Metatrader is one of the forex platform that is used by many forex traders for forex trading. There are many indicators that are available with metatrader for the convenience of forex traders. When you first install metatrader and open it, it comes with a black background with a grid on it and it’s a line graph. If you change it to a candlestick graph the bearish candlesticks are shown in white color and the bullish candlesticks are shown in black color. You may want to change the properties of the graph like changing the background color, changing the color of bullish and bearish candlesticks, removing the grid etc. But once you close the graph you will lose all your modifications and once you open a new graph you will see again the original graph with black background etc provided by metatrader.

Screenshot showing the default metatrader chart with black background etc

But there is a way of saving your work of modifications to the charts as a “Template”. So even though you close the the graph and open it again you can open the template for that currency pair and all your work will be retrieved again. Not only for the currency pair you did the modifications, you can apply the same template to the other currency pairs also and you will see your modifications for other currency pairs also. In this article I will explain you how to do these modifications, what are the different options available, how to save your modifications as a template, how to apply your templates to different currency pairs etc.

To start with, open your metatrader and open any currency pair. It will show the default display of metatrader which is a black background, line graph etc. Click on the “candlesticks” icon on the top bar. Click on the “Zoom In” icon on the top bar two times so that you will be able to see the candlesticks chart clearly.

Metatrader showing the candlesticks and zoom in options

Once this is done go to the properites of the chart. You can go to the properties of the chart in three different ways. Click on “Charts” on the tool bar and you will see the “Properties” option at the bottom and click on it. Or you can right click on the chart and you will see the properties option and click on it. Or you can press “F8″ button on your keyboard and you will see the properties directly.

Click on chart on the tool bar or right click on the chart to see the properties or type F8 on the keyboard

On the properties you will see two tabs. “Colors” and “Common” tabs. You don’t need to worry much about the “Common” tab. We mainly work with the “Colors” tab. You will see the following options on the colors tab.

Metatrader chart properties showing different options

Color Scheme: Metatrader gives some of the options like “Yellow on Black”, “Green on Black” and “Black on White”. You can select these options, if you like, your chart will change accordingly to the color scheme.

Background: Using this option you can change the background color of the chart. Change it white background.

Foreground: Change it black color if you change the background color to white. If you don’t change it you can’t see the dates on the horizontal scale at the bottom and the price levels on the verticle scale on the right side bar.

Grid: If you want to have the grid on your chart you can leave it as it is. Otherwise you can select “None” to remove the grid. I don’t want to have any grid on my chart so I selected none for it.

Bar Up and Bar Down: This option is for the outer line of the candlesticks. Select “Black” Color for both of these options.

Bull Candle: This means “Bullish Candlestick”. This is for the inside color of the candlestick that is raising. Select white color for this.

Bear Candle: This means “Bearish Candlestick”. This is for the inside color of the candlestick that is falling. Select red color for this.

Line Graph: If your graph is a line graph you can select the color of your line graph. But since your graph is a candlestick chart it won’t be much useful to you. But you can still use it for the following purpose. If you set this to any color other than black or white, the candlesticks where the open and close prices are equal will be set to this color. That means the pin bar formations, dojis etc will be set to this color and if your trading method uses these pin bars or dojis you can easily find these formations as the color of those candlesticks will be different. Set this color to “Blue” Color and you will see this effect later.

Volume, Ask and Stop Lines: You can leave these options as it is.

Now once you set all the above options as mentioned, you will see the chart as follows. You can change any of the above options to any different colors you like. The above colors are for example purpose only.

Metatrader showing chart with different colors

At any time if you don’t like the colors you set, you can reset them back to the default one by clicking on the “Reset” button and you can start again setting the colors.

Templates: Now you have done some work on changing the colors and if you don’t save it, once you close the graph for the currency pair and open the currency pair again, you will see the default colors like black background etc. So you have to save your changes. This is where the “Templates” come into play. To save your changes click on the “Templates” icon on the top bar. You will see the option “Save Template”. Click on it. It will open the default templates folder. Give some name to the template like “Clean Template” or “My Template” etc. I am giving the name “Clean Template” to it. Make sure that the “Save as type” is showing the template extension as “.tpl”. The templates should have the extension “.tpl” to load them later.

Metatrader templates option to save the template

You can also save your template by right clicking on the metatrader chart and you will see the option “Templates” and if you put your pointer on it, it will show the options “Save Template”, “Load Template” etc. You can use the “Save Template” option here to save your template.

Saving a template in metatrader

Once you save this template to check if it is working or not close the chart and open the chart again. You will see the default chart. Click on the “Templates” icon on the top bar again and you will see the template you saved “Clean Template” on the list. Click on it and your chart will be changed to your template you have done earlier. Cool. Huh.

Opening a template in metatrader

You can also use this template (your changes) for any other currency pairs also. Open any other currency pair and go to templates button, click on it and click on the “Clean Template” option and the new currency pair chart will be changed accordingly.

Now you have a clean chart with your modifications. Add any indicator to it like alligator indicator. Go to the templates button again and save it as a new template like “Alligator Template”. Or use any combination of indicators and give them different names. You can use these templates and change your charts easily instead of dragging the indicators and setting the options each and every time.

Metatrader templates option showing the alligator template