In this article, we explore the capabilities of the Symbol Info indicator, which provides a comprehensive overview of trading symbols directly within MT4.
The Symbol Info indicator creates a status overview for a symbol in a draggable sub-window inside a main MT4 chart. It shows the price change, the distance from the recent high and low, plus an optional set of indicators giving a matrix of up and down signals on different timeframes.
You can add any number of copies of the indicator to a chart, to display different symbols or timeframes, with any combination of different settings.
How to Install Symbol Info indicator?
To download and install the Pro Trading Tools please follow these steps:
1. Login to FXTM profile > Hub > Pro Trading Tools
2. Download FX Blue or Trading Central for your Platform (Meta Trader 4 or Meta Trader 5)
3. Run the downloaded FX Blue and Trading Central files and apply them to your chosen Meta Trader Platform when prompted.
4. Relaunch the Meta Trader platform. You’ll find your FX Blue* and Trading Central tools in the ‘Navigator panel under ‘Indicators’ and/or ‘Expert Advisors’.
Note: FX Blue tools will appear in Meta Trader labeled as FXTM or Figaro app suite.
Using the Symbol Info indicator
Adding the indicator to a chart
You add the Symbol Info indicator to a chart in the usual MT4 way, either by dragging it from the Navigator onto a chart, or by double-clicking on it in the Navigator. You can also use standard MT4 features such as adding the indicator to your list of Favorites or assigning a Hotkey to it.
You need to turn on the “Allow DLL imports” setting in the “Common” tab of the indicator’s options:
Choosing the symbol
You set the symbol to display using the Symbol parameter in the Inputs tab. The symbol must be present in the MT4 market watch, and you should include any suffix which your account has for symbol names, e.g. EURUSD+
To display more than one symbol, you simply add multiple copies of the indicator to the chart.
You can also leave the symbol set to (current). This will then display the same symbol as the main MT4 chart and will change if the main chart changes.
% change
The indicator’s main display is the change in the symbol’s price in % terms (and also in pips). You can choose which timeframe to use for this calculation via the parameter on the Inputs tab, and you can also choose the number of bars. For example, D1 and 3 would mean “show the change since the open price 2 days ago” (today, plus the 2 D1 bars before that).
Change in pips
The indicator shows the change in price in terms of pips as well as %. By default it will use an automatic definition of the pip size, based on the number of digits in the price (e.g. 4 or 5 digits = pip size of 0.0001). For some CFDs, you may want to override this calculation of the pip size using the setting on the Inputs tab.
High-low range
The indicator also shows the current price in relation to the high-low range. You can choose the timeframe and number of bars to use for the calculation of the high and low. These can the same or different to the settings used for the % change.
Colours
You can use the Inputs tab to change the colours which are used for rises and falls.
Position and docking
You can use the Inputs tab to set the indicator’s initial position on the chart. You can define a position in terms of pixels (replacing the default values of -1) from a specific corner of the chart.
Once it has been created, you can drag the sub-window around the chart in the usual way, by pressing and holding the mouse over the sub-window’s title bar. By default the indicator will then choose a corner of the chart to “dock” itself to. For example, if you drag the sub-window close to the bottom-right corner, the indicator will then dock itself to that corner of the chart. If you resize the chart window, the indicator will automatically re-position itself so that it maintains the distance from the edge(s) of the chart. You can manually override the docking using the setting on the Inputs tab.
Indicator up/down signals
You can configure the Symbol Info indicator to display a matrix of indicator up & down signals on different timeframes (or you can turn these off, and only have the indicator display the price change and high-low range).
You can set up to 10 rows of indicator information. Some of the indicators, e.g. EMA or MACD, need parameters which you enter as a comma-separated list such as 12,26
Price change
The price change shows an up or down signal depending on whether the price is rising or falling on each timeframe.
The parameter for the indicator is the number of bars to use for the change calculation. This defaults to 1 (i.e. current bar) if left blank. Changing/setting the parameter to 2, for example, would mean “price change since the start of the previous bar”.
SMA (simple moving average)
The SMA indicator shows an up or down signal depending on whether the current price is above or below a simple moving average.
The parameter for the indicator is the number of bars for the average (defaulting to 14 if left blank).
EMA (exponential moving average)
The EMA indicator shows an up or down signal depending on whether the current price is above or below an exponential moving average.
The parameter for the indicator is the number of bars for the average (defaulting to 14 if left blank).
RSI (Relative Strength Index)
The RSI indicator shows an up or down signal if RSI is below 30 or above 70 (i.e. it treats the RSI values as an over-bought/over-sold indicator). If RSI lies between 30 and 70 then no signal is shown.
The parameter for the indicator is the number of bars for the RSI calculation (defaulting to 14 if left blank).
MACD (Moving average convergence/divergence)
The MACD indicator shows an up or down signal depending on whether the value of MACD is above or below zero. In effect it is saying whether a “fast” (short-term) moving average is above or below a “slow” (longer-term) moving average.
The parameters for the indicator are the fast and slow average periods, e.g. 12,26
Awesome Oscillator
The Awesome Oscillator indicator shows an up or down signal depending on whether the AO value is above or below zero.
This indicator does not have any parameters. (The AO is simply a comparison of the 5-bar and 34-bar simple moving averages.)
Parabolic SAR
The PSAR indicator shows an up or down signal depending on whether the current price is above or below the PSAR price.
The parameters for the indicator are the “step” and “maximum” values for the PSAR calculation, e.g. 0.02,0.2
CCI (Commodity Channel Index)
The CCI indicator shows an up or down signal depending on whether the value of CCI is above or below zero.
The parameter for the indicator is the number of bars for the CCI calculation (defaulting to 14 if left blank).
DeMarker
The DeMarker indicator shows an up or down signal if the value of the indicator is below 0.3 or above 0.7 (i.e. it treats the DeMarker, like RSI, as an over-bought/over-sold indicator).
The parameter for the indicator is the number of bars for the DeMarker calculation (defaulting to 14 if left blank).
Bollinger® bands
The Bollinger® band indicator shows an up or down signal if the current price lies below or above the lower or upper bands (i.e. it treats the Bollinger® bands as an over-bought/over-sold reversion-to-mean indicator). If the current price lies between the bands then no signal is displayed.
The parameters for the indicator are the period to use for the moving average, and the number of deviations for the bands (defaulting to 20,2 if left blank).
