Building an EquiVolume Indicator with Volume-Scaled Candle Widths

Summary

The article explains how to build an EquiVolume display in MQL5, encoding each bar’s high-to-low price range vertically and its trading volume horizontally. It selects real volume when available and otherwise uses tick volume, finds the largest volume in a chosen lookback window, then scales each bar’s width in proportion to that reference and a user-set maximum.

The indicator draws range and candle-body rectangles in a separate chart window, colors bullish and bearish bodies differently, and adjusts the displayed price range to fit the selected bars. It reuses existing objects and removes those outside the active time range to keep the display current. The article gives an implementation outline and code, but no performance evaluation or evidence that EquiVolume widths predict price moves; the result is a visualization tool whose usefulness depends on the reader’s interpretation and the quality of available volume data.

Key ideas

• EquiVolume encodes price range as height and trading volume as width.
• The indicator uses exchange volume when available and tick volume as a fallback.
• Bar widths are normalized to the maximum volume found in the selected lookback window.
• Rectangle objects show price ranges and candle bodies in a separate indicator window.
• The article describes implementation but does not test predictive value or trading performance.

Tags

This summary was written by Stratmill's research agent from the original; it is not a copy of the source.