MT4 S1/S5/S30/M10/H2/H3/H12 Bid/Ask Charts

I am very exited to present to the Trading Community this EA, it generates Flexible Time Charts, it will enable MT4 users to build Flexible Custom Time Frames starting from as little as S1 (tick)-charts: S1/ S5/ S10/ S20/ S30/ S40 minute charts: M2/ M3/ M4/ M10/ M20/ M40 and being able to custom build TF's of up to H12 charts: H2/ H3/ H6/ H8/ H12.

In order to manage this task an EA (Expert Advisor) is necessary, because, MT4 natively does not maintain Ask data or Time Frames below the 1 minute (M1), it therefore requires one to build/maintain a separate price-tick data base on your PC.

In addition to that, a VPS* would make sure in case your local PC/MT4 goes offline that upon re-connection this EA is able to automatically download any missing tick history data direct-and instantly from this VPS backup.

*VPS stands for: Virtual Private Server, on there, you will have the very same MT4 instance running as you have on your local PC and by a click of a mouse button you can download any missed tick history data whilst your local PC/MT4 was offline, like this, your lower Time Frame Charts (any TF below the M1) are once again complete and will have no missing data/candles.

EDIT: Please note, for the latest up-to-date version of this EA / Installation Guide please go to: post #34. IMPORTANT: You need to download, install/replace both of the attached files: the .dll and the .ex4 , they always come in a pair and both of them need installing/updating respectively!

Adrian my friend, thank you for your compliment
I really appreciate hearing that you like my work.

Best,
sangmane

Trader613 and Sangmane

Thank you for sharing this EA - I will find this very useful in my analysis. I look forward to applying it to my charts when the markets open.

I wish you both lots of success in your trading - your generosity and kindness is legendary.

Best wishes

Ivan

....this is just to let you know that an update of this EA is being coded at the moment - the goal being that for Time Frames above M1 the EA will utilize the existing MT4 buffer data at first - and read/write live tick data to database from that point onwards only. (this will allow you to immediately custom build H2, H3 etc. charts without having to wait first in order to build up a live tick database.)

Also, for those trading the S-Charts, a VPS tick data download/backup solution would make sense to be implemented in case if your local MT4 is not online and would miss receiving live tick data. Unless of course that you wouldn't mind waiting half a day or so for MT4 to receive enough live tick data in order for the EA to be able to build S-Charts. That is up to you of course. (I am having a VPS solution being coded for me at the moment, so in case my local MT4 is offline I can upon reconnect download missed live tick data from the backup VPS).

I'll upload updated version of this EA soon (also, as per request of a number of people some more TF's will be added as well).

My best.

I am hereby presenting the ultimate flexible Custom Time Frame MT4 EA. This Offline Chart EA has been updated with all the changes as per previous post in this thread.

Instructions for use:

Copy the 'MTFOfflineChart.dll' to the MT4/experts/libraries folder

and the 'MTFOfflineChart' into the MT4/experts folder.

Restart MT4 and attach this EA to the desired currency pair. A DLL Window will open enabling you to choose your desired charts for them to be generated and to be added to your offline chart list. (You will have the choice to either select Bid or Ask charts and you can add up to 2 charts per currency pair and time frame). Click 'OK', then go to: 'File' > 'Open Offline' and you will see your custom time frame charts being listed there - double click onto the desired chart to open it.

That's it.

Good trading!

My best,
Trader613

Greetings,

Yep, time for a 'final update' (this version is quite brilliant, if I may say so), a lot of work has gone into making the existing (the one attached to #5 of this thread) MTF Chart generator even better.


Let me give you a quick run-down of what has been changed/added:

- no need to wait anymore for live tick data to arrive in order to be able to attach this EA to MT4; updated EA can even be applied if MT4 is offline/weekends.

- Maximum Bars in offline chart can be defined by user, this will allow especially when a huge tick data base has been accumulated over a long time, for offline charts to be generated and loaded more quickly.

- VPS ready, as pointed out before it will allow users trading the MT4 custom build lower timeframes to be able to auto update tick data upon re-connect in case of local MT4 downtime. Natively MT4 does not maintain seconds or ask data. (If you like, PM sangmane for any further help/advise/set up.)

- Global Variables improvement/stability improvements on multiple instances.


Instructions for use:

Copy/Replace to your MT4/experts/libraries folder any existing dll files with this one attached here to this post named: 'MTFOfflineChart.dll' .

And the same goes for the: 'MTFOfflineChart.ex4' Copy/Replace the one attached here also to your MT4/experts folder.

YOU NEED BOTH OF THEM: the .dll and .ex4

Restart MT4 and attach this EA to the desired currency pair. A DLL Window will open enabling you to choose your desired charts for them to be generated and to be added to your offline chart list.


Further:

You will notice that a tab has been added to the DLL window, if selected it will open a sub-menu where you can enter your VPS IP Address and also set the maximum days to be written to the Offline Charts history.

(As before, you will have a choice to either select Bid or Ask charts and you can add up to 2 charts per currency pair and time frame).

Click 'OK', then go to: 'File' > 'Open Offline' and you will see your custom time frame charts being listed there - double click onto the desired chart to open it.


And finally, if you can think of any other features or suggestions to even further improve this EA, please do not hesitate to drop a line or two in this thread. (It's quite unbelievable to what length one must go to in order to have some basic features available when wanting to stay with MT4, I believe that what this EA is able to produce Metaquotes should have incorporated as a standard feature a long time ago, anyway.)

good trading,
Trader613

If you want to test and see what this VPS feature is all about... you can do so now, free of charge and with no strings attached. Read on please...


Cont. I have running on my VPS an IBFX demo account, I am attaching the IBFX demo .srv file herewith, (copy this server file into your MT4/config folder, and re-start your MT4) after that, open a demo account with IBFX, it must be opened with them only, if not, if you were to use a different broker, the chart time stamp of that other broker would not tally with the VPS's IBFX MT4 tick data history the time periods of your offline charts data would be messed up).

Open any 'normal/online' chart in the H1 TF, scroll back a bit in order to receive more history data from the IBFX server, repeat the same for the M1 TF (all this price data goes into the 'MT4 data buffer .hst file' which will later on get utilized by this EA; meaning, the more you scroll back on your live charts, the more data will be visible on your created 'offline' charts by the EA, thus only limited by your user settings of how many days you would like to display in your offline charts).

Now:

Apply the EA to your desired chart, click 'OK' and then a DLL WINDOW will open and in this DLL WINDOW in the top left hand corner go to the: 'File' > 'Options' tab, and another secondary DLL WINDOW will open once again; tick the VPS box, and in the input field where it says 'Update Data from VPS' enter into empty space the VPS IP address which you can find attached in the form of a .txt file to post #1.

click 'OK', you are back now to the initial DLL WINDOW, now choose your desired Time Frames from the drop-down menu and add them to the list, then click 'OK' again.

You will now see the EA first building the TF's higher and above M1 but then, it will start downloading the IBFX history tick data from the designated VPS server. It might take a while (well, I got the VPS running yesterday, so if you read this post only in half a year or so you're talking about downloading quite a few MBs of tick data, and that might take it's time!)

BTW: the tick data gets saved on your local MT4/experts/files in form of MS Excel sheets but you may also access this tick data with a Notepad/WordPad.

Please note:

Data only gets downloaded from the last time stamp onwards of your local MT4 buffer, meaning, if you apply the EA and run it without utilizing the VPS feature and data gets written to your local MT4 data buffer/file, you will be unable to download data previous to that very data. In case you do want to receive previous tick data from the VPS - you need to delete the following files on your PC, go to: MT4/experts/files/ ie. GBPUSD and also delete this file: MT4/history/yourBroker/ ie. GBPUSD1BIDS,M30.hst

Further:

if you apply this EA to more then just one currency pair, upon any restart of MT4 all active charts/DLL windows will pop up at once, do not click 'OK' on all of them in one go, just do one DLL Window at a time; wait until the download has finished and only then proceed to the next DLL window by pressing 'OK' again, and so on.

That's it, as simple as that, it might sound more complicated than it is, especially if you are used to CQG's or Esignals trading/charting platform.

Well, if you do get stuck somehow drop me a line or two please.

Okay. End of story.

Good Trading.

PS: If anyone wants to suggest that I run a different broker account/feed on my VPS do let me know please.

Issues that have been updated on this Flexible Time Frame MT4 Chart Generator EA include:

- New GUI (now includes registry tabs for easy navigation)

- Download time for history tick data has been optimized

- Info text has been added while EA is initializing

- Minor bug fixes

Enjoy!!

PS: Do make sure to replace/copy both of the attached files: the .dll and the .ex4! The MTFOfflineChart.ex4 goes into the MT4/experts folder, and the MTFOfflineChart.dll needs to go into the: MT4/experts/libraries folder. Also make sure that you have Experts Advisers enabled and have ticked the 'Allow live trading' and 'Allow DLL imports' box, (no need to set 'Confirm DLL function calls').

...but I must trouble you again, and I am really sorry about that lol, to update both of your files again if you wouldn't mind (both of them, the .ex4 and the DLL). (This has to do with, that upon debugging a feature has been disabled and been left so since unfortunately).

Well, as I am straining you once again to re-install this EA and also having to waste some more valuable KB of the FF's servers, I would like to take this opportunity and invite you to make any suggestions or comments (btw, Ingot54 your warm comments have duly been noted, wishing you a lot of success too!) you might have of how to maybe further improve this EA or to suggest new features too.

Also, a big Thank You to sangmane - he has mastered the implementation of my vision of how I saw this EA in the most perfect manner!

Right; good trading!!

Hi trader613 long time no see just popping by to say hi to you.

How you doing Trader?

...I like that signature of yours!

Be well Ingmar, and all the very best!!

Happy trading,

Adrian.

Trader613

I have been using a period convertor to create a M2 and have been having issues with missed ticks. I came across your ea - and man it rocks. Thanks a stack for the effort putting this together.

Can anyone help??

I just can't get the MTFOfflineChart EA to work.

I have used and written indicators before but I have never used an 'expert' before.

I have copied from 'post 9' :
- MTFOfflineChart.dll to MT4/experts/libraries/
- MTFOfflineChart.exe to MT4/experts/

I open MT4 and goto my list of experts:
- I see the 2 that are supplied with MT4 and
- I see MTFOfflineChart

Note: the icons for the first two are in colour BUT the MTFOfflineChart icon is grey'd out.

When I attach MTFOfflineChart to a chart I get the 'common tab' BUT no other tabs (which I assume contain any input parameters for this one).

Have I missed an instruction somewhere??
Any thoughts??

Thankyou for any help

First of all thanks to the thread starter for sharing his work..it is appreciated.

I have exactly the same issue as you describe with greyed out MTFOfflineChart EA in the llist under the 2 that are there by default - MACD Sample and Moving Average. I have followed the instructions given as you have.

What I have found is that despite the greyed out MTFOfflineChart EA in the experst list as decsribed above, if you drag and drop it to the chart it does work on same MT4 broker feeds, but not on others, but you have to check allow live trading and allow dll imports tabs on the dialogue box that comes up after dragging and dropping it to a chart...after that another dialogue box comes up that you say yes to and then another that allows you to add the offlinbe charts (first picture on left shown in post #8 of this thread, above.)

What I also find is that some custom indicators stop working on the new 'offline chart' that you cean generate from the file>open offline.

By the way, I have tested it on varengoldfx and it doesn't work - just crashes it with a 'critical error' box (here at least) and it does seem to work (here at least) on fxpro and fxdd.

I don't know the reasons for these anomolies and would be interetsed to learn of others' experience as well as from the thread starter.

G/L

Fellow Traders, please find the latest updated version of this EA.

The following has been updated/added:

- restriction removed of only being able to open 2 offline charts
- added BIDASK charts (as per CQG's 'comprehensive FX Charts') being able to show Ask through Bid / Bid through Ask.
- minor bug fixes

Please note that you must download and replace/copy all of the files, the EA file, the DLL file and the AskLine indicator.

- Place the MTFOfflineChart5.exe to MT4/experts/
- MTFOfflineChart.dll to MT4/experts/libraries/
- and finally, place the AskLine Indicator in the: MT4/experts/indicators/

Restart MT4.

Please note further: make sure that you choose in the DLL drop down menu the ' MT4 Feed ' if you do not have/use a separate CNX FIX API.

PS: the EA is greyed out because the EA is in it's compiled status - my programmer has requested that I do not publicly make the source code available - sorry.

PPS: I had to place the DLL file into a zip folder because Forex Factory does not allow uploads of dll file types.

Let us know how you get on.

Hi Trader613,

Just to let you know, I just copied and replaced the stuff in post # 9 with the latest version 5 stuff you posted a few minutes ago and on one MT4 at least - it doesn't work, ie the 3min offline chart I created by attaching the EA to another chart is not updating.

G/L

I will try the version 5 stuff (downloaded from post #15) on a different broker feed, it is not working on MT4 fxdd (at least here) yet the 'version 4' in post #9 still is (I have deleted version 5 and put version 4 back)

Thanks, will report later. Anyone else having issues ?

Trader613 - Thanks again for all the work.

G/L

It's my pleasure bbmac.

...just to make sure and double check with you: you have placed only 1 EA to any chosen 'normal online' Time Frame per currency pair, right?

And on the other MT4 instance you have running where the EA is not updating, does the native normal online chart have a suffix? (ie GBPUSD.fxr)

Furhter:

make sure that you delete any old* hst/CSV files and offline charts.

*when I say old, I mean, offline custom charts having been created with the old version of this EA

- hst/CSV files are located in: MT4/experts/files
- and the (Offline)-Custom Time Frame Charts are located in: MT4/history/yourbroker

Let us know if this helped.

As you can see from the screenshot below, although the EA is attached and working with simley face icon in top right corner of the online chart there are no offline charts listed like in version 4, which are listed in the area circled in red.

I will now try with another MT4 feed other than fxdd and report back.

Thanks

Hi

I can confirm that the version 5 stuff downloaded from post #15 does work perfectly on alpari-uk MT4. I don't know why it does not on my fxdd but will investigate further.

Thanks.

EDIT: FXDD is now working with vers.5 EA. Re the issue above I think it is not displaying the text message of the offline charts attached on the top left corner of the online chart is that I have another indicator that displays text there also...

In the Version.5 stuff downloaded from post #15, when you attach the EA to an online chart and then got to file>Open Offline, - the History tab that comes up lists the new offline charts not as numbered 1 or 2 like version 4 (as Trader613 fixed that to allow more than 2 offline charts to be generated by attaching the EA to an online chart, per his explanation in post #15) but as whatever the currency pairing is, followed by an MTB suffix...see pic below...It is these that you should open not any still labelled as 1 or 2 from the version 4 EA.

Thanks again.

G/L