Traders trade the Forex (FX) market using an electronic trading platform. While there’s a wide choice when it comes to those platforms, platforms developed by the MetaQuotes Corp, MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5) are the most popular ones among Forex traders.
MT4 and MT5 have been around for almost 10 years and they represent a standard in terms of Forex trading platforms.
MetaTrader 4
MetaTrader 4 is a trading platform, developed specifically for Forex traders. There is a number of reasons behind MT4’s popularity such as its user-friendly features like 1-click trading, a large number of available Expert Advisors, more than 50 available technical indicators, ability to use multi charting, several different time frames and so on.
MT4’s Strengths and Weaknesses
MetaTrader 4 has a lot of advantages over other trading platforms, hence its great popularity. One of its greatest strengths is the platform’s reliability. Furthermore, MT4 features a number of mobile apps, available on all major platforms including Android, Windows and iOS. All of the mobile platforms are also very reliable and stable.
While there are no major disadvantages of the MT4 platform, sometimes you will notice that some brokers offer wider spreads on the MetaTrader 4 when compared to the smaller spreads offered on their main trading platform. Also, if you have read reviews about the MT4, you may have seen some comments about MT4 being slower when compared to other FX trading platforms.
MetaTrader 5
MetaTrader 5 is the latest Forex trading platform by MetaQuotes Corp. While there are no major advantages over MT4, MetaTrader 5 is somewhat faster and involves some additional features like more indicators, more types of orders and so on. Additionally, MT5 supports a greater number of trading instruments in comparison to MT4.
However, if you compare MT5 with other trading platforms, there are many benefits. In MetaTrader 5, traders can use 21 different time frames. Those include 11 ‘minute’ time frames like M1, M2, M3 and so on, 7 hourly charts, plus daily weekly and monthly time frames. In this manner, it is also better than MT4 which supports only 9 time frames.
Traders who use MT5 have the ability to utilize 6 different pending Forex orders such as buy-stop, sell-stop, buy-limit, sell-limit, buy-stop-limit and sell-stop-limit orders, compared to other platforms, including MT4, which support only the first four.
One great feature found in MetaTrader 5 is the so-called hedging mode. This mode allows traders to take trades in conflicting positions and is one of those innovative features in terms of FX trading options. MetaTrader 5 also has the Depth of Market (DOM) feature which enables Forex traders to monitor the bids and offers at different prices of a financial instrument.
In conclusion, MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 are by far the most popular Forex trading platforms and for a good reason. Those platforms are often found on top of the lists for best Forex trading platforms and have proven to be the most reliable numerous times. Plus, MT4 and MT5 are free to use on both Mac and PC.
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