As far as I remember, I always had one forex trading problem – lack of speed when trading shorter timeframes.

I have always been using stop losses and profit targets based on market structure (hidden above/below recent highs/lows). As an addition to that, my risk has always been limited to 1-3% of trading capital. So, when opening a new position, I used to calculate both the width of my stop loss in pips and, based on that, the number of lots that I can safely trade without exceeding my predefined risk limit. This process used to take some time, and I was often late with my entries.

In case my story sounds familiar to you, I would like to share three MetaTrader 4 scripts that I have programmed to make my own life easier. All of them have to be used together.

[Prepare_Stops].mq4

Run this script and 2 horizontal lines will appear. Drag them to where you want your stop loss and take profit levels to be. In case you do not yet need a take profit level, you can delete one of the lines. Then run either [Open_Long].mq4 or [Open_Short].mq4 to open a position.

Run this script once more and a third line will appear. This line marks an entry and can be used to quickly open stop and limit orders.

Run this script third time to remove all previously created lines.

[Open_Long].mq4 and [Open_Short].mq4

Run one of these scripts after firstly using [Prepare_Stops].mq4. This will show a confirmation dialog with Reward to Risk ratio. After confirmation, either a long or a short position with your chosen stop loss and take profit levels will be opened.

Configuration Parameters for [Open_Long].mq4 and [Open_Short].mq4

MicroOrdersAllowed – set this to true if your broker allows trading of micro lots (0.01 lot positions).

MicroOrdersAllowed – set this to true if your broker allows trading of mini lots (0.1 lot positions).

UseMoneyManagement – set this to true if you would like to use built in position sizing function that will limit your risk to x%

RiskPercent – this variable defines how many % of your capital you would like to risk per trade

OrderVolume – using this variable you can define how many lots you would like to trade per position, if you do not use built in position sizing function

Download

Click here to download these scripts. Please put them in your expertsscripts folder (experts folder is located in main MetaTrader 4 directory).

Let me know, if you have any questions or suggestions how to improve these MetaTrader scripts. Also, feel free to share your own ways to increase speed when trading short timeframes.