Relative Volume
Raw volume figures are hard to judge in isolation - 3,000 ticks means nothing without knowing what normal looks like for that instrument at that time of day. This indicator does the comparison for the trader: every bar's tick volume is divided by the average of the bars immediately before it, producing a ratio centred on 1.0 that reads the same way regardless of the instrument, timeframe, or how long the chart has been open. The average always excludes the bar it is measuring, so a single unusually busy bar cannot inflate its own baseline and understate its own ratio. A level line at 1.0 gives an instant visual anchor, and any bar reaching the configurable high threshold switches to a second colour, so a scan across the window shows elevated activity as a colour change rather than requiring the trader to read histogram heights against each other. This is a ratio to the instrument's own recent history, not a same-time- of-day comparison across multiple days. A session-aware version - "is 10am volume high compared to other days' 10am volume" - would need a baseline keyed to time of day, which this indicator does not attempt; it answers "busier than the last N bars", nothing more specific than that. Notes and limitations - This is a ratio to the instrument's own recent bars, not a comparison against the same time of day on previous sessions. - Volume is tick volume (price-change count) - the only volume figure most MT4 feeds expose, not a count of contracts or lots traded. - The baseline needs InpPeriod bars of history before a bar, so the oldest bars on the chart are left without a ratio. - A thinly traded instrument can show large, noisy ratio swings simply because its tick counts are small and volatile in absolute terms. - Recomputed from tick volume directly on every call with nothing carried forward from a prior state, so there is nothing here that can repaint.
Indicator · MT5 · v1.0 · Free
About Relative Volume
Relative Volume is an indicator for MetaTrader 5. It can alert you with a pop-up, sound, email or push message. It has 3 settings, such as Period, High threshold and Alerts. MQL source code included.
Files in the download: RelativeVolume.ex5, RelativeVolume.mq5, RelativeVolume.txt.
Settings
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Period | 20 | Bars used for the trailing average baseline |
| High threshold | 2.0 | Ratio at/above which a bar is drawn highlighted |
| Alerts | true | Alert once when a closed bar crosses the threshold |
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: Volume · Trailing Stop & Break-even · Alerts · MT5 Indicator · MQL5 Source Code