Renko is a well-known Japanese charting technique that removes time from the chart. Instead of drawing bars in constant intervals (time) as a normal chart would, a Renko chart does so only when price moves beyond a predefined amount.
In a Renko chart, a bar is created when price exceeds the previous bar’s high or low by a predefined amount or what we call the Box Size. The result is a chart with equally sized bars running up or down in 45 degree angles. Such a chart offers the following advantages:
- Effectively this filters out the noise that you would see on a normal chart, as the chart is then based solely on price action. This makes key support and resistance levels more apparent and more clearly defined. Formation of trends are also more distinct in a Renko chart as market noise has been removed delivering smoother trading opportunities as trends develop in waterfalls and steep slopes.
The MT4 platform does not offer a facility for generating Renko charts out of the box. The Quantum Trading Live Renko Charts indicator delivers the perfect chart for the intraday scalping trader, smoothly, efficiently, simply and intuitively, and brings all the advantages of Renko charts to your trading toolkit.
Live, Moving Charts
The Quantum Live Renko Charts indicator makes use of MetaTrader 4’s Offline Charts which can be conveniently accessed via the terminal’s File > Open Offline menu. Don’t be fooled by the name of this feature, as the Offline chart generated by the indicator is very much alive and online.
To start using the indicator, simply drag and drop it from the Navigator to the chart as you would any other MT4 indicator. After configuring (or if you are happy with its default settings), it immediately generates an Offline chart containing the generated Renko bar chart according to your configuration.
Opening the Offline chart is easy as each instance of the Quantum Live Renko Charts indicator tells you exactly which Offline chart to look for. And of course, on opening the Offline chart, you will see that the Renko bars are built not only historically but also in real-time.
Dual Mode
The Quantum Live Renko Charts indicator for MT4 features two modes:
- Compute Best Box Size
- Fixed Box Size
Compute Best Box Size
Using the indicator in this mode allows you to “convert” a normal candlestick chart to a Renko bar chart by computing the best box size for a particular timeframe. This is computed by calculating the average true range (ATR) of the current symbol within a given period on a specific timeframe.
Fixed Box Size
Using the indicator in this mode allows you to set a constant box size for generating Renko bars. The box size can accept floating point numbers with a precision of up to 2 decimal places.
Multiple Instances
One of the biggest advantages of the Quantum Live Renko Charts indicator is its ability to be added to a single chart multiple times. Each instance of the indicator can be configured uniquely to other instances and can be easily managed by its smart labeling system, thus allowing you to save screen real estate and computer resources when building your MT4 workspace.
Context-sensitive Labels
The indicator displays labels in its own indicator window containing information about the parameters currently in effect. This allows you to manage all instances of the Quantum Live Renko Chart with ease.
Please refer to the image above. In this example the indicator is running on COMPUTE_BEST_BOX_SIZE mode. The labels are as follows:
- Chart – Contains instructions on how to access the generated Offline chart
- Mode – Tells you which one of the two modes is active
- Computed box size – Shows the result of the average true range calculation for the best box size.
- Timeframe – Shows the timeframe used for computing the best box size
- ATR Period – Shows the number of bars to calculate the average true range
- Configure – Contains instructions on how to access the settings/inputs of an instance of the indicator
Depending on the mode selected, a different set of information is displayed.
Please refer to the image above. In this example the indicator is running on FIXED_BOX_SIZE mode. The labels are as follows:
- Chart – Contains instructions on how to access the generated Offline chart
- Mode – Tells you which one of the two modes is active
- Box size – Shows the value of the Box size input which is a fixed value for creating Renko bars.
- Configure – Contains instructions on how to access the settings/inputs of an instance of the indicator.
Applying the Indicator
Open your MT4 platform and in the main menu, select View > Navigator to open the Navigator window which appears at the left hand side of your workspace.
In the Navigator window, expand the Indicators tree by clicking the “+” symbol. Find the Quantum tree and expand it by clicking the “+” once again to reveal the full list of Quantum Trading indicators.
To start using the indicator, you can click and drag QuantumLiveRenkoCharts from the Navigator to a chart or you can also double-click QuantumLiveRenkoCharts (which will then be applied to the currently selected chart). Doing either one of these will display the Custom Indicator window where you can configure all the various user settings for your Quantum Live Renko Charts. These options are grouped and can be accessed by selecting the tabs which will be discussed further in the following sections. Once you are done customizing the indicator’s options, click OK to run the indicator.
The indicator displays the instructions on how to open the generated Renko chart as was discussed in the previous sections. This video shows you how to open your Renko chart from start to finish.
About tab
Here you can find basic information about the indicator such as its name, description, and version number.
Common tab
Please make sure that the “Allow DLL imports” option is checked/ticked before running the indicator. This is required by all Quantum indicators to properly communicate with its accompanying DLL file. Alternatively, you can set this option globally by selecting in the main menu, Tools > Options > Expert Advisors tab and checking/ticking the “Allow DLL imports” option. Other than this, please leave other options to their default setting.
Inputs tab
You can configure the indicator by changing its variables listed in this tab. We explain this further shortly, and for each configurable input of the Quantum Live Renko Charts indicator below.
Dependencies tab
All the files that the indicator uses to run is listed here. You can leave this tab as it is.
Colors tab
This indicator does not use any Plots so this tab is empty.
Levels tab
This indicator does not use any Levels so this tab is empty.
Visualization tab
The indicator’s visibility can be toggled on or off in different contexts with the options in this tab.
Configuring the Indicator
Let’s return to the Inputs tab and explain how to customize the settings of your Quantum Live Renko Charts indicator.
Account Email
When running the Quantum Live Renko Charts for the first time in your trading account, you need to enter the email you used to register in the Quantum Trading Indicators Enablement System – http://enable.quantumtrading.com/ as part of its verification process. You only need to do this once as the email is stored in the terminal’s global variable cache after it is entered initially. Please make sure that you enter your email correctly and exactly without any extra spaces before and after it. If you made an error, simply fill this field again to update it.
CUSTOM PERIOD
Serves as an identifier for the Offline Chart the indicator would generate. For example, if CUSTOM PERIOD is set to 2 and the indicator is attached to EURUSD, the Offline Chart it would generate would be EURUSD,M2. The number has no significance other than to differentiate it from other Offline charts. The default value is 2.
Mode
Determines the manner of calculation of the Renko bars. The indicator offers two modes:
- ATR Computed Best Box Size – The Renko box size is a computed value which is derived by getting the mean of the average true range of a chart within a given period and timeframe.
- Fixed box size – The Renko box size is a fixed value. In this mode, you need only to assign the box size and this will be used directly to create the bars.
Before we move on, we define box size as the number of pips to form either a bullish or bearish Renko bar. The following inputs are dependent on the value of the input Mode.
When ATR Computed Best Box Size mode is selected, the following inputs take effect:
ATR Timeframe
Specifies the base timeframe of the symbol to compute the average true range from.
ATR Period
Determines the number of bars the indicator will process to calculate the average true range.
The ATR Computed Best Box Size mode allows you to “convert” a time chart to a Renko bar chart by computing the best box size for a given timeframe. The timeframe that you want to convert to a Renko bar chart can be set using the indicator’s ATR Timeframe input rather than the chart’s actual timeframe. It is designed this way to allow the user to attach multiple instances of the indicator with different timeframe settings.
Round Off Box Size
When set to true, this pegs the computed best box size to a certain value by rounding it off to the nearest whole number. This makes it create more consistent Renko charts especially when using multiple instances of the indicator.
When Fixed Box Size mode is selected the following input takes effect.
Box size
This input determines the size of the Renko bars the indicator generates.
The Fixed box size mode allows you to set a constant for generating Renko bars regardless of the timeframe.
Removing the Indicator from the Chart
Open the chart’s Indicator List window by pressing Ctrl+I. You can also right-click the chart and select Indicator List from the context menu.
Select QuantumLiveRenkoCharts and click the Delete button then click the Close button.
