Charts

Discussion in 'Forex' started by thoams, Feb 23, 2007.

  1. thoams

    thoams

    Can anyone provide any insight or opinion on why OANDA's charts (while not differing by more than 1 pip in normal conditions) does not draw the same EMA's as, say, MetaTrader's charts do?

    I hope it isn't my own stupid fault but if it IS I'd greatly appreciate some enlightenment.

    Avoid telling me to "ignore weekend data..." because this is one solution so painfully obvious that I've done it already.

    But am I crazy?

    imho I'd put more faith in MetaTrader's charts.

    Thanks for replies.
     
  2. I use both... you are not crazy, some indicators appear quite different. However, that's both normal and to be expected. There are several factors at work here.

    General factor 1: By definition, a path traced by an EMA changes, depending on a) when you're viewing it and b) number of periods in the EMA. That's true even between two charts within the same platform, whether Oanda, MT4 or any other. It's not a series of straight lines, joined together; it's a smoothed curve, often plotted in reverse chronological order (true in Oanda's case). To convince yourself, compare screenshots of, say, only your MT4 charts taken at different times, without changing any settings.

    This phenomenon affects many other technical indicators, both overlaid and separate, and is an inescapable fact of life of chart-based TA. Indicator levels on historical charts may appear different than those on live charts, at a given point in time.

    Specific factor 2: EOD is 11 pm EST at Oanda (currently 4 am GMT). MT4's EOD varies with your broker and is almost certainly different.

    Specific factor 3: "Ignore weekend data" is indeed relevant, but there's more to it. Have you defined the weekend start and end to match your MT4 settings exactly? Still, #2 above cannot be made to go away for your particular feeds, and #1 is always going to be a factor, even for a single charting platform.
     
  3. Lucrum

    Lucrum

    I have Ensign on two different computers.
    And even though they both have the same data feed, layout and parameters. The averages of volumes and ranges are different on the two machines.