@roar Hahaha. Oof. Yeah. I imagine this is extremely problematic if you're dealing with very low timeframe algos and stuff especially. I suppose other than some large news candles periodically, if you were testing higher timeframe stuff, like you said, it becomes less and less discernible.
@TipsyWisdom I appreciate your quick reply and your contributions to the community. 
Thanks again!
Thank you so much for the excellent replies, @roar !
It was more than I expected, but exactly what I needed, so I genuinely appreciate it and learned a bunnccccch from it. It made perfect sense. I had to take my time through it, but it was all really clear, honestly. Hahaha. You're a good teacher.
So, if I wanted it to continue this loop (even after it found the most recent bear/bull streak, I could simply loop the output of the draw command in block 9 back to the Pass or condition 1 block and that would continue the loop until it hit the 500 loopid, I assume.
If I wanted it to just pick the highest and lowest points from a streak (not just four blocks of it, since not all streaks will end at exactly 4), then I could add another condition in (after the streak >= 4 condition) that looks for a contrary candle (a bear for a bull streak and a bull for a bear streak) and, if true, then it would draw at the high and low of the (loopid - streak) instead of loopid - 4. Hahaha. I'm sure I'm missing something there, but that's the basic logic at least.
Thanks again for the reply. I really learned a lot! Especially how the little variables tab off the side of everything works. That's going to be a complete game changer. You have NO idea how many formula and modify variable blocks I've been using in past builds. Hahahahaha. Soooooo many.
It does beg another question, though, if you don't mind.
In your example, you have it drawing objects. What if I wanted to store these values? There's no logic in place in MT4/FxDreema that would allow something to the effect of "store output into streak + 1" on the first pass, but if it runs into the condition again, "store output into streak + 2", etc. I would need to have a "streak1", "streak2", etc series of variables and program in some logic in that stores the first encounter into Streak1, then...maybe it changes a bool value to true, then stores the next in Streak2, then a new bool value to true, and it does that up to a set amount of predefined variables? I'm sure that idea would work, but I guess what I'm asking is, is there some functionality like that already built in, or is it something that I'll have to address myself by predefining all these variables in advance?
Hahahaha. And to be fair, @l-andorrà , I did take your advice and email him first! haha. So. You might have been correct. Don't be too hard on yourself. Appreciate you, bud.
And to @fxDreema , that's really great to hear and I'm glad it's already in the back of your mind. I'm patient. I just wanted it out there.
Eliminating the scroll bars and with zoom might be an interesting combo. I assume kind of like an infinite canvas like you see on many other, modern applications (like Obsidian's Canvas, for example).
If you're in the process of doing all of that anyways (and you're already probably thinking of this, but I'd like to say it for the record), one night, I was on my phone and looking at a forum post about something, and there was an example project linked with a custom code block...and there was no gesture for me to access and see its contents! I know phone isn't optimal, but it'd be really nice if I could at least like long press and then select the block's contents window via the menu that comes up. There's likely some other mobile/tablet specific pain points, as well. Again, I know it's not optimal, but if you're already gutting and redoing everything anyways, it's probably worth having in the back of your mind.
That's my two cents regardless.
Really appreciate what your'e doing here regardless. Just wanted to voice some thoughts. I've said what I thought and consider this closed on my end. Appreciate your consideration in these matters.
@mentor123 Why the heck are you spamming posts and private messaging me for things not even related to the topic at hand?
I'm all about helping when I can, because we all need help at times, but this post and my DM's aren't the right venue.
Make your own post in the proper place with the proper title and the proper questions and you might get some engagement.
Thanks again, man. You're an absolute legend!
It's all made very good sense and everything and I'm still getting a lot from this (especially seeing how you've modified it). I feel confident that I can handle the task myself now. It's been extremely helpful getting a glimpse into the thought process of someone with much more experience in this area and it's helped frame things out for me in a way that I can better use them.
Arrays...I haven't seen/heard of them in context of MT4, but from just now glancing at it, it seems like you might be right. And I know my question is kind of vague. My apologies. Not trying to be cryptic or anything like that. I have some ideas of how I want to use it, but I don't have just one specific way in mind, though I was mainly thinking of using an EA on range bars, isolating streaks could point towards a supply/demand zone, so being able to extract a price from that could be useful. (Especially with the idea of extracting the low or high from the candle BEFORE the streak started, if it's lower/higher, like you intuitively did yourself). I was also interested in storing multiple outputs because of the idea that price could bull streak, for example, multiple times in a row and each one could provide a potentially useful supply level if they've not been broken yet. This means it could/would be useful to store the outputs of, say, the last 10, for example. (or until they're broken by some other criteria in the EA).
I'm sure the loops will be a really helpful part of this, but it's sounding like arrays are also a new framework, as you described it, that I'm going to need to tackle now. Hahahahaha. The joys of learning!
First off, pips or points? 400 pips is a toonnnnnn of movement on a 30 minute chart with Forex.
There might be an easier way, but I'd use the formula block, subtract the pips off of it, store it in a variable, then add a condition block immediately after it that does "Candle Close <= Variable"
Then add a "Draw" command after it and specify what you want it to draw and where you want it to be drawn.
I'm looking through the shared project again, Roar, and I am curious:
Could you possibly explain the logic behind the streak being set to -1, why if condition five is false streak gets adjusted in block 6 by +1, and the V6+2 in the same block? I'm trying to understand the thought process behind this. I'm sure you have very good reasons for doing it this way, but I don't immediately understand why. Hahah.
Thanks again, bud. Sorry to load you down.
Gotcha! Yes! The Current is Bull was set to -1 and for some reason, while trying to take it all in, I thought it was the streak one in hindsight. I can completely see why it needs to be something other than 1 or 0 now that you've clarified it.
And that makes sense on the streak adjustment thing, too, now that you've pointed it out. The first time it detects the pattern (two simultaneous candles the same direction), the streak isn't 1, it's 2. Hahaha. So, that makes sense now that you've phrased it that way.
Ah! You make a good point that I didn't even think about--that it's counting from right to left, because as loopid changes, the candle number is increasing (and they increase from right to left, as you said) hahahaha. Now I've got to reorient my mind about how all this stuff works again, because I was instinctively working from left to right whenever I was trying to make sense of this stuff originally. Oof.
Thanks again for all the clarification! It's been really helpful! I don't think I have any other pressing questions at the moment. That might change as I dig further in.
There isn't any critical differences in how this works for MT5 coding or anything, is there?
I've not messed with MT5 in FxDreema at all, but I've noticed in some of your tutorials and stuff that you've used MT5 coding and I feel like I've seen Miro and some others using MT5 also. It's leading me to the assumption that you guys are comfortable in MT4 and helping others in MT4 since it's the most commonly used of the two (I think), but it seems like you guys probably prefer MT5 (otherwise you would present project ideas and stuff in MT4 only since it's the most common).
The reason I ask is because, from starting to look into MT5, it seems much more robust for EA building/testing, which is super exciting to me. I'm still early enough in this EA building journey to transition over this way, I guess I'm just curious if any major part of this doesn't apply to MT5 FxDreema building? Surely it's all pretty much the same on the FxDreema end of things (and different on the custom scripts and stuff).
Thanks for the additional info on arrays, too, btw. That's very beneficial. I've spent a lot of time in Excel previously, so I kind of see arrays as a table now, in essence.
Thanks for the additional info, @roar
As you've probably noticed, MT4 is way more popular with brokers (practically every broker has it, whereas MT5 is a bit more scarce. You might be right. There could be some additional costs associated with supporting it at the broker level, or it could simply be more crap that can break and, if demand isn't high enough, then they don't bother with the added headache.
I decided to give MT5 a download and mannnnnn, there's soooooo much extra stuff int he strategy tester and stuff (plus I got a pretty beefy computer, and it allows me to use the processor to the best of its ability, which really speeds things up, also). I'm very pleased with it so far, to say the least.
I think a lot of people stick with MT4 for custom indicators since it's old an faithful (maybe for hedge positions, since I don't believe you can open conflicting positions on MT5? at least that's what I've heard)
Years back, I was interested in indicators primarily (I thought they were going to be the key to trading success), and I heard MT4 had way more and that they weren't compatible, so, after loading up both applications one time, I saw they graphically looked really similar, also, so I just assumed that MT4 was pretty much the same and I never looked back. I think at that point, I probably made the right decision.
Now that I'm building EAs and venturing down that route, I think the tables have turned. I'm using less custom indicators than ever and that added functionality of MT5 seems very worth it in my case. Thanks for the encouragement!
Thanks again for all your help, as well!
I have a project idea, but I need the logic "price has not touched/crossed an MA in the last X candles (could be 5 or whatever. Not particularly relevant at the moment).
If I use the cross above block, and change the cross width to 5, then take the false output from that, is that really all it takes?
So, for longs, Candle Low of CandleID 1 (starting on previous candle), cross above, width 5, take the false output.
I'm kinda having a hard time with the "cross width" idea mainly. It means that it's crossed above at any point in the last X candles, right?
Basically, if price is above, and the low touches and penetrates the MA, even if the open and close are above, I would like it to invalidate.
I'm sorry this question probably seems so simple, but the cross width functionality, though I think I clearly understand it, I'm not feeling confident in that understanding for whatever reason.
Thanks, peeps!
I've been further experimenting with it (just ran a little EA with a node that has, for buys/above MA, Candle Low, Cross Below, Cross Width: 5, then my MA settings. I took the false output from that. Idea being that it only trades when price has NOT crossed below the MA within the last 5 candles).
I'm starting to feel like I need to create a custom loop that searches for the last candle that cross above/below, take the candle ID from that candle, and check that it is greater than 5? (Because if it's candleID 7, it's been more than 5 candles?)
Is this the most proper/correct/only way to accomplish this task? I simply need some logic that allows trades when price hasn't interacted with the MA in X candles (touch or cross).
Bonus points if the method we conclude with has an optimizable input (so I can check if 3 candles is superior to 8 candles, for example).
I'll try to keep this brief and to the point. I'm coding for MT5 if it's relevant, but I don't think it is.
I have an EA that basically runs a loop and if it identifies a candle with a specific condition, I take the candleID from it, and I also store the time for the candle in another variable.
Here's what I need it to do:
Once per bar, I want it to check if the candle that happened at that time stored is more than a certain amount of bars away, that way I can have it reset something.
Here's a better example if you're having a difficult time visualizing it.
On init, it scans and finds that candle id 10 meets the condition. The candle id is stored and the time is also stored. Once per bar, I want it to check if that candle is more than 24 bars away, for example, that way I don't have to run the ENTIRE loop once per bar to see how far back the event occurred.
The loop was fine, the storing of those variables is fine. I cannot find a node/condition/etc that allows me to look up a candle ID by its time so that I can somehow count how many bars back it was.
I hate At'ing people, but if you've got time and are willing, maybe @roar might have an idea?
Thanks to whomever has a solution!
@roar Thanks, Roar! Hahaha. You're the best.
Surprisingly, I did NOT expect it to be that complicated! hahaha. I'm still a complete nub with custom coding (hence why I'm drawn to FxDreema). I don't fully grasp it still, but I think you've given me more than enough to try and figure it out. Thanks, bud!
I'm leaving this here in case someone else runs across it and needs help with something similar.
I decided to create a custom loop. Roar discussed them with me very in depth over the last few days on this thread if you wish to further your knowledge:
https://fxdreema.com/forum/topic/10894/scan-historical-data-for-conditions-values?page=1
Basically, my solution I decided on was similar:
Set up a variable "loopid" and set up a variable "candlelookbackID" and a constant "CandleLookback
After my other trade conditions (this is where I'd want to check if the price had violated the MA), I set up condition "loopid <= CandleLookback"
If true, it adds 1 to loopid and adds one to candlelookbackID (both are defaulted to 0).
Next block, condition, for longs, Candle Low > MA. In the candleID slot, I put in candlelookbackID for both of these.
If true, then the output goes back to the "loopid <= CandleLookback". This adds 1 more onto each of my variables and keeps running, one candle back until it hits a candle where the low is below the MA (breaks the loop) or until the loopid is greater than my CandleLookback.
Therefore, if loopid, when that first block is false (loopid <= CandleLookback), then it places my trade.
There's an additional block down there, after the buy/sell that resets loopid and candlelookbackID to 0 for the next time.
I hope this can be of help to someone else!
Thanks again for all your help, Roar (if you see this)
Hey, @roar !
I'm using your example here as a learning opportunity for myself.
I have a question (I'm trying to learn arrays). In this instance, what was the purpose of subtracting one off of the loop id pre block, but then adding it back on after?
Wouldn't this mean that it would keep doing the same index in the array repeatedly and never move on to another?
If it genuinely isn't mechanically feasible (since you're suggesting to maybe do it all in one EA instead), then I can accept that, too.
I just know Dreema doesn't make it very easy for me to copy/paste blocks from all of my different projects into one big one and I'm concerned about my ability to manage and troubleshoot such a robust, singular EA, whereas I know I can handle a lot of smaller ones. I just don't know how I would easily import a partial project into the "whole" when done with it. If that's the route I need to go, then so be it. I just genuinely imagined there was "reasonable" ways to do share information between EAs meaningfully.
@TipsyWisdom (I'm sure this place is drowning in people who don't like to do the work. I get why you'd be guarded about it. Haha. I've seen plenty of trading discords and stuff. I'm not trying to exploit anyone here).
@TipsyWisdom I appreciate your reply!
And of course I don't want anyone to build my EAs for me. I'm competent and happy to do it myself.
What I don't understand is what the workflow looks like for this.
My opposition to doing it in "one" EA is to reduce a lot of redundancy, share information across pairs, simplify troubleshooting it, and to give me the flexibility to plug and play an abundance of different models I have in.
My point, though, I don't understand what the backend looks like on all of this. I don't know if I'm storing things in files or global variables or if one is more capable than the other, if one prevents me from using a VPS, etc.
Again, I don't want anyone to do the work for me. I just have no idea how all of these things work behind the scenes.
I'm fine to look on the forums for examples, too, but I don't even know what I'm looking for examples of! Ahaha. This is why I'm inquiring.
But as stated, if this can be explained a bit or illustrated for me, I'd appreciate it. I'm not trying to get off easy. I'm ready to work and learn. I just don't know where my efforts need to go.