At Quantum Trading, we like to give you a choice, and to offer what we believe are the ‘best of breed’ alternatives to those indicators that many traders use. And this is another example. Many forex traders rely on the DXY indicator to signal strength and weakness in the US dollar, and this works perfectly well. It is an index that has been around for over 30 years. However, times change, and none more so than in the forex market in the last five years. The US dollar still accounts for over 87% of currency transactions, but the significance of other currencies is growing fast, and the general view is that the DXY is perhaps not so relevant as it once was, given the constituents of the underlying basket of currencies. Perhaps the three most glaring anomalies are the heavy weighting of the European currencies, the exclusion of the Australian dollar, and the minor weighting of the Japanese yen.
Whilst there are new indices being developed all the time, and indeed Bloomberg have recently launched the BBDXY as an alternative, we believe that simplicity is the key, and have therefore developed the USDX index for the MT4 platform. This is based on the FXCM/Dow Jones index, and takes four major currencies, with an equal weighting to deliver the USDX index as follows:
- Japanese yen (JPY) – 25%
- Australian dollar (AUD) – 25%
- Euro (EUR) – 25%
- British pound (GBP) – 25%
The index is based on a notional 10,000 mini lot contract size and unlike the DXY is therefore quoted to five figures and two decimal places. It is our belief that this simple index provides a ‘real world’ view of strength and weakness in the US dollar, with a more representative sample of world currencies. But why not try both – and see which you prefer!
Like the QuantumDXY indicator, the Quantum USDX indicator can be used in one of three ways:
- First, as an inverse indicator to a major currency pair, helping you get in, stay in and get out
- Second, as a confirming indicator for the Quantum Currency Strength indicator, providing a perspective against other currencies
- Finally, as the ultimate barometer of risk
Whichever approach you adopt, you will no longer have to leave your MT4 platform for a view of the US dollar! In addition, the indicator is also supplied with two moving averages already applied, the 8 SMA and the 14 SMA to help provide you with further insights into market direction.
- The Quantum USDX indicator works in all timeframes
Applying the Indicator
Open your MT4 platform and in the main menu, select View > Navigator to open the Navigator window which appears at the left hand side of your workspace.
In the Navigator window, expand the Indicators tree by clicking the “+” symbol. Find the Quantum tree and expand it by clicking the “+” once again to reveal the full list of Quantum Trading indicators.
To start using the indicator, you can click and drag QuantumUSDX from the Navigator to a chart or you can also double-click QuantumUSDX (which will then be applied to the currently selected chart). Doing either one of these will display the Custom Indicator window where you can configure all the various user settings for your Quantum USDX. These options are grouped and can be accessed by selecting the tabs which will be discussed further in the following sections. Once you are done customizing the indicator’s options, click OK to run the indicator.
About tab
You can find basic information about the indicator such as its name, description, and version number.
Common tab
Please make sure that the “Allow DLL imports” option is checked/ticked before running the indicator. This is required by all Quantum indicators to properly communicate with its accompanying DLL file. Alternatively, you can set this option globally by selecting in the main menu, Tools > Options > Expert Advisors tab and checking/ticking the “Allow DLL imports” option. Other than this, please leave other options to their default setting.
Inputs tab
You can configure the indicator by changing its variables listed in this tab. We explain this in more detail shortly and for each configurable input of the Quantum USDX below.
Dependencies tab
All the files that the indicator uses to run is listed here. You can leave this tab as it is.
Colors tab
All the plots of the Quantum USDX can be configured in this tab. It has five plots, but you only ever need to worry about the first three if you like to customize its look and feel.
- The first plot is the indicator’s line chart mode. Its default color is chartreuse.
- The second plot is the indicator’s first moving average line (MA1). Its default color is aqua.
- The third plot is the indicator’s second moving average line (MA2). Its default color is magenta.
Levels tab
This indicator does not use any Levels so this tab is empty.
Visualization tab
The indicator’s visibility can be toggled on or off in different contexts with the options in this tab.
Configuring the Indicator
Let’s return to the Inputs tab and explore how to customize the settings of your Quantum USDX indicator.
Account Email
When running the Quantum USDX for the first time in your trading account, you need to enter the email you used to register in the Quantum Trading Indicators Enablement System – http://enable.quantumtrading.com/ as part of its verification process. You only need to do this once as the email is stored in the terminal’s global variable cache after it is entered initially. Please make sure that you enter your email correctly and exactly without any extra spaces before and after it. If you made an error, simply fill this field again to update it.
Look Back
This setting defines the number of bars the indicator processes and this is also the number of bars it displays on the chart. It is set to 200 by default.
MA1 Period
This is the first Simple Moving Average with a default setting of 7.
MA2 Period
This is the first Simple Moving Average with a default setting of 14.
Candle Thickness
You can adjust the thickness of the candlesticks by changing the value of this setting.
Bullish Candle Color
This setting allows you to change the color of the bullish candlesticks. Its default color is dodgerblue.
Bearish Candle Color
This setting allows you to change the color of the bearish candlesticks. Its default color is red.
Line Chart Mode
The Quantum USDX indicator attempts to generate its own candlestick chart by default but if this field is set to true, it will use a line chart to display the index.
Line Chart Price Type
When the indicator is set to Line Chart Mode, you can change the price type it uses to plot its line chart using this setting.
Currency Prefix
This is the variable field that you will need to update, if your FX broker delivers your currency pairs with a prefix. As an example this might be a.EUR/USD, in which case you would need to enter the value a. in the Currency Prefix field. If your currency pairs are delivered with a prefix, then you MUST enter this in this field, otherwise your indicator will not work.
Currency Suffix
This is the variable field that you will need to update, if your FX broker delivers your currency pairs with a suffix. As an example this might be EUR/USDm, in which case you would need to enter the value m in the currencySuffix field. If your currency pairs are delivered with a suffix, then you MUST enter this in this field, otherwise your indicator will not work.
Making Adjustments to the User Interface
Expanding the Indicator’s Screen Size
To expand the indicator to full size so that it fills the chart, these are the steps to follow:
- Hover your mouse pointer over the double horizontal lines marked with the red arrows above
- A small icon of two parallel lines with the words ‘click drag a border of the window’
- HOLD down the left click on your mouse, and drag these lines to the top of your chart, and release when done
- Hover your mouse over the right hand edge of the chart until a double headed arrow appears
- HOLD down the left click on your mouse, and drag the right hand edge of the chart across to the left and release when done
- Left click on the chart to make it the active window
- Left click on the zoom icon below, to expand your Quantum USDX indicator to full size. The zoom function is shown below and is found in the standard toolbar below the top level navigation.
Removing the Indicator from the Chart
Open the chart’s Indicator List window by pressing Ctrl+I. You can also right-click the chart and select Indicator List from the context menu.
Select QuantumUSDX and click the Delete button then click the Close button.
