Measuring pips with the MT5 crosshair instead of counting on the price scale

[Fairman]

Measuring pips with the MT5 crosshair instead of counting on the price scale

Click the crosshair icon or press Ctrl+F, or middle click on the chart. Then click and hold on one point and drag to another. MT5 shows three numbers next to the cursor: the number of bars between the two points, the distance in points, and the price at the cursor.

Remember the distance is in points. On a five digit EURUSD chart, 85 points is 8.5 pips. On USDJPY with three digits, 85 points is also 8.5 pips. On gold with two digits, 85 points is $0.85.

Uses I find practical:
Checking how far price ran after a setup, without scrolling between price labels.
Measuring the size of the Asian range before London opens.
Measuring how many bars a move took, to judge speed.
Checking whether a stop placement is beyond the last swing by enough.

The thing to remember is that both tools measure on the bid chart, so a long's stop or target in real terms includes the spread on top.

[Fairman]

One thing I'd add for accuracy: zoom in before measuring small distances. On a zoomed out chart, a single pixel can be a couple of points, so measuring a 5 pip move can be off by 10%. On M1 or M5 with enough zoom, the crosshair snaps to prices accurately. It sounds fussy, but it matters for tight stops. The difference between a stop at 4 pips and one at 4.4 pips can decide whether a wick hits it. Measuring with care is part of placing stops with care. On M1 that matters a lot.

[Fairman]

Measuring bars is as useful as measuring pips. If a move of 20 pips took 3 bars on M1, that's a fast push. If it took 25 bars, it's a grind. The bar count shows up next to the points figure in the same drag, so you get both at once. Noting the pair together, pips and bars, for the moves before your entries is a cheap way to start telling fast approaches from slow ones. It also helps in reviews. When a setup failed, the bars and pips from the swing to the entry often show the approach was a slow grind, which you can then compare with your winners.

[Fairman]

For repeated measurements, like the Asian range every morning, a small script or indicator is better. It can calculate the range from the session hours and print it on the chart automatically. Measuring by hand every day is fine at first, but an indicator removes human error and gives you a log of ranges over time, which is useful for setting targets. The log also gives an average range by weekday, which is handy for knowing what to expect on Mondays versus Thursdays. A simple version can print the range as text in the corner of the chart, with no extra drawing objects.

[Fairman]

cTrader has a similar tool. Hold the middle mouse button or use the measure tool in the drawing toolbar. It shows pips directly rather than points, which avoids the conversion. If you switch between MT5 and cTrader, remember they use different units by default so you don't mix up a 50 in one and a 50 in the other. Platform shortcuts differ too, so it takes a little time to get used to each. Picking one platform for analysis and using the other only for execution keeps it simpler. Most traders end up doing that anyway.

[FXS HongKong Scalper]

A handy feature. On TradingView the measure tool does something similar and shows the distance in pips and percent. One trick I use with the MT5 crosshair is to measure the typical size of pullbacks in a trend before setting a trailing stop. If most pullbacks are 6 to 8 pips, a trailing stop of 5 pips will be hit too often. Measuring ten or so examples takes a minute and gives a much better starting point than a round number.

[Shadow Trader]

Most brokers now quote five digits for pairs like EURUSD and three for JPY pairs. The last digit is a tenth of a pip, called a pipette or fractional pip.

The confusion comes from software. A setting that says "slippage 3" means 3 points, which is 0.3 pips on a five-digit broker and 3 pips on a four-digit one. A stop of "20" in one script may mean 2 pips on one account and 20 on another.

Scripts written for four-digit brokers misbehave on five-digit ones, unless they multiply by ten. The result can be stops ten times tighter than intended, or targets ten times too far.

On JPY pairs, three digits add another layer. And on gold or indices, the point size is different again.

Spread reporting varies too. A spread of 12 points is 1.2 pips on a five-digit feed. Seeing "12" in a platform's column and treating it as pips leads to a wrong picture of cost.

A habit worth building is to verify every numeric input in pips, using the platform's own tools, on a demo account before going live. Measuring one trade's stop distance in the chart confirms the setting.

Where did a digit mismatch last produce a stop or target at the wrong distance?