Question: When, if ever, will MT5 include non-time-based periodicity bars? E.g., range bars, renko bars, real-volume bars, tick-volume bars, etc?

[DeepFocus]

MT5 is a very fast and efficient program and there is a ton of third-party code available, which really sets it apart from other FUTURES platforms. 

However, the one huge drawback of MT5 is that it does not offer non-time-based bars (periodicity). With Ninjatrader8, I can have virtually any periodicity or bar type that I want without relying on third-party NinjaScript code. 

Right now, with MT5, using CQG data feed to trade US futures (CME et al) through AMP Futures, I can download all the individual historical ticks for a given contract/symbol from the server in my own scripts (or at least I seem to be able to).  That is all that is needed to form any periodicity that I want. 

Therefore, MT5 should allow the user to form arbitrary periodicities just like NinjaTrader8.  Or at least I wish it would. 

Specifically, what I am asking for is:

• arbitrary length time bars (have each individual bar be any length of seconds or minutes or hours or days, such as 30-second bars or 450-second bars). 
  
• arbitrary volume bars, real and tick volume (512 ticks per bar, or 4000 real volume per bar, etc).
  
• arbitrary range bars (2 tick range bars or 4 tick range bars or 16 tick range bars, etc).
  
• renko bars, whether traditional renko or what's called UniRenko or BetterRenko
• maybe Heikin-Ashi and Point-and-Figure bars in distant future
• maybe volumetric/footprint bars in distant future

I can get all of this with NT8 right now, but MT5 is much more stable and faster than NT8 will ever be.  But without this functionality, no one trading US futures has any reason to use MT5. 

So why not add these periodicities into the platform when the MT5 broker server application clearly supports the data to build these bars??

I don't understand why this is not added into the platform. 

PS.  I know some(not all) of this is available in the MarketPlace, but there is no one product that offers all of this and third-party code is always subject to the authors who write that code.  Putting it in the platform itself opens huge doors for third-party developers to write different kinds of code based on these alternative periodicities.  When the periodicity is based on third-party code, there is no way other developers can write/sell their own code to take advantage of those periodicities. 

[Carlos Forero]

i think this is a essential feature for any trader. Metaquotes should work in this candles type as soon as possible

[Sergey Golubev]

Carlos Forero:
i think this is a essential feature for any trader. Metaquotes should work in this candles type as soon as possible

It was already developed (for MT4 and for MT5 as well) as custom tools (there are a lot of free tools from CodeBase and from this forum, and there are many commercial tools from the Market).
Besides, there are EAs based on Renko charts, tock charts. 5 second timeframe (or 10 sec tom,eframe) and some of them are free.

----------------

• So, the people who needed it so whose people are already having it and using it.
• The people who do not care and just talking about so they do not care (I am about youyr post for example).

[Sergey Golubev]

Renko

The forum

1. Heiken_Ashi_Ma_T3 indicator for Mr.Nims, Renko Ashi Scalping System thread 
2. Are Renko charts more profitable? - the thread with the information and indicators to download
   
3. Renko Bar |Day Trading | What are Renko Bars | How do Renko Bars Work - the post with video
4. Renko (extraction from Achelis - Technical Analysis from A to Z) - the post with mini-article 
5. How to Use Renko Bricks and Moving Averages to Find Trades - the post 
6. The 3 Step EMA and Renko Strategy for Trading Trends - the post with mini-article 
7. Trading Trends with Renko Charts - the post with mini-article

CodeBase

1. Renko 2.0 - indicator for MetaTrader 5 
2. Renko 2.0 ATR - expert for MetaTrader 5 
3. Renko 2.0 Offline - expert for MetaTrader 5
4. AdaptiveRenko - indicator for MetaTrader 5
5. Renko EA - expert for MetaTrader 4  
6. Renko_v2 - indicator for MetaTrader 5
7. Renko Scalper - expert for MetaTrader 4
8. Predictor Marks for Renko, Mean Renko and Range Bars - indicator for MetaTrader 4 
9. Renko Charts - indicator for MetaTrader 4 
10. Renko - indicator for MetaTrader 5 
11. Renko_v1 - indicator for MetaTrader 4
12. Renko Charts - expert for MetaTrader 4
13. Tipu Renko Live - indicator for MetaTrader 4  
14. Renko Live Charts v4.13 - expert for MetaTrader 4
15. Renko Chart from ticks (Most precise method) - expert for MetaTrader 4
16. Renko Range Detector - indicator for MetaTrader 4 
17. RenkoShade2 - Draws Renko boxes in normal TF - indicator for MetaTrader 4 
18. Renko Indicator - indicator for MetaTrader 4

Articles

1. Indicator for Renko charting - MetaTrader 5 article 
2. How to create an indicator of non-standard charts for MetaTrader Market - MetaTrader 4 article 
3. Synthetic Bars - A New Dimension to Displaying Graphical Information on Prices - MetaTrader 4 article 
4. Indicator for Constructing a Three Line Break Chart - MetaTrader 5 article

============

[Sergey Golubev]

Custom Symbols (any candle types)

The forum

1. New MetaTrader 5 Platform Build 1640: Creating and testing custom symbols - the thread (announcement)
2. How to create custom symbols and feed it's chart data from a remote server in real time- small thread 
3. Upcoming Article on generating Non-Standard charts (such as Renko), using MT5’s “Custom Symbols” (similar to “Offline Charts” in MT4) - forum thread
4. and more here

The articles

1. MQL5 Cookbook: Trading strategy stress testing using custom symbols - Metatrader 5
   
2. Creating and testing custom symbols in MetaTrader 5 - Metatrader 5
3. How to create and test custom MOEX symbols in MetaTrader 5 - Metatrader 5
4. Modeling time series using custom symbols according to specified distribution laws - Metatrader 5
   
5. more here
   

CodeBase

1. Renko 2.0 Offline - library for MetaTrader 5
2. Renko 2.0 ATR - library for MetaTrader 5
3. ThirdPartyTicks - script for MetaTrader 5 
4. RenkoChart - expert for MetaTrader 5
5. Symbol - library for MetaTrader 5
6. Renko 2.0 - indicator for MetaTrader 5
7. and more here
   

Documentation

1. Custom symbols 
2. List of MQL5 Functions
3. CustomSymbolCreate
4. CustomSymbolSetString
5. more here
   

Metatrader 5 Help

1. MetaTrader 5 Build 1640: creating and testing custom symbols 
2. Custom Financial Instruments - For Advanced Users - Trading Operations
3. MetaTrader 5 Build 1730: projects in MetaEditor and Synthetic financial instruments
4. and more here

============

[Nguyen Tien Duong]

Please explain to me, do you mean a chart where each bars have different duration, i.e. first bar 1 week then 450s bar then 1 hour bar, i have never seen what chart is designed like that and I have not figured out how you will trade while looking at such a chart.

[Sergey Golubev]

============

Tick Tools

1. Tick tools - key thread with many tick indicators.
2. Tick indicators and EAs thread 
3. PipsChart indicators thread 
4. Ferret the PipsChart Trader EA: the thread

[Sergey Golubev]

Nguyen Tien Duong:
Please explain to me, do you mean a chart where each bars have different duration, i.e. first bar 1 week then 450s bar then 1 hour bar, i have never seen what chart is designed like that and I have not figured out how you will trade while looking at such a chart.

There are many good coders who developed many good tools (look at my links above). They did it for free. And we all can use those tools (for free).

I am not a coder. But if you are the coder so you can develop any tool for all of us and place those tools on CodeBase by source codes, and we will use those tools for free without going to the Market for example.
People should help each other.

[ddchbm]

Thank you for your excellent and relevant question, @DeepFocus.

I hope one day you will get an answer! It's almost 2022 here and apparently candlesticks (and only in fixed intervals) are all we get natively.

Mad respect and thanks for others' helpful posts above. While of course they did not answer the question, we always appreciate resources.

OP: Posting to this forum is unlikely to net you a real answer; however it will hopefully continue to highlight this glaring gap in Metatrader's offering.

In the meantime we will struggle with this and/or use other platforms/frameworks with "bridge" services... Or be forced to each of us become development houses in our own right, creating and re-creating customized scripts to do what we need to do, wasting time, money and effort.

Metatrader is not a "paid" product, as TradingView.com is... they have quite different business models. TradingView is directly rewarded with new customers and better retention rates by improving their product. Metatrader, not so much.

Couldn't agree more with this:

Putting it in the platform itself opens huge doors for third-party developers to write different kinds of code based on these alternative periodicities.

There are so many inefficiencies and hard-to-navigate/understand capabilities related to having to use third party code to access different chart.

I'll also add that forcing everyone to roll their own "custom" chart types opens up errors, coding/performance inefficiencies, and lack of interoperability/backward compatibility with other existing (pre-built and custom) scripts. E.g., with TradingView, it just works. The chart type is totally abstracted from the indicator or strategy. Or coders or business sponsors are free to create specialized scripts that attempt to take advantage of the uniqueness of certain chart types.

The hard truth as I see it is that getting "it all" right now isn't an option. MT4/5 has huge (legacy IMO?) broker support, offers autotrading, and is pretty fast and stable. But yeah, this (i.e., the chart types and timeframes) is the elephant in the room without a doubt, for me at least.

TBH I'm not holding my breath for this, though would be super excited if it came to pass!