A chart you can read quickly is worth more than a chart with everything on it. Most default MetaTrader charts are harder to read than they need to be, and fixing that takes about five minutes — once, saved as a template and applied everywhere afterwards.
Opening and arranging charts
Drag a symbol from Market Watch onto the chart area, or right-click the symbol and choose Chart Window.
Arrangement options are under Window: Tile Windows, Tile Horizontally, Tile Vertically, Cascade.
For multi-timeframe work, four charts of the same instrument tiled in a grid — daily, 4-hour, 1-hour, 15-minute — gives you the full picture at a glance. Saved as a profile, it opens in one step.
Timeframes
Switch with the toolbar buttons or keyboard shortcuts.
| Timeframe | Typical use |
|---|---|
| M1, M5 | Scalping, entry refinement |
| M15, M30 | Intraday entries |
| H1 | Intraday structure |
| H4 | Swing structure — often the most useful |
| D1 | Trend and major levels |
| W1, MN | Long-term context |
MT5 adds intermediate options such as M10, H2 and H8. Useful occasionally, unnecessary for most approaches.
Server time, not your time
An important detail. MetaTrader charts run on broker server time, commonly GMT+2 or GMT+3, not your local time.
This means the daily candle opens and closes at a time determined by your broker, and the same instrument on two brokers can show visibly different daily candles.
Find your offset:
Compare the latest candle time on an
M1 chart with your actual clock.
Write the difference down. You need it
every time you check the calendar.
Daylight saving changes shift this twice a year for most brokers. A release you know as 13:30 GMT may appear at 15:30 or 16:30 on your chart depending on the season.
Chart types
Three options in the toolbar: bar, candlestick, line.
Candlesticks are the practical default for the reasons covered in the Technical Analysis section — open, high, low and close are all visible, and the body-to-wick relationship is immediately readable.
Line charts have one genuine use: stripping out intrabar noise to see the underlying shape of a move. Occasionally clarifying when a candlestick chart looks messy.
Making the chart readable
Right-click the chart → Properties, or press F8.
Colours
The default black background with green and red candles is functional and high-contrast in a way that becomes tiring over long sessions.
What matters more than the specific scheme:
Bullish and bearish candles clearly distinguishable at a glance.
Background and candles sufficiently contrasted.
Grid subdued or off. The grid adds visual noise and rarely helps.
Consistent across all charts. Switching between charts with different colour schemes slows recognition.
Common settings
Properties → Common tab
Show grid OFF
Show period separators ON
Show Ask line ON
Show OHLC ON
Chart on foreground ON
Period separators draw a vertical line at each day boundary on intraday charts, which makes session structure visible.
The Ask line is worth enabling. Charts show bid price by default, so on a buy order you enter at ask — a price above what the chart displays. On instruments with wider spreads, particularly gold, the difference is meaningful and seeing both lines prevents confusion about fill prices.
Chart on foreground draws candles above your drawn objects, which keeps price visible when you have several levels marked.
Templates
A template saves colours, settings, indicators and their parameters. Applying it to a new chart reproduces everything in one click.
Right-click chart → Template → Save Template
Save as “default.tpl” and every new
chart opens with your setup already
applied.
That last point is worth doing. Naming a template “default” makes it the automatic starting point for every chart you open afterwards.
Separate templates for different purposes work well — one for clean price action, one with your indicator set, one for gold with wider settings.
Drawing tools
The toolbar and the Insert menu contain the drawing objects.
| Tool | Use |
|---|---|
| Horizontal line | Support and resistance |
| Trend line | Trend structure |
| Rectangle | Zones rather than lines |
| Fibonacci retracement | Retracement levels |
| Vertical line | Marking events or sessions |
| Crosshair | Measuring distance |
The measurement trick
Underused and genuinely useful for position sizing.
Click the crosshair tool (or press Ctrl and drag), then drag from one price to another. The platform displays the number of bars, the pip distance, and the price difference.
Dragging from your intended entry to your intended stop gives you the stop distance directly, which is the input the Lot Size calculator needs. No mental arithmetic.
Rectangles over lines
Worth a note given how much the Technical Analysis and Gold Trading sections emphasise zones.
A horizontal line implies precision that price does not respect. A rectangle covering the reaction area is more honest, and on gold — where overshoot is routine — it is considerably more useful.
Double-click an object to select it, then drag the handles to adjust. Right-click → Properties sets exact values and colours.
Object list
Ctrl+B opens the list of everything drawn on the chart. Useful for removing accumulated clutter — most traders have far more objects on their charts than they realise, and old levels left in place make current ones harder to see.
Navigating the chart
Scroll Arrow keys or drag
Zoom + and − keys
To latest bar End key
Auto-scroll Toolbar toggle
Chart shift Toolbar toggle
Auto-scroll keeps the chart at the latest candle as new data arrives.
Chart shift leaves space on the right side rather than pressing price against the edge. Helpful for seeing where price might go and for placing objects ahead of current price.
Data and history
MetaTrader downloads history as you scroll back, and the default limits are low enough to be restrictive.
Tools → Options → Charts: set “Max bars in history” and “Max bars in chart” to a large number.
For deeper history on a specific instrument, Tools → History Center in MT4 allows downloading directly. MT5 handles this more automatically.
Insufficient history is a common reason a daily chart shows only a few months, which makes marking major levels impossible.
Set the colours once, turn off the grid, enable period separators and the ask line, raise the history limits, and save it as your default template. Every chart from that point opens ready to read. It is a small thing that removes a small friction from every session, and the traders who skip it spend years squinting at default settings they never liked.
What to do next
The next lesson covers placing your first trade — the order window, setting stop and target at entry, and the errors that stop an order from being accepted.
Frequently asked questions
Why does my chart time not match my local time?
Because MetaTrader charts run on broker server time, commonly GMT+2 or GMT+3. Compare the latest M1 candle time with your clock to find the offset, and remember it shifts with daylight saving.
What is the Ask line and should I show it?
Charts display bid price by default, but buy orders fill at ask. Enabling the Ask line shows both, which prevents confusion about fill prices — particularly on gold and other wider-spread instruments.
How do I save my chart setup?
Right-click the chart, choose Template, then Save Template. Naming it “default” makes it the automatic starting point for every new chart you open.
How do I measure the distance between two prices?
Use the crosshair tool and drag from one price to the other. The platform displays bars, pips and price difference — dragging from entry to stop gives you the stop distance for position sizing directly.
Why does my daily chart only show a few months?
The default history limits are low. Under Tools, Options, Charts, raise “Max bars in history” and “Max bars in chart” so you can scroll back far enough to mark major levels.
Should I use lines or rectangles for levels?
Rectangles, generally. A line implies a precision price does not respect, while a rectangle covering the reaction zone is more honest — and on gold, where overshoot is routine, considerably more useful.