History Center on Tools Menu on MetaTrader 4
The history center on MetaTrader 4 is located on the tools menu. The history center will start to store data for every chart that you open on the MT4, This means that if you open the EURUSD M15 chart, then from that point on the MT4 history center will store information for this EURUSD time frame and every time you login again to the platform to trade this information will be updated with the most recent prices and will then stored.
This also means that for any other chart not opened on your MT4 the platform will not start to save data for that chart. For example if you only open M15 for EURUSD only information for M15 will be stored, and not for EURUSD 1H or EURUSD 4H chart. Therefore, if you want to start saving records for H1 and H4, then you must start by opening these time frames and the data will start to get saved from this point.
In the example below, the EURUSD Time frames are Shown, However only M15, H1 and H4 Icons are marked yellow and Green meaning data is being saved and updated to the History center. All the others are Gray in color, meaning they have not yet been opened on this platform. To change this and have these charts start to update and have the price information saved, just open any time frame for the EURUSD, for example the 30 minutes and the Icon for this time frame will immediately change from Gray to Yellow and Green, do the same for all the others.
From the above example you can see the format that MT4 uses to store price data information as figures, these figures are the ones used to replicate the trading chart.
Why Use the MT4 History Center
Because of the format of storing data in figures it means that these figures can be analyzed using mathematical formulas and mathematical methods can then be used to trade these currencies by analyzing this prices.
These Mathematical methods are implemented for trading using computer programs. Computer programs will be programmed using these mathematical techniques and formulas. This will produce what in programming is known as algorithm, these algorithms are implemented in MetaTrader 4 using programs known as Expert-Advisors - Automated Forex Trading Programs.
This Expert Advisors answer the question why the need for the History center? The information stored is used by traders to test their automated Forex Expert Advisors to get an idea of how these EA Forex Robots would have traded and then determine whether they are profitable or not. If these are profitable, traders implement these automated systems on the real market, if not then the trader changes their mathematical formula & reprograms the algorithm, then tests this new algorithm with the same data on the history center until the time the trader will program an algorithm that's profitable enough to trade the live forex market & make profitable trades.
One of the methods of obtaining data to the history center is to download this information using download button key as shown & illustrated below: However, this downloaded figures tends to have gaps & give inaccurate information, therefore as a trader it is best to use data that has been downloaded by the platform itself after installing it. That means the information that is available from when you downloaded the platform & started to trade with it, even if it is a few weeks or a few months.
If you want to start testing these Expert-Advisors then for every currency you trade you must open that currency, as well as opening all the time frames of that currency, that is the following:
- 1 Min - M1
- 5 Minute - M5
- 15 Min - M15
- 30 Min - M30
- 1 H - H1
- 4 Hours - H4
- Daily - D1
- Weekly - W1
- Monthly - MN
If you want to test you strategies on the EURUSD, GBPUSD, USDCHF, USDJPY, EURJPY, AUDUSD, you will have to open all these charts and then also all the above time frames one by one. After this The History Center will update automatically for all these every time you login and then you can then use this information to start testing out your Expert Advisors.
When it comes to testing your Expert Advisor, select the begin date as the date when you will execute the above operation of downloading all the data for these time frames and for different currencies also, so as to make sure your Expert Advisors are using correct data and give you the right results.
Because of this reason you should not download any data on your MT4, just use the data that is available after you open the charts as shown above & begin from that point onwards.
