How to Add an Indicator in MetaTrader

Adding an indicator, in five lines

An indicator is a line worked out from the bars, a moving average for instance, which is the average of the last twenty closing prices redrawn at every bar. Insert, Indicators, Trend, Moving Average opens a settings box; period 20, method Simple, apply to Close, pick a colour; OK draws the line over the bars. Right-clicking the chart and choosing Indicators List brings up everything on the chart, with Edit and Delete beside each. Adding or removing an indicator never touches the bars themselves.

A tracing sheet over the map

Picture a tracing sheet laid over a map. The map is the bars as they came from the broker. The sheet is see-through, and the gold line on it was traced from the roads underneath: an average of them, smoothed. Lift the sheet and the map is unchanged, because the line was never on the map, only over it. That is what adding an indicator does. It lays a sheet over the chart with a line worked out from the bars, and deleting the indicator lifts the sheet off without leaving a mark.

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