Confusion about (past) timezone in MT5 charts

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I bumped into this, when I wanted to find the exact time of the EURUSD's low, 7 jun 2010, 3:00 (currently displayed time on 1H chart)

 

Some facts first:

0. I live in GMT+2 timezone. I am talking about access.metatrader5.com:443 demo server. 

1. in the past, MT5 displayed times in GMT+1

2. now, since I don't know when, MT5 displays times in my personal timezone, GMT+2, which is nice btw.

3. I don't know when the transition happened exactly from point 1 to point 2, from GMT+1 to GMT+2

4. I don't know if all times in the chart were changed when the transition happened from GMT+1 to GMT+2

 

Ok, so I grabbed some historical prices, 1 minute data, from dukascopy, histdata, and gaincapital.

All 3 sources suggest the low happened at 1:58 GMT, 7 june 2010 => 3:58 GMT+1 => 4:58 GMT+2

MT5 displays 3:00 in hourly = 3:58 => MT5 displays GMT+1 for 2010 (point 1, old style)

But for 2015 it displays GMT+2.

 

What is happening here? Because it doesnt feel right at all.

Can anyone bring more light into this? 

 

 

clarification about point 4: when the change in timezone happened, no adjustments were done to past datetimes, that's for sure.

I still don't know the exact day when timezone change happened.  

 

After quite some time, spent on searching this mysterious date (kind of disappointed with mql5 devs, for their unwillingness to post this fact, for such long time)

It seems it's 24 november 2014

Since, 24 nov 2014, default timezone moved
from Europe/Berlin (gmt+1) 
to Europe/Bucharest (gmt+2) 

 

How in the world is this not more visible?


What a nightmare.

 
nightvision04:

How in the world is this not more visible?


What a nightmare.

Yup. Its a mess still. Apparently, time component is not important for metaquotes :p 

In my mind, time component is more important anyway. I would provide also calendar time, on all timeframes, even if it would appear as long blank spaces on intraday charts, seeing entire weekends and holidays, as empty spaces. But it would help to calculate or measure easily how many hours are between 2 events. Also you would see gann angles on calendar time. 

I could add many things to this List of mini improvements for research. 

But, after my history with metaquotes, their focus is not on research aspect, and i get it, they need money, which they get from brokers. 

So i guess only requests from brokers would have weight, not request from little ants like u and i. 

:d
 
Did they manage to solve this problem?
 
so the default timezone changed in the software. What's the actual problem though?
 

  1. How can MetaQuotes know all brokers' (they come and go daily) Time zone and Daylight savings time (if they use it and including historical changes for back testing)? Do you have that information for just you and your broker? Only then, with code, can you convert session times to broker's time to UTC to local time. You can use offset inputs, but then you must maintain them correctly, through all three DST changes when they occur.
              When is the time zone problem going to be fixed? - General - MQL5 programming forum (2020)

  2. Foreign Exchange (FX) market opens 5 PM New York (NY)/Eastern Time (ET) Sunday and ends 5 PM NY Friday. Some brokers start after (6 PM is common) and end before (up to 15 minutes) due to low volatility.
              Checking for Market Closed - Expert Advisors and Automated Trading - MQL5 programming forum (2016)

    Swap is computed 5 PM ET. No swap if no open orders at that time.

  3. Brokers use a variety of time zones. Their local time, with or without Daylight Savings Time (DST), London (GMT/BST), UTC, London+2, UTC+2, NY+7.

    Only with NY+7 does the broker's 00:00 equals 5 PM ET and the start of a daily bar (and H4) is the start of a new FX day.

    GMT/BST brokers, means there is a 1 or 2 hour D1/H4 bar on Sunday (depending on NY DST), and a short Friday bar. (Problems with indicators based off of bars.)

    GMT+2 is close but doesn't adjust for NY DST.

    EET is closer, except when their DST doesn't match NY's. Last Sunday of March and 1:00 on the last Sunday of October vs second Sunday in March and return at 2:00 AM EDT to 1:00 AM EST on the first Sunday in November.

  4. Non-NY+7, means the chart daily bar overlaps the start, and converting broker time to NY time requires broker to UTC to NY timezone conversions.

  5. If you search the web, you will find differing answers. Those are all wrong (half the year) because they do not take DST into account (or that it changed for the US in 2007 [important when testing history.])

  6. Then there are (non-24 hour markets) with H4 candles that start on odd hours.
              Why My XAUUSD 4H candles start with 1 hour shift? - Currency Pairs - General - MQL5 programming forum (2019)
              H4 first opened candle - MT5 - General - MQL5 programming forum (2020)

    And H1 on the half hour.

  7. See also Dealing with Time (Part 1): The Basics - MQL5 Articles (21.10.01)
    and Dealing with Time (Part 2): The Functions - MQL5 Articles (21.10.08)

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