MultiCharts: Trading Software for Automated Trading and Backtesting

I was wondering if someone could help (again).

Even though I have "un-checked" the show empty period (or what ever it's exactly called i can't remember right now) I have gaps in my daily and 4hr charts where the weekends fall. It's a real pain on the daily as that means I have a gap between every 5th or so bar.

Is that box supposed to hide those empty periods or am I missing something? (it would not be the first time).

Any suggestions kindly appreciated.

Cheers,
Aussiefx

Could you post a screenshot showing these empty periods occurred during this weekend and the unchecked Show empty periods check box?

Kate, I'll post some tonight. I had connection issues (they're back again) with MCFX last night so I didn't get the chance last night.

Here are three examples of the gaps I am talking about. 2 daily and one 4 hour chart. The gaps on the 240 are a little harder to see so I stuck some arrow on there to point them out.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Aussiefx,

We tried to reproduce the situation but with the unchecked Show empty periods check box everything works properly. Could you send me this problem workspace to support@tssupport.com? And please also specify your version of MCFX.

I'm having the same problem as aussiefx. Even with "show empty periods" unchecked the charts show gaps between candles. I made sure to Reload after unchecking 'show empty'.

Terminal7,

Please send this problem workspace to support@tssupport.com as we need to test it.

Terminal7,

We analyzed the workspace you sent us and came to a conclusion that the gaps you are describing are in fact session breaks (please see the attached screenshot). These breaks may be irritating but they don't influence any studies.

In the nearest future the charts will look as on the screenshot.

Terminal7,
These breaks may be irritating but they don't influence any studies.

Hmmm... well thanks for looking into that. I checked the "show session breaks" box in the "background" tab of the "format window" option and verified that the session breaks are placed right in the candle gaps. So the gaps are session break indicators. So basically we have a situation where session breaks are being shown as gaps (rather than lines) even when "show session breaks" is turned off. Does that make sense to you?

The gaps may not influence any studies but I don't use any studies, so that is a non-issue with me.

I would encourage you to consider providing a way to turn off the gaps as it greatly affects the flow of price in the eye of the analyst. It's more than irritating, it could be detrimental to ones analysis.

My analysis is based solely on price, so having accurate data rendered in a flowing coherent way is very important.

Thanks so much for all your help and your interest and attention to this issue. You guys (and gals) are great!

Kate,

I'm sorry, I just realized what you were telling me by means of the screenshots. Apparently you already intend to eliminate the gaps when "show session breaks" is unchecked. That would be great, a significant improvement!

Thanks!

(above I should have said "you intend to show session breaks as lines and eliminate all gaps" when "show session breaks" is checked)

Please let me know when this fix is ready and I will download the new version. Thanks again. (and thanks to aussiefx for bringing this whole thing up)

Kate, sorry for sounding confused, so what exactly does the "show empty periods" check box do / affect?

Kate, sorry for sounding confused, so what exactly does the "show empty periods" check box do / affect?

Empty periods appear when there is no data for the specified period of time i.e. there was no market activity, holidays or weekend.

Stanley, that's the way I understood it to so why then are they still appearing? I realise it shouldn't affect any studies but it just looks odd.

From what I understand, they intend to eliminate the gaps in future versions of MCFX. But I also am perplexed as to why anyone would want to see the session breaks (as gaps) in a chart to begin with. It does look odd and discontinuitous. I don't believe it's common practice with other charting tools, at least not ones I'm familiar with.

In addition to the visual distortion of charts, the session break gaps DO affect indicators. Note in the attached chart (28,800 Volume on ER2) each session break gap forms a point on the indicators below. Just get a ruler and draw a line down from each session break and you'll notice that the indicators are also distorted. This IS UNACCEPTABLE in a charting package, but the MC pros outweigh the cons so I’ll live with it. But please consider fixing this.

Thanks,
mojo

Edit: P.S. I just realized I posted in the wrong charting package forum. This should be in the MC forum but since MCFX uses the same TS like platform, it should appy here as well. Please correct me if I'm wrong and need to move this to the MC forum.

Mojotrader,

Session breaks don't affect indicators and your screenshot proves this fact: if we draw a line from the session break you will see a hole in the indicator indicating the place of the session break. We agree that such holes are unacceptable and it is fixed in the current MultiCharts version.

As concerns sessions breaks in MCFX, we are preparing a new version where this problem will also be fixed.

Mojotrader,

Session breaks don't affect indicators and your screenshot proves this fact: if we draw a line from the session break you will see a hole in the indicator indicating the place of the session break. We agree that such holes are unacceptable and it is fixed in the current MultiCharts version.

As concerns sessions breaks in MCFX, we are preparing a new version where this problem will also be fixed.

Technically you are correct. There are no values plotted where breaks appear.

The problem is visual. Solid lines drawn from point to point go through session breaks distorting the shape of the indicator. The MACD does appear with gaps but the solid line on top of the MACD does not, and it's shape is distorted because of the gap. Certain indicators will exhibit this problem others will not. The solution as you cite is to eliminate gaps where session breaks appear.

Thanks,
~mojo

Just wanted to add a concluding msg. to this thread to say thanks to TSsupport for eliminating the gaps and empty spaces in the version I'm currently using (Pro beta version 735.985).

This is a great leap forward in making MCFX charts more visually appealing and practical for all traders. And it isn't just a cosmetic improvement. For serious students of price movement chart gaps (in the form of empty candle space) adversely affect analysis. I'm very happy to see this problem resolved in the current beta versions of MCFX.

Also, thanks to to all the FX traders in this forum who voiced their concern on this issue. Your voice has resulted in a great improvement to MCFX that will no doubt be of benefit to future users for years to come!