MetaTrader 4 is great but it doesn’t have the best functionality. MT4 doesn’t have any inbuilt functionality to use tick charts as time frame charts are the default. Lucky, it’s still very easy to create your own tick charts using MT4 data and a very simple addon. In this article, I’ll break down the quickest and simplest way to add tick charts to MetaTrader 4.
Creating Tick Charts On MT4:
- Download The Soft4Fx Tick Chart Addon
- Add The File To MT4 Indicators Folder
- Enable DLL Imports On MT4
- Close And Restart MT4
- Drag Tick Indicator Onto Chart
- Set The Inputs To Reflect Desired Tick Charts
- You’ll Now Have A Tick Chart To Use
How To Create A Tick Chart On MT4
Creating tick charts on MetaTrader 4
is incredibly simple and only takes a few minutes. If you’re unable to follow the steps below, there are other trading platforms like cTrader that have in-built functionality for tick charts.
Step 1 – Download And Unzip The Soft4Fx Tick Chart Charting Software
There are plenty of tools to help tweak the charts to show tick data, rather than time frame data. The best tool I have found to use is by Soft4Fx. I have used their tools for backtesting as well, so I can for how user friendly they are. You can download the Soft4Fx tool here.
Step 2 – Add The File To Your MQL4 Indicators Folder
You’ll need to copy the EX.4 tool from your Downloads folder, into your indicator folder. To get to the indicators folder, you’ll need to go into your MT4 app. Then click on File, then open Data Folder. From here, you can go into MQL4, then indicators. Paste the folder in here.
Step 3 – Enable DLL Imports On MT4
You’ll need to enable DLL imports to allow the indicator to work properly. To do this, you’ll need to to go Tools, then Options, then Expert Advisors. Once here, there is a tick box to enable DLL imports.
Step 4 – Restart MetaTrader
You will need to restart your MT4 application now. This can be done by either right clicking on the indicator tab, then clicking restart. Or, you can just shut the application down and restart in the usual fashion.
Step 5 – Drag The Indicator From The Indicators Tab To The Chart
To prompt the indicator to start, you’ll need to drag the indicator from the tab on the left, onto whatever chart you have open. To make this as quick as possible, open the currency pair you’re actually looking to have a tick chart created for.
Step 6 – Edit The Tick Volume In The Inputs Tab
Once dragged onto the chart, a window will now open for you to change the inputs and settings for the tick chart. Whatever input you add here is going to be the value of ticks for each bar. For instance, adding 50 here will create a 50 tick chart whereas adding 1 here will create a 1 tick chart.
Step 7 – You Will Now Have An Offline Tick Chart To Use
That’s all! You’ll now have a fully functioning tick chart to use and backtest your trading strategies on the chart. As mentioned previously, if the platform is still lacking in functionality, you can just get setup on antoher platform like cTrader where the default charts are created on tick, rather than time frame.
The Benefits Of Using Tick Charts, Rather Than Time Frame Charts
There are many benefits of using tick charts for your trading rather than using the default time frame charts. Time frame charts on retail platforms typically don’t go lower than 1 minute time frames. For high frequency traders or even scalpers looking for very tight entries, going lower than 1 minute is very much needed – this is where tick charts come into play.
Tick Charts Are Useful For:
– Identifying Fibonacci Retracement Levels Quicker
– Finding Pullbacks And Downtrends Faster
– Easier To Find The End Of A Trend
– Use In Conjunction With Other Charts, Such As Volume Or Candlesticks.
Tick charts are incredibly useful for scalpers, order flow traders or lower time frame traders. Tick charts are valuable tools for traders who focus on smaller time frames, including 5 minute, 15 minute and even 1 hour charts. I personally used tick charts when looking for setups on the 30 minute chart – then I dropped to the tick charts to find the highest quality entry points.
Tick charts are also typically much more accurate than time frame charts. Time frame charts can deceive traders due to candles closing in the middle of large/sudden movements. This can greatly impact what you see on the charts are fool traders into thinking there is or isn’t momentum within the markets. When you’re trading forex with tick charts, you don’t have this inaccuracy at all.
In Conclusion – How Can You Create Tick Charts On MT4
In summary, although they are not default, it’s fairly easy to create tick charts on MetaTrader 4. It should only take 5-10 minutes to do and if you’re struggling to do so, I’d recommend using a different trading software like NinjaTrader or cTrader. If you have any questions, leave them below.
