Why the same chart looks different on two brokers

[Shadow Trader]

Open the same pair on two platforms and the candles do not always match. Highs and lows differ by a pip or two, and the close of a 5 minute candle can be a slightly different price.

Forex is decentralised, so each broker builds its own price feed from its liquidity providers. Different providers, different aggregation methods and different markups produce slightly different quotes. Candle timing adds another layer, since brokers set their server clocks differently, so a 1 hour candle on one platform may start at a different minute offset than on another.

For a scalper, this has real consequences. A strategy tuned on one broker's data may behave differently on another. Support and resistance lines drawn on one chart may sit a pip away from where the other broker's price actually reacted.

The best defence is consistency: develop and test the strategy on the feed that will be used to trade it live. Mixing a signal service from one feed with execution on another introduces unnecessary error.

Has anyone noticed a systematic difference between two brokers on the same pair?