GTM Sessions Killzones and Session Alerts
- Indicators
- Version: 1.1
GTM Sessions draws the Sydney, Tokyo, London and New York sessions and the ICT killzones on your chart, on your broker's server time. You do not have to type in a GMT offset, and daylight saving is handled for you. A small panel shows which session is open now, when the next one opens, and how today's range compares with the average. Everything can be switched on and off from the panel itself.
It is free, it has no paid "full version", and every alert type (popup, sound and phone push) is included.
| Why another session indicator? The same problems come up again and again with session tools. You have to work out and type in the broker's GMT offset. The boxes are an hour wrong for part of the year because daylight saving is ignored. London and New York change their clocks on different dates, so a few weeks are wrong even when the offset is right. Labels are long. Hundreds of days of boxes slow the terminal down. Alerts are missing or kept for a paid version. And the session high / low or the Asian range needs yet another indicator. GTM Sessions was built to fix each of those. | ||
What you see
- Four sessions: Sydney, Tokyo, London and New York, each with its own colour and a short label (SYD / TKY / LON / NY). The label can also show the session's range.
- ICT killzones: Asian, London, New York AM and New York PM, in New York time. They are drawn as light full-height bands behind the sessions.
- Three styles: filled boxes, outline only, or full-height bands. Fill strength can be adjusted, so candles are never hidden.
- Session high / low lines for the last finished session and the Asian range. Each line runs on until price breaks it, then turns dotted.
- Key levels: previous day high / low, previous week high / low, daily open and New York midnight open. Each can be switched on or off.
- Panel: the sessions and killzones open now, the next one to open and how long until it does, today's range of each session against its average (for example "1836 pts / avg 2020 pts (91%)"), server time and New York time, and the broker time zone in use.
Daylight saving and the broker time zone
Session hours are entered in the local time of each city (London 08:00-17:00 London time, and so on). GTM Sessions knows the US, UK/EU and Australian daylight-saving rules and converts every session to your broker's server time, day by day.
The broker time zone is detected from the server clock. Most brokers run on GMT+2 in winter and GMT+3 in summer (the "New York close" clock), and GTM Sessions recognises this and applies it to history as well. For any other broker the current offset is used. You can also set a fixed offset yourself. The panel always shows which one is in use, for example "GMT+3 (NY close)".
Controlled from the panel
Three buttons sit on the panel's title bar:
| A | Alerts on / off. Blue when alerts are on. |
| S | Settings. Click any line to tick or untick it: each alert type, each session, killzones, labels, range in labels, high / low lines, every level, and the session ranges in the panel. Further lines change the style (filled / outline / bands), the number of days drawn (1, 2, 3, 5, 10 or 20) and the theme (Auto / Dark / Light / Custom). The font size has its own [-] and [+] buttons. Size and theme are at the top of the list. When the list is taller than the chart, it continues in a second column, so every line can always be reached. |
| – | Fold the panel down to its title bar. The title then shows the sessions open now. |
Drag the panel by its title bar. Its position and every setting are remembered for that chart, also after MetaTrader restarts. The panel always stays inside the chart.
Alerts
- A session or killzone opens (and, if you want, when it closes).
- Price breaks the high or low of the last finished session or the Asian range.
- Price touches the previous day high or low, once per level per day.
- Popup, sound (any file in the terminal's Sounds folder) and push notification to the MetaTrader mobile app. Each one is switched on or off separately.
Alerts start off. Press A to switch them on.
Built to stay out of your way
- Light on the terminal. Only the last few days are drawn (5 by default). The drawings are rebuilt when a new candle opens or a session starts or ends. Between those moments, only the running session's box is updated.
- Readable on any chart. Fills are mixed with the chart's own background, so they stay soft on dark and on white charts. The Auto panel theme switches between dark and light by itself.
- Boxes where they make sense. Session boxes are drawn up to H1 by default (you can change this). On higher timeframes the levels are still drawn.
- Plays well with other panels. Dragging only starts when you press on its own title bar. It never switches off chart scrolling or mouse events that another tool relies on.
- One copy per chart. If it is attached twice by mistake, the second copy warns you and draws nothing.
- Cleans up. Removing it removes every object it drew.
For EAs
Five buffers can be read by an Expert Advisor with iCustom and CopyBuffer:
| Buffer | Value |
| 0 - Active sessions (bit mask) | Sydney 1, Tokyo 2, London 4, New York 8, Asian killzone 16, London killzone 32, NY AM killzone 64, NY PM killzone 128, added together. For example 12 = London and New York. |
| 1 / 2 - Asian range high / low | High and low of the last finished Asian killzone. |
| 3 / 4 - Previous day high / low | The broker's previous daily candle. |
In GTM EA Bot Studio the buffers can be used through the custom indicator block, for example to trade only during the London killzone or to take Asian range breakouts.
What it does not do
- It does not trade, and it gives no signals. It reads the chart; it never opens, changes or closes an order.
- Boxes, high / low lines and buffers are built from the chart's candles. On H1, a killzone that starts at 13:30 therefore begins at the 14:00 candle.
- For history, the broker time zone rule found today is used for every past day. If your broker changed its time zone in the past, older days can be shifted.
- The killzone hours are a common ICT set. Traders use slightly different hours, so every time can be edited in the inputs.
- The average session range uses M5 data. It appears once the terminal has that history.
- In the Strategy Tester there is no real GMT clock, so Auto uses the New York close clock (GMT+2 / GMT+3). Choose Fixed if your broker uses another one.
- Push alerts need your MetaQuotes ID set in Tools → Options → Notifications.
Getting started
- Drag GTM Sessions onto any chart (M1 to H1 for the boxes).
- Check the "Broker" line in the panel. If it shows the wrong offset, set Broker server time zone to Fixed and enter your broker's GMT offset.
- Press S and untick what you do not need.
- Press A if you want alerts.
Input parameters
These are only the start values. The sessions, the killzones (all together), labels, lines, levels, style, days, theme, size and every alert switch can be changed on the panel later.
| Input | Default | What it does |
| Sessions | ||
| Sydney / Tokyo / London / New York | true | Sessions shown the first time. |
| Sydney hours (Sydney time) | 07:00-16:00 | Written as HH:MM-HH:MM in the city's own time. |
| Tokyo hours (Tokyo time) | 09:00-18:00 | Tokyo has no daylight saving. |
| London hours (London time) | 08:00-17:00 | Follows UK summer time. |
| New York hours (New York time) | 08:00-17:00 | Follows US daylight saving. |
| ICT killzones (New York time) | ||
| Show killzones | true | All killzones on or off. Same as the Killzones line in the panel. |
| Asian killzone hours | 20:00-00:00 | Sunday to Thursday evening in New York. Its high / low is the Asian range. |
| London killzone hours | 02:00-05:00 | Each killzone also has its own on / off input. |
| New York AM killzone hours | 07:00-10:00 | |
| New York PM killzone hours | 13:30-16:00 | |
| Broker time zone | ||
| Broker server time zone | Auto | Auto, GMT+2 winter / GMT+3 summer (New York close), or Fixed. |
| Fixed: server time = GMT + this many hours | 2 | Used only when the time zone is Fixed. Half hours are allowed. |
| Drawing | ||
| Days of history drawn | 5 | 1 to 30. |
| Session style | Filled boxes | Filled boxes, outline only or full-height bands. |
| Session fill strength % / Killzone band strength % | 18 / 10 | 5 to 60. Higher = stronger colour. |
| Session labels / Range in the labels | true / true | Short name and range at the top of each box. |
| High / low lines of the last finished session | true | For the four sessions and the Asian range. |
| Draw boxes up to this timeframe | H1 | Above it only the levels are drawn. |
| Previous day / Previous week high / low, Daily open, New York midnight open | true / false / false / false | Levels shown the first time. |
| Colours | ||
| Panel colour theme | Auto | Auto, Dark, Light or Custom. |
| Custom: text / panel background / accent | white / dark / teal | Used by the Custom theme. |
| One colour for each session and killzone, Day / week levels | purple, pink, blue, orange ... | Box, label and line colours. |
| Panel | ||
| Show the panel | true | Off = drawings only. |
| Panel start X / Y | 20 / 40 | First position in pixels. After a drag the new position is kept. |
| Font size / Font | 10 / Consolas | 8 to 14. A fixed-width font keeps the columns straight. |
| Session ranges in the panel | true | Today's range and the average for each session. |
| Sessions used for the average range | 20 | How many earlier sessions make the average. |
| Units for distances | Auto | Auto = pips on 3/5-digit forex, points elsewhere, price units for very large moves. Or force points, pips or price. |
| Remember position and panel settings | true | Off = every start uses the inputs. |
| Alerts | ||
| Alerts on at start | false | Same as the A button. |
| Session / killzone opens, closes | true / false | Which alerts fire when alerts are on. |
| Price breaks the last session high / low, touches previous day high / low | true / false | Which alerts fire when alerts are on. |
| Popup / Sound / Push notification | true / true / false | How alerts reach you. |
| Sound file | alert.wav | Any .wav in the terminal's Sounds folder. |
| EA buffers | ||
| Bars calculated for the buffers | 5000 | Older bars are left empty to keep loading fast. |
More GTM tools
- GTM Candle Timer: candle countdown on server time, with spread, range against ADR and alerts before the close. Free.
- GTM Panel Pro: manual trade manager with four trade groups, four pending-order slots, one-click break-even and trailing, and Telegram control.
- GTM Journal: turns your trade history into an eleven-page journal with R multiples, setups, calendar and reports.
- GTM EA Bot Studio: build your own Expert Advisor from drag-and-drop blocks, no code. A session filter is one block away.
All of them are on my profile. Questions and requests are welcome. Send a message and I will answer. If something does not work the way this page says, tell me and it will be fixed.
