Hidden Indicator in MT5: How to Hide or Remove Indicators

If your chart is cluttered with indicators — or you have been wondering what a "hidden indicator" really is — here is the direct answer first:

• To get an indicator off your MT5 chart, right-click the chart and open Indicators list, select the indicator, and press Delete. That removes it completely.
• To keep its settings but stop seeing it, you can temporarily disable its display in the same dialog instead of deleting it.
• To remove the last indicator you applied in one step, use the hotkey Ctrl+Backspace.
• In the MQL5 world, "hidden indicator" has a second, technical meaning: a custom indicator compiled with the #property indicator_hidden directive does not appear in the Navigator and cannot be attached to a chart by hand — it runs only through code.

The rest of this guide covers both meanings, walks through each method step by step, and points out the mistakes that trip up most users.

"Hidden indicator" in MT5: two different meanings

Before touching your chart, it helps to know which meaning you are dealing with.

1. A chart indicator you no longer want to see. Every indicator attached to a chart — moving averages, Bollinger Bands, RSI, MACD — is listed as an applied object in the chart's Indicators list. "Hiding" it in the practical sense means either removing it from the chart, disabling its display while keeping its settings, or resetting the whole layout with a template.

2. An MQL5 hidden indicator (programmatic). Custom indicators in MetaTrader 5 can be compiled with the preprocessor property #property indicator_hidden. According to the official MQL5 documentation, such an indicator is not shown in the Navigator's Indicators section and cannot be attached manually — it can only be created from code, typically by an Expert Advisor or a script. This is why you may see an indicator on your chart that you cannot find anywhere in the Navigator: it was most likely attached this way.

Both situations are handled from the same place — the chart's Indicators list.

How to hide or remove an indicator on an MT5 chart (step by step)

Step 1 — Open the Indicators list. Right-click anywhere on the chart and choose Indicators list from the context menu. The chart context menu and the applied-objects list are both described in the official MetaTrader 5 Help.

Step 2 — Remove an indicator completely. In the Indicators list, select the indicator you want to get rid of and click Delete. It disappears from the chart immediately. Keep in mind that its parameters are deleted with it — if you might want it back later, note your settings first or use the temporary-hide method in Step 4.

Step 3 — Edit its properties instead. Double-click an indicator in the list (or select it and use the edit action) to reopen its settings dialog: inputs, colors, and levels can be adjusted without removing the indicator from the chart.

Step 4 — Temporarily hide it without deleting. In the Indicators list, each entry has an enable/disable control: uncheck it and the indicator stays applied but stops being displayed on the chart; check it again to bring it back. Nothing about its settings is lost. This is the cleanest way to "hide" an indicator when you only want a tidier chart for the moment.

Step 5 — Use the quick delete shortcut. If the last indicator you added is the one you want gone, press Ctrl+Backspace — this hotkey deletes the last applied indicator from the chart in a single step (it is listed in the official MetaTrader 5 Hot Keys help).

Step 6 — Re-attach an indicator. When you want the indicator back, drag it from the Navigator → Indicators folder onto the chart, or press Ctrl+I and pick it from the indicators dialog. Note that a programmatic hidden indicator (#property indicator_hidden) will not appear in either place — it can only be re-created by the code that manages it.

Step 7 — Reset with a template. To start clean every time: right-click → Template → Save template with a layout you like (for example a chart with no indicators), then right-click → Template → Apply template whenever your chart gets cluttered again.

Step 8 — Hide an indicator on specific timeframes. In an indicator's settings, the Visualization tab lets you choose which timeframes display the indicator. Untick a timeframe there and the indicator is hidden on that timeframe only, while staying visible on others.

Common pitfalls

• Delete means gone. Pressing Delete in the Indicators list removes the indicator together with its parameters — there is no undo. If you only want a cleaner view, hide it via its enable/disable control (Step 4) instead.
• Looking for a hidden indicator in all the wrong places. An MQL5 hidden indicator will never show up in the Navigator or in the attach dialog. If it has been added to your chart by an EA, remove it through the Indicators list — the EA will re-create it on its next run.
• Forgetting sub-window indicators. RSI, MACD and similar oscillators live in separate windows below the price chart, but they are still listed as applied indicators — delete or hide them from the same Indicators list.
• Templates overwrite your current setup. Applying a template replaces the indicators currently on the chart. Save your own template first so you always have a known layout to fall back on.
• Deleting on the wrong symbol or timeframe. The Indicators list belongs to a specific chart. If an indicator is missing from the list you are looking at, check that you opened the list on the same chart where the indicator was applied.

A cleaner way to keep an eye on the market

Once your MT5 chart shows only what you need, there is one more step you can take to keep the workspace tidy: this kind of need is exactly what Camovia Tray handles more smoothly — it turns MT5/MT4 into a system-tray tool, so you can hover the tray icon to check live quotes and manage positions (including one-click closing) without opening the terminal at all. Quotes and position data stay on your computer — nothing is uploaded. MT5 connects directly with no EA; MT4 needs a one-time bridge EA (CamoviaBridge, about 30 seconds to set up; turn on AutoTrading with Ctrl+E before closing positions). All quotes and position data stay on your computer — nothing is uploaded.