MT4 History Centre

[skibum84]

When I use the History Centre on MT4 for the US30 on the 5 mins chart it only downloads the last 2 months data. When I download USD/EUR I get nearly a years worth of data. How can I get more data for the US30?  

Thanks

[Caseynotes]

Hi @skibum84,  all the main assets should go back to 1997.04.01.

I've found in the past it pays to go though all time frames starting at the 1 min - double click - download, and working your way through them all in sequence (the later ones go through very fast) rather than selecting one time frame or just the monthly time frame.

[skibum84]

Hi Caseynotes,

Thanks for your reply but I have already tried this with no joy. I am getting the message shown in the image attached but I'm not sure where I can change the source of the data.

[trade247]

all brokers have different data sets for their trade history / real time data. They're just making sure you're aware of this.

for example say A takes data for FX from 10 > 10 whilst broker B takes data from  midnight to midnight. There will be different data sets on each and therefore potentially differences on the two.

my 2c.

[Caseynotes]

Hi @skibum84,  yes the long term data is metatrader's. IG only load so much when they add a new asset onto MT4, for example when they added bitcoin it came with only about 6 months of pre-data. The currencies were the first on IG's MT4 platform and the Indices came latter, I took that message as more of a legal disclaimer, if fact I had forgotten it as after accepted once you never see it again.

I don't think you will find too much of a difference, most people use the historic data for back testing and I can't say I have heard anyone has had a problem with it.

[skibum84]

Thanks for your replies. But how do I therefore download metatraders long term data and not the IG data?

[Caseynotes]

Hi @skibum84, if there is a merge point I suspect it would be minute and not noticeable, many thousands have downloaded the metatrader data and a fair proportion of them would have been IG clients, I have never heard of it being an issue causing problems to any strategy testing EAs.

[skibum84]

Sorry Caseynotes, I don't think I have explained correctly. I am happy with either data, it is just that the IG data my mt4 is downloading is only 2 months old and i want to back test an EA further. 

[Caseynotes]

That's Ok, once you have pressed the OK (want to continue) in the download warning message and so acknowledging the disclaimer there should be no problem. I'm presuming if you double clicked on each time frame folder and hit download nothing happened to retrieve more because of that. Let me know if that was not the case.

 

[skibum84]

Unfortunately what ever I do the data centre won't download more than 2 months data for US30. 

My MT4 is obviously connected to IG and IG only supply 2 months US30 data on 5m chart. It looks like I will have to download MT4 on its own to access MT4 data history. 

[Caseynotes]

Hi @skibum84, 2 things to check.

Firstly make sure in options > chart that the Max data levels are as per pic 4 which are the same as my own settings. Both numbers.

Second, try deleting all data first then restart MT4 and then go through the download sequence again stating with the 1 min.

In pic1 I had just deleted all data and was left with just 10 days worth, then in pic2 I had re-loaded and have data back to 1997.  I got the disclaimer notice each time plus a message to say there was no new data but it loaded new data all the same. 

 

[skibum84]

Thank you for the time and effort with your answer. 

I tried all of the above and my 5 min data still only goes back a month. Does your 5 min chart data go back to 1997? The picture above shows your monthly chart going back to 1997. Are you on an IG account?

I believe it is because it is an IG MT4 account that I use. There  must be somewhere who supplies US30 data to download and load manually. I can find it for 1M on ll the forex charts.

[Caseynotes]

Ah I see, no, the data is packaged by IG, it's the same on the charts on the platform, you can only scroll back so far on the 5 min chart, same for all the other time frames so if you wanted to keep seeing further back you need to keep stepping up time frames.

I believe this is done to keep control of the resources needed. They need to provide data stretching back so far and it would be a problem to provide all that for every time frame. I suspect all brokers do this, the only other prospect is to download using the IG API

This video explains how;

 

[ydada3]

Hi,

I have had a similar issue, trying to download US30 hourly data which MT4 only limits to like 2000 data points (i.e. back to the end of January).

I would like to backtest further and I've followed the video Caseynotes posted and managed to get data in a spreadsheet for 10000 data point, however I am not sure whether the format is compatible with MT4 in order to import it, as when I load the CSV file in the import section in the history centre nothing comes up.

Is there something I am missing?

Thanks!

[Guest IG MT4 backtesting data]

Do you know what would be useful from IG?

Some clarity on MT4 backtesting data history.

There still isn't any clarity and the above aforementioned does not help very much.

It's worth noting a demo MT4 account is probably the best bet it goes back much further than the live system, naturally, to about 2015 on most pairs on m15. Nobody says that, but it is the case. I do a lot of backtesting using this system.

What would be nice is a better facility for live accounts to be able to obtain it without having to continuously switch accounts. It is kind of irritating. It is my view that IG MT4 clients are really being disserviced here and I'd like to see improvement in facility or at the very least clarity from the broker that provides this important information and detail. It is appreciated that execution only brokers don't need or are even non obligated to provide such data.

I would however contend that helping clients not have to jump thru as many hoops could be a beneficial step, or at the very least providing support links which provide the necessary clarity for clients to obtain the correct information to use the IG MT4 platform application properly is something that would be excellent.

Best wishes,
A