Tick Data and MT4

Hi there guys.

I am using a tick downloader called QuantDataManager, it downloads tick data from dukascopy going far back in time.

This downloader has an "export to MT4" feature (which exports in .FXT or .HST files).

I never did this before so please correct me if I am wrong. What I need to do is just copy and paste the .HST files into the history folder, then when I launch MT4 and scroll the intraday charts back in time (let´s say 5m timeframe), they are gonna go as far as 2003, for example? (I am downloading EURUSD tick data that starts in 2003).

What is gonna happen with the incoming tick data from the broker, it is gonna be merged into this new .HST file?

Or this only works with offline charts?

Logic, you really don't need to merge the two data sources, me thinks.

if you use dukascopy for system/strategy development and your brokers data for live trading you may find that the signals during the back testing phase are different than the signals during the live trading due to eventual differences in the two separate data feeds.

In case these two feeds are quite similar then you only need to ignore the first 5 or so signals if the live data from your broker is insufficient compared to what minimum length of data your system needs to generate a signal, hence no need to merge the two data sources.

Hi there. No, but I don´t trade using signals. I don´t wanna test EAs, I just wanna be able to scroll the charts far back in time to do analysis and to choose a start point for the simulator too.

My doubt is what is gonna happen when I connect MT4 to the internet, because it is gonna start receiving tick data from the broker, but the files on the history folder are gonna be the ones generated using the whole tick data for the instrument. Is MT4 going to merge the data, overwrite it?

Hey guys, It turns out that dukascopy tickdata is not that great, I knew that there was something wrong because the volume was looking terrible, totally unusable.

I then discovered and downloaded tick data from TrueFx, and the different is night day. Very high quality data, the volume now looks perfect in all timeframes. Just wanted to let you know before you waste your time downloading data from dukascopy.

Hi logicgate,

Thanks for the tip. In my humble opinion though the only data that matter is the data that your broker is transmitting to you. US based traders are limited with the number of brokers they can use. Researching price action is limited to a few choices. Oanda has the overall reputation of a decent broker for US residents. I recently ran into a problem with their historical data. Their servers for MT4 platforms are providing limited amount of historical data so the only way to get the full historical data from Oanda is to get them from QuantConnect. QuantConnect stores free historical data from Oanda and FXCM. Apart from the fact that these data do not provide volume information (grrrr) I recently compared their data to the data obtained directly from Oanda server AND COULD NOT FIND A MATCH!!! Currently the technical team at Oanda is trying to figure out this mismatch but believe me that finding reliable and RELEVANT historical data is not a simple matter as just downloading data from Dukascopy or TrueFx.

Ron

Hi there Ron,

I am a VSA/Wyckoff trader, it does not matter if it is a chart from 1930 or 2019, for me they are exactly the same and show the exact same behavior. I am finding that the charts generated with TrueFX data are showing very good clean volume/price relationship and respecting all VSA/Wyckoff principles, at least for me they are good enough to study and practice.

Check how VSA works in any chart and any date, this is may 2009 EURUSD generated using TrueFX tickdata:

theres plenty of good tick data history files, pepperstone has some and Ovo.cz has many free tools to assist in their use

https://ovo.cz/products/free-mt4-utilities/ovo-mergetickfile/

enjoy

doodle