News Indicator V 3 Plot V4 Operating Instructions
Plot%20News%20v4%20-%20operating%20instructions
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News Indicator v 4.07
Features new to a given release are highlighted like this.
DISCLAIMER
— Please read carefully
The attached indicator is supplied 'as is', free of charge. No warranty or obligation of support is implied. I have been able to test the
code ONLY on Windows 7 (Home Premium edition). Moreover, if the location or the format of the news provider's web site is changed,
the results may become unpredictable, for which I can accept no liability. Download and use the indicator AT YOUR OWN RISK.
The source code is NOT available.
OVERVIEW
This news indicator plots the same numbered (circular) symbols, above or below the MT4 chart candles, just as its predecessors did.
In other words, both prior news events (so that you can see the effect that they had on price) and upcoming news events (to warn you
of their imminence) are highlighted. See the image below. The news data is sourced from Forex Factory's calendar.
The four (independent and optional) functions of the indicator are:
1. Show selected prior and upcoming news announcements (or 'events') as numbered symbols, above/below the price candles.
2. Show upcoming news events, along with a countdown timer (hours:mins), as a 'rolling window' in any corner of your MT4 price chart.
3. Sound an audio/visual alert prior to an upcoming news event.
4. Allow custom-formatted exporting of news events to an output file, for subsequent analysis by other software (e.g. MS Excel).
I hope that you find the indicator useful. Please feel welcome to post questions, and/or report any bugs or shortcomings in the thread.
In the above chart, the rolling window shows that (for example) 'Core Retail Sales m/m NZD' will be announced in 9 minutes.
Hovering the mouse cursor near the top of a numbered circle shows the detail for the news event:
The first description line shows MT4 time; the currency; the expected impact level (Low, Medium or High); a description of the
event; then a vertical bar followed by a 4-digit serial number (which can be ignored). If the event description is too big to fit inside
MT4's character limit, a tilde (~) is used as a placeholder for missing characters.
The second description line shows local time; then (in square brackets, if the news event hasn't occurred yet) the number of hours
and minutes before it will occur; then any relevant actual (A:), forecast (F:), previous (P:) and/or revised from (R:) values, separated
by vertical bar symbols.
The third description line merely shows the price under the mouse cursor, and can be ignored.
NOTE: Deleting the indicator should remove all relevant objects from the MT4 chart.
INSTALLATION
1. Download and unzip the Plot News v4-00.ZIP file into your /MQL4/ folder, unzipping the files within to the relevant sub-folders,
and overwriting any existing files of the same name.
2. Exit and restart MT4.
3. Run the NewsDownloader.exe app to download news events from the Forex Factory calendar. This must be performed once
'manually', so that the Download News v4-00 script can find it thereafter.
To get the news events plotted, you must then:
4. Run the Download News v4-00 script, to download the news data from the Forex Factory calendar.
5. Attach the Plot News v4-00 indicator to a MT4 chart, to have the symbols plot on the chart.
DOWNLOADING NEWS FROM THE CALENDAR
Open MT4's Navigator (press Ctrl-N), and drag the Download News v4-00 script onto any MT4 chart. This automatically calls the
NewsDownloader.exe app. The parameter entries work as follows:
Weeks/months to download
Starting week/month
You can download either X weeks, or X months, worth of news from the FF calendar. For X months, include a 'm' in the field,
otherwise the default is X weeks. Whatever number you type for X is the number of weeks/months; a positive number works forward
in time from the starting week/month; a negative number backward in time. The 'starting' week/month is the one you select in the
Starting week/month field, which defaults to today's date. A week runs from Sunday to Saturday; a month from the 1st day of the
month to the last.
0 means download only the starting week/month.
-1 means download the starting week/month plus the one immediately prior.
-2 means download the starting week/month plus the two immediately prior. And so on.
1 means download the starting week/month plus the one immediately following.
2 means download the starting week/month plus the two immediately following. And so on.
Example 1: today is Wed July 15. If I type -2 (weeks) with today as the starting week, then the weeks beginning Sun July 12, Sun July
5, and Sun June 28 will be downloaded. In other words, I will have news events from June 28 until the end of this week (Sat July 18).
Example 2: if I want to download news for the first 6 months of this year, then I would set the starting week/month to any day in
January, and set the Number of weeks/months to 5m (i.e. the starting month -- January, plus 5 months following -- Feb thru June).
WARNING: If you're planning on plotting the news events on your MT4 charts (as opposed to importing them into another app, e.g.
Excel, for further analysis), I recommend downloading a maximum of 3 months' history. Bigger histories, require exponentially more
time to download, and plotting large numbers of news events can impact MT4's performance and storage requirements.
Autorun facility: typing an uppercase A anywhere in this field turns on 'autorun'. This means that the entry screen will be bypassed on
all future runs. To turn autorun off, you must manually remove the A from the file NewsDownloader.ini using a text editor.
News filename
Leave this set to news.csv unless you specifically want to create a separate file. Data will be output to this file, in comma separated
format, which can be read by the Plot News indicator. The file will be created in the local (/MT4/Files) folder, unless you specify a full
path. If you choose the default output format, the fields output, comma separated and enclosed in quotes, from left to right are:
date
time
impact
currency
event description
actual value
forecast value
previous value
revised from value
FF event ID number
v4.03 Archive filename
If you enter a non-blank filename, and also select the default output format (see Choose your output format below), the app will
maintain a second (archive) file of historical news events. In the archive file, all news events whose date is earlier than the earliest
news event in the news file will be retained, and all events whose date is equal or later will be replaced by those in the news file. This
makes it possible to maintain a significant size history, while simply updating the latest week's news, thereby dramatically shortening
the app's run time.
The archive file will be created in the local (/MT4/Files) folder, unless you specify a full path. If you do not wish to update the
archive file, simply leave this parameter blank. Of course you can also edit the archive file manually using a text editor (e.g. Notepad).
You can change the Plot News v4-00 indicator's News Input File setting to the archive file's name, and control which news events are
plotted by filtering them via the indicator's settings (e.g. From date, Thru date).
+/- hours shift
This will shift the timestamps on the news events forward (entering a positive number) or backward (a negative number) by the
number of hours that you specify, from New York time. This is recommended only if you are exporting the data for external analysis.
If plotting the news events on your MT4 charts, then you should leave this field set to 0, and apply any timeshifts using the
TimeOffsets setting in the Plot News indicator.
v4.02 Macro for indicator refresh
You can create a series of keystrokes to be automatically played by the News Downloader.exe app, at its end. These keystrokes (a
'macro') will be sent to MT4, causing the Plot News v4-00 indicator to be refreshed automatically, when you press the Ctrl-J key
combo (i.e. press 'j' while holding down the Ctrl key). Or you can simply press F5. Press Esc to exit without executing the macro.
To disable this feature, simply leave the field blank.
When you first install the app, the default keystroke sequence is: ^ip!e{enter 2} which means:
^i : the Ctrl-i combo is MT4's hotkey for calling the 'Indicators' window.
p : this will cause a 'p' to be typed. Pressing the first letter of an indicator name in the 'Indicators' window advances the cursor to
the next indicator that starts with that letter ('p' is the initial letter of 'Plot News 4-00'). If you have other indicators above Plot
News 4-00 in the list, you may need to insert additional 'p' keystrokes, to move the cursor to Plot News 4-00.
!e : this will cause Alt-e to be typed, summoning the 'Edit' window for the Plot News 4-00 indicator.
{enter 2} : this will cause the Enter key to be pressed twice, closing both windows opened by the prior keystrokes.
Try pressing the keys manually (Ctrl-i p Alt-e Enter Enter) and satisfy yourself that you have the correct sequence needed to
refresh the indicator. Refreshing the indicator is necessary to update its plot with the latest downloaded news.
Include high impact, medium impact, low impact, non-economic, untimed, unvalued events
Non-economic events are those colored gray in FF's calendar, e.g. bank holidays, daylight saving changes etc
Unvalued events are those where there are no values in any of the actual, forecast or previous columns, e.g. 'FOMC member speaks',
'meeting minutes' etc
Untimed events are those with alpha characters in the time field, e.g. 'Tentative', 'All day' etc. You assign these a time (the default is
00:01, or one minute after midnight) by typing a value (format is hours:mins) into the field on the right, so that MT4 can plot them
under a particular candle
Click the OK button to proceed. A progress bar informs you accordingly. To abort the process, press Ctrl-Break, otherwise the window
will disappear when everything is complete.
v4.01 Choose your output format
It is now possible to customize the format of the news.csv file that is output.
If you are outputting news to be plotted on your MT4 charts by the Plot News v4-00 indicator, then you MUST leave the default
setting, as this is the format that the indicator expects. However, if you are exporting news to another platform, you may either (i)
select a format from the dropdown list and/or (ii) make changes to the displayed format (in which case your new format will be added
to the list for later runs) . If you want to make further additions or changes to the dropdown list, then simply modify the content of
the NewsDownloader.fmt file using a text editor like Notepad.
See Appendix 1 for more information, including an explanation of how the characters in the format work, and some examples.
NOTE: Every time there are additions or changes to the data on the FF calendar, you will need to re-run the Download News v4-00
script to download this updated data. I usually run it 3-4 times each day, or immediately after any high impact news events.
DISPLAYING NEWS EVENTS ON YOUR MT4 CHARTS
Open MT4's Navigator (press Ctrl-N), and drag the Plot News v4-00.EX4 indicator onto your MT4 chart.
You can either set the parameters when attaching the indicator, or have them stored permanently in a text file, which saves the
retyping them each time you attach the indicator. The text file must be named Presets---Plot News.XXX and reside in your
……/MQL4/Files folder. Then you simply enter XXX (or whatever extension you used, in naming the file) into the ParameterFile option,
and the parameter settings will be automatically loaded from the text file. You can use any text editor (e.g. Notepad) to change the
settings. For detailed information, see the PARAMETER FILE section below.
WARNING: attaching more than one instance of the indicator onto the same chart will likely cause unpredictable results.
ParameterFile — leave the default setting of NONE if you want to enter parameters each time you attach the indicator. Otherwise
enter the extension name as described previously.
NewsInputFile — this should be left as the default news.csv value. News events will be retrieved from this file.
TimeOffsets — enter three numbers, separated by commas, which represent hours ahead (positive value) or behind (negative value)
GMT for each of the following:
First value is Forex Factory calendar time, which is the same as New York time (regardless of any personalized settings you might be
using on Forex Factory). It determines which candles the news symbols will plot under. The current provider is the Forex Factory
calendar, which uses New York time. Hence your entry here should be –5, unless New York is on daylight saving time, in which case it
should be –4.
The Forex Factory calendar can be found here: http://www.forexfactory.com/calendar.php
More information about New York time can be found here: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=179
Second value is the number of hours your broker's MT4 time is ahead of GMT (use a negative value if behind GMT). It also
determines which candles the news symbols will plot under.
To shift the news symbols forward in time (rightward) on your MT4 chart, increase the value of this setting.
To shift the news symbols backward in time (leftward), decrease the value.
Or, to find out your broker's MT4 time, you can use the method outlined here: http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?
p=6885148#post6885148
Third value is your local time, the number of hours you are ahead of GMT (use a negative value if behind GMT). This merely affects
the captions when you hover the mouse cursor over a news symbol on the MT4 chart. You can find your GMT offset by selecting your
country/region here: http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/time-zone/world/
Example: New York is currently on daylight saving (GMT-4), my MT4 is Pepperstone (GMT+3), and I live in New Zealand (GMT+12).
Hence my entry is -4,3,12
v4.04 You can try simply typing the text auto into the field, instead of the three values. This must be done while the market is open,
i.e. the price quotes are changing. Also, you may need to delete the Global Variable named MT4isGMTplus, if it already exists. To do
this, press F3 (in MT4), search for the variable in the list, highlight it with the cursor, and click the Delete button. If the 'auto'
option works correctly, the three correct timeshift values should appear alongside the indicator name, thus:
SourceDataFromXML —
Instead of using the Download News v4-00 script to download the news, you can set this value to TRUE to have the indicator get the
news data from the URL http://cdn.forexfactory.com/ffcal_week_this.xml
However, there are no ‘actual’ values, and no historical data (earlier than the current week), stored there.
if set to FALSE (the default), then you will need to run the Download News v4-00 script periodically, as explained previously.
v4.03 LookbackDays — if set to a value of 1 or greater, this overrides FromDate, and sets the date range for the symbols to be
plotted from LookbackDays ago, to the ThruDate, thus removing the need to continuously update FromDate, if you want to simply have
the last X days' worth of news continuously plotted on your MT4 chart. If LookbackDays is set to 0, then FromDate will be used to set
the date range.
FromDate
ThruDate — only news events whose MT4-adjusted time lies between these dates/times will be plotted. This can be useful for
reducing the number of symbols being plotted, decreasing overheads on MT4's performance and storage requirements.
VertSpacingPips — this controls how many pips above/below the candle highs/lows the symbols will be plotted. A positive value results
in plotting below the candle; a negative value, above the candle. If set to zero, the symbols will not be plotted (i.e. but the
ShowUpcomingXEvents, alert, and export facilities continue to operate).
ClearanceFactor — a larger number gives greater clearance, preventing symbols plotted on adjacent candles from obscuring each
other.
SymbolSize — controls the size of the plotted symbols; should be a value between 0 (smallest) and 5 (largest) inclusive. A negative
value means that the symbols will not be plotted (i.e. but the ShowUpcomingXEvents, alert, and export facilities continue to operate).
MainChart — if TRUE, the indicator plots both the circular symbols and rolling window in the main chart window, exactly as before.
Note that v3.10 must create a new sub-window regardless, due to MT4 idiosyncrasies. Drag the separator to make this empty subwindow as small as possible.
If FALSE, the indicator plots both the circular symbols and rolling window in a separate chart sub-window. Use VertSpacingPips,
SymbolSize, etc to adjust symbol spacing (and/or drag MT4's between-widow separator), and ShowUpcomingXEvents, EventCorner,
EventFontSize, etc to likewise adjust the rolling window of impending events.
TimeFrames — the plotted news events will display only on the timeframes that you specify (aka 'visibility'). Entries may be upper or
lowercase, and must be separated by commas.
PlotTheseImpacts — only news events matching the specified impacts will be plotted, and in the color specified. Entries may be upper
or lowercase, and must be separated by commas. Each entry must be in the form impact=color (e.g. High=Red)
You can use the abbreviations H, M, L or N for High, Medium, Low, and Non-Economic,if you prefer. Colors must either be valid MT4
tokens (e.g. Green, CornflowerBlue, SaddleBrown, Magenta, etc – use the DummyColorChart parameter to view these), or in the form
RnnnGnnnBnnn defining the red, green and blue components (each between 0 and 255), respectively, e.g. G255R255 is the equivalent of
Yellow. If an impact specifier is removed form the list, then no news events of that impact level will be plotted, alerted or exported.
PlotTheseCurrencies — only news events matching the specified currencies will be plotted, and using the Wingdings code specified
(see the table below). Entries may be upper or lowercase, and must be separated by commas. Each entry must be in the form
currency=wingdingscode (e.g. GBP=143)
You can use the abbreviations U for USD, C for CAD, E for EUR, F for CHF, G for GBP, J for JPY, N for NZD, and A for AUD, if you
prefer. Each Wingdings code must be a 3 digit number between 0 and 255. If a currency is removed from the list, then news events
relating to its country will not be plotted, alerted or exported.
RelevantCcyChartsOnly — if TRUE, only news events relating to either currency on the chart will be plotted, alerted or exported, e.g.
only EUR and USD related events on a EURUSD chart. If FALSE (the default), the restriction is lifted.
ColorAndSymbolOverrides — The latter overrides the symbols specified in PlotTheseCurrencies, the colors in PlotTheseImpacts, and
the size in SymbolSize, as follows:
You can specify up to 99 entries, separated by commas. Each entry must be of the form
[criteria]=[value]
Tests may change either the Wingdings symbol code or the symbol color, and are performed from left to right across the parameter
text. If two or more tests turn out to be true, a later result overrides a previous result. The examples below should clarify this.
[criteria] determines the test that will be applied, and may be any one of (i) impact, (ii) actual outcome, (iii) currency, or (iv) text
within the event description, as follows:
@H : high impact news event
@M : medium impact news event
@L : low impact news event
@N : non-economic news event
>F : actual value is greater than the forecast value
P : actual value is greater than the previous value
R : actual value is greater than the ‘revised from’ value (if there is no ‘revised from’ value, then the previous value is used)
F=225,>F=DodgerBlue
In the case of [criteria] being any one of >F, P, R or or < is effectively reversed. For example, if
the current chart is AUDUSD and ColorAndSymbolOverrides is set to
>F=225,forecast for an AUD-based news event, Wingdings character 225 (up-arrow) will be plotted
if actualforecast for a USD-based news event, Wingdings character 226 (down-arrow) will be plotted
i.e. an actual>forecast situation is assumed to be good for the first currency in the pair, and bad for the second; and vice versa for
actualF=225,F, P, R or =, in the left-to-right order that you want the items to be displayed, and entries must be
separated by commas. Keep in mind that MT4 allows a maximum of 61 characters for the whole object (news event); additional
characters are truncated. Valid values for - are (upper or lower case interchangeable):
T : countdown time to news event (format: character)
C : currency/country (format: character)
I : impact (format: character)
D : event description from FF calendar (format: character)
A : actual value from FF calendar (format: character/numeric)
F : forecast value from FF calendar (format: character/numeric)
P : previous value from FF calendar (format: character/numeric)
R : revised from value from FF calendar (format: character/numeric)
# : FFID# (format: character)
S : source (FF calendar or New York) date/time (format: datetime)
G : GMT date/time (format: datetime)
L : local date/time (format: datetime)
M : MT4 date/time (format: datetime)
The formats are as follows:
character: Ln = n characters, left aligned; Cn = n characters, centered; Rn = n characters, right aligned; Tn = n characters, as is
(truncated if too large)
character/numeric: either as character (as above), which displays the text; OR numeric, by starting the format entry with an N,
and then a valid numeric format. This will strip any non-numeric characters out of the next, and then displaying the rest as a
number, e.g. N-5.2 would display a leading minus sign, followed by 5 digits to the left of the decimal point, and 2 to the right. For
more info, see the Mask_Actual section below.
datetime: this will format the field as any combo of date and time you wish. For details, see the Mask_DateTime section below.
v4.06 UEFontNameSizeColor — ('UE' refers to 'Upcoming Events'). This setting determines the font that will be used to display the
news events. Entries are font name, font size, and font color, in that order, and must be separated by commas. The font name must
exactly spell the name of an installed Windows font (a non-proportional font like 'Courier New' or 'Lucida Console' is recommended, to
get the columns to align correctly). If the font color is omitted (left blank), then the news event will be displayed in the same color
that was used to plot the corresponding symbol on the chart.
v4.06 UECornerHstartVstartVspacing — ('UE' refers to 'Upcoming Events'). This setting consists of 4 entries, separated by commas,
determining where the Upcoming Events table will be displayed. The first entry is the corner (TL = top left, BR = bottom right, etc)
The second and third entries (Hstart and Vstart) is the starting horizontal and vertical pixel numbers of the first event, and the
fourth entry (Vspacing) is the number of pixels (vertical spacing) between each news event.
v4.06 UEBGHeightHstartWidthColor — ('UEBG' refers to 'Upcoming Events Background'). This setting optionally allows a rectangular
box to be plotted behind the events table. Simply leave the whole setting blank if you don't want a background box. Otherwise, you
must make 4 entries, separated by commas, that determine the properties of the box. The first entry (Height) actually sets both the
height and width of the background behind each news event. The second entry (Hstart) determines the horizontal starting pixel of
the box. The third entry (Width) allows you to adjust the width of the box. The fourth entry (Color) is the background box's color,
and must either be a valid MT4 token (Blue, Goldenrod, MediumSeaGreen, SaddleBrown, etc) or a co-ordinate in the format
RnnnGnnnBnnn where nnn is a value between 000 and 255, for each of the Red, Green and Blue color components.
RefreshPeriod — this deletes, recalculates, and re-plots all of the screen objects every X minutes. A value of T means an update
occurs with every new tick (note: this can potentially slow computer performance). A value of M1, M5, M15, etc means that an update
occurs immediately a new M1, M5, M15, etc candle starts to form, regardless of the chart timeframe to which the indicator is
attached. This parameter has no bearing on when the news data is re-gathered from the provider's web page (you must run the
Download News v 4-00 script to download the latest news data). A value of M1 is necessary if you want the 'rolling window' to
automatically count down every minute to each news event (the window will update itself when the first tick during each new minute
occurs). Entering a value of MN (monthly) effectively disables automatic refreshing. You always force a manual refresh by switching
back and forth between timeframes.
AlertXMinsBeforeNews — a negative value disables alerts. A zero or positive value will cause an audible/visual alert to occur X
minutes before each news event (0 means at the time of the event). Each event should alert only once; however, if you perform a
manual refresh, the indicator's memory is completely reset.
EmailAlertSubject — if set to a non-blank value (and provided that AlertXMinsBeforeNews is zero or positive), this will additionally
send an e-mail, with the subject line you specify here, to your e-mail address as set up in the Email tab in the MT4 options (press CtrlO). However, its real value is that it's possible to have e-mails re-routed as SMS text messages to your cellphone, providing you with a
personal 'FX news alarm clock'. (I have this working for me here in New Zealand – please contact your cellphone telecommunications
provider for more info). The body of the e-mail, and/or SMS text, reads something like
News event "USD FOMC meeting" due in 4 min 48 sec
If the setting is left blank, e-mail/SMS messaging is disabled, but audio/visual alerts will still occur if AlertXMinsBeforeNews is zero
or positive. Each event should alert only once; however, if you perform a manual refresh, the indicator's memory is completely reset.
OutputFile — a non-blank value means that an export (CSV) file of this name will be created in your ……/MQL4/Files folder. This is
similar to the news.csv file created by the Download News.exe app, but uses all of the above filtering, and additional formatting
options that are described below. The data output can then be imported into other applications (Excel, for example) for further
analysis. One line is output for each news event, and all of the parameters that follow determine which fields will be output, and the
formats that will be used to output them. The fields are output in the following order:
date/time, currency, description, impact, actual, forecast, previous, revised from
Delimiter — type the character you wish to be used to delimit the fields in the export. Usually this will be a comma (,), semicolon (; ) or
a space (if you want to produce a columnar table). You can also type a caret (^) to represent a TAB. All carets in each export line will
get converted to tabs just before the line is output. See the EXPORT SAMPLES section below.
EncloseInQuotes — TRUE means that each field in the output will be enclosed in double quotes ("). FALSE means that they won't.
Date_Source_MT4_Local — determines which date/time will be output. Enter S for the provider's local time (New York time), G for
GMT, M for your broker's MT4 time, or L for local time. Upper or lowercase doesn't matter.
You can also add or subtract a number of hours to any of these, e.g. G+5 = 5 hours ahead of GMT; L–3 = 3 hours behind local time.
Mask_DateTime — leave the field empty if you don't want the date/time to be exported. Otherwise your entry determines how the
date/time will be formatted. All except 'reserved' characters will be output 'as is'. You can include your delimiter in the mask, if you
want the date and time to be separate fields. Reserved characters include D for the day of the month; M for the month of the year; Y
for a 4-digit year; W or w for the day of the week (Sunday, Monday; or Sun, Mon, etc); N or n for the name of the month (January,
February; or Jan, Feb, etc); H for the hour; I for the minute; S for the second; A for am/pm. Usually a lowercase token results in an
abbreviated form of its uppercase equivalent (e.g. Y causes a 4-digit year to be output; y causes a 2-digit year to be output).
Mask_Currency — leave the field empty if you don't want the Currency to be exported. Otherwise your entry determines how the
Currency field will be formatted. All except 'reserved' characters will be output 'as is'. Reserved characters are L
,
C, R and T, which will result in the currency value being left-aligned, centered, right-aligned, or output as is
into a sub-field that is characters wide, either truncated to the first characters, or padded with spaces, if of
insufficient length. Use L to create a columnar report.
Mask_Descr — leave the field empty if you don't want the event description to be exported. Otherwise your entry determines how
the description field will be formatted. The mask value works the same as described as for Mask_Currency.
Mask_Impact — leave the field empty if you don't want the Impact to be exported. Otherwise your entry determines how the Impact
field will be formatted. All except 'reserved' characters will be output 'as is'. Otherwise your entry determines how the description
field will be formatted. The mask value works the same as described as for Mask_Currency. For example, T1 would result in merely a
H, M or L being output.
Mask_Actual — leave the field empty if you don't want the Actual value to be exported. Otherwise your entry determines how the
Actual field will be formatted. If you simply use a text mask (L, C, R or T - as explained in
Mask_Currency) the content of the field will be displayed as straight text. However if you precede the mask with a N, then all nonnumeric characters (everything except 0 thru 9, a minus symbol and a decimal point) will be stripped out, and the resulting number will
be formatted according to a numeric mask. For example, NTR-9.1 means output the number into a field that allows 9 digits max to the
left of the decimal point, and 1 digit max to the right. The – means display a leading minus symbol, if the value is negative. The R means
to round the number to the specified (1, in this case) number of decimals. The T means trim any leading or trailing spaces from the
field, thereby compacting it. You can also include ( to have negative values enclosed in parentheses, $,£,¥,etc for floating currency
symbols, a comma (,) to have commas separate every 3 integer digits, L to left align the field, % for a trailing percent symbol, a semicolon (;) to reverse the use of the comma and decimal point, a Z to zero fill any unused integer positions, a B to blank the whole field if
its value is zero, and a tilde (~) to display an tilde if there is numeric overflow (the integer part of the number is too large to fit in the
field). Alphabetic tokens in the mask may be upper or lowercase.
Mask_Forecast — this works exactly the same as the Mask_Actual parameter, determining whether the Forecast value will be output,
and if so, how it will be formatted.
Mask_Previous — this works exactly the same as the Mask_Actual parameter, determining whether the Previous value will be output,
and if so, how it will be formatted.
Mask_RevisedFrom — this works exactly the same as the Mask_Actual parameter, determining whether the Revised From value will
be output, and if so, how it will be formatted.
EXPORT SAMPLES
Here are 4 sample outputs, and the parameters (in blue typeface) used to generate them:
Example 1: Comma separated output
=================================
Delimiter
EncloseInQuotes
Mask_SerialNo
Date_Source_MT4_Local
Mask_DateTime
Mask_CurrencyMask
Mask_Descr
Mask_Impact
Mask_Actual
Mask_Forecast
Mask_Previous
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
",";
false;
"Z4";
"M";
"M/D/Y,H:I";
"T3";
"T65";
"T1";
"T20";
"T20";
"T20";
0001,12/06/2009,13:01,NZD,QV House Prices (YoY) (NOV),L,1.0%,,0.2%
0002,12/07/2009,00:30,AUD,AiG Perf of Construction Index (NOV),L,47.6,,50.9
0003,12/07/2009,01:50,JPY,Official Reserve Assets (NOV),L,$1073.7B,,$1056.8B
0004,12/07/2009,02:30,AUD,ANZ Job Advertisements (MoM) (NOV),L,5.2%,,-1.7%
0005,12/07/2009,11:30,EUR,Sentix Investor Confidence (DEC),L,-5.5,,-7.0
0006,12/07/2009,13:00,EUR,German Factory Orders s.a. (MoM) (OCT),L,-2.1%,0.8%,1.3%
0007,12/07/2009,13:00,EUR,German Factory Orders n.s.a. (YoY) (OCT),L,-8.5%,-6.2%,-12.8%
0008,12/07/2009,15:30,CAD,Building Permits (MoM) (OCT),L,18.0%,1.0%,3.2%
0009,12/07/2009,19:00,USD,Bernanke Speaks to Economic Club of Washington Lunch,L,,,
0010,12/07/2009,21:01,NZD,New Zealand Manpower Survey (1Q),L,14.0%,,1.0%
0011,12/07/2009,21:01,AUD,Australia Manpower Survey (1Q),L,19.0%,,9.0%
0012,12/07/2009,22:00,USD,Consumer Credit (OCT),M,-$3.5B,-$9.4B,-$8.8B (R+)
0013,12/07/2009,23:45,NZD,Manufacturing Activity (3Q),M,-5.1%,,-4.8%
0014,12/08/2009,00:45,USD,New York Fed President Dudley Speaks at Columbia University,L,,,
0015,12/08/2009,01:50,JPY,Current Account Total (OCT),L,1397.6B,1483.2B,1567.9B
0016,12/08/2009,01:50,JPY,Adjusted Current Account Total (OCT),L,1376.2B,1564.9B,1338.0B
0017,12/08/2009,01:50,JPY,Trade Balance - BOP Basis (OCT),L,949.0B,864.6B,599.2B
Example 2: Numeric values enclosed in quotes (suitable for import into Excel)
=============================================================================
Delimiter
EncloseInQuotes
Mask_SerialNo
Date_Source_MT4_Local
Mask_DateTime
Mask_Currency
Mask_Descr
Mask_Impact
Mask_Actual
Mask_Forecast
Mask_Previous
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
",";
true;
"";
"M";
"Y-M-D`,`H:I";
"T3";
"T65";
"T6";
"NTRB,-6.1";
"NTRB,-6.1";
"NTRB,-6.1";
"2009-12-06","13:01","NZD","QV House Prices (YoY) (NOV)","Low","1.0","","0.2"
"2009-12-07","00:30","AUD","AiG Perf of Construction Index (NOV)","Low","47.6","","50.9"
"2009-12-07","01:50","JPY","Official Reserve Assets (NOV)","Low","1,073.7","","1,056.8"
"2009-12-07","02:30","AUD","ANZ Job Advertisements (MoM) (NOV)","Low","5.2","","-1.7"
"2009-12-07","11:30","EUR","Sentix Investor Confidence (DEC)","Low","-5.5","","-7.0"
"2009-12-07","13:00","EUR","German Factory Orders s.a. (MoM) (OCT)","Low","-2.1","0.8","1.3"
"2009-12-07","13:00","EUR","German Factory Orders n.s.a. (YoY) (OCT)","Low","-8.5","-6.2","-12.8"
"2009-12-07","15:30","CAD","Building Permits (MoM) (OCT)","Low","18.0","1.0","3.2"
"2009-12-07","19:00","USD","Bernanke Speaks to Economic Club of Washington Lunch","Low","","",""
"2009-12-07","21:01","NZD","New Zealand Manpower Survey (1Q)","Low","14.0","","1.0"
"2009-12-07","21:01","AUD","Australia Manpower Survey (1Q)","Low","19.0","","9.0"
"2009-12-07","22:00","USD","Consumer Credit (OCT)","Medium","-3.5","-9.4","-8.8"
"2009-12-07","23:45","NZD","Manufacturing Activity (3Q)","Medium","-5.1","","-4.8"
"2009-12-08","00:45","USD","New York Fed President Dudley Speaks at Columbia University","Low","","",""
"2009-12-08","01:50","JPY","Current Account Total (OCT)","Low","1,397.6","1,483.2","1,567.9"
"2009-12-08","01:50","JPY","Adjusted Current Account Total (OCT)","Low","1,376.2","1,564.9","1,338.0"
"2009-12-08","01:50","JPY","Trade Balance - BOP Basis (OCT)","Low","949.0","864.6","599.2"
Example 3: Columnar table output
================================
Delimiter
EncloseInQuotes
Mask_SerialNo
Date_Source_MT4_Local
Mask_DateTime
Mask_Currency
Mask_Descr
Mask_Impact
Mask_Actual
Mask_Forecast
Mask_Previous
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
Sun
Mon
Mon
Mon
Mon
Mon
Mon
Mon
Mon
Mon
Mon
Mon
Mon
Tue
Tue
06
07
07
07
07
07
07
07
07
07
07
07
07
08
08
Dec
Dec
Dec
Dec
Dec
Dec
Dec
Dec
Dec
Dec
Dec
Dec
Dec
Dec
Dec
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
"
";
false;
"4";
"M";
"w D n Y
"L3";
"L60";
"L8";
"L14";
"L14";
"L14";
01:01pm
12:30am
01:50am
02:30am
11:30am
01:00pm
01:00pm
03:30pm
07:00pm
09:01pm
09:01pm
10:00pm
11:45pm
12:45am
01:50am
NZD
AUD
JPY
AUD
EUR
EUR
EUR
CAD
USD
NZD
AUD
USD
NZD
USD
JPY
H:Ia";
QV House Prices (YoY) (NOV)
AiG Perf of Construction Index (NOV)
Official Reserve Assets (NOV)
ANZ Job Advertisements (MoM) (NOV)
Sentix Investor Confidence (DEC)
German Factory Orders s.a. (MoM) (OCT)
German Factory Orders n.s.a. (YoY) (OCT)
Building Permits (MoM) (OCT)
Bernanke Speaks to Economic Club of Washington Lunch
New Zealand Manpower Survey (1Q)
Australia Manpower Survey (1Q)
Consumer Credit (OCT)
Manufacturing Activity (3Q)
New York Fed President Dudley Speaks at Columbia University
Current Account Total (OCT)
Low
Low
Low
Low
Low
Low
Low
Low
Low
Low
Low
Medium
Medium
Low
Low
1.0%
47.6
$1073.7B
5.2%
-5.5
-2.1%
-8.5%
18.0%
14.0%
19.0%
-$3.5B
-5.1%
1397.6B
0.8%
-6.2%
1.0%
-$9.4B
1483.2B
0.2%
50.9
$1056.8B
-1.7%
-7.0
1.3%
-12.8%
3.2%
1.0%
9.0%
-$8.8B
-4.8%
1567.9B
16
17
Tue 08 Dec 2009
Tue 08 Dec 2009
01:50am
01:50am
JPY
JPY
Adjusted Current Account Total (OCT)
Trade Balance - BOP Basis (OCT)
Low
Low
1376.2B
949.0B
1564.9B
864.6B
1338.0B
599.2B
Example 4: Academic Interest only
=================================
Delimiter
EncloseInQuotes
Mask_SerialNoMask
Date_Source_MT4_Local
Mask_DateTimeMask
Mask_CurrencyMask
Mask_DescrMask
Mask_ImpactMask
Mask_ActualMask
Mask_ForecastMask
Mask_PreviousMask
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
",";
false;
"";
"M";
"";
"T3";
"T65";
"";
"A=T14";
"F=T14";
"P=T14";
NZD,QV House Prices (YoY) (NOV),A=1.0%,F=,P=0.2%
AUD,AiG Perf of Construction Index (NOV),A=47.6,F=,P=50.9
JPY,Official Reserve Assets (NOV),A=$1073.7B,F=,P=$1056.8B
AUD,ANZ Job Advertisements (MoM) (NOV),A=5.2%,F=,P=-1.7%
EUR,Sentix Investor Confidence (DEC),A=-5.5,F=,P=-7.0
EUR,German Factory Orders s.a. (MoM) (OCT),A=-2.1%,F=0.8%,P=1.3%
EUR,German Factory Orders n.s.a. (YoY) (OCT),A=-8.5%,F=-6.2%,P=-12.8%
CAD,Building Permits (MoM) (OCT),A=18.0%,F=1.0%,P=3.2%
USD,Bernanke Speaks to Economic Club of Washington Lunch,A=,F=,P=
NZD,New Zealand Manpower Survey (1Q),A=14.0%,F=,P=1.0%
AUD,Australia Manpower Survey (1Q),A=19.0%,F=,P=9.0%
USD,Consumer Credit (OCT),A=-$3.5B,F=-$9.4B,P=-$8.8B (R+)
NZD,Manufacturing Activity (3Q),A=-5.1%,F=,P=-4.8%
USD,New York Fed President Dudley Speaks at Columbia University,A=,F=,P=
JPY,Current Account Total (OCT),A=1397.6B,F=1483.2B,P=1567.9B
JPY,Adjusted Current Account Total (OCT),A=1376.2B,F=1564.9B,P=1338.0B
JPY,Trade Balance - BOP Basis (OCT),A=949.0B,F=864.6B,P=599.2B
PARAMETER (OR 'PRESETS') FILE
To remove the nuisance of having to retype the same parameter settings every time you attach the indicator to a chart, you have two
options. EITHER:
1. Use MT4 templates (but these overwrite any other indicators, objects, etc that you also have on the chart). In this case, the
indicator settings are defined when you attach or edit the indicator, using MT4's built-in dialog; OR
2. Use parameter file(s), as follows:
If you enter nothing or TXT into the ParameterFile setting, then the indicator looks for a parameter file called Presets---Plot
News.TXT in the ...../MQL4/Files folder.
If you enter any other text (e.g. XXX, 001, etc) into the ParameterFile setting, then the indicator looks for a parameter file called
Presets---Plot News.XXX, Presets---Plot News.001, etc in the ...../MQL4/Files folder. (This allows you to set up a different
definition in each file, then simply enter the file suffix when you attach the indicator).
If the file can't be found, then the settings in MT4's dialog will be used. If the file is found, then the settings in the file will be
used instead. Hence if you want to force the use of the MT4 dialog settings, enter the name of a non-existent file (e.g. 'NONE').
Use a text editor like Notepad to view and/or edit the parameter presets files.
To disable an individual entry in the file, start the line with two slashes (//). This means that the setting specified in the MT4 dialog
(when you attach/edit the indicator) will be used instead. To re-enable it, remove the slashes. If you have multiple 'unslashed' entries
in the file, the last will be used. You can also disable an entry by setting its parameter value to an asterisk (*). Thus either of
// VertSpacingPips = 5;
or
VertSpacingPips = *;
will allow you to adjust the symbols' vertical spacing via the MT4 dialog, i.e. without the need to edit the parameter file.
You may use any number of embedded spaces or underscores, and/or any combo of upper or lower case, to aid readability, however you
wish. The only exceptions are FromDate and ThruDate, which must be entered exactly in the form YYYY.MM.DDHH:MM
Every line in the file (including blank lines, and lines beginning with two slashes) MUST end with a semi-colon (; ). Failure to do this will
cause unpredictable results.
If an entry occurs multiple times in the file, the last occurrence is used to set the parameter value, e.g.
VertSpacingPips = 5;
VertSpacingPips = 10;
means that the vertical spacing will be set to 10 pips.
To save typing and improve accuracy, copy/paste the sample lines in the file.
To disable the entire file, either rename it, or delete its content.
To have any changes take immediate effect, either (1) re-attach the indicator to your chart; (2) edit the indicator (press Ctrl-I); (3)
switch between timeframes, or (4) switch between currency pairs. Otherwise the chart will not be refreshed/re-plotted until the
RefreshEveryXMins setting takes effect.
OPERATIONAL RULES
To summarize what's been stated previously:
1. Every time there are changes to the data in the FF calendar, these changes will not be plotted until you run the Download News v400 script, and then the Plot News v4-00 indicator is refreshed (either manually or automatically). Download News v4-00 writes the
current calendar data to the ..../MQL4/Files/news.csv file, overwriting the previous version of the file.
2. Refreshing causes:
a) a re-read of the parameter file (..../MQL4/Files/Presets---Plot News.XXX), causing any newly saved changes to become effective;
and
b) a re-read of the ..../MQL4/Files/news.csv file (which contains the news data from the last time Download News v4-00 was run);
c) then it deletes and re-plots all of the numbered symbols on your MT4 chart with the updated news data.
3. A refresh can be either auto or manual. Either one will achieve the same results described in point 2.
A MANUAL refresh can be performed in ANY one of the following ways:
switching between timeframes; OR
switching between currency pairs (drag them from the Navigator panel onto your chart); OR
editing the Plot News v4-00 indicator (press Ctrl-I, then double click on the Plot News v4-00 indicator, and click OK to accept the
'dummy' non-change); OR
removing and reattaching the Plot News v4-00 indicator
(NOTE: This is a standard MT4 operation and applies to any indicator).
An AUTO refresh occurs, according to the RefreshEveryXMins setting. For example, if this is set to 15, then a refresh will take place
every time a new candle starts to form on the M15 chart of the pair to which the Plot News v4-00 indicator is attached (even if it's
attached to a non-M15 chart).
If you set RefreshEveryXMins = 0, then an auto refresh will occur on every new price tick. WARNING: this could slow computer
performance significantly. I prefer to use a MANUAL refresh as it's a forced, guaranteed refresh.
APPENDIX 1 — How to customize the format of the news output (news.csv) file
This is a new feature in v4.01, and is applicable ONLY if you are using the news output file for 'external' analysis. If you are using the
news.csv file for plotting news on your MT4 charts, you should not attempt to change its format, as the Plot News v4-00 indicator
expects to find the news.csv file in its prior, default format:
"date (yyyy.mm.dd)","time (hh:mm)","currency","impact","event description","actual","forecsast","previous","revised from","FF id#"
The NewsDownloader.exe app now looks for a file named NewsDownloader.fmt in the ..../MQL4/Files/ folder. If the file doesn't exist,
it creates it with the default format shown above. However, you can use a text editor like Notepad to change the format however you
wish, as explained below. The format used on the first row (line) of the file is the one that will be used; i.e. you can save multiple
formats on multiple rows, and simply copy/paste these around in the file until the one that you wish to use appears as the first row.
After making any changes, don't forget to save the file!
Any text (e.g. quotes, commas, spaces, …., whatever) that you type will be output 'as is'. However, the following special strings
('tokens') will be replaced with data from the news event:
d[] will be replaced with the event date, formatted using the
t[] will be replaced with the event time, formatted using the
c[] will be replaced with the currency (e.g. USD), formatted using the
i[] will be replaced with the impact (high/medium/low), formatted using the
n[] will be replaced with the news description, formatted using the
a[] will be replaced with the actual value, formatted using the
f[] will be replaced with the forecast value, formatted using the
p[] will be replaced with the previous value, formatted using the
r[] will be replaced with the revised from value, formatted using the
#[] will be replaced with the FF event ID#, formatted using the
v4.07 b[] will be replaced with "+1" or "-1" if actual is better or worse (respectively) than expected
v4.07 w[] will be replaced with "+1" or "-1" if revised from value has been revised better or worse (respectively)
Example 1: The default format (which is recognized by the Plot News v4-00 indicator) is actually:
"d[Y.M.D]","t[H:I]","c[T3]","i[T1]","n[T50]","a[T10]","f[T10]","p[T10]","r[T10]","#[Z5]"
causing the output to appear like:
"2015.07.26","19:50","JPY","L","SPPI y/y","0.4%","0.6%","0.6%","","56989"
"2015.07.27","02:00","EUR","L","German Import Prices m/m","-0.5%","0.2%","-0.2%","","57580"
"2015.07.27","04:00","EUR","H","German Ifo Business Climate","108.0","107.6","107.5","107.4","58167"
"2015.07.27","04:00","EUR","L","Private Loans y/y","0.6%","0.7%","0.5%","","58223"
Example 2: If you want your news output to be formatted without the quotes surrounding each field, then use a format like this:
d[Y.M.D],t[H:I],c[T3],i[T1],n[T50],a[T10],f[T10],p[T10],r[T10],#[Z5]
causing the output to appear like:
2015.07.26,19:50,JPY,L,SPPI y/y,0.4%,0.6%,0.6%,,56989
2015.07.27,02:00,EUR,L,German Import Prices m/m,-0.5%,0.2%,-0.2%,,57580
2015.07.27,04:00,EUR,H,German Ifo Business Climate,108.0,107.6,107.5,107.4,58167
2015.07.27,04:00,EUR,L,Private Loans y/y,0.6%,0.7%,0.5%,,58223
Example 3: If you want your news to appear in columns, rather than comma separated, use a format like this:
d[M/D/Y] t[H:I:S]
c[L3]
n[L50] i[L12]
a[L10] f[L10] p[L10] r[L10] #[Z5]
and the output will appear like this:
07/26/2015
07/27/2015
07/27/2015
07/27/2015
19:50:00
02:00:00
04:00:00
04:00:00
JPY
EUR
EUR
EUR
SPPI y/y
German Import Prices m/m
German Ifo Business Climate
M3 Money Supply y/y
Low
Low
High
Medium
0.4%
-0.5%
108.0
5.0%
0.6%
0.2%
107.6
5.1%
0.6%
-0.2%
107.5
5.0%
107.4
56989
57580
58167
58221
(note how the slashes appear in the date, seconds appear in the time, the text fields are now left-aligned rather than truncated, and
the order of the event description and impact have been reversed)
Example 4: This example demonstrates how you can right align text fields (impact), center text fields (event description), embed any
text you wish, have the actual/forecast/previous/revised from fields print as number fields with decimal places:
d[M/D/Y] t[H:I:S]
c[L3]
n[C50] i[R12]
a[N7.2B] f[N7.2B] p[N7.2B] r[N7.2B] ffid=#[Z5]
The output from this format looks like this:
07/27/2015
07/27/2015
07/27/2015
07/27/2015
07/28/2015
04:00:00
06:00:00
08:30:00
08:30:00
04:30:00
EUR
GBP
USD
USD
GBP
German Ifo Business Climate
CBI Industrial Order Expectations
Durable Goods Orders m/m
Core Durable Goods Orders m/m
Prelim GDP q/q
High
Low
Medium
High
High
108.00
10.00
3.40
0.80
0.70
107.60
4.00
3.20
0.40
0.70
107.50
7.00
2.20
0.40
107.40
1.80
0.50
0.30
ffid=58167
ffid=55542
ffid=57780
ffid=57782
ffid=55947
The formats for all four examples are supplied in the NewsDownloader.fmt file that is installed with Plot News.
Note that the output file is always sorted using the characters at the left of each row. Hence you can control how output will be
sorted by choosing the order of the fields across the row, and by using suitable formats.
APPENDIX 2 — The Convert news to GMT.exe application
This is a new feature in v4.04, and is applicable ONLY if you are using the news output file for 'external' analysis. The application
exists in the /MQL4/Files folder. It performs a shift on the date/timestamp of each news item in your specified Input file, and
writes the result to your specified Output file. Unlike the shift used in the NewsDownloader.exe app, this translates the time from FF
calendar time (i.e. New York daylight saving time, EDT in the summer months; New York standard time, EST in the winter) to absolute
GMT time, +/- the To GMT plus X hours that you specify, for every news item in the file. Click the OK button to begin the process.
===== END OF DOCUMENT =====
© copyright 2015, David Louisson
Source Exif Data:
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