Candle Intervals
What It Is
A candle interval defines the time period each bar on your chart represents. Strateda supports seven intervals spanning from 1-minute to daily, giving you flexibility to research strategies at any timeframe — from intraday scalping to swing and position trading.
The interval you choose directly affects how many calendar days or years of data your plan's bar limit will cover. This is one of the most consequential settings in your research workflow.
How to Access It
- Locate the interval selector in the chart toolbar (typically displayed as the current interval, e.g., "D1").
- Click to open the dropdown menu.
- Select your desired interval.
The chart reloads with data aggregated at the new interval, and your bar count adjusts accordingly. Any indicators on the chart recalculate automatically for the new timeframe.
What You See
The platform supports the following candle intervals:
| Code | Interval | Description |
|---|---|---|
| M1 | 1 Minute | Each candle represents 1 minute of trading |
| M5 | 5 Minutes | Each candle represents 5 minutes of trading |
| M15 | 15 Minutes | Each candle represents 15 minutes of trading |
| M30 | 30 Minutes | Each candle represents 30 minutes of trading |
| H1 | 1 Hour | Each candle represents 1 hour of trading |
| H4 | 4 Hours | Each candle represents 4 hours of trading |
| D1 | Daily | Each candle represents 1 trading day |
By default, the chart displays daily candles (D1) covering approximately the last year of data when you first load an instrument.
How to Interpret It
Interval and Data Coverage
The critical relationship to understand: shorter intervals consume your bar limit faster. The same bar budget produces vastly different calendar coverage depending on the interval selected.
Here is how bar limits translate to approximate calendar coverage across common intervals (assuming ~390 minutes per stock trading day, ~252 trading days per year):
| Interval | Free (1,000 bars) | Plus (4,500 bars) | Pro (15,000 bars) | Premium (37,500 bars) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M1 | ~2.5 days | ~11.5 days | ~38 days | ~96 days |
| M5 | ~13 days | ~58 days | ~192 days | ~480 days |
| M15 | ~38 days | ~173 days | ~577 days | ~3.8 years |
| M30 | ~77 days | ~346 days | ~3 years | full history (from 2018) |
| H1 | ~154 days | ~692 days | ~5.9 years | full history (from 2018) |
| H4 | ~1.5 years | full history (from 2018) | full history (from 2018) | full history (from 2018) |
| D1 | ~4 years | full history (from 2018) | full history (from 2018) | full history (from 2018) |
Note: CME Futures with extended trading hours (e.g., ES.FUT, NQ.FUT) generate more bars per calendar day at sub-daily intervals, so coverage estimates will differ.
The table above applies to Databento-sourced data. Users with a connected MT5 broker account have access to their broker's own historical data, which may extend significantly further back — depending on the broker and instrument. The bar limit per request still applies, but the underlying data depth is determined by your broker.
MT5 Broker Data Coverage Example — US Stock (AAPL, from 1990)
US stocks trade approximately 6.5 hours per day (9:30 AM – 4:00 PM ET), generating fewer bars per calendar day than forex instruments. The same bar limits therefore cover more calendar history on stocks. The following example illustrates coverage for AAPL with broker historical data available from 1990.
| Interval | Free (1,000 bars) | Plus (4,500 bars) | Pro (15,000 bars) | Premium (37,500 bars) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M1 | ~2.5 days | ~11.5 days | ~38 days | ~96 days |
| M5 | ~13 days | ~58 days | ~192 days | ~480 days |
| M15 | ~38 days | ~173 days | ~577 days | ~3.8 years |
| M30 | ~77 days | ~346 days | ~3 years | ~11 years |
| H1 | ~154 days | ~1.9 years | ~5.9 years | ~22 years |
| H4 | ~1.5 years | full history (from 1990) | full history (from 1990) | full history (from 1990) |
| D1 | ~4 years | full history (from 1990) | full history (from 1990) | full history (from 1990) |
Note: Coverage estimates assume ~390 trading minutes per day (regular US market hours). At M30 and H1, the Premium bar limit reaches approximately 11 and 22 years back respectively — not the full broker history from 1990. H4 and D1 are the only intervals where the Premium bar limit covers the full available history. Actual broker data depth varies — check your broker's MT5 terminal for the available history on each instrument.
MT5 Broker Data Coverage Example — Forex (EURUSD, from 1990)
The following example illustrates coverage for a major forex pair (e.g. EURUSD) on a broker providing historical data from 1990. At D1, the full history is accessible within the bar limit. At shorter intervals, the bar limit constrains how far back each request can reach — see the table below.
| Interval | Free (1,000 bars) | Plus (4,500 bars) | Pro (15,000 bars) | Premium (37,500 bars) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M1 | ~16 hours | ~3 days | ~10 days | ~25 days |
| M5 | ~3 days | ~15 days | ~50 days | ~125 days |
| M15 | ~10 days | ~46 days | ~5 months | ~13 months |
| M30 | ~20 days | ~92 days | ~10 months | ~2.1 years |
| H1 | ~41 days | ~6 months | ~1.6 years | ~4 years |
| H4 | ~5.5 months | ~2 years | ~6.5 years | ~16 years |
| D1 | ~4 years | full history (from 1990) | full history (from 1990) | full history (from 1990) |
Note: Forex markets trade ~24 hours on weekdays — approximately 1,440 M1 bars per day. Coverage estimates assume continuous weekday trading. Actual broker data depth varies — check your broker's MT5 terminal for the available history on each instrument.
Trading hours restriction reduces bar consumption — bars outside your configured hours are not loaded. WFO jobs span multiple windows of history in a single submission, accessing far more calendar depth than a single backtest. All paid plans can also perform manual out-of-sample testing by selecting separate in-sample and out-of-sample date ranges.
See Getting the most from your bar quota for full details on all three approaches.
Choosing an Interval for Your Strategy
The right interval depends on the type of strategy you are researching:
- M1 - M5: Suitable for high-frequency or scalping strategies where entry and exit timing is measured in minutes. Requires a higher-tier plan to achieve meaningful sample sizes. Most useful for signal validation rather than full regime testing.
- M15 - H1: The practical middle ground for intraday strategies. On Pro and Premium plans, you can cover several months to years — enough data for statistical significance while retaining intraday granularity.
- H4 - D1: The standard for swing trading and position strategies. Even the Free plan provides several years of daily data, making it a good starting point for research. D1 is the longest available interval.
Example
You are developing a breakout strategy on NQ.FUT (E-mini Nasdaq-100) using a Pro plan (15,000 bars):
-
Start with D1 to assess the macro environment. At daily resolution, 15,000 bars far exceeds the available history (from 2018), so you get the full historical depth. Use this view to identify regime characteristics — trending vs. ranging periods — and validate that your breakout logic captures meaningful moves over multiple years.
-
Drop to H1 for intraday structure. At 1-hour resolution, your 15,000 bars cover roughly 5.9 years. This gives you enough data to test whether the strategy maintains an edge at a finer granularity, while still spanning multiple market environments.
-
Refine on M15 for entry timing. At 15-minute resolution, 15,000 bars covers about 577 trading days (~2.3 years). Use this to fine-tune entry and exit timing, test tighter stop-loss placement, or evaluate how the strategy handles overnight gaps.
This top-down approach — validate on higher timeframes, refine on lower ones — ensures you are not overfitting to noise on short intervals while still optimizing execution precision.