The MT5 Data Window for reading exact prices on a spike candle

[Fairman]

The MT5 Data Window for reading exact prices on a spike candle

When a candle spikes on news and you want to know the exact open, high, low and close, hovering over it and guessing from the price scale is slow and inaccurate. The Data Window does it properly.

Press Ctrl+D in MT5 and a small panel opens. As you move the mouse over the chart, it shows the date and time of the candle under the cursor, its OHLC, tick volume, spread if the broker provides it, and the values of every indicator on the chart.

The spread field is the useful one for news candles. Many brokers record the minimum spread during each bar, and the Data Window shows it. A bar with a recorded spread of 8 points on EURUSD normally running at 2 tells you the spread widened during that minute, which can explain fills that don't match the chart.

A couple of practical points. The window stays open in a docked panel and doesn't use much space. Pressing Ctrl+D again closes it. And it updates on mouse movement, so if you lock the crosshair by middle clicking, you can move through bars one by one with the arrow keys.

MT4 has the same window with the same shortcut.

[FXS HongKong Scalper]

The spread field in the Data Window is very handy. One thing to note is that it usually shows the minimum spread during the bar, not the maximum, so a news candle can show a normal spread even if the spread spiked for a few seconds. For a more complete view, tick data from the broker or a custom indicator that records the maximum spread per bar is needed. MT5 can export tick history from the Symbols window, which includes bid and ask for every tick and shows the real spread during the spike.

[Fairman]

For bigger reviews, exporting the bars is faster. In MT5, the Symbols window (Ctrl+U) has a Bars tab where you can request history for a symbol and timeframe and export it to CSV. Then a spreadsheet or Python can calculate exact ranges, spreads and indicator values around your trades. The Data Window is best for quick checks of single candles, while exports are better for anything systematic. For a few dozen trades, though, the Data Window is often enough. Exports take a little setup the first time, but after that it's quick to repeat for each month.

[Fairman]

The spread recorded on bars is usually the minimum spread during that bar, not the average or maximum. So a bar showing a spread of 2 may still have had a spike to 10 for a second. For accurate spread history you need tick data. The bar spread is a rough guide only, but it's better than nothing for spotting unusual minutes. For spread analysis, ticks are the only reliable source. The bar spread can still flag minutes that deserve a closer look. A bar with an unusually high minimum spread is almost certainly a minute where the spread was very wide at some point. So it works as a quick filter, just not as a measurement.

[Fairman]

The time shown is server time. If you're matching a candle to a news release, convert the release time to your broker's server time first. A US release at 13:30 London might be 15:30 on the server in winter, or 16:30 during gap weeks. Getting this wrong makes it look like price reacted before the news, which leads to all sorts of wrong conclusions. The DST gap weeks make this even more confusing. Writing down the server offset for the week before reviewing makes it less likely to mix up the hours. It's the same issue as with EA session filters, just showing up during manual reviews instead.

[Fairman]

In TradingView the equivalent is the data in the top left legend of the chart, which shows OHLC for the bar under the cursor. It doesn't show spread, since TradingView data is usually bid or mid prices. If you need both, keeping MT5 open for the broker's view and TradingView for analysis gives you both pictures. The two charts won't match exactly, since data feeds differ, but the shape and timing of moves should be close. If they're far apart, the feeds might differ enough to matter, or one of them might be showing a different time zone. That's a good thing to know before relying on either one for exact levels.

[Shadow Trader]

These two look identical on screen and need completely different fixes. Candles freeze, the price ladder stutters, and everything feels slow. The cause can sit in two very different places.

Rendering delay is the terminal struggling to draw. Ticks arrive on time, but the application is busy recalculating indicators, redrawing objects, and handling a burst of updates. Symptoms: the platform itself feels sluggish, menus respond slowly, the clock in the corner may jump, and the price in the order window may be ahead of the price drawn on the chart. When the order window shows a different quote than the candle, the data arrived and the picture did not.

Data delay is the quotes themselves arriving late. The platform responds normally, buttons click instantly, but the price is stale. Here the order window and the chart agree with each other and both disagree with another source. A second terminal on the same account, or a phone app, is a quick check. If the other device shows a newer price at the same moment, the feed path to that machine is the problem.

A third possibility is spread widening that looks like lag. The quote is updating, just with a gap that makes it seem frozen on one side.

The distinction matters because fixing rendering means trimming indicators and charts, while fixing data delay means looking at the route, the VPS, or the broker feed.

What quick test do you use to tell a drawing problem from a feed problem in the middle of a spike?