HxTradeHelper

A MetaTrader 5 chart panel for intraday traders: reference levels and session tools for live trading, a manual back-testing workflow with win/lose statistics, and a one-click trade journal that exports your day's trades with clean chart screenshots and stores them in MariaDB.

The panel is an MQL5 indicator (hx_trade_helper.mq5) with three tabs:

Tab	Purpose
TR (Trade)	Chart preparation and live-trading tools
TE (Test)	Manual back-testing markers and statistics
JR (Journal)	End-of-day journal export

The panel is a narrow, two-column layout (tool buttons are at most two per row); the TR/TE/JR tab selectors are colored separately from the rest so they stand out as navigation rather than tools.

Screenshots

Dashboard

Features

Trade tab

• Reference lines — yesterday's open/high/low/close, the day before yesterday's close, last week's close, and a "week map" (last week's high/low with 25/50/75% levels)
• Round-number levels — three configurable step grids (L1/L2/L3, defaults tuned for XAU/USD) drawn across today's range
• ATR bands — yesterday's close ± daily ATR
• Sessions — Tokyo/London/New York vertical session lines plus countdown labels (open/close timers), and a candle-close countdown and spread display (input toggles)
• News countdown — optionally fetches the weekly calendar from the dashboard's /api/news (through the uploader DLL; the dashboard itself caches and refreshes from ForexFactory at most once an hour), keeps only today's orange/red-impact events for your currencies, and lists a countdown to each — switching to a LIVE remaining-time display while an event is in progress; shows "No news for today" once today's events have all passed (or if there were none)
• Order blocks — one-click rectangles for daily / H4 / H1 / support-resistance zones
• Moving averages — EMA 20/60/200 toggles
• Fib tools — three fib variants (dark gray, orange, gray) with SL/E/TP1..TP7 levels

Test tab (manual back-testing)

• Sell / Buy planners — drag-adjustable trade elements showing SL/TP zones, pip distances and R:R live while you move them
• W-B / L-B / W-S / L-S — mark a win/lose buy/sell at the chart center; markers are fib objects you can reposition
• Stats — on-chart W/L count, win % and R-sum overlay
• Export — writes all markers to backTest_<date>.csv (+ JSON sidecar), sorted chronologically
• Rst / CLC — reset markers and counters, or recount from the chart

Jrnl tab (trade journal)

One click on Export Journal:

1. Collects today's trades from the account history (closed positions plus still-open positions opened today) — all symbols, not just the current chart
2. Writes trades_<date>.csv and trades_<date>.json with symbol, type, win/lose result, planned R:R, entry/SL/TP/close prices, profit and open/close times
3. Captures H1, M5 and M1 screenshots per trade, scrolled to the trade's entry bar, on freshly opened charts with a clean black & white scheme — objects drawn on your working charts never appear in them
4. POSTs the JSON to the dashboard's import endpoint, which upserts into MariaDB (re-exporting is safe; open trades update once they close)

One click on Export All backfills the journal:

1. Collects the entire account trade history (every closed position plus currently open ones) — no screenshots, so it stays fast even for large histories
2. Writes trades_all_<date>.json to the TradesHistory folder
3. POSTs the JSON to the dashboard flagged skip_existing, so position ids already in the database are left untouched — existing rows (and their strategy assignments) are never overwritten; only new trades are inserted. The API response reports saved and skipped counts in the Experts log.

One click on Today to API re-syncs just today so far, without writing CSVs or screenshots:

1. Collects today's trades from the account history (closed positions plus still-open positions opened today) — all symbols, not just the current chart
2. Writes trades_today_<date>.json to the TradesHistory folder
3. POSTs the JSON to the dashboard without skip_existing, so today's trades are updated on the dashboard as they progress or close (unlike Export All, which only backfills trades the database doesn't have yet)

Output layout under MQL5\Files:

TradesHistory\
└── 2026.07.02\
    ├── trades_2026.07.02.csv
    ├── trades_2026.07.02.json
    └── XAUUSD\
        └── 09_30_987654321\
            ├── PERIOD_H1.png
            ├── PERIOD_M5.png
            └── PERIOD_M1.png

Repository layout

Path	Contents
hx_trade_helper.mq5	The indicator (panel, tools, journal export)
DialogHx.mqh, TradeElement.mqh	Dialog subclass and the drag-adjustable trade planner element
dotnet/HxTradeUploader/	.NET 8 Native AOT library the indicator calls to POST the journal to the dashboard
dotnet/schema.sql	MariaDB setup: database, trades table, application user
dotnet/README.md	DLL build/install details
dashboard/	Next.js analytics dashboard: journal import endpoint, strategy tagging, statistics, equity curve, Docker deployment
dashboard/README.md	Dashboard setup details

Installation

1. Indicator

Copy hx_trade_helper.mq5, DialogHx.mqh and TradeElement.mqh into the terminal's MQL5\Indicators folder (keep them together) and compile in MetaEditor. Note: the #import "HxTradeUploader.dll" requires the DLL from step 2 to be present in MQL5\Libraries before compiling.

2. Uploader DLL

Requires the .NET 8 SDK and the Visual Studio 2022 C++ workload (Native AOT uses the MSVC linker):

cd dotnet/HxTradeUploader
dotnet publish -c Release -r win-x64

Copy bin\Release\net8.0\win-x64\publish\HxTradeUploader.dll into MQL5\Libraries, then enable Tools → Options → Expert Advisors → Allow DLL imports (and the same option on the indicator's Common tab when attaching it). The DLL is self-contained — no .NET runtime needed on the trading machine.

3. Database and dashboard (optional, for the MariaDB journal)

cd dashboard
DB_PASSWORD=<pick-a-password> docker compose up -d --build

This starts MariaDB (schema applied automatically) and the analytics dashboard on http://localhost:3000, whose POST /api/import endpoint receives the indicator's journal uploads — set the indicator's ApiUrl input to http://<dashboard-host>:3000/api/import. See dashboard/README.md for using an existing MariaDB instead. Without the dashboard running, the journal still writes the CSV/JSON files and screenshots locally; only the upload step is skipped (with a note in the Experts log).

Key inputs

Input	Default	Meaning
JournalBasePath	TradesHistory	Base folder for all exports/screenshots (under MQL5\Files)
ApiUrl	http://127.0.0.1:3000/api/import	Dashboard import endpoint
ApiKey	(empty)	Sent as X-Api-Key header when set
UploadToApi	true	POST the journal to the dashboard after export
showCandleTime / showSessions / showSlipage	false	Candle-close countdown, session timers, spread label (1-second timer starts only if one is enabled)
ShowNews	false	Fetch the calendar and show the red/orange event countdown
NewsCurrencies	(empty)	CSV currency filter for events; empty = the chart symbol's base and profit currencies
NewsWindowMinutes	2	Countdown appears when the next event is within this window
NewsDurationMinutes	15	How long an event stays "LIVE" after its release time
NewsAlertMinutes	15	Alert() heads-up this many minutes before a major (High impact) event
NewsCloseMinutes	11	Alert() reminder to close open trades this many minutes before a major event (only fires while a position is open)
NewsFeedUrl	https://trade.hamex.ee/api/news	Dashboard news endpoint (?currencies= is appended automatically)
Level1/2/3	1.25 / 2.50 / 5.00	Round-number grid steps (price units)
ATR_Period	14	Daily ATR period for the bands
SummerTime	false	DST adjustment for session times
tradeRisk	1.0	R multiple a win counts for in the back-test stats

Colors, line styles and widths for every drawn element are exposed as inputs as well.

Notes

• The indicator is multi-instance safe: attach it to several charts of different symbols at once; all drawn objects and the panel are per-chart. The journal export is account-wide regardless of which chart triggers it.
• The journal reads real account trade history (deals), so results, prices and times match your broker statement; R:R is computed from the SL/TP recorded on the deals.
• MQL5 indicators may not call WebRequest, which is why the upload goes through the native DLL instead.

License

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 — free for personal, non-commercial use. If you modify and redistribute the code, you must credit Hamed Nasrollahi and keep derivatives under the same license. Commercial use requires permission from the author.

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