History Center on Tools Menu on MetaTrader 4
The history center on MT4 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 Bitcoin M15 chart, then from that point on the MT4 history center will store information for this Bitcoin time frame and every time you login again to the platform to trade this information will be updated with the most recent bitcoin prices & 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 Bitcoin only information for M15 will be stored, and not for Bitcoin 1H or Bitcoin 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 cryptocurrency trading example illustrated below, the Bitcoin 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 bitcoin trading platform. To change this and have these charts start to update and have the bitcoin price information saved, just open any time frame for the Bitcoin, 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 bitcoin 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 the bitcoin prices by analyzing this bitcoin price movements.
These Mathematical techniques are implemented for trading using computer programs. Computer programs will be programmed using these mathematical techniques & formulas. This will produce what in programming is known as algorithm, these algorithms are implemented in MT4 using programs known as EAs - Automated Bitcoin Trading Programs.
This EAs answer the question why the need for the History center? The information stored is used by cryptocurrency traders to test their automated Bitcoin EAs to get an idea of how these Expert Advisor Bitcoin Bots 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 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 cryptocurrency 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's best to use data that has been downloaded by 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 EAs then for every bitcoin trade that you trade you must open that bitcoin chart, as well as opening all the time frames of that crypto chart, that is the following:
- 1 Minute - M1
- 5 Min - M5
- 15 Minutes - M15
- 30 Minutes - M30
- 1 Hour - H1
- 4 Hours - H4
- Daily - D1
- Weekly - W1
- Monthly - MN
When it comes to testing your Expert Advisor, choose the start date as the date when you'll execute the above operation of downloading all the data for these crypto chart time frames and for different MT4 symbols also, so as to make sure your EAs 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's available after you open the charts as displayed above and begin from that point onwards.
