Candle Countdown Timer and Spread Display on Chart - indicateur pour MetaTrader 5

Candle Countdown Timer and Spread Display on Chart

The idea behind it

Two pieces of information matter to many traders at the moment of a decision: how long until the candle closes, and how much the broker charges as spread right now. Many strategies act on closed candles, and the last seconds before the close are often the most active. A wide spread, on the other hand, can turn a good setup into a bad trade, especially during news, rollover or low liquidity.

This indicator puts both values on the chart in a clear, configurable text block. It uses a one-second timer for the countdown, so the display keeps running during quiet periods when ticks come rarely. It reads only the open time of the last bar and does not scan the history.

How to interpret it

• Candle label - time left until the current candle closes. The format adapts to the timeframe: MM:SS under one hour, HH:MM:SS from one hour, and Nd HH:MM:SS when a day or more remains (D1, W1 and MN1 charts).
• Spread label - the current difference between Ask and Bid, in points or in pips depending on InpSpreadUnit. With the pip unit, 1 pip equals 10 points on 3- and 5-digit symbols.
• Warning color - if InpSpreadWarnLevel is greater than zero and the spread (in points) exceeds it, the spread label changes to InpWarnColor. This is a quick visual alert that trading conditions have worsened.
• Position - the labels are stacked from the selected chart corner, so they do not move when you scroll or zoom the chart.

External variables (inputs)

Recommended use

• Works on any symbol and any timeframe. Set the text color so that it contrasts with your chart background.
• The countdown uses the trade server time ( TimeTradeServer() ), so it keeps running between ticks. Its accuracy depends on the synchronization of your terminal clock with the server, normally within about a second.
• When the market is closed (weekends, holidays) no new bar appears, so the countdown stays at zero after the expected close time.
• On MN1 charts the length of the month is approximated by the terminal ( PeriodSeconds() ), so the countdown is approximate.
• The spread is taken from the current Ask and Bid prices, so it follows floating spreads. Commissions charged by ECN or raw-spread accounts are not included in it.
• Choose the warning level according to the symbol: a few points for major Forex pairs, more for metals, indices or exotic pairs.
• The indicator creates two labels with the prefix CdSp_ and removes them, together with the timer, when it is deleted from the chart.
• It does not trade, so it works the same on netting and hedging accounts.

Fig. 1. CandleTimerSpread on an M15 chart with default settings (black and white image per Code Base guidelines).