Session Bar Number
- Indicators
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Sergej Michajlik
I build and maintain MT5 Expert Advisors, mostly for index CFDs on prop firm accounts. DAX and S&P 500 are the markets I know best, I trade them myself on an FTMO account. Latest thing I built is a four engine intraday program. Every order has its stop on the server, there is a daily loss guard, the - Version: 1.0
Bar numbers that start where the exchange opens.
Drop it on the chart and bar 1 sits on the candle of the cash open: 09:00 Berlin on DAX, 09:30 New York on S&P 500 / Dow / Nasdaq, 08:00 London on FTSE, 09:00 Tokyo on Nikkei, the NYMEX floor open on oil, the COMEX floor open on gold and silver. The indicator reads the symbol name, knows the exchange's time zone and its summer-time rule, and works out which candle that is on your broker's server clock. You don't enter an offset, and it stays right in the weeks when US and European clocks change on different Sundays – that is when a fixed offset puts bar 1 on the wrong candle.
Works on any timeframe: on M1, M5, M15 or H1, bar 1 is always the candle that contains the open.
No sounds. No alerts. No pop-ups. Just the numbers.
What you get
- Bar 1 on the exchange open, detected from the symbol name (indices, oil, gas, gold, silver, platinum, palladium, copper; forex and crypto start at the London open)
- Bar 1 in its own colour and size, so the open is visible at a glance
- Numbering runs through all hours and resets at the next open – or, if you prefer, only through the cash session (Xetra 09:00–17:30, NYSE 09:30–16:00 and so on), with an optional countdown to the open (-3, -2, -1)
- Optional second mark: the US cash open on a European chart, or the Frankfurt / London open on a US chart, in a second colour
- Number every 2nd, 3rd or 5th bar to keep M1 charts clean – bar 1 is always shown
- Hover over any number: session, local exchange time, server time
- Manual mode: any open time in any of 8 time zones, or plain server-day numbering
Inputs
- Session open – Auto (from symbol name) / Frankfurt 09:00 / London 08:00 / New York 09:30 / Tokyo 09:00 / Hong Kong 09:30 / Sydney 10:00 / server day / custom
- Custom open and close time, time zone – for the custom mode
- Which bars get a number – all hours (reset at the open) or cash session only
- Mark a second open – none / New York / Frankfurt / London (colour only, numbering continues)
- Server clock – measured live from the terminal; for the Strategy Tester set the winter UTC offset and the summer-time rule by hand (defaults UTC+2, US rule – right for most brokers)
- Number every Nth bar, bars before the open (blank / countdown), position (below / above), bars back
- Colours, font, font size, separate size and colour for bar 1 and for the second open
Notes
- A symbol the indicator does not recognise is numbered from server midnight and the Experts log says so – pick the session manually in that case, or write in the comments and I add it.
- Free. If it saved you a setting, a review helps other traders find it.
