Building Single-Color and Rule-Based Multicolored Candlesticks in MQL5

Summary

This article explains how to implement custom candlestick displays in MQL5, progressing from a single-color plot to candles whose colors encode a trading rule. It describes the four price buffers needed for open, high, low, and close values, and shows how the calculation loop can use the previous calculation count to avoid rewriting already processed bars.

For per-candle colors, the article switches from the standard candle drawing mode to the color-candle mode and adds a buffer that selects a color index. It also discusses separating candle outlines from fills, including a layered approach to preserve bullish or bearish appearance while showing a separate buy, sell, or neutral state. Examples use green, red, and yellow for those states. The material focuses on chart implementation rather than demonstrating trading performance. It cautions that complex color schemes can require more buffers and hardware resources, and that the best display depends on whether candle direction must remain visible.

Key ideas

• A candlestick plot uses separate buffers for open, high, low, and close prices.
• The color-candle drawing mode adds a buffer that assigns a color to each candle.
• A business rule can map chart states such as buy, sell, and neutral to distinct colors.
• Separating candle borders and fills can preserve direction cues while encoding another signal.
• Large color schemes may increase buffer use and hardware demand.

Tags

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