MT5 Indicators Tested on 16,926 Bars: Ichimoku, ADX and the M10/M20 Timeframes Nobody Measures (2026)

MetaTrader 5 ships with 38 indicators and seven timeframes MT4 does not have. This page used to list the indicators everybody lists. It now reports what I measured when I put the popular ones through the same 16,926 EURUSD 5-minute bars, from June 3 to August 26, 2026, with one hold, one spread and no discretion. If you want the click path for loading any of these, it is in how to add indicators to MT5; this article is about which of them earned their place.

Do the MT5-only timeframes give you anything?

This is the first question anyone switching from MT4 should ask, because M10 and M20 are the most visible difference between the platforms. I took one rule, an EMA 10/30 crossover held for a fixed number of bars, and re-cut the same 5-minute data into six timeframes. Same signals, same measurement, only the bar size changed.

The two timeframes you cannot get on MT4 finished in the middle and were both beaten by the ones you can. Across 18 combinations of timeframe and moving average pair, four were net positive after spread and three of those were on shared timeframes. Read the H1 row with care: 38 trades is too few to conclude much, which is a problem the slower charts always have on a three-month window. The spread you actually pay decides whether any row survives, and what spread and swap cost on MT4 and MT5 shows how to read your own broker’s number before trusting mine.

Which built-in MT5 indicator had a measured edge?

Ichimoku, and only in one configuration. The Tenkan/Kijun cross on its own, the way most tutorials teach it, lost money at every hold I tried. Requiring price to be on the correct side of the cloud changed it from the worst rule in the set to the best.

The default 9/26/52 settings were not the best either. Doubling them to 20/60/120 lifted the cloud breakout to 47.3% and +1.08 pips on 224 signals, while the popular “faster” 10/30/60 variant lost 1.71 pips per trade. The full grid is in Ichimoku settings for MT4 and MT5, the breakout numbers by hold time are in the cloud breakout test, and the comparison against EMA and Donchian rules is in Ichimoku vs trend following.

Is ADX worth loading on MT5?

Yes, but not at the number printed in every guide. I used ADX(14) as a permission filter on an EMA 12/26 crossover: take the signal only if ADX is above the threshold. The rule everybody repeats, ADX above 25, made the system worse.

ADX sat above 25 on only 35.8% of bars, so the filter throws away four signals in five and the survivors were not better. The 22-trade row above 30 looks wonderful and means almost nothing. Where ADX did earn its keep was on its own DI lines: +DI crossing -DI went from -0.69 pips unfiltered to +0.15 when ADX above 25 was required. The MT5 setup, including where the DI lines hide in the dialog, is in the ADX MT5 guide, and the threshold-by-threshold numbers are in the ADX 25 trend filter test.

What about the moving averages MT5 draws by default?

The period decides everything and the method decides almost nothing. In the crossover test, seven of eight pairs lost money and only the slow EMA 50/200 finished ahead, at 51.1% and +2.31 pips per trade across 88 signals. The fast pairs that scalping guides recommend were the worst: EMA 12/26 traded 327 times to lose 0.76 pips each. The moving average crossover test has all eight rows.

Switching the MT5 dialog between Simple and Exponential moved results by under two percentage points in most pairs, while changing the period moved them by nine. At the slow end EMA won clearly, 51.1% against 42.1% for SMA 50/200; at the medium end SMA 20/50 edged EMA. So the answer to the EMA or SMA question depends on the length you are already using, which is why it never gets settled; EMA vs SMA has the four matched pairs and moving average settings covers which dialog fields matter on either platform.

So what goes on an MT5 chart?

From the measurements, not from habit: an EMA 200 as the direction gate, Ichimoku with the cloud used as a filter rather than an entry, and ADX only if you use its DI lines. Leave the M10 and M20 charts alone unless your own spread is under a pip. Add a non-repainting trend line for entries; my DeMARK trend line indicator is built for that job on both MT4 and MT5, and it draws the same line in history as it did live, which is the test every indicator on this page had to pass before I measured it.

FAQ

Are MT5 indicators better than MT4 indicators?

Same maths, same results. The Ichimoku, ADX and moving average numbers above would be identical on MT4 because the formulas are identical. MT5 adds timeframes and a faster strategy tester, not better indicators.

Which MT5 timeframe was best in the test?

M30 at +1.48 pips gross and +0.48 net, then M15 at +1.31 and +0.31. Both are available on MT4. The MT5-only M10 and M20 were positive gross and negative after a one pip spread.

Do these indicators repaint on MT5?

Ichimoku, ADX and moving averages recalculate only on the open candle and are fixed once it closes. That is normal, not repainting. Arrow indicators built on ZigZag or fractals are a different story and erased up to 90.9% of their arrows in my test.

Where did the data come from?

EURUSD M5, 16,926 bars from June 3 to August 26, 2026, exported from a live MT5 terminal. Every rule was measured as the move in pips after a fixed hold, with no stop or target, so the numbers describe the signal and not my exit habits.

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