Drag & Drop Volume Profile Indicator User
Guide
In this manual we describe installation process of Drag & Drop Volume
Profile indicator for MetaTrader 4 trading platform build 600 or later.
Our indicator works on MetaTrader4. You need to install MetaTrader4
first if you haven't.
Then, follow the steps below to install our indicator:
Step 1: Install The Indicator
First, you should have already downloaded the ZIP file containing all
the installation files from your members area and unzip it into your
desktop. Inside that ZIP file, there's this file:
DragDropVolumeProfile.ex4
Next:
Open your MT 4 trading platform
Click File --> Open Data Folder
Once you have that data folder open, locate the MQL4 folder inside it.
Then open that MQL4 folder:
Inside that MQL4 folder, you will see the Indicators folder , this is
where you need to copy the DragDropVolumeProfile.ex4
from your zip file to.
Step 2: Download Historical Data.
The indicator uses one-minute (M1) data to build volume profiles.
Since most brokers only give you a few weeks of M1 data, you need to
download more historical data from your MT4 platform.
Before you do that, there are some settings you need to change in
MT4. From MT4, click on Tools Options, then choose the Chart tab.
Then change the “Max bars in history” and “Max bars in chart”
values. The higher these numbers, the more data you get, but your
MT4 performance will be slower. That’s a tradeoff between speed and
data.
I’d suggest change both of these values to 50 000 or 100 000.
After you’ve changed these settings, you’re now ready to download
historical data:
From MT4, click on Tools History Center. Click on the currency
pair that you want to apply Volume Profile, then double-click on 1-
Minute (M1). Finally, click on Download to start downloading historical
data.
After you’ve downloaded historical data, you’re ready to insert the
indicator to your chart.
Step 3: Insert the indicator to your chart
To insert the indicator to your chart, click Insert --> Indicators -->
Custom, then choose DragDropVolumeProfile
There are some important parameters of the indicator that I’ll explain
below:
Important Parameters:
Starting Bar Index: This is the most recent bar of the period over
which we build our Volume Profile. Enter 1 if you want to calculate the
Volume Profile from the latest completed bar backwards. Enter 2 if you
want to start from the 2nd latest completed bar. And so on…
LookbackBarCount: The number of bars in the period over which we
build our Volume Profile. For example, if we set Starting Bar Index to 1
and LookbackBarCount to 50, the Volume Profile will be built using the
period starting from the latest completed bar and go back 50 bars.
Display Toolbar: If set to True, a toolbar will be displayed for each
Volume Profile. You can use this toolbar to change the display of each
Volume Profile.
Display Volume Bars Left Adjusted: If set to True, the volume
profile will be drawn on the left hand side of the time period. If False,
it’s drawn on the right hand side.
The remaining parameters are related to the look of volume profile.
You can play with them to adjust the volume profile’s look.
How To Drag & Drop The Volume Profile:
Click on the corner dots and drag to change the size of the period over
which a certain volume profile is calculated.
Click on the center dot and drag to change the location of that period.
Troubleshooting
The Volume Profile appears blank or looks weird?
The only reasons for this issue (that we’ve observed so far) is
1. You don’t have enough data. Change the Max bars in volume and
Max bars in charts (and download historical data if you haven’t done
so). And try again.
2.There’s gap between the price bars. That’s because the current
version of our indicator requires that the price bars are perfect (with
no gaps). In the next version, we will introduce the ability to work with
imperfect data including gaps.
So make sure that there’s no gap between the price bars in the period
you select to draw volume profile.
