Point And Figure Overlay
Point-and-figure removes time from the chart entirely: a column only ends when price reverses by a chosen number of boxes, so a ranging market collapses into a handful of thin columns while a genuine trend keeps stacking boxes in one direction for as long as it lasts. That makes trend versus chop far easier to see at a glance than on a normal candle chart, but MetaTrader 4 has no native point-and-figure chart type, and building one properly means running a box/reversal state machine, not just plotting another moving average. This indicator scans a lookback window of completed bars and replays it through that state machine: each bar's high and low either extends the current column by however many full boxes it reaches, or - if price moves against the column by the configured number of boxes - closes the column and opens a new one in the opposite direction. Box size can be a fixed pip value or a fraction of current ATR, so it can track quiet and volatile symbols without retyping the input every time. Every finished and currently-open column is drawn as a filled rectangle in one of two colours, with an optional X or O mark inside every individual box for the traditional look. Because MQL4 exposes only completed bars and not a raw tick stream, this is a bar-based reconstruction rather than a tick-perfect one: when a single bar's range could both extend the current column and trigger a reversal, extension is applied first, which is the standard convention for building point-and-figure from OHLC data and the same tradeoff every retail point-and-figure overlay on bar data makes. Notes and limitations - This is a bar-based reconstruction, not a genuine tick-by-tick point-and-figure feed. When one bar's range could both extend the current column and trigger a reversal, extension is applied first - the same convention used by other bar-based point-and-figure tools, but it can occasionally place a reversal one bar later than a true tick-level reconstruction would. - Columns are rebuilt from scratch only when a bar closes, using the last InpLookbackBars of history each time. Columns that started before that window are not shown, so the leftmost visible column on a long history can be shorter than it would be with an unlimited lookback. - ATR-based box size is fixed at the moment of each rebuild; it does not vary retroactively across older columns even if volatility has changed since they formed. - This draws chart structure only. It does not generate trade signals, size a position, or account for spread and slippage.
Indicator · MT5 · v1.0 · Free
About Point And Figure Overlay
Point And Figure Overlay is an indicator for MetaTrader 5 based on ATR. It has 10 settings, such as Use atr box size, Box size pips and Atr period. MQL source code included.
Files in the download: PointAndFigureOverlay.ex5, PointAndFigureOverlay.mq5, PointAndFigureOverlay.txt.
Settings
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Use atr box size | false | Derive box size from ATR instead of a fixed pip value |
| Box size pips | 10.0 | Box size in pips, used when InpUseAtrBoxSize is false |
| Atr period | 14 | ATR period, used when InpUseAtrBoxSize is true |
| Atr box fraction | 0.5 | Box size = ATR * this fraction, used when InpUseAtrBoxSize is true |
| Reversal boxes | 3 | Boxes needed against the trend before a column reverses (classic default: 3) |
| Lookback bars | 500 | Completed bars rebuilt into columns each time a new bar forms |
| Up color | clrDodgerBlue | Colour of rising (X) columns |
| Down color | clrCrimson | Colour of falling (O) columns |
| Show box marks | true | Draw an X or O mark inside every individual box |
| Max chart objects | 4000 | Safety cap on objects created per rebuild |
How to install
- Download the ZIP from your PolyMaria library and unzip it.
- In MetaTrader 5 open File → Open Data Folder, then go to MQL5 → Indicators.
- Copy the .mq5 file(s) there. Put any .mqh files in MQL5 → Include.
- Open the .mq5 file in MetaEditor and press Compile (F7) if MetaTrader does not show it.
- Drag the indicator from the Navigator onto a chart and adjust the settings.
Tags: Trend · ATR · MT5 Indicator · MQL5 Source Code