suggest you remove the grid as it adds nothing useful to the chart.

Remove: Grid: Control+G Period separators: Control+Y Close Charts: Ctrl+F4

HidingtheBidLineIf you use a lot of technical analysis and timeframes the bid line can become annoying as it presents a horizontal live across the entire screen, for each timeframe. If you would like it removed (as you can see the bid price on the right axis anyway) then you simply set the colour of ‘Grid’ to ‘None’

F8 > Colours Tab > Grid > None

SettingaDefaultChartOnce you have a chart you wish to use on all future charts, save the template as ‘default’ Save preferred chart template as ‘default’ On Chart > Right click > Template > Save As > Default

Tips & Tricks


CustomisingToolbarsView Video

The toolbars can seem overwhelming when you first load them and a bit distracting. The chances are you do not require all of these buttons whilst they simultaneously hide other features you may need, but not aware are available to you. There are 4 separate tool bars available to you which you can identify by right‐clicking on the toolbars and selecting/de‐selecting each one.

Clear Functions that are Not Required Customise any toolbar by clicking your right mouse button over the toolbar and selecting 'customise'. ‐ Remove toolbars which are

not required by de‐selecting the tick

‐ Move toolbars around in different orders, and to the side of the charts vertically

‐ Drag them out of their default position to hover over the charts

Tailoring each toolbar for your needs (Manual Traders) By using the ‘Customize’ feature on each toolbar you can access hidden tools and removes ones which you do not require. If you use the shortcuts (covered later) you will be able to remove quite a few of these icons to end up with a much cleaner and compact user interface. As Traders we are encouraged to always start our analysis on the highest timeframe and work our way down – so I have never understood why every single Trading Platform I have seen has their timeframes from the smallest to largest (left to right). To the right you can see how I have swapped the order of my timeframes to suit my style of analysis.

Tips & Tricks


A manual Trader (like myself) would require different features to an EA

(Expert Advisor) Trader, so it makes no sense to have access to all of the

same features.

In this example I have removed all of the features from the ‘Chart’ Toolbar

because I regularly use shortcuts to access these features, so I do not

need to see the relevant buttons as well.

I then rearrange the icons in order of use on my ‘line studies’ page and as

a result end up with the following toolbar to suit my needs, save space on

my screen and become more efficient as a result.

Tailoring each toolbar for your needs (Manual Traders)

In this example I only want to have the MT4 terminal installed on a VPS to run an EA on the EURUSD. As I do not intend to perform any analysis I have removed the ‘line studies’ but also included the Expert Advisors options, to allow me quick access to override the EA or turn them on with a single click.

Tips & Tricks


WORKFLOW:

UsingShortcutsView Video

I cannot urge you enough to learn the keyboard shortcuts. Assuming you have two fully functional hands then there is no good reason to limit yourself to using the mouse exclusively in any software program. By learning the keyboard shortcuts you gain three key benefits.

‐ Faster access to the required tools, saving lots of time in the long run

‐ Clearer and less cluttered MT4 terminal (as we will remove the redundant information)

‐ Increased charting space

Terminal (Control+T): Very important window! Manage open orders, view account history, set alerts Navigator (Control+N): Add indicators, Expert Advisors, Login Market Watch (Contro+M): View available instruments Data Window (Control+D):

You’re likely to use these shortcuts when you are analysing and trading. If you learn these shortcuts you will greatly improve the process speed of your trading, which will have a positive knock‐on effect to your trading performance.

These are the shortcuts for the more visual aspects of your charts, so not quite as urgent as the previous 2 boxes but a shortcut will undoubtedly

Tips & Tricks


PortfolioManagementView Video

Sometimes we want to find a particular currency pair quickly and get frustrated because we have to scroll through a seemingly endless list of instrument, flashing at us, to find the one we want. To make it worse MT4 doesn’t tend to group market instrument alphabetically, or by instrument type. In fact more often than not there is no logical order at all.

Quicklyfindasymbolwithinthemarket‐watchOne approach is to repeatedly type the 1st letter of your desired instrument until you scroll through to the instrument you want. For example if you want EURUSD then type ‘E’ until EURUSD appears. However there is a method I will now show you so you are only ever 2‐clicks away from the market you want…

HavecompleteControlofAllofYourMarkets

By installing the following profiles you will be able to quickly navigate your way around FX, Index and Commodity Markets without having to use the market watch screen. The idea is to never close any of the charts within these profiles. Instead you navigate your way around the Profiles to locate your market (Forex, Commodities, Indices etc.) then select the instrument within that market. Within Forex, each profile contains a combination of AUD, CAD, CHF, EUR, JPY, NZD, USD against your chosen currency. So in the example below we selected the profile ‘– USD’ to view AUD, CAD, CHF, EUR, JPY, NZD paired with the USD

Download: Templates and Profiles

Tips & Tricks


UsingHotkeysView Video

You may have noticed that when you switch chart templates within MT4 you lose all of your analysis on your charts. This can be frustrating if you did this by accident only to discover your intricate analysis which you have been using for many months disappears. For this reason I decided to always keep my analysis charts open and only change the indicators if or when I needed them. I only use a basic price chart for my analysis which we covered earlier under ‘default’ charts. In this example I have assigned Alt+R to open an RSI (Relative Strength Index) instead of having to open the navigator window each time I needed it. Open Navigator (Control+N) > Open relevant Tab (Indicators, Scripts etc.)

Hover mouse over desired favourite >Right‐ click > Set hotkey > Select Alt + R

AccessyournewMT4setupfromANYInternetComputer Most people need to access their MT4 terminal from multiple computers. However all of your indicators, EA’s, chart profiles and analysis are stored on the MT4 terminal, so none of these are saved when you log into another PC. Once solution is to install your MT4 terminal on a VPS (virtual private server), however you will either need to pay a monthly fee or meet a minimum monthly trading requirement. All you have to do is copy your MT4 Terminal folder onto a cloud hosting such as DropBox and run the program from there. Please note this solution is not advisable for EA (expert advisor traders) as this will have an impact on your execution speed. However this solution is fine for manual traders who simply want to save their chart analysis and indicators

Once a shortcut has been created you may want to update the symbol icon to the original MT4 icon.

Right click terminal Application on desktop > Properties > Change Icon > Browse

Locate terminal Icon > Apply

Tips & Tricks


SimpleModificationofIndicatorsView Video

The chances are you use a handful of indicators (or maybe even fewer) but each time you usea particular indicator you use one or 2 setting regularly. A good example if this is a moving average. I reguarly use 8, 21, 50 and 200eMA’s, but I require the different settings at different times. Therefore I have several variations of the same indicator but on different settings so I can simply drag and drop the setting I require, and they are already predifined with the correct colour I want.

ModifyingtheIndicator

Select indicator > Launch MetaEditor (Enter)

At the beginning of the code you will find the predefined settings. In this case I want a ‘Maroon’ red 50 eMA. Simply change the settings you require then ‘save as’ eMA 50 (or whatever file name you choose). Once the indicator has been saved you then need to compile the indicator by pressing the ‘compile’ button. Your modified indicator will now appear in the ‘Custom Indicator’ list as a new indicator. I then repeat the process for the 8, 21 and 200eMA so I can quickly drag the eMA that I want to use without having to adjust the period settings or colour each time I use them.

Tips & Tricks


FavouriteIndicatorsListView Video

If you do not feel comfortable editing code then you can always place your indicators, expert advisors or scripts into a favourites list. The favourites list means you can greatly reduce the amount of indicators in your list – do you really need to scroll though tens or hundreds of indicators when you only really use 2 or 3 of them? You can see that I have added 50 and 200eMA to my list so I can quickly access these common settings with one drag of a mouse onto the chart.

> Open Navigator (Control+N) > Open relevant Tab (Indicators, Scripts etc.) > Hover mouse over desired favourite > Right‐mouse click > Add to favourites

Trading ChecklistwithinMT4

View Video

If there is a rules based strategy you follow you can use the charts to create lists which you can refer to each time you place a trade. Here you can see the set of beliefs Mark Douglas (a professional Trader Coach) includes from his book ‘Trading In The Zone. I have included a template of within the Templates and Profiles I have included with this guide which you are welcome to download.

Tips & Tricks


CHARTINGTIPS:

LayeringIndicatorsView Video

My personal view is that the fewer colours you have on the chart the better. However there is nothing wrong with having several shades of the same colour, with more emphasis (or brightness) being on the more important information with the less important (or regularly used) information being a duller colour. There is no point in several pieces of information of different importance all fighting for the same amount of attention. To layer indicators simply drag an indicator into the same area of an initial indicator.

IndicatorofanIndicator

View Video ***

Below you can see an RSI indicator (white) which I

have applied a 10 period MA (moving average) of

the RSI, along with a Bollinger Band of the RSI to

generate ‘dynamic’ overbought and oversold

levels.

Take note of the ‘Previous Indicators Data’ option: By using this on the Bollinger Band it would have used the moving average of the RSI to generate the Bollinger Bands, as opposed to the RSI itself to generate the Bollinger Bands.

Tips & Tricks


Multi‐TimeFrameObjectsView Video

By default whenever you draw an object it will appear on every single timeframe – this can become problematic if you have lots of objects on your charts and you use multiple timeframes. For example you may have lots of analysis on 15M which you do not want to appear on D1. To fix this double click on the object and go to ‘Visualization’ tab and de‐select ‘Show on all timeframes’. Then select the timeframes you want the object to appear on.

AnalyseFasterandMoreEfficiently

View Video

Time is an important element to your trading and so is the need for efficient analysis. Nothing can be more disruptive to a trading session than being frustrated at your software or feeling though it is holding you back, so these shortcuts should help smooth your analysis process which in turn will have a more positive effect on your trading.

Selecting objects: Open Options (Control+O) > Objects > ‘Select object by single mouse‐click’

Copying Objects: Select Object > Hold Ctrl > Drag to copy

Extend trendlines without changing the angle: Select trendline > Hold Shift > Drag to extend / reduce

Remove ‘future trendline’ Double click on trendline to open option box > Select ‘Parameters’ tab > Untick ‘Ray”

Tips & Tricks


TRADING:

ScalingInView Video

WhatisScalingIn?(Alsocalledpyramiding)Scaling in is when a trader partially enters orders as the market moves in their favour. Unfortunately there is no feature to perform this function within MT4 but you can easily achieve the same result by placing multiple orders.

HowtoScaleInYou simply take your original position size and split it into smaller orders. For example If I wanted to risk 2% of my trading account I would allocate 1% for each order. In the example to the left I have set up a Buy‐Stop to enter above current price, and also set up a Buy‐Limit to enter long if price retraces towards my entry. This would increase my reward/risk ratio over my original 2% order, however I also run the risk of triggering only 1 of my orders whilst the risk of getting stopped out remains. Please note: Scaling in should be used with caution and only if you fully understand the risks associated with it.

ScalingOutView Video

WhatisScalingOut?(orPartiallyClosing)Scaling out is a method where you partially close positions, as opposed to closing the entire position in one go. Reason you may want to do this: ‐ You are a trend trader and want to take

a smaller initial profit and leave the rest on the table to trail your stop

‐ You are running low on trading margin but do not want to close an entire position/s

Tips & Tricks


HowtoScaleOutTo scale you open your trade terminal (Control+T) and double click on the trade you wish to partially close to open the deal ticket. ‐ Select Modify Order ‐ Under ‘Volume’ type in the amount of Lots you with to close ‐ Hit the close button

TrailingStopsView Video

Trailing Stops are a useful feature which will automatically ‘trail’ behind price when price moves further into profit. This allows you to lock in profits and semi‐automatically manage your trade. However your MT4 terminal needs to be on for this feature to work, so you may want to consider installing MT4 onto one of the following. ‐ VPS (Virtual Private Server) ‐ Cloud service

Alerts

Alerts allow you to keep tracks of important price levels being breached to further enhance your analysis and chart organisation. If you track multiple markets it can become too easy to lose tracks of the markets, especially after an important event and all of the markets move their separate ways. Move mouse to area on chart you want alert:

Right click > Trading > Alert

Tips & Tricks


1‐ClickTradingwithDragN’DropStops1‐Click Trading with Drag N’ Drop Stops

The 1‐click trading is a very simple yet effective tool to help you enter market orders. The first time you use it you will have to read and accept the terms and conditions, however you only need to do this once. Simply press Alt + T to open the 1‐click trading interface which will appear in the top‐right corner of your chart. Once a trade has been entered you can then apply as SL and TP by dragging your mouse from the entry price. Notice how to the left you will see the ticket number, estimated loss/profit in your account currency and points.

Take note: Although it says ‘pips’ it is in fact points (so 1642 points = 164.2 pips).

Apply Stop loss (SL): Hover over line > Drag line to desired S/L position Apply Take Profit (TP): Hover over line > Drag line to desired T/P position

Take note: You need to get the direction of your SL/TP drag correct, otherwise you will place an S/L instead of a T/P and visa‐versa. Get used to how this works on a demo before attempting this on live trading. PlacingthesafetycatchonyourSL/TP However there is a risk you may accidently move S/L or T/P when you meant to move a trendline or horizontal S/R. To avoid this: > Options (Control) > Charts Tab > Use ‘Alt’ key to drag levels You will now need to hold ‘Alt’ to adjust your S/L or T/P

Tips & Tricks


TRADEANALYSIS:

ViewhistoricalTradesonyourChartsView Video

Viewing your closed trades on your charts are an excellent way of reviewing your trading performance and your ability to follow your trade plan. It is always easier to see in hindsight how you could have found a better entry or exit, but what is quite revealing about viewing past trades is how different the ‘excellent trade setups’ look like after the event compared to how you thought they looked when you actually pulled the trigger. To view past trades simply: > Open Trade Terminal (Control + T) > Open Account History Tab (2nd from left) > Drag the closed trade onto your chart

ExportingTradingHistoryView Video

You may need to export your trading history to either analyse the data yourself within Excel, or provide the data to a 3rd party for tax purposes etc. To export data simply: > Open Trade Terminal (Control + T) > Open Account History Tab (2nd from left) > Right‐Click over any closed trade > All History (or select custom period for tax year) > Save as detail report The detailed report also includes statistical metrics such as win/loss ratio, expectancy ratio etc. which is ideal for your trade analysis. If you simply want to supply the data then select ‘Save as Report’ instead of the detail report.

Tips & Tricks


ADDITIONALRESOURCES: I would highly encourage you to subscribe to the ThinkForex YouTube channel and attend our weekly webinars as they included the methods used throughout the series.

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