Does chart data differ among dealers?

[Ross]

I am trying to make the transition from futures to forex and want to know if the price data (OHLC) used in daily and weekly charts (i am a position trader) differs much between dealers/market makers since their is no centalized exchange, or do they all use the same price data?? I guess what i'm asking is do the charting packages on these dealer platforms have accurate and reliable historical price data? Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

[tdeketel]

Originally Posted by Ross

I am trying to make the transition from futures to forex and want to know if the price data (OHLC) used in daily and weekly charts (i am a position trader) differs much between dealers/market makers since their is no centalized exchange, or do they all use the same price data?? I guess what i'm asking is do the charting packages on these dealer platforms have accurate and reliable historical price data? Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Short term data can differ a lot between brokers (prices slightly different, less ticks, less volatility, and so on), but the high and low for the day are quite reliable on all platforms. The daily high and low can differ 1 or 2 pips, but that's not a really big deal on daily and weekly charts...

Just a quick question: why do you want to make the transition from futures to forex ?

Best regards

[TRYFX]

If you need historical data compiled from the New York close around 1700hrs refer here

[Ross]

Originally Posted by tdeketel

Short term data can differ a lot between brokers (prices slightly different, less ticks, less volatility, and so on), but the high and low for the day are quite reliable on all platforms. The daily high and low can differ 1 or 2 pips, but that's not a really big deal on daily and weekly charts...

Just a quick question: why do you want to make the transition from futures to forex ?

Best regards

Thanks for the info Tdeketel. I still plan to trade futures but for currencies forex seems to be the way to go, wouldn't you agree. Can you recomend any reputable brokers with decent charting and technical analysis platforms?

[Ross]

If you need historical data compiled from the New York close around 1700hrs refer here

Thanks . What time is usually considered the Close in forex for daily charts?

[ajhardesty]

Hi Ross,

I suggest you do some testing and check it out for yourself. I just compared two data feeds that I use and found they were very different with OHLC numbers differing by up to 60 pips.

I am told that is because there is no standard close/open time in Forex, e.g. in the feeds I checked, one closes at midnight EST while the other closes at 5 PM EST.

This came as a real surprise, but I checked (and double-checked) several days, and big differences are more common than the similarities.

[socrates]

Ross

I have found GFT to be quite reliable as far as brokers go, with pretty good charting too.

The times used for daily open and closes does indeed depend from broker to broker, but on the whole is "mostly" based on GMT or EST, with Metatrader using GMT + 1

[Ross]

Thanks ajhardesty. Very interesting. I'm a little surprised something as basic as closing data (and time) isn't standardized for most forex brokers.