To the OP: You are an observer considering trading. All data comes from markets. You need a good IB provider and you need a good chart provider. The test is accurate data and whether, daily, each corrects their data. There is a notification from each that states data is being corrected. In trading, the trader is quicker than the markets. Making money is a slow process and it is determined by the offer of the markets. It may take as long as one to three days to double your capital when you become expert. The item that is puzzling you most is the "degapping" or lack of "degapping". Most of those who responded to you ar ignornant about this. Their lines are distorted across any periods that are not degapped. They do not make much money as a consequence. To check this out on each chart you observe, look for places where the close of a prior bar DOES NOT HAVE A MATCHING OPENING OF THE NEXT BAR. If slugs of data are not being "degapped" in order for them to have geometric relevance. then you have to make serious mathematical adjustments. Others have mentioned "continuous" data, usually this reference is only to front month degapping. For most people this is not their concern for an assortment of reasons. A person either makes it a concern or not. Let me make another point with you. Please consider how money is make and what tools support making money. The only use I have ever discovered for using a horizontal line is to make where "market sentiment" changes. As anyone would expect, sentiment does not change at an extreme of any sort. You will not be able to grasp this comment. It is because of your orientation at present. On any bar timeframe it is possible to observe about three trading fractals. For making money rapidly with effectiveness and efficiency, it is best to synchronize the partnership you have written down that you have with the market. The market supplies infomation on a definite finite number of elements that make up the system of operation of the market. You are much faster in thinking and doing a routine (repeated) than the market offers as information. As an example, I use two timeframes to trade. there is a small tenuous overlap of the time frames so I get a lot of mileage by my choices. All in all I see a fractal faster than my trading fractal and I have several slower fractals that provide a preponderance of "context" for being effective and efficient in my extraction of capital by using capital. You can choose any personal lifestyle you wish. Markets are so huge, you cannot affect their performance. For example suppose you are young and single; you can get by with 500K a year. Then you trade with under 10K of capital and sweep weekly. If you are doing a family thing having 1 to 2 million a year as ROI is de rigour. Then you need to be trading with just under 50K to make the 2 mill a year. I counted the line segements and rays I use (10); it breaks out as half and half for both types and to which variable they are applied. That is not very difficult now, is it? I color code them for swiftness of "reading" the market. DO NOT BUILD A COLLECTION OF MYTHS AS BELIEFS.
You may be making an interesting point. Before computers could make charts, I took incoming 15 minute data to draft two sets of thirty minute charts offset by 15 minutes. I was doing architecture at the time so I just used a parallel rule and triangles on a grid master along with four major colors. I did bar projections in order to chart where the market was going to be in the next half hour. (see past posts from my archives from before ET). All of this was before E mini's and feeds were via phone lines (4 at the time). All of this made is possible to call turns ahead of time and to make the full offer of the market. It got so good that I no longer had to call my IB since periodically they would call since a lot of guys began to coattail my trades in those years. Lines were kept open during hot times. Later charts became available and the greatest times were called "greenspans" (150 points on the big DJ. My best bunch one day was 900 points on one of his announcements. He always stepped to the mike like a clock right after the "fake out" move was over. three swings each out of the ball park everytime he did it.
Oh Deer, Just stay where you are and don't worry about anything (charts are the least of your troubles)......................
Simple charts sometimes seem reasonable to use. Unless you are looking to monitor other aspects of the international market you could use a complex charting system. Normally in the MT4 platform, you see different charts. 5 mins frame to 1 hour frame. Depending on your analysis, you can choose between these time frames.
To develop your trading strategy you could approach a share brokers as you said you are new to trading.. Currency trading can be done because you are new user..