# Different brokers different looking charts?



## adds (8 June 2010)

Hi all,

New to forex and have a question regarding the differences between charts. I have a gomarkets account and an fxcm account and when I compare the same currency pair and same time frame the candles/bars look different? Also when looking on the forums at a screenshot of the same currency pair and same time frame with another broker it looks slight different again...

How does this all work and is it possible to get them to all look the same?

Cheers,
Adds


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## Lone Wolf (8 June 2010)

Different brokers use different times. Because the candles/bars are starting and finishing at different times they will look different on each broker. Go down into a lower timeframe and you should see that the actual price movement is the same, but the difference in the open and close time changes the appearance of the bars. 

As for getting them to look the same, I've never tried. There might be an indicator out there for MT4 to shift your time by a specified amount, but I don't know about it.

Which time would you use? Which time zone do you consider to be the correct time zone?


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## tayser (9 June 2010)

There's no central hub/exchange for FX prices, thus the market resides in the bigger market makers (banks) and brokers essentially mimic prices offered by banks thus charts will never be exactly the same at any one time.


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## adds (9 June 2010)

I understand that there is no central exchange for fx and that the actually price movement will be virtually the same but the fx market opens and closes at the same time around the world whether its 10am Sydney time or 1am London time, someone in London can get out of bed and place a trade, thus shouldnt the brokers all start their time and start creating the first candle/bar at the opening of the first session?


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## Lone Wolf (9 June 2010)

adds said:


> shouldnt the brokers all start their time and start creating the first candle/bar at the opening of the first session?




I don't know enough about the inner workings to answer why they do what they do. I guess they could all agree to set their clocks to Sydney time which is the first session of the day. But they don't. Maybe because it's an extra step they'd need to take and it gains them nothing. Maybe because their local customers don't want to operate on Sydney time. If a US broker decided to change to Sydney time they would be the only ones in the country doing it, and I'm sure their customers would let them know what they think of it.

So for most brokers, their platform runs on the server time and the server time is set to local time (whatever that may be). Anyone trading off candle patterns needs to adjust accordingly.

I have heard a theory that some brokers purposely use non standard times in an attempt to cause candle pattern traders to lose more money. But this theory was probably made up by someone looking for an excuse for their failed trades.


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## Wysiwyg (9 June 2010)

Lone Wolf said:


> I don't know enough about the inner workings to answer why they do what they do. I guess they could all agree to set their clocks to Sydney time which is the first session of the day.



The man is talking about O, H, L, C price differences.


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## Wysiwyg (10 June 2010)

To show how different prices are represented on charts I have attached three charts of the same currency pair. The AUD/USD in a 1 minute time frame with from the left
Left = CFD broker showing actual exchange rate (MID price)
Middle = CFD broker showing spread BID price
Right = Dedicated Forex broker with MetaTrader platform showing BID price.

So we can see three different price charts of the same pair.
Left chart is self explanatory.

Middle and Right chart are of the two different broker spread BID prices. These spread BID prices are not fixed and fluctuate between 0.5 and 3 pips completely independent of each other. That is one reason why you have different O,H,L,C bars on a chart. 

Secondly as was mention by Lone Wolf their is no time synchronicity between brokers and their chart creations. With the two broker charts below there is as much as 6 seconds difference in endings. I froze the three showing that the MetaTrader chart had begun printing the 32 minute candle well before the CFD broker I.T. Finance charts.

So the lagging I.T. Finance charts are still printing the 31 minute candle or are about to print the 32 minute candle using (supposedly) the universal exchange rate base price while the MT chart had already begun printing the 32 minute candle. 

So there we have it.

1) Chart prices can expressed using spread BID price or ACTUAL exchange rate/price or spread ASK price. Broker/user dependent.
2) Time is not synchronised to the second.


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## adds (15 June 2010)

Hi All,

After a bit more research Lone Wolf was right. Different brokers use different times.

In MT4 the time of your broker is displayed above the symbols window in the title bar.

Cheers,


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## oktar (29 June 2010)

There is also a difference even in a price feed. EAs are an example. If you have a successful scalping EA and you set it up accross different brokers you will be shocked that the results are so biiiig. Some accounts will be on negative balance, some will be on profit. That's because price data differs on each broker and for a scalping EA even 1/10 pip can make a difference between losing and winning trade.


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