What is MetaTrader 5 (MT5)?
MetaTrader is a great online trading platform that comes with a wide variety of useful features. You may already be aware of MetaTrader 4 which is a popular trading platform. The next generation MetaTrader 5, an upgraded version of MetaTrader4 was rolled out recently and is laced with several new capabilities and functionalities. Check out more at multibankfx.com.
This highly functional platform comes with many advanced technical and fundamental analysis tools, automated trading bots, copy trading, interesting trading functions, a user-friendly design along with a host of other services that will boost your trading abilities. The platform is largely used by forex traders, but it is also possible to trade other financial assets such as stocks, futures, and CFDs.
MetaTrader’s platform and trading software works quickly and is quite heavy duty. However, this does not mean that it would give your computer or server a hard time. It is easy on the systems and can be accessed via multiple devices such as desktop and mobile as long as you have a steady internet connection.
Why choose a MetaTrader broker?
You would come across a number of MetaTrader forex brokers. Rather, roughly 90% of all forex brokers work with MetaTrader. The trading platform’s popularity, ease of use and superiority over the other alternatives make it the most widely used platform. To be able to trade on the MetaTrader platform, you should also have a MetaTrader Forex broker.
How to choose a MetaTrader broker?
With so many forex brokers to choose from, how do you go about choosing the right one? Listed below are some key things to look out for when choosing a MetaTrader forex broker.
- Regulation is one of the most important things. You should be fully aware of the regulations your broker falls under so you can understand what could lead to trading losses, how safe your funds are, do they have segregated accounts and if they follow fair trading practices.
- Data security should always be taken into account. You must thoroughly understand what security practices they follow and what their reputation is like when it comes to safeguarding all the data they obtain from you.
- Transaction costs/details are yet another key areas of focus. You should be well aware of whether you want to keep the spreads low or pay commissions.
- The broker must be able to help you with an easy, hassle-free process for deposit and withdrawal of funds.
- Trade execution speed is extremely important. Your orders must get filled at the price you could act upon, or well within the micro-pips of that range.
- Customer service is one aspect that most people neglect but is important. When you face troubles with your trades, there should be a proper system to address the issues.
Why is MT5 popular?
To begin with MetaTrader 5 is an upgrade from MetaTrader4 and the popularity of the latter among forex traders is tremendous. Rather, it would not be wrong to say that MT4 continues to be more popular than MT5. You may be wondering why that is the case? This is because MT4s have some great hedging options that are missing in MT5’s. But MT5 has now also updated their platform and made it possible to hedge trades. Thus, one may expect that there will be a greater number of takers of this tool. Additionally, it is safe to say that MetaTrader is so popular because there is no other trading platform in the market that matches its advanced features.
Pros and cons of MT5
There are plenty of advantages to using the next generation MT5. But like any other software, there are pros and cons of using MT5 and we’ve listed a few below:
Pros
- The platform comes with more than 80 powerful technical tools that can be used for trading in different financial markets.
- You can access extensive resources that can be of great help with price analysis and forecasting along with having the ability to have 100 charts open at once.
- 21-time frames can be accessed and used to assess short and long-term price fluctuations.
- You could create your own technical indicators and trading robots
- Market liquidity pools can be accessed that can be useful in avoiding low-volume trading instruments that don’t have adequate liquidity.
- Trader’s execution needs are addressed with the help of 4 different execution types (Market, Instant, Request, Exchange).
- Better security and encryption without compromising on transparency.
- Can easily accommodate advanced as well as beginner level traders thanks to their extremely different trading styles.
- A great interface design which allows you to switch between accounts easily.
Cons
- The fact that hedging is disabled on MT5 is one of the biggest cons of the platform. It becomes a major disadvantage in two ways–it takes away a key risk management tool and the spreads tend to go up. A majority of liquidity providers allow hedging.
- MetaTrader 5 has been coded from scratch and hence, all custom indicators written for MT4 must be added to MT5. This new coding also leads to bugs and glitches which are common with newly coded platforms.
- The fact that MT5s mobile software works only with iOS and Android devices, and not with Windows phones could put some traders at a disadvantage.
Overall, MT5 is a very useful trading platform. Thanks to the intuitive design and features that it comes with, it is grabbing the attention of both advanced and amateur forex traders alike. The features MT5 comes with are good enough to keep the traders content while the cons are something that the makers are already working to address. Working out the bugs can be time consuming and the technology to allow hedging is already in works. It is good news that hedging is now operational on MetaTrader 5 beta build 1281.
Conclusion
The MetaTrader 5 platform is a platform one needs to watch out for as it grows in the digital forex trading market. The variety of features, data, tools, customization, and users on the platform is incredible. When you trade forex, you cannot ignore MT5.