Higher Timeframe Candle draws one thing on MT4 and MT5: the candle from a bigger timeframe, sitting on top of the chart you're actually trading. A rectangle for the body, a vertical line for each wick, and a two-letter day label above it.
That's the whole feature list. What makes it worth installing is a detail of how the box is built, and it's the kind of thing you only notice after a few sessions with it.
The box is also a clock
The rectangle doesn't appear at full width when the daily candle opens. It's drawn from the daily open time to the bar you're currently on, and it's redrawn one bar wider every time your chart prints a candle.
So at 09:00 on an M15 chart the daily box is a narrow sliver on the right. By the London close it's stretched most of the way across the screen. You can read how far into the session you are without looking at the clock, because the box width is the answer.
The same is true of the body. The rectangle's bottom edge is the current daily close, so it moves with every tick and flips colour the moment price crosses the daily open. Blue above the open, red below. A daily candle that has been red all morning and turns blue at 14:00 changes colour on your M15 chart the second it happens.
The day label is the point
Above each higher-timeframe candle sits M, Tu, W, Th or F.
If you don't work with day-of-week bias, that label is a small convenience. If you do, it's the reason to have this on the chart at all. The Tuesday low and the Wednesday reversal are ordinary observations when you're looking at a daily chart, and they're nearly invisible on M15 where every candle looks the same as the last one. Marking the boundary and naming the day puts that structure back.
The labels come from the higher-timeframe candle's own open time, so they follow your broker's server day, not your local one. On a GMT+3 server the "Monday" candle starts at Sunday evening your time. That's correct and it's also the thing most likely to confuse you on the first day.
What it draws
| Element | What it is |
|---|---|
| Rectangle | Higher-timeframe body: open to current close, widening as the candle forms |
| Upper line | Body top to the higher-timeframe high |
| Lower line | Body bottom to the higher-timeframe low |
| Label | Day-of-week abbreviation, anchored at the high |
| Colour | Blue while close is above open, red while below, switching live |
The two wick lines are drawn at the middle of the box rather than at either end, so as the box grows the wicks drift right with it and stay centred. It looks like a real candle rather than a rectangle with sticks glued to one side.
What it doesn't draw is everything else. No signals, no levels, no alerts, no dashboard, and no indicator buffers, so there's nothing here for an EA to read through iCustom. It's a drawing tool, and it's priced and built as one.
The rule that catches everyone once
The chart timeframe has to be smaller than the higher timeframe. Put it on a D1 chart with the default D1 setting and it draws nothing at all. It writes HTF candle not shown in this time frame! to the Experts log and stops.
That's the correct behaviour, but the failure is silent as far as the chart is concerned. If you've just installed it and the screen is empty, check that first — it's almost always this, and almost never anything else.
Sensible pairs: D1 candles on M15 or H1, H4 candles on M5 or M15, W1 candles on H1 or H4. Anything where the higher timeframe divides into at least a dozen visible bars.
One instance per chart
The object names use a fixed prefix that isn't an input. Two copies on the same chart, say D1 and H4 together, will fight over the same object names, and closing either one deletes the drawings from both.
That's a genuine limitation rather than a setting you've missed. If you need two higher timeframes visible at once, use two chart windows on the same symbol. It's worth knowing before you spend ten minutes looking for the prefix field.
Lookback and the first paint
Lookback defaults to 500 bars of the chart timeframe, which on M15 is about five trading days of daily boxes. Raise it if you want more history behind you; the drawing is cheap, but each higher-timeframe candle is a separate set of chart objects, so a very large lookback on a fast chart makes for a crowded object list.
The first load walks that history once. After that only the newest bar is touched on each tick, which is why it doesn't slow anything down even with several charts open.
If the higher-timeframe history hasn't downloaded yet, you'll see Cannot get htf_shift in the log and gaps in the boxes. Scroll a D1 chart of the same symbol back once to pull the data, then refresh.
Questions you'll have
Does Higher Timeframe Candle repaint? Completed higher-timeframe candles never change. The newest one does keep changing, because it hasn't closed yet: the box widens, the close edge moves and the colour can flip. That's the candle forming, not history being rewritten.
Why is my chart empty after installing it? Your chart timeframe is equal to or larger than the higher timeframe you chose. D1 boxes need an M15 or H1 chart. Check the Experts log for HTF candle not shown in this time frame!.
Can I show two higher timeframes at once? Not on one chart. The object prefix is fixed, so a second copy collides with the first. Open a second chart window instead.
Why does the day label say Monday on a Sunday evening? The label follows the broker's server day, which is when the daily candle actually opens. Most servers are GMT+2 or GMT+3.
Does it have alerts? No. It draws and nothing else. If you want to be told when price crosses the daily open you'll need something else alongside it.
What timeframes work best? D1 on M15 or H1 covers most day-of-week work. H4 on M5 or M15 is the other common pair.
MT4? Both platforms are included, one download each. Same four inputs, same drawing, same timeframe rule.
Support
Message me through the site with a screenshot and the symbol and timeframe, and I'll tell you what the drawing is doing. Updates are included for as long as your subscription runs.
Analysis tool. It places no trades and makes no profitability claim. Past price behaviour is not a guide to future price behaviour.