Problem setting-up for using tick charts in MT4

Trading Tech and Tools
#1

I would highly appreciate help with problems installing tick chart capability on the MT4 platform.

Best I can tell I have followed every installation step provided at youtube (dot) com/watch?v=7CYq8m_ZPmg - Problem is that the instant I add the LogTickData indicator to a clean/naked 1 Min chart, at the top-left of the chart (right under the chart’s title, EURUSDPro…) I get a message saying “Please select valid overwrite or append parameter” and no tick data gets collected. (Yes, I enabled DLL and the 1 Min chart continues to update). Thereafter, when adding the PostTickData indicator I get an error message: “Error on file open: TickData/EURUSDPro.csv, #4103”. I can readily imagine this is because no TickData got recorded, thus it would seem my principal issue is to get past the “Please select valid overwrite or append parameter” hurdle.

Any clues on how I can solve this? Thanks!

#2

Try birt’s tick data instructions, it worked for me quite well: Forex Tick Data

#3

Pavel, thank you for the info. Unfortunately it seems that Eareview is dedicated to back testing using tick data and that is way over my head; at this stage in my learning curve I’m simply looking to get MT4 to produce tick charts in real time. Any suggestions?

#4

Have you tried with a a different MT4 from another broker like a demo account?

#5

No, I’m new to MT4 and have finally been able to implement other stuff on this platform, thus I’m reluctant to change and start over. Also I’ve gotten as far as getting the “Log Tick Data” & “Tick Data” to accrue ticks on the base-1-min chart; my hast hurdle is to get the Tick Charts working, currently they remain stuck on “Waiting for Update”.

FYI previously I was using Accucharts from FX Solutions and that system allowed setting up X-tick charts as easily as X-Min charts. Unfortunately FX Solutions no longer services small traders.

#6

I don’t know what the reasons were for fx solutions to stop their operations in the US, i guess they weren’t doing enough business here but they got rid of accucharts and replaced it with advanced charts which are not really advanced compared to accucharts. The reason I asked you to install another mt4 is to test it to see if it works if it does then it’s a configuration on that particular mt4. I’m using those indies with oanda’s mt4 without a problem why don’t you go to their website and download oanda’s mt4 for a demo account and test those indies on it to see if they work. You can install as many mt4s from different brokers as you want and run them simultaneously without any problems. Make sure there are no other indies running when you run the tick chart indies. By the way what mt4 broker are you trying right now?

#7

Success, thank you! By gosh, I got the ticks working on Oanda’s MT4 on the first try. Does Oanda provide micro-lot trading (or whatever it is called) that allows $0.10/tick trading? When FX Solutions dropped small traders my account got transferred to Forex.com and they provide this on their MT4 platform only. With Oanda right away I saw things I like better with how some of their indicators are presented (e.g. MACD). Also I was pleased that while both MT4 platforms were running my Floating Charts add-on worked independently for each (e.g. I could un-float the charts in one platform without affecting the other.) Works great with three monitors. Thanks!

#8

Yes they do. Remember you have to leave mt4 running for it to build tick bars! I leave mine running from sunday night and I only turn it off on Friday. Unfortunately it’s the only way to build the tick bars. Anything more professional you would have to go with third party software like ninjatrader.

#9

Just an update, aparently there is a new broker here in the US offering accucharts but I do not know much about them yet! They are registered with CFTC and NFA http://mvpfinancial.com/platforms.asp I do not see anything on their website that offers demo trading, you might want to give them a call and find out a little more about them.

#10

Thanks for the update on MT4 needing to run continuously and that Oanda does offer micro-lots ($010/pip). I’ll need to practice with their Tick Charts, too bad that the timeline on the bottom axis is only relative, i.e. starting at “1 Jan 1970” from whenever the tics began getting collected.

Thanks, I’ve just sent them the following inquiry:
> I see that you offer GTS Pro & FX Accucharts (which I had previously used before FX Soludions stopped servicing the small investors retail market). Do you offer Demo Accounts and is it possible to trade live in micro-lots?

Ninjatrader seems interesting but too early for where I am on the learning curve. Claims to be a free download, but that’s probably only for a trial period. There are some interesting Youtube demo videos on how it works

#11

Ninjatrader is free to use with demo accounts you just have to open a demo account with a broker that they support which are not that many in forex, I think they support only 3, MBT, forex.com and IBFX, I don’t think they support alpari-us I wish they did because I like their ecn pro accounts.

#12

idude, Thanks - I’ll keep an eye on that for when I progress in my learning curve.

Q- On Oanda’s MT4 is there a way to “float” the charts, i.e. release them from the confines of the MT4 page? As I had previously mentioned, with this and forex.com platforms I have been successfully using www.floatingcharts.com ($47) but unfortunately it doesn’t work for Ticks. On Oanda I “floated” both minute and Tick charts, both types updated well at the beginning but soon the Tick charts stopped updating while the minute charts kept working OK. That happened twice within an hour. I’ll be contacting their technical support, but meanwhile I wonder if you have found a better solution? - Thanks.

#13

It’s been a while since we’ve talked but just for the record Global Futures is offering the GTS Platform with Accucharts.

#14

Fine, never mind then. I won’t share a link to a free tick chart indicator, on a free site with zero commercial intent, since it’s clearly has nothing to do with this thread and couldn’t possibly help anyone else out. So much for trying to be helpful.

#15

Actually I take this back, they are not offering accucharts, they used to offer it through fxsol they just haven’t updated their website yet. Sorry about that.

#16

I had used Accucharts at FXSolutions but they have now discontinued the retail business and my account was shifted over to FOREX. Anyhow regarding tick charts on MT4 it turns out very easy to do, see MetaTrader 4 - How to Add Tick Charts - YouTube - The resulting charts can be viewed with candle sticks or HAshi.

#17

That system has been around for quite some time and like I told you before MT4 has to be running all the time to collect tick data and for some reason it eats up of lot of computer resources, sometimes making my computer crawl. If for some reason your computer crashes or freezes then it will mess your charts quite bit. I like tick charts but I just find it very awkward to use mt4 for it. As of now you if you like to trade off your charts I think ninjatrader is the way to go but that’s $1000.00 dollars out of your pocket and then you have to go with one of the brokers that supports ninjatrader. Alternative is a web base charts like prorealtime.com and that’s not free either and you won’t be able to trade off them either but you can make your trading decisions off them.

#18

How u trade using tick data. thanx

#19

Everything in the chart is based on tick data but MT4 only supports time based charts. That means if you choose a 5 minute chart you are going to get a candle or a bar every 5 minutes regardless of how many ticks, ticks are just transactions and it may move the price or it may not, so the last 5 minute bar may have 700 ticks (transactions) but the one before may have only 250 ticks and that is why you get very small candles at times when the volume is low but with tick charts the candles or bars are based on the number to ticks another words if I choose to trade the 1000 tick chart, it means that every 1000 ticks (transactions) I get a candle despite of the time it takes to get the 1000 ticks, it could take 2 minutes when the market is very volatile or it could take 40 minutes when the market is less volatile. So when the market is not moving a lot, tick charts compresses the charts by having less candles then a time chart. I believe the signals are clearer on tick charts for that reason. And the opposite is true when the market is moving very fast, you get your entry signal a lot faster then on time chart. For example if you were trading the 1 hour chart and all of the sudden the market starts moving real fast and at the end of that hour you get a very big candle and you never entered the market because usually we wait for bar to close to get signal but at this time it might be too late already because the market moved so fast that it might not move much further but if you were using a 4000 tick chart during that hour that created that long candle you might of ended up with 6 to 10 4000 tick candles meaning you probably would entered the market at close of the first candle making a big profit instead of waiting for the 1 hour candle to close to make the decision and this is where the tick charts beats time charts so my conclusion is that for intraday trading tick charts are better for swing trading 4h and daily charts are fine also, anything lower I will take tick charts over time charts.

Go to youtube and should find a few videos on tick charts.

#20

If you are ok having the tick chart in the indicator window of MT4, search for rwtickchart on youtube or click here: rwtickchart.com