Scan the moving average cross on MT4 with alerts

Claudio Cardinale -

What is it? Why?

Moving Average (MA) is one of the simplest technical indicators used in trading, not only forex and not only MT4/MT5. There are a lot of reasons to use a moving average and different ways to use it. To learn more, we suggest reading Investopedia moving average article.

There are two different kinds of cross that we'll analyze in this article, and you can read more info on Investopedia or on our moving average dedicated article. As we see, the moving average cross is handy to identify trend reversal (i.e. support/resistance break, new trend).

Price crosses moving average

In this case, we have just one moving average, and we check if the price crosses the moving average, this occurs when there is a trend reversal. If the price is above the moving average, there is an uptrend, vice-versa, a downtrend.

Price crosses one exponential moving average

Two different moving averages (slower and faster) periods cross themselves

In this case, we have two moving averages with different periods, so the faster moving average crosses the slower one. This cross occurs when there is a trend reversal. If the faster is above the slower moving average, there is an uptrend, vice-versa, a downtrend.

Two simple moving averages cross themselves

How to automatically scan for the moving average cross?

You can do it with a market scanner, a tool that allows you to scan the market using different indicators. Also checking for the moving average cross and without any programming skills, just a few clicks.

Once configured your rules (what you want to scan), the market scanner automatically scans all symbols and all timeframes you wish in order to look for your rules. The scanning results can be shown as different colors in a table to understand the overall situation immediately. Columns are the timeframes, and rows are the symbols, so every cell is colored according to the rule for that timeframe and that symbol.

And not only this, it can send you an alert on your mobile phone when there is a change.

Price crosses moving average

We want to immediately see if the price is above or below an exponential moving average (EMA) with period 15. If the price is above the EMA, we are in an uptrend, and we want to show green, vice-versa we want to show red. When the color changes, it means there is a cross.

Scanner for price and exponential moving average cross

Looking at the previous image, we see for EURUSD that the price is below the EMA for both timeframes (H1 and H4). This trend is confirmed by the scanner where we have red for both cells of EURUSD.

How? It's effortless, we just put rules as previously described in words, setting the color we want to see, so we set the following two rules:

  • IF Price >= EMA(15), then we want to show green
  • IF Price < EMA(15), then we want to show red

We have to do only this, only specify our scanner rule, then the scanner automatically will apply this rule for symbols and timeframes defined.

Scanner rules for price and exponential moving average cross

Two different moving averages (slower and faster) periods cross themselves

We want to immediately see if the faster simple moving average (SMA) with period 15 is above or below the slower one with period 30. If the faster is above the slower, we are uptrend, and we want to show green, vice-versa we want to show red. When the color changes, it means there is a cross.

Scanner for two simple moving averages cross

Looking at the previous image, we see for EURUSD where the red SMA is the faster and blue the slower; we have the following situation:

  • H1: faster above slower; in fact, the corresponding scanner cell is green.
  • M1: faster below slower; in fact, the corresponding scanner cell is red.

How? It's effortless, like the previous example, so we set the following two rules:

  • IF SMA(15) >= SMA(30), then we want to show green
  • IF SMA(15) < SMA(30), then we want to show red
Scanner rules for two simple moving averages cross

In action with alerts notifications

Now we see it in action when there is a cross; in this case, not only the color changes, but we receive an alert on MT4/MT5 and the mobile phone.

A scanner in action (with cross alert) checking price and EMA cross

Conclusion

We have seen how easy it is to scan the moving average cross using a market scanner.

However, some years ago, we looked for a market scanner on MT4/MT5, since we are traders, but we didn't find it. So we decided to create MT4Professional, the #1 market scanner on MT4.

MT4Professional has full market scanner capabilities with alerts notifications. Still, not only this, but it also has other useful features to help you refine opportunities identified via the scanner, such as open symbols charts in one click or multi-timeframe analysis via synced crosshair.

Do you want to start with the two cross examples shown before?

MT4Professional has many scanner examples included, and some of them are the two cross examples shown before.

If you want to start now to scan the moving average cross on MT4/MT5 you can try MT4Professional for FREE.