History Center on Tools Menu in the MT4

The history center on MT4 is located in the tools menu. The history center will start to store data for each trading chart which you open on the MetaTrader 4, This means that if you open the Indices M15 chart, then from that point on the MetaTrader 4 history center will store information for this Indices timeframe & every time you sign in again to the platform to trade this info will be updated with the most recent prices and will then stored.

This also means that for any other chart not opened in your MT4 the platform won't start to save data for that chart. For example, if you only open M15 for Indices only information for M15 will be stored, and not for Indices 1H or Indices 4H chart. Hence, if you want to begin saving records for 1 Hour and H4, then you as a trader must begin by opening these time-frames and the data will begin to get saved from this point.

In the trading example illustration explained and illustrated and shown below, the Indices Time frames are Shown, However only M15, H1 and H4 Icons are marked & labeled yellow and Green meaning data is being saved and updated to the History center. All others are Gray in colour, meaning they have not yet been opened on this trading platform. To change this and have these charts start and begin to update & have the price info saved, just open any timeframe for the Indices, for example the 30 minutes and the Icon for this time frame will change immediately from Gray to Yellow & Green, do same for all others.

From the above exemplification you as a trader can see the format that MT4 uses to store trading price data information as figures, these numbers are the ones used to replicate the trading chart.

Why Use the MetaTrader 4 History Center

Because of the format of storing data in numbers it means that these figures can be analyzed using mathematical formulas and hence these mathematical methods can then be used to trade the market prices by analyzing these price movements.

These Mathematical methods are implemented for trading using computer algorithm trading programs. Computer automated programs will be programmed using these mathematical methods and formulas. This will produce what in coding is known as algorithm, these algorithms are implemented on MT4 using programs referred to & known as Expert Advisors(EAs) - Automated Programs.

This Expert Advisors(EAs) answer the question why the need for the History center? The information stored is used by stock traders to test their automated Stock EAs to get an idea of how these EA Automated Trading Robots would have traded and then after that determine whether they're profitable or not - or if these programs are suitable for their trading styles. If these automated trading programs are profitable, traders can then implement these automated trade systems on the live trading market, if not then the trader changes and tweaks their algorithms trading formula & reprograms the automated algorithm, then after that, tests the new automated trading algorithm with the same data on the history center until the time the trader will successfully program an algorithm that is profitable enough to trade with on the live market and make/execute profitable trade positions.

One of the methods of obtaining and getting data to the history center is to download this info using the download button like illustrated and shown below: However, this downloaded figures tends to have gaps & give inaccurate info, hence as a indices trader it is best to use data which has been downloaded by trading software itself after installing it. That means the information that is available from when you downloaded the platform and started to trade with it, even if it is a couple of weeks or a couple of months.

If you want to start testing these Expert Advisors then for every trade that you trade you as a trader must open that chart, as well as opening all the time-frames of that chart, that's the following:

1 Min - M1
5 Min - M5
15 Min - M15
30 Minutes - M30
1H - 1H
4 Hour - H4
Daily - D1
Weekly - W1
Monthly - MN

When it comes to testing your EA, select the begin date as the date when you'll execute the above operation of downloading all the data for these chart time frames and for different MT4 symbols also, so as to ensure your Expert Advisors(EAs) are using correct info & give you the right results.

Because of this reason you should not download any information on your MT4, just use the data that's available after you open the trading charts as displayed above & start from that point onwards.

More Topics and Courses:

Trade Stock Indices

History Center on Tools Menu in the MT4

Why Use the MetaTrader 4 History Center