History Center on Tools Menu on MetaTrader 4
The history center in MetaTrader 4 is located on the tools menu. The history center will begin to store data for each chart that you open on the MT4, This means that if you open the Gold M15 chart, then from that point on the MT4 history center will store information for this Gold 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 MetaTrader 4 the platform will not begin to save data for that chart. For example, if you only open M15 for Gold only information for M15 will be stored, and not for Gold 1H or Gold 4H chart. Therefore, if you want to start saving records for H1 and H4, then you must start by opening these time frames & the data will begin to get saved from this point.
In the example shown and described below, the Time frames are Shown, However only M151, H1 and H4 Icons are marked yellow and Green meaning data is being saved & updated to the History center. All others are Gray in colour, meaning they have not yet been opened on this platform. To change this and have these charts start to update & have the price info saved, just open any timeframe for the Gold, for example the 30 minutes and the Icon for this time frame will immediately change from Gray to Yellow & Green, do the same for all others.
From the above example you can see the format that MT4 uses to store price data info as figures, these figures are the ones used to replicate the chart.
Why Use the Platform MetaTrader 4 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 the prices by analyzing this price movements.
The 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 referred to as algorithm, these algorithms are implemented on MT4 using programs known as Expert Advisors - Automated Gold 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 Expert Advisors to get an idea of how these EA Robots would have traded & 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 math 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 is profitable enough to trade the live market & make profitable trades.
One of the methods of obtaining data to the history center is to download this information using the download button key as cited below: However, this downloaded figures tends to have gaps and give inaccurate information, hence as a trader it's best to use data that has been downloaded by platform itself after installing it. That means the info that is available from when you downloaded the platform & started to trade with it, even if it's a few weeks or a few months.
If you want to start testing these Expert Advisors then for every trade that you trade you must open that chart, as well as opening all the timeframes of that chart, 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
In testing your EA, select the begin date as the date when you will execute the above operation of downloading all the data for these chart time frames and for different MT4 symbols also, so as to make sure your Expert Advisors are using correct data and give you the right results.
Because of this reason you shouldn't download any data on your MetaTrader 4, just use the data that is available after you open the charts as shown above and begin from that point onwards.
