Built-in Indicators Overview

Indicator Categories in MT5

MT5 ships with 38 built-in technical indicators organized into four categories. Understanding which category an indicator belongs to helps you know what question it answers about the market.

• Trend Indicators — Answer: "What direction is the market moving?" (e.g., Moving Averages, Bollinger Bands, Ichimoku)
• Oscillators — Answer: "Is the market overbought or oversold?" (e.g., RSI, MACD, Stochastic)
• Volume Indicators — Answer: "How much participation is behind this move?" (e.g., OBV, Volumes, Money Flow Index)
• Bill Williams Indicators — A specialized set based on Bill Williams' trading theory (e.g., Alligator, Fractals, Awesome Oscillator)

Essential Trend Indicators

Moving Average (MA) — The most fundamental indicator. It smooths price data into a flowing line that shows the trend direction. MT5 supports Simple (SMA), Exponential (EMA), Smoothed (SMMA), and Linear Weighted (LWMA) types. Common settings: 20-period for short-term, 50-period for medium-term, 200-period for long-term trend.

Bollinger Bands — Three lines: a middle SMA with upper and lower bands at 2 standard deviations. When bands widen, volatility is increasing. When bands narrow (a "squeeze"), a breakout is likely coming. Price touching the upper band suggests overbought; touching the lower band suggests oversold.

Ichimoku Kinko Hyo — A comprehensive system showing support/resistance, trend direction, and momentum all at once. Consists of five lines: Tenkan-sen, Kijun-sen, Senkou Span A, Senkou Span B, and Chikou Span. The "cloud" between Senkou Span A and B is a key feature.

Essential Oscillators

RSI (Relative Strength Index) — Measures momentum on a 0-100 scale. Above 70 = overbought, below 30 = oversold. Divergences between RSI and price are powerful reversal signals. Default period: 14.

MACD (Moving Average Convergence Divergence) — Shows the relationship between two EMAs. Consists of the MACD line, signal line, and histogram. Crossovers of the MACD and signal lines generate buy/sell signals. Histogram bars show momentum strength.

Stochastic Oscillator — Compares a closing price to its price range over a period. Generates %K and %D lines on a 0-100 scale. Like RSI, above 80 is overbought and below 20 is oversold, but Stochastic is more sensitive to price changes.

Volume Indicators

Volumes — Shows the number of ticks (price changes) per candle. In forex, tick volume is a proxy for real volume and correlates strongly with actual market activity.

On Balance Volume (OBV) — Running total that adds volume on up-candles and subtracts on down-candles. Rising OBV confirms an uptrend; divergence between OBV and price warns of a potential reversal.

Money Flow Index (MFI) — Like RSI but incorporates volume, making it a volume-weighted momentum oscillator. Often called "volume RSI." Above 80 is overbought, below 20 is oversold.

Combining Indicators Effectively

Effective indicator combinations use indicators from different categories that confirm each other:

• Trend + Oscillator: EMA (200) for trend direction + RSI (14) for entry timing
• Trend + Volume: Bollinger Bands for volatility + OBV for confirmation
• Multi-MA: 50 EMA + 200 EMA for golden/death cross signals

Using two oscillators together (e.g., RSI + Stochastic) adds little value because they measure similar things.

Custom Indicators

Beyond the 38 built-in indicators, MT5 supports unlimited custom indicators written in MQL5. Custom indicators let you visualize any calculation or data combination you can imagine. You can find thousands of free custom indicators on the MQL5.com community, or you can build your own — which we cover in the MQL5 Programming section of this tutorial series.