Introduction video for SMC-Signal (70 seconds) and the reason why no arrow appeared for 3 minutes during recording and how to fix it [MT5]

I’m lab.aiueo, creating MT4/MT5 indicators and selling them on GogoJungle.

I made an introduction video for SMC-Signal (MT5 version). It’s 70 seconds long. You can watch the video on GogoJungle’s product page (via the button at the bottom of this article).

Part 1: Highlights of the video

The reason we made it a video is that still images cannot convey“confirmed candles appear and do not disappear afterward”The screenshots are a single moment. You can tell an arrow is there, but you can’t tell when it appeared or whether it moved afterward.

SMC-Signal fixed the bug of “adding arrows afterward” in September. I wanted to show the fix not with words but with motion. That’s why I made the video.

【Investment Navigator article URL for 10/5 (how to measure arrows added later)】https://www.gogojungle.co.jp/finance/navi/articles/127728

Scene 1: Arrows, Scores, and TP/SL lines (0:00〜)

SMC-Signal counts how many of the five bases overlap for each candle.

If the confirmed candle score reaches the preset minimum (default 2) or higher, a blue up arrow for buys and a red down arrow for sells appear. The number next to the arrow is the score at that moment. At the same time, TP1–3 and SL lines are drawn, and the risk-reward ratio is displayed beside the lines.

The panel always shows the current candle’s score and breakdown (e.g., [OB ○]), the direction of the higher timeframe, the number of signals today, and the Entry/SL/TP of the most recent signal.

Scene 2: Zones of the bases (0:12〜)

OB, FVG, BOS/CHoCH, Premium/Discount, and Liquidity Sweep zones and lines can be drawn. Some people want only arrows, while others want to confirm the bases with their eyes, so by default they are not drawn. The video turned all five on.

Scene 3: Appears at the candle’s confirmation and does not disappear afterward (0:18〜)

BT-Replay playing on M15. As soon as a candle is confirmed, an arrow, score, and TP/SL lines appear

This is the scene I want you to watch the most. I replayed past markets at 600x speed using BT-Replay (sold separately for MT5) to film this.

• Arrows appear at the moment the candle is confirmed. They do not appear while the candle is forming
• Once an arrow appears, it does not disappear or move to another candle even if the candle progresses

I decided the filming date (September 11, 2026, 10:00) in advance, and I did not re-select scenes by watching later price movements.

Scene 4: Remains when switching timeframes (0:39〜)

If you switch from H1 to H4 and back to H1, the arrows, score, and TP/SL lines return to their original positions. I save the appeared arrows at the moment they appear and reload them when I restart the program.

【Investment Navigator article URL for 10/12 (arrows disappear when switching timeframes)】https://www.gogojungle.co.jp/finance/navi/articles/128168

Scene 5: Narrowing with a minimum score (0:50〜)

If you raise the minimum score from 2 to 3 in the settings, arrows with score 2 disappear and only arrows with score 3 remain. The panel’s last signal also changes to the remaining arrows. The settings screen is in Japanese.

The video is for the MT5 version, but the same functionality exists in the MT4 version.

Part 2: When filming, not a single arrow appeared

Scene 3 initially could not be filmed. While playing back with BT-Replay for 3 minutes, no new arrows appeared. The higher-timeframe row on the panel remained in red “MTF: Data not retrieved.”

First attempt. On the Ver1.02 panel, the higher-timeframe row showed red “Data not retrieved.”

There was another approach (replay with MT5 Strategy Tester). But the same issue happens for BT-Replay users of SMC-Signal. Since changing filming method wouldn’t fix the bug, I decided to fix it first and then film.

Cause: Rewriting the 1-minute candle

BT-Replay rewrites the confirmed 1-minute candle using the broker’s 1-minute data during playback. This is to replace the volume and spread derived from the ticks with real values.

When the candles are rewritten, MT5 recalculates all indicators for that symbol from the start. At 600x speed, this happened about10 times per secondand right after rewriting, MT5 sometimes wouldn’t answer the question “which candle number is this time” (I verified with a diagnostic indicator). SMC-Signal used this inquiry in two places.

• Where the higher-timeframe direction is checked: if unreadable, no signal is made and it waits, cutting off within 30 seconds. During playback, unreadable state persisted, sosignals could be made only once every 30 seconds
• Where the candle to draw the arrow is sought: if it fails, no arrow is drawn, but a cooldown update was kept as a record to avoid repeating the same-direction signals. In M15, the sell at 00:15 on September 14 disappeared, and the sells recorded at 6:30, 11:00, and 15:45 were also stopped

Fix

I verified beforehand whether the rebuilt higher timeframe would match MT5’s higher timeframe for GBPUSD, USDJPY, EURUSD, and XAUUSD. For 4 symbols, across 63 combinations of chart timeframes (M1–D1) and higher timeframes, each 600 samples, all63 matched.

After fixing, the screen froze this time

The first attempt was my mistake in fixing. Because I rebuilt the score number (the text on the chart) every time I recalculated, the repeated rebuilding at about 10 times per second caused the playback to stop updating partway through.

When I stopped rebuilding, numbers stopped appearing. BT-Replay clears lines and text carried from the original chart about 1.5 seconds after opening the diagnostic chart (to avoid bringing future information into verification). The numbers drawn at start-up also disappeared there. In the end, I decided to redraw only if there was a fresh signal every 1 second.

Even standard moving averages flickered

In the fixed-version recording, there was a frame where the arrow briefly disappeared. I suspected SMC-Signal, but when I included the built-in MT5 moving averages in the recording, the moving averages disappeared too.

BT-Replay Ver1.00, 600x speed. In adjacent frames, the moving average and the arrow disappear

The cause was the earlier “rewrite about 10 times per second.” While all indicators were recalculating, when MT5 drew the chart, some lines/arrows that hadn’t finished recalculating appeared to vanish for about 0.1 seconds. This occurs regardless of indicator design.

In the experimental version where rewriting is not performed during playback, the vanishings dropped to zero. In the product, rewrites were grouped toevery 2 seconds during playback (rewriting to 0 would prevent real-time price data from appearing until paused).

I counted the same scene’s recording at 30 frames per second.

Scene 3 of the video was re-shot with SMC-Signal Ver1.03 and BT-Replay Ver1.01. All five newly appearing arrows appeared at the moment the candle confirmed, with score and TP/SL lines.

The introduction video was initially meant to be just a showcase, but it became a revision of two products. The lesson is that running my own product in the same way as customers reveals issues that you would not find otherwise.

To users

• SMC-Signal MT5 version updated to Ver1.03. Even if you don’t use BT-Replay, the initial higher-timeframe read after startup is shorter
• BT-Replay updated to Ver1.01. Other indicators also benefit from reduced flicker during high-speed playback
• If you used Ver1.02 with BT-Replay, some arrows may be saved from the period you played in between. If you delete files containing “_BT_” in the path “File → Open Data Folder → MQL5 → Files → SMC_Signal,” you will recalibrate on the next playback
• MT4 version is not included (BT-Replay is MT5-only)

What this product does not do

• Does not promise trading results. Arrows are an analytical aid indicating overlapping SMC bases
• No orders are placed
• Win rate and performance are not displayed or promoted. The video does not discuss price movement after arrows

Operating environment

Scene 3 of the video uses BT-Replay (sold separately, MT5-only). SMC-Signal alone operates similarly on a normal chart.