One chart shows the price slightly higher, another slightly lower. On a long-term view the gap is barely noticeable, but on a short digital trade it can change the outcome. The first reaction is natural: you want to find out who is showing the wrong number. But first you need to make sure you are comparing like with like. Bid, Ask, Mid and the last trade are different prices. Let’s break them down with numbers and put together a step-by-step way to check a specific intrade.bar trade, so you can move from an impression to data you can verify.
Bid and Ask: two sides of one quote
Bid is the demand price: the price at which a buyer is willing to acquire the asset in the available size and on the applicable terms. For a seller, it is the side where a sale can happen. Ask is the offer price: the price at which a seller is willing to hand the asset over to a buyer. In a normal quote, Ask is above Bid, and the distance between them is called the spread.
Say a currency pair has a Bid of 1.0840 and an Ask of 1.0842. The spread is 0.0002, or two pips for a pair whose pip size is 0.0001. If you buy at the Ask and immediately sell at an unchanged Bid, you are already in the red before any other costs. This explains why the price of a trade and a single line on a chart don’t have to match.
Whether a trade can actually be executed also depends on size and on the rules of the specific product. A number in a quote does not mean any amount can be traded at it. On top of that, a chart may plot only one side. If you don’t see a second line, the spread hasn’t disappeared — the interface is simply showing the series you selected.
How Mid is calculated
Mid is the midpoint of a simultaneous Bid and Ask: Mid = (Bid + Ask) / 2. For 1.0840 and 1.0842 it equals 1.0841. It is a calculated reference point that shows the center of the quote, but it doesn’t promise that you can buy or sell the size you need at that price.
Now compare a Bid chart at 1.0840 with a Mid chart at 1.0841. A one-pip difference has appeared without any error on the provider’s side. If the center stays put while the spread widens, Bid can fall, Ask can rise and Mid can barely move. The two charts will show different candles even though they describe parts of the same quote.
Last is yet another value: the price of the most recent execution. It refers to a past trade, whereas Bid and Ask describe the current offers in the selected feed. In calm markets the numbers are often close, but that doesn’t make them interchangeable. Label the price type even when the lines almost coincide.
Compare the instrument first, the decimals second
The full symbol matters more than the short name. A currency pair, a futures contract, a CFD and a special instrument with an extra suffix may all refer to a similar underlying, yet form their prices by different rules. Checking milliseconds won’t help if you picked different products in the first place.
For Bitcoin, distinguish BTC/USD from BTC/USDT, a spot pair from a futures contract, a specific exchange from a composite index. For currencies, mind the direction of the quote: EUR/USD and USD/EUR express inverse ratios. For futures, the delivery month matters too. Eliminate these differences first, then look into a small discrepancy in the numbers.
On intrade.bar, the main source for currency instruments is FXCM, and for BTC/USDT it is Binance. So a check starts with the feed specified for the asset. Another chart can be useful for general context, but a different price on it does not, by itself, prove that the rules of a specific trade were broken.
Why the TradingView logo doesn’t define all the data
TradingView is used both as a service with a huge range of instruments and as a charting interface inside trading platforms. Familiar panels and candles don’t mean a single source for every integration. The selected symbol may have its own exchange, data type and update mode.
On intrade.bar, the TradingView chart helps you study price movement, but where the quotes come from has to be checked separately for each instrument. Don’t extend the claim “this chart shows Mid” to every single TradingView symbol. It should apply to a specific feed and a specific way of displaying it.
Different input data affects indicators too. If two moving averages are calculated from the Close of different feeds, the lines can drift apart slightly even with the same formula. Before hunting for an indicator bug, compare the candles themselves, the calculation period, the selected price and the interval boundaries.
The same time on screen doesn’t mean the same moment
A 12:00 label can mean the start of a candle, the moment of an update or the device’s local time. To compare, you need the full date and the time zone. In the intrade.bar export of closed trades, time is given in UTC; it’s convenient to convert external notes and screenshots to the same standard while keeping the original timestamps.
Distinguish the moment an event happens at the provider from the moment it is displayed. Data goes through transmission and processing, and the screen refreshes at a certain rate. Two screenshots taken one after the other can capture different updates. This is a possible cause of a discrepancy that needs to be checked, not a universal explanation for any disputed result.
Candles also need identical boundaries. The intervals 12:00–12:05 and 12:01–12:06 group different observations. Their highs and closes can differ even with the same source feed. You can’t compare the current candle with a final one as if both were already complete: until it closes, its values keep changing.
Rounding and averaging: two different traps
Suppose the original price is 1.08414 and the interface shows four decimal places: 1.0841. A value of 1.08411 will look exactly the same on that screen. Matching short labels don’t prove that the original numbers are exactly equal. You need to know what precision is used for display and what precision is used to calculate the result.
Averaging over an interval is a different operation. The last quote of a minute doesn’t have to match the average for that minute. In addition, Mid is calculated from Bid and Ask at the same moment. You can’t freely combine the highs of two finished candles if they were reached at different times.
For example, first Bid = 100 and Ask = 102, so Mid = 101. Then Bid = 99 and Ask = 103, and Mid is 101 again. If you take the maximum Bid of 100 and the maximum Ask of 103 separately and average them, you get 101.5. But no such Mid ever existed in these two observations. The arithmetic is correct; the inputs were wrongly matched.
An exact reconstruction requires simultaneous source values. Ready-made one-minute highs and lows no longer contain the full order of events. If all you have are rounded candles, you can check their ranges or closes, but you can’t reliably reconstruct every instantaneous price. Extra decimal places don’t bring back lost data.
Hands-on: one practice trade on intrade.bar
Choose an available currency pair on the intrade.bar demo. Before the trade, write down the full symbol, the source, the direction, the selected expiry and the payout shown. After opening, save the actual entry price and time from the trade record. Don’t substitute the candle’s open price for them: your trade may have started in the middle of the interval.
The intrade.bar method for currencies uses Mid = (Bid + Ask) / 2. An external check needs the matching FXCM feed and simultaneous values, not a single Bid from a random terminal. If exact data isn’t available, note the limits of your check; candles that look alike are not confirmation of every tick.
Imagine a practice Call trade with an entry of 1.08410 and a settlement price of 1.08412. With comparable exact values, the “price goes up” condition is met, even if both labels look the same on a coarsely rounded chart. If the prices defined by the rules are exactly equal, intrade.bar refunds the amount. For a specific trade, go by its record and the applicable calculation precision.
For BTC/USDT, repeat the check separately against Binance. The currency formula and the FXCM feed can’t be automatically applied to Bitcoin. Also, don’t use BTC/USD from another source as an exact copy of BTC/USDT: even a small difference is enough to produce different comparisons near the entry price.
How to word a request when prices don’t match
Gather the trade ID, the instrument, the direction, the open and settlement times with the time zone, both prices and the external source. Add the price type, the precision and a description of any transformations. A screenshot shows the state of the interface, but for a precise settlement question the source values are usually more useful than a picture of a few candles.
The wording can be simple: “The trade shows entry X at such-and-such time and settlement Y. In a comparable feed I get Z; I used this price type and this precision.” That lets someone repeat your steps. A phrase like “the candle is green on another site” doesn’t show which price relates to your moment of entry and expiry.
Don’t change settings mid-comparison without writing it down. Bid first, then Mid, then another provider — that’s already three different checks. Save intermediate results and change one parameter at a time. That way it will be clear which difference has been explained and which one genuinely remains open.
What counts as a finished check
There are three useful outcomes: the parameters match and the calculation can be reproduced; a specific mismatch has been found for further review; or there isn’t enough data for a precise conclusion. The last option is better than a confident answer built on incompatible charts. Not having an explanation yet doesn’t prove what caused the discrepancy.
The practical advantage of intrade.bar here is a known source for each asset and the ability to check quotes in concrete terms. To make use of it, save your trade parameters and compare against exactly the series the rules specify. A provider’s name becomes useful once you understand what to compare with what.
Start with one demo trade and repeat its calculation using the data available. Then use the same procedure for your next observations. This skill helps you read charts more calmly and ask precise questions: a quote should have a source, a type and a time, not just a convincing candle color.
Questions and answers
Is Mid the price at which any trade can be made?
No. It is the midpoint of a simultaneous Bid and Ask. It can serve as a contract’s settlement price, but it doesn’t guarantee that any size can be executed at that value.
Why can candles of the same currency pair differ?
Because of the source, the price type, the interval boundaries, the time zone, the update rate or the precision. First bring these parameters into line, then assess whatever discrepancy remains.
Do all TradingView charts show Mid?
No. The data type is determined by the selected symbol, the provider and the integration. The charting interface by itself doesn’t set a single method for every instrument.
Is a screenshot enough to check an intrade.bar trade?
It’s useful as a supplement, but you often need the trade number, exact times and prices, the source of the external series and the comparison method. A short expiry and a small move make these details especially important.
Gawin ang iyong unang practice trade
Agad na magbubukas ang demo account pagkatapos ng pagrehistro
