MT4 history files

options-george

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If I understand correctly, data for all timeframes is stored as '.hst' files in one of the MT4 directories.

Does anyone know how to build .hst files for MT4?

I have historical data available from elsewhere that I would like to load into my MT4 - I figure creating/editing a .hst file would be the way to go.

Thanks in advance for any pointers,
O-G
 
There is a section for importing data in the 'History Center' section of MT4 (thanks to my Mt4-expert buddy who pointed it out to me).

Hopefully i can get the data in there in one piece.

(y)
 
any reliable vendor for range bars? range bars that actually work? i've paid off two so far..nothing to show for it but MALWARE. a real PIA..

new to MT4 and want to play around with it.

why doesn't MT4 provide for range bars?:(
 
Good luck let us know how you got on. :)

Nothing to update thus far - I downloaded MT4 for one of my other brokerage accounts - and they happened to have the 1H data that I was looking for - quick win that was!

Although I am sure I am going to have to jump through that loop of adding history to MT4 at some point in the near future!

To Piphoe: I have not used range bars to date, so don't have any useful information on that - sorry!
 
Can you attach an example mt4 .hst file to this thread and also an example file of the source data you want to convert into hst format and I'll take a look...
 
Can you attach an example mt4 .hst file to this thread and also an example file of the source data you want to convert into hst format and I'll take a look...

I uploaded a source file (sourced from FXCM) and an extract of the data file in MT4.

The MT4 file looks completely meaningless to me.
 

Attachments

  • GBPUSD_m5_Bid (Source).txt
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  • GBPUSD5 hst.txt
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OK so it's a binary file, a quick Google shows there are some docs on mt4 hst file structure online, 2 questions;

1) What is the build number of MT4 you're using? i.e.

MT4 Build 509
MT4 Build 574
etc

2) What is the last column heading of your CSV data;

2016.01.03,19:30,1.4733,1.47368,1.4733,1.47368,1

date,time,open,high,low,close,??
 
OK so it's a binary file, a quick Google shows there are some docs on mt4 hst file structure online, 2 questions;

1) What is the build number of MT4 you're using? i.e.

MT4 Build 509
MT4 Build 574
etc

2) What is the last column heading of your CSV data;

2016.01.03,19:30,1.4733,1.47368,1.4733,1.47368,1

date,time,open,high,low,close,??

1) Version 4.00 Build 950
2) the last column shows the total ticks in the period

Just to double-check - should it be reasonable to expect that the ability to take my source file and upload it into MT4 already exists within the front-end "History Center" section of MT4? I would hate to be asking you to reinvent the wheel!!
 
1) Version 4.00 Build 950
2) the last column shows the total ticks in the period

Just to double-check - should it be reasonable to expect that the ability to take my source file and upload it into MT4 already exists within the front-end "History Center" section of MT4? I would hate to be asking you to reinvent the wheel!!
I don't have and never used MT4 so I have no idea tbh... when you're sure you can't get the data into MT4 any other way then get back to me and I'll take a look (y)
 
This is what you need.....

https://tickstory.com/product/tickstory-lite/

It will read a variety of free data sources and build data files for you. You then have to start MT4 in a special way to get it to use the data - but all of that should be explained on the website.

You can use it to get 99% accurate back tests (well 99% accurate according to Strategy tester - I would refute that as there's a lot of information such as spread changes and overnight financing charges that are not included in the tests) on 1 min data over a period of years.
 
bump.

I was able to load the historical information into MT4 using Tools/History Center. I uploaded the price data in the form of 5M bars - I assumed this would be sufficient given that my execution timeframe is 1H.

I then ran the Period Converter script in Navigator.

Then I went to open offline chart - I can see the new chart that has been created with the period converter, and I can open the offline chart but i cannot go and see all the price data that I uploaded. Even though I uploaded data from Dec2012 onwards, the 1H chart only goes back as far as early 2014.

So, am still a bit stuck on this...:rolleyes:
 
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