When looking at your MT4 charts, sometimes you are only seeing a small part of the complete historical MT4 data.
…and that can cause problems.
This doesn't matter so much on lower time frames, but when you are looking at the weekly charts, not having all of the available historical Forex charts data can mean that you are missing important support and resistance levels.
Having a complete MT4 historical data download is also important in backtesting, as Metatrader 4 is also a pretty good automated backtesting platform.
So in this post, I will show you how to download all of the available MT4 historical data for each currency pair you trade.
If you prefer the text version, it is available after the video.
Can't seem to get enough data from the default MT4 provider? We recommend using this 3rd party data service.
MT4 History Data Download Tutorial Video
Tutorial For Metatrader 4 Data Download
To download additional MT4 history data, first go to the Tools menu and select History Center. You can also press F2 to get to this screen quickly.
This is the History Center screen above. Double click on the currency pair that you want to download.
If the icon next to the timeframe is colored, the prices for that timeframe can be seen and edited in the preview window on the right.
When MetaTrader 4 downloads data, it downloads 1-minute data, then translates that into the other timeframes. Keep in mind that MT4 gets the data from MetaQuotes (the creators of Metatrader), not your broker.
So if you want to get broker specific data or you want to get more historical data than what MetaQuotes provides, then you will have to import a custom file. Contact your broker to get this data or you can find a third party like Snapdragon Systems to get a custom data file.
By double-clicking on the time frames with the gray icons, it will take a few seconds to generate the preview for the prices for that time frame. The number of records is shown at the top of the screen.
To download the complete history for a currency pair, highlight the pair and click on the Download button.
It may take a few minutes to download the data, especially if you have never done it before.
There will be a green status bar at the bottom of the screen to show you the progress of the current download.
Once the data is downloaded you should notice that there are more records in the database. You can see this in the database record count at the top of the screen.
For any time period, you can change any of the data for each bar. First highlight the line you want to change, on the right side of the screen.
Then click on the Edit button to change a candle, Delete to remove and Add to insert your own data.
This is useful for fixing bad data from your broker, which can happen once in awhile. Fixing the data manually will clean up your charts and make your automated backtesting more accurate.
You can also click on the Import button to upload your own data or the Export button will allow you to get a Forex historical data download in a CSV file that you can use in another charting program.
This file can also be used in a spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel to do custom data analysis.
Once you download all of the currency pair data, you may be surprised how far back the data actually goes. For example, after I downloaded the data for the USDCHF currency pair, I found out that data was available all the way back to the 1992.
If here is a downside to getting all of this data though, it is that it can take up a fair amount of space on your hard drive. So if you have a small SSD, are running a virtual machine, or you are running out of room on your drive, be selective about which pairs you download data for.
Luckily there's also a way to limit the number of bars that are downloaded in your history.
How to Manually Limit the Amount of Downloaded Data
If you don't need all of the historical data on each currency pair and you want to save disk space, then you should set a limit on the amount of data that your MT4 install downloads.
You can do this by going into Tools > Options and reducing the number of max bars in history.
Just reduce this number by using the drop-down menu or manually change the number.
MT4 Historical Data Alternative
If you aren't able to get enough historical data for MT4 from the default MT4 provider, you can always download data from a third party.
Once you get a third party file, simply use the Import button inside History Center.
We recommend using this data service for 3rd party MT4 data.
Final Thoughts on How to Download MT4 Historical Forex Data
The data you currently see on your Metatrader 4 charts may not be all of the Forex data that is available. You will have to download it manually to see how much there really is.
In my experience, the history can vary greatly by currency pair and broker. It is a matter of how much they data they choose to provide their clients.
But it is important to see as much information as possible so you can figure out historical price levels and get as much data as possible when doing automated backtesting and during live trading.
I would recommend downloading the complete MT4 data on every pair you trade.
Go ahead, do it right now.
Hey there i’m doing a deep backtesting on my strategy, however i couldn’t pullout M5 historical data from MT4 it just stoppes on November 2018, that’s the max MT4 can do for the option you mentioned, However, i have M1 data from Histdata.com how can you suggest can i convert that to M5, tried excel with no success, thank you
I think you can load the 1M data and just click on the 5M timeframe on the chart.
If not…
You can use Snapdragon historical data: https://institute.tradingheroes.com/store/category/5-snapdragon-systems-products/
It works for MT also.
I would suggest using Forex Tester to do backtesting. Trading Heroes readers get a discount here: http://forextester.com/special/tradingheroes
MT is good for EAs, but FT is better for backtesting.
Amazing! It was right in front of my nose and I missed it LOL Thank you! I got EUR/USD data going back all the way to 1971 and I was able to backtest my EA that far back … mind blown 😉
Cool, glad it worked.
hello
how download only 1 pair and TF?
Double click the pair and timeframe you want.
Hello
how to download history if broker changed symbol name for example dow30 when I try to download history it says no new data for symbol and the broker history now is so little , so how to map mql4 symbol name to broker s symbol name to download history data
Ask your broker.
how to download stock data into mt4?
can MT4 be use for stocks charting? not auto trading use?
plse share yr expertise. Thks,
Hi Isaac,
You cannot trade stocks in MT4, you must use MT5. Find a MT5 stock broker and ask them about where to get data.
However, MetaTrader is old technology and I find it much easier to use TradingView. You can easily get data for stocks, Forex, crypto and more in TradingView. Here’s a post that I wrote about why I switched to TradingView:
https://www.tradingheroes.com/tradingview-review/
How to download historical data in certain period. For example historical data for one month. October 1 to October 31.
Your guide much appreciated
Thanks.
Download all of the data, then export the file to get the data you need.
Hi Hugh
I am not that experienced but I’m not sure this article is correct. Researching the area of backtesting historical data it seems that the method you advise will download the ‘metatrader’ data and NOT your broker’s data as implied. That is a key difference I think and many would want their broker’s data and not want to overwrite their broker data. If they need longer term data I am also not sure the metatrader source data is the best compared with other sources of long term M1 data, but I need to explore that further. Plus it is M1 data and not tick data.
Hi Casa,
Metatrader is linked to the broker you download it from, so that is where the data comes from. If you download MT4 from Metatrader, then you will get Metatrader data.
To see what I mean, download MT4 from two different brokers and compare the charts. They will be different.
Casa is correct. At least with the brokers I’ve tried.
With Oanda the history center warns that you will be getting Metaquote data and not data from the broker.
Thanks for the update.
So, We can extract data from mt4 and import it to Forex tester 3 in order to have our broker (OANDA) data right?
Yes, if the data file layout is the same. It may need adjusting before you can import it.
Where di you download USD/CHF data? I’ve been trying to get GBP/USD historical data starting from 1975?
Hi, I get my data from Forex Tester or the Snapdragon data service. I usually don’t use data that is older than 2001.
I’m new to Forex and I’m trying to backtest to study market patterns on my demo account. For some reason, History Center isn’t showing up on my Metatrader 4. I have pressed F2 and MetaEditor pops up, while on tools History Center isn’t listed at all. Should I just download an older version of Metatrader or what?
Hey Matthew,
Weird, I’ve heard that from others too. It still shows up in both broker versions of MT4 that I’m using. I’ll look into it.
Thanks for the heads up!
Hi im from Kenya…i would like to enter to forex trading can you assist me to get started
Hi,
Sure, glad you are getting into it. I’ve created a great starting point here: https://www.tradingheroes.com/start-here/
This method depends on how much data is on the server and can even work against you.
I tried to download some monthly data and ended up with 218 bars from 256 before that. It simply synchronizes with what’s available on the server. Generally there’s no need to even enter the history center… If data is available on the server one can just press/hold the home button and data will be loaded. I’ve been using MT since their debut 15+ years ago and a lot more long term(month,week) data was available in the terminal – usually back to 70s.
I used to collect it and transfer it when reinstalling MT or OS. Now all brokers seem to have cut on the availability of historical data at least in the demo accounts and for some reason I can’t find a good save in my archives. Seems I’m out of luck finding it online too. If someone has original MT data(month, week ) back to the 70s Please post a link!
Have you found where to get data from the 70’s?
I’ve been looking for GBP/USD’s
How do you download the whole of a past year?
You get as much data as your broker has available.