In this article, we will explore the Bar Changer indicator for MT4, which enables the creation of offline charts with modified bar data. The Bar Changer indicator creates an offline chart in MT4 containing a modified version of the chart on which the indicator is running. The Bar Changer can make the following modifications to the bar data:

Adjust the time of each bar (e.g. shift each bar backwards by 2 hours)
Invert the price, or adjust it to thousands (e.g. converting 1.23456 to 12345.6)
Exclude parts of each day, e.g. only include 09:00-16:59.

The facility to set daily time ranges is mainly intended for filtering the chart activity on index CFDs which have 24-hour pricing but are only actively traded during core market hours.

Most indicators and EAs can then be used on the offline chart just like a normal MT4 chart.

How to Install Bar Changer Indicator?

To download and install the Pro Trading Tools please follow these steps:

Login to MyFXTM dashboard > Trading Signals > Pro Trading Tools
Download FX Blue or Trading Central for your Platform (Meta Trader 4 or Meta Trader 5)
Run the dowloaded FX Blue and Trading Central files and apply them to your chosen MetaTrader Platform when prompted.
Relaunch the MetaTrader platform. You’ll find your FX Blue* and Trading Central tools in the ‘Navigator panel under ‘Indicators’ and/or ‘Expert Advisors’.

Note: FX Blue tools will appear in MetaTrader labeled as FXTM or Figaro app suite.

Using the Bar Changer indicator

Adding the indicator to a chart

You add the Bar Changer indicator to a chart in the usual MT4 way, either by dragging it from the Navigator onto a chart, or by double-clicking on it in the Navigator. You can also use standard MT4 features such as adding the indicator to your list of Favorites, or assigning a Hotkey to it.

You need to turn on the “Allow DLL imports” setting in the “Common” tab of the indicator’s options:

Choosing a period for the offline chart

You need to choose a timeframe to identify the offline chart, using the setting on the indicator’s Inputs tab. If you set the value to zero then the indicator will automatically select a number based on the chart on which it is running.

The entries which the indicator creates in the MT4 Experts log will confirm which number it is using:

You can then open the offline chart by using File / Open Offline, and choosing the entry corresponding to the symbol name and your specified timeframe value:

Modifying prices

You can modify the prices in the offline chart in one of two ways, using the setting on the indicator’s Inputs tab:

Invert the price (e.g. in effect, turning EUR/USD into USD/EUR)
Convert the price to thousands, e.g. converting 1.23456 to 12345.6

Daily time ranges

You can set daily time ranges using the Inputs tab. Any price data outside of these ranges is then excluded from the offline chart. This is mainly intended as a way of filtering the bars on index CFDs which have 24-hour pricing but are only actively traded during core market hours.

You specify time ranges in MT4/broker time (not your local time), and in the format hh:mm-hh:mm. For example: 09:00-14:59. To handle daily trading hours which span midnight, you can specify multiple ranges separated by commas. For example:

22:00-23:59,00:00-02:59

Please note that end times should (normally) be specified as xx:59 rather than xx:00. For example, the range 00:00-05:00 would include the 1 minute of price data starting at 5am

Adjusting bar times

You can use the Inputs tab to adjust the time of each bar, adding or subtracting a number of minutes to the standard MT4/broker time.

Please note that this applies a constant adjustment throughout the trading history. The difference between your local time and MT4 time may vary over the year because of daylight-savings changes happening on different dates.

Running EAs and indicator on the offline chart

Most EAs and indicators can be used on the offline chart just like you would use them on a normal MT4 chart.

The only exceptions are EAs/indicators which need to look at specific timeframe data rather than the chart on which they are running (e.g. “multi-timeframe” MTF indicators). If you configure such an indicator to look e.g. at H1 data, then it may look at the normal H1 data in MT4 rather than your offline chart even if the offline chart has been based on H1 data.