In this article, we will talk about if MQL5 is hard to learn. Also, we will discuss how to learn MQL5 step by step.
No, MQL5 is not hard to learn if you follow a good tutorial on MQL5. If you already have a good amount of programming experience, you will find it much easier to learn MQL5. If you don’t have any programming experience, then it will take some time to learn but it is not hard to learn. You got to have patience.
To be really good with MQL5, not only do you have to learn MQL5 but also you have to have a good understanding of trading the financial markets. If you want to make a profitable trading robot, you need to have a profitable trading strategy. Just by learning MQL5, you will not be profitable. Keep reading on to know how to learn MQL5 step by step.
What is MQL5?
MQL5 is a programming language used to program algorithmic trading robots and custom indicators. It is the best programming language for developing expert advisors (algorithmic trading robots) and custom indicators. There are other languages like pine script and python which are good as well. But in my experience, MQL5 is much superior compared to both python and pine script when it comes to developing algorithmic trading robots.
Is it worth learning MQL5?
It is absolutely worth learning MQL5 if you want to develop an algorithmic trading robot. If you learn and become good at MQL5 there are a lot of ways you can make money with it as well. Check out this article where we talk about 3 ways that you can make money with MQL5.
If you just want to learn MQL5 to improve your programming skills then it is still worth it to learn. This is mainly because MQL5 is based on C++. C++ is a widely used programming language. There are a lot of job opportunities if you are good at C++. If you master MQL5 that means that you will be a master of C++.
Also, by learning MQL5 you can work in a hedge fund. Jobs in hedge funds are highly paid and you can even earn more than $1 mil per year working in some hedge funds. I hope that I have convinced you enough that learning MQL5 is absolutely worth it. If yes, now let’s talk about how to learn MQL5 Step by Step.
How to Learn MQL5 Step by Step
First Step
First, to start programming with MQL5, you need to download the Meta editor. The meta editor programming platform comes with the MetaTrader 5 platform. There are two ways you can download this platform. You can download it directly through the MetaQuotes website or you can download it through a broker.
The benefit of downloading through a broker is that you can test your algorithmic robot in the live market. We recommend you download it through a broker. You can download it through one of our recommended brokers below.
Recommend Forex Brokers
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After you download the MetaTrader 5 platform you can open up meta editor. The following figure shows how to open the meta editor development environment (This can be done by clicking on the IDE button on the MetaTrader 5 platform). Another way to do this is to go to tools -> MetaQuotes Language Editor.
After you click on the IDE button, you should see a screen similar to figure 2 below. This is the meta editor development IDE.
After you download the meta editor development environment you can start learning how to code in MQL5. If you are an experienced programmer you can skip some of the steps that we are going to talk about.
Second Step
The second step is to learn about different data types and variables. This is simply a way of storing data. There are 8 main data types in MQL5. These are:
- Integers – These are numbers without a decimal point. For example “3” or “73”.
- bool – This is simply true or false.
- Strings – These are words or sentences, for example, “Hello World”.
- Floating point numbers/double – These are numbers with decimal places.
- Color – These are simply colors
- Date and Time – Simply any date and time
- enumerations – This holds a list of values
- Literals
After you learn about the different datatypes, then you should learn how to write variables. For example, int x = 1. x is a variable of integer data type. You are storing the number 1 in x. After you define x like this you can use x later in your program.
Third Step
The third step is to learn about basic arithmetic operations. There are several arithmetic operations that you need to learn. These are as follows.
- + – The sum operator adds two numbers
- – – The subtract operator subtracts two numbers
- * – The multiplication operator multiplies two numbers
- / – The division operator divides two numbers.
- ++ – This operator increments a number by 1.
- — – This operator decrements a number by 1.
- % – This operator calculators the remainder of a division
Fourth Step
The fourth step is to learn about conditional operators and loops. A conditional operator is simply an if and else statement. If (x = 1) then return true else return false. There a two main types of loops. The for loop and the while loop.
Fifth Step
The fifth step is to learn about functions and enums. A function is something that takes in 1 or more variables and does some operation and returns a result. There are a lot of predefined functions in the MQL5. You can check out these functions here. Read through these functions carefully and learn them because you will be using them a lot when programming with MQL5.
Sixth Step
If you have learned all the things in the above steps. you should be able to program using MQL5. But it is also important that you learn how to trade the forex market. Learn about price action and technical indicators because you will be using this knowledge when developing your own expert advisors/ algorithmic trading robots. We recommend you to check out our complete free course to learn how to trade the forex market step by step.
Conclusion
In this article, we talked about if learning MQL5 is hard or not. As discussed it is not that hard to learn if you follow certain steps. If you even have some basic knowledge of programming you will find it easier to learn MQL5. Next, we recommend you read this article on how to make money with MQL5. This can motivate you to learn MQL5.
