History Center on Tools Menu on MT4 Software

The history center on MetaTrader 4 is located on the tools menu. The history center will begin to store data for each trading chart that you open on the MT4, This means that if you open the CFD Trading M15 chart, then from that point on the MT4 history center will store information for this CFD Trading time frame and every time you login again to the platform to trade this information will be updated with the most recent cfd 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 CFD Trading only information for M15 will be stored, and not for CFD Trading 1H or CFD Trading 4 Hour chart. Therefore, if you want to begin saving records for 1 H and H4, then you must begin by opening these time frames & the data will start to get saved from this point.

In the cfd example shown below, the CFD Trading Time frames are Shown, However only M15, H1 & H4 Icons are highlighted yellow and Green meaning data is being saved & updated to the History center. All the others are Gray in color, meaning they haven't 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 CFD, 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 info 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 the cfd prices by analyzing this cfds price movements.

The Mathematical methods are implemented for trading using algorithm 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 CFD 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 CFD Expert-Advisors to get an idea of how these Expert Advisor CFD Robots would have traded & then determine whether they're profitable or not. If these are profitable, traders implement these automated trading systems on the real market, if not then the trader changes their mathematical formula and 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 cfd market and 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 illustrated and shown below: However, this downloaded figures tends to have gaps and 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 and 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 cfd instrument you trade you must open that cfd instrument, as well as opening all the time-frames of that cfd instrument, that's the following:

1. 1 Minute - M1
2. 5 Min - M5
3. 15 Minutes - M15
4. 30 Minutes - M30
5. 1 Hour - H1
6. 4 Hours - H4
7. Daily - D1
8. Weekly - W1
9. Monthly - MN

When it comes to testing your Expert Advisor, select the start date as the date when you will execute the above operation of downloading all the data for these cfd chart timeframes 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 MT4, just use the data that is available after you open the charts as displayed above and begin from that point onwards.