intraday gaps useful?

I am looking to find out how relevant the price pnts that are gaped in various data feeds that i have. I think that it has something to do with liquidity and orders being left open or not completely filled. would some one mind helping me understand them or pnt me in a direction to learn about them


Just to be clear I am not talking of opening gaps, there are gaps ranging 1-5 pips wide,

I know this subject has been discussed before, refering to opening gaps.

What gaps do you mean? Gaps between lower timeframe bars' close and open?

I was introduced to fx by a person that traded these gaps, (Ie) the gaps on the 5m and 1m charts in between the candles that happened at various times of the day. He said, that these gaps would always be filled. my initial time spent with him was absolutely flawless he would make more money before lunch than i would in a month. I traded with him aprox 2 months and then.... oct 2008, the market went crazy, needless to say i guess some gaps didnt fill because he went busted ,his $$ and mine. Because it is the way i was introduced to fx it is hard to forget. I , while he was teaching me and trading my $$, was on the sidelines trading demo, for so long it never missed and i just took it for granted (ie.) never questioned the how or why.

I am still here and now alot more intrested about market structure and the hows and whys.

I will try to post some charts later.

There is no reason for such gaps to be filled. Gaps between M1 and M5 bars happen when the price moves by 1 pip or between the last tick of previous bar and the first tick of the current bar.

I am surely on a quest to find out definitively, I can show you case after case were a pice area was gaped, the larger the gap the more the reaction. price moves away from the gap and then returns eventually. I am sure that there is something to this due to the reaction of the PA around these specific areas, kindof as if it was an area price returned to inorder to fill market orders that had been gaped over.... I do know that there was a period of time when there were no gaps left behind. The problem was you may have a large draw down before price returned. and when the market started to dive it left these gaped areas which ultimatley blew the account...

I am definitely not saying to abstractly trade to or from them i am more trying to find out what they really are. all my research to this pnt isnt conclusive...


I say all this because i am on a mission to understand orderflow and pnts of liquidity or lack there of....


please forgive my poor english

That doesn't have anything to do with gap filling (in the 1m chart, lol) but with the simple fact that the price usually oscillate. Just open a trade with no stop and you will be amazed that it will be almost always in the money after some time. The direction just doesn't matter.

What happened in October 08 was some huge deleveraging where the currencies had a hard drop down so there was no chance for a retracement. No wonder he failed.

I' m interested in these gaps too, see attached eur/usd 1m chart.
Filled with gaps at the top??
Chart is from Alpari live mini account.

Anyone know what these are?? Is it just missing data...if it is, how come the data is missing, or does it give info about large orders being placed ?
Just a thought?

Cheers J

Guys, with a good data provider (and I don't mean MT4 bucket shops here), you won't have those gaps.

Let me add one thing. I mean, one time slice is followed by the next one. So the close of a 5m bar MUST be the open of the next one. So how can the end of a 5m slice NOT BE the beginning of the FOLLOWING 5m slice? How do they get the gaps (mostly MT4)? Is time not continuous?

edit: But of course in a tick chart this might be different. Because the next price doesn't necessarily move by only a pipette. Actually I won't call these things "gaps" which have to be filled.

I know I am divulging my initial ignorance and the blind faith i had in this guys absolutes, nothing is 100%. What i am saying is that it is more than oscilation. I to started to pick things out and say, "well every doji has to get filled" and other price actions or candle formations to make me forget the gap and realize how ignorant i was being... All this until I started getting involved in trying to see through the charts and the TA into the who when and where of market orders.... I had the misnomer that some guy @ a bank was clicking his platform just like me (lol) what a shmuck i was. They do speculate (alot lately , more than ever infact) , but they also hedge, problem is they have certian price levels or areas that they need to be within, no problem right , just click click click...... No! there must be pockets of liquidity or behind the scene swaps.... anyway i am learning on these things as I am NO athority on this subject....

I say all this to say that they arent nothing they infact are something. question is it something I can use to further my understanding and ultamately use to make trading decisions...


I am also learning this snagit program to post my charts , sorry

Thankyou Xaron for your time and polite way of patients.

Is it not possible for a price pnt to be skipped??

I get what your saying because if the 5m may bridge the 1m gap or "data skip" so it dosent show up. price just continued in a line to the next avaliable price and thats all the chart represents...


I also get that diff data feeds show diff things, because my fxcm charts just bridge any gap including the opening gaps, while fxaccucharts, alpari, and fxcm free charts fed from netdania, show these data skips in the exact same spaces,

mabey I posted all this too early should do somemore homework

The close of one candle is never the open of the next with MT4. This is due to the fact that price must move before the new candle starts. To save on bandwidth, MT4 only sends data when the price has changed. The gaps that you are seeing are a result of that method of updating data.

Yes, that's true. You're right.