Serious chart problems that could destroy your strategy

I make my living trading FX. I am not a novice trader nor a novice at MT4. Starting in August, my results began to fluctuate and I started looking for reasons. Here is what I've found. My strategy... btw... primarily utilizes trendlines. But if this is happening with trendlines, I'm sure other "objects" are suspect as well.

My chart setup is simple... Draw major trendlines on DAILY chart, then use 1H chart to fine-tune entries.

From images below, you can see where my entry using the DAILY chart on EurUsd last night shows a good entry - waiting for price to go up to green trendline, then go short.

Looking at the HOURLY chart, however, shows that my entry was horrible. Up in the air and going short when price is about to run into major support (green trendline). So... which time frame do I trust? (The hourly proved to be correct, as this morning, price bounced off that trendline as expected)

Investigating further (live account)... Below is current AudUsd chart. I took the template from IBFX chart and applied it to FXDD chart. (Price feed is a bit different between two brokers, so the candles on 4H and Daily are a bit different - but the template has NOT changed). FXDD shows correctly on all 3 time frames, while IBFX is WRONG. Why the difference on IBFX? How do I trust my charts now?

This business is tricky enough. Just about everything on this forum is "chart" based... So when you can't trust the charts... How do you beat the odds then?

http://www.forexfactory.com/showpost...27&postcount=8

Also bear in mind that the brokers probably start their midnight at different times and may or may not include SUNDAY. This may also impact your trendlines.

Correct trendlines should always be plotted on M1.

EDIT: I neglected to mention that if you plot the trendlines on M1 and still experience the issue, try pressing Alt+C, then R on the time frame you have issues on to refresh the bars in that chart. If you still experience problems after that, then your broker feed is missing data and need to be contacted to resolve the issue.

I would agree (and am aware of that) had all 3 timeframes been consistently slightly off. But if you look at my 2nd post... The green trendline crosses price on 1H chart and it crosses price on 4H chart, yet appears about 100 PIPS higher and ABOVE price on the DAILY. There isn't that big of a time gap between 4H and Daily.

Compare that to the "right side" images (from FXDD) where the trendline crosses price on all 3 timeframes.

So many folks on here follow systems which advocate "switching to lower timeframes" to set targets, stops, fine-tune entries, etc...

NOTE: This issue DID NOT occur until about a month ago... and I've been trading trendlines, using MT4 for 3+ years with same brokers. It's only when my results started to vary in the recent weeks, that I begun looking more into it... and ran into this.

What tf are you drawing these lines on? Do they span days/weeks/months?
If you are using an EA or indicator to draw from time and price to time and price, how have you written the code?

I experienced similar issues with a trendline indicator I wrote. Issues were resolved once I had ensured that trendlines were plotted on minute timeframe and ensuring that the beginning and end times of candles were entered correctly.

If you are drawing them manually, check if the amount of bars in the timeframes are the same by going to file>open offline. check the amount of bars and the dates are the same on both platforms. If the incorrect chart looks like it has fewer bars with the same dates, then you have an issue with your datafeed which may be corrected by downloading your missing bars from your broker if they provide that service (tools > history center). If they don't allow this, you will need to contact them and advise them of missing bars. They may send you the missing data or direct you to a source.

If all the above is correct, then the problem could actually be the platform in which case you will need to remove the faulty MT4, delete the residual folder in program files and possibly edit your registry.

My procedure for drawing trendlines is as follows: (1) Draw TL on 'Daily' (2) Switch to 'Hourly' and fine-tune (3) Switch to 5M and fine-tune (4) Draw next TL starting back up on Daily. The only things that exist on my charts are trendlines and the major Fib from the Daily chart... which is consistent on all timeframes.

My questions then is: Since the Fib "spine" is also a "trendline"... why does it cross all bars on all timeframes exactly and to a pip and the standalone trendline fluctuates?

Before posting this... I've installed MT4 on a diff computer, which never had MT installed on it -> Updated "history" -> changed "# of bars" in options to "max" -> applied the template and the result is the same. 1H and 4H match to where trendline crosses price and Daily is off by about 100 pips on AUDUSD. Off on EU as well.

Btw... When I tried to update history on the original computer... it said "No new data"

Here is CHYJPY currently. ALL 3 TIMEFRAMES... down to 5M MATCH!?! So the critical issue still remains... even if it IS a matter of missing data on some charts and not on others. How do you trust your charts, when you constantly have to question... "Is my data correct? Am I missing some data on this chart? Is my analysis based on correct data or is this one of the charts that isn't-so-accurate?"

"Some charts are accurate and some charts are not-so-accurate" - is no way to trade. IMHO. As I said... This business is hard enough as it is.

IBFX always has problems , bunch of complains

Have you spoken to your broker about this? It is entirely possible that there is an issue they don't know about. Did you do what I suggested and check the offline charts on both platforms to see if the have the same amount of bars and dates on each?

That is where you need to begin because if the trendline is plotted correctly on 2 timeframes, the only thing that would be skewing the trendline is missing bars on the higher tf.

I agree with you, that all charts should be accurate. The only thing that should differ between brokers is volume and bid/ask prices (but not by more than 3 to 5 pips).

I did do it in "demo" and "live" and "online/offline"modes as well. I've even installed on diff computers and have a Windows version and Linux version. Same outcome.

IBFX said "it's the way I draw trendlines". So I email back with "correct" trendline chart and "incorrect" charts and asked: "then how come on "this" pair everything is fine and on "these" it's not fine? And why did this not happen for the past 3 years and started a few weeks ago? No reply yet.

but did you actually compare your working platform offline chart bar and date numbers. with your faulty platform offline chart bar and date numbers.

You actually compared the number of bars for the timeframe and the "from" and "to" fields?

You must not only do this on the faulty platform even if you check live and demo as the issue is probably replicated over both. You MUST compare a working platform.

I hear you man and I thank you for trying so hard to help me resolve this issue... I was just hoping to be able to devote 100% of my time and energy on developing a strategy that produces consistent trading results and not have to, on top of all that, question whether or not my platform/broker is providing accurate and reliable information on which I base my decisions on.

I still have to wonder how many folks on this site are basing their decisions on faulty data and aren't even aware of it. Talk about "odds are against you".

I will not trade tomorrow and will take the weekend to dissect the charts but will strongly consider opening a live account with another MT4 broker in order to be able to have one validate the other.

No problem. I hope I have been of what little help I can be. At the end of the day though, you are right. One must be able to trust the data handed to them (well at least as far as one chart time frame to the next).

I am certain MT4 is not the issue but your brokers data. Let me know if there is something more I can do.

There are many.

Like i said in my other post in the other thread, trendlines in MT4 simply *can* not be drawn exact due to the fact that the time axis is non-linear on lower timeframes.

A day may have 24 H1 candles but only 1200 M1 while the next day still has 24 H1 and also the correct number of 1440 M1 candles. From this point on all lines anchored somewhere before and after such an "incomplete" day will be different on different timeframes. you may be able to find the correct highs and lows on the M1 chart when drawing them but the *time* (and thus the slope) will be different when switching timeframes.

You (and many others) would be surpised to see how *exact* to the pip a trend line can be on the M1 or even lower timeframes if you would try it with a platform that does have linear time. Metatrader simply doesn't care about the concept of linear time.

if im not mistaken IBFX daily and 4hr time frame is difrrent from fxdd

Here is a to-the-point response from IBFX.

"Dear Customer,
Hello,

Each chart, M1, H1, D1 will have different trends. The trend lines won't match up.

Regards,"


I completely understand this. Looking at different timeframes will result in different trends. However... A Daily bar consists of (6) 4H bars and of (24) 1H bars. So, a trendline drawn on Daily chart will cross the daily bar once... On the 4H chart, at some point, it will cross those 6 bars at least once.... and on the 1H chart that same trendline will cross those 24 bars at least once.

But if you look at the AudUsd chart I posted in post #2 (the images on the left)... On the DAILY chart... the green trendline is still ABOVE the daily bar and never comes close to crossing the price.... while on the 1H and on the 4H it is CROSSING the price. The trendline on daily, appears about 100 pips higher in relation to price than on 1H and 4H... which are identical. Compare that to the images on the right - FXDD - where the trendline is crossing the price in all 3 timeframes.

Am I completely psycho here?... totally off base? Someone please correct me if I am wrong. What is it that I'm not getting?

G'day Limstylz
Sorry Pipimo88 for this divergence from main topic.
I'm using a trendline indy called Trendlines_Lnx_v1. How can I tell if its using 1 min data? Can you point me towards a trendline indy that does?
Thanks for any help

I originally started this thread in "Trading Discussion" but felt it was a "broker" issue and tried to get the other thread merged here. Well... the other one took off and my appologies to MOD and others for the double-thread.

However, I learned a HUGE lesson today and I believe that the solution is very important for new/all trendline traders to know about.

To avoid double posting... please see that thread.. post #27... and continue the discussion there. Thank you.

see here: http://www.forexfactory.com/showpost...9&postcount=27

I don't know if this can help or not....

I built my system using Alpari MT4 demo, but trade on Oanda. On 4 yrs backtest data, my system is good. But on live trade, I lost many times, even when backtest result of the day showed profit.

That's when I start watching both price movement (opening two windows side by side on my monitor). Until I realized that Alpari demo run on fix spread, while Oanda live doesn't (silly, huh, taking so long to realize so obvious fact). So the prices show different OHLC most of the time. Sometimes Oanda's higher, sometimes lower, a few times they both show the same bid price.

I don't know whether Alpari's or Oanda's is incorrect. But I thought spending my time on this issue is just a waste of time. Instead I tried to tweak my system, trying to overcome this spread difference.

I still got price difference, but I watch Alpari chart as a sign post. The result may not be as beautiful as backtest, but at least in my favor.