It’s been approximately fourteen years that Metaquotes software corporation was launched, with the primary objective to develop user-friendly client terminal software for financial markets. It was in 2000 that the first product METATRADER (MT) was launched to assist traders with automated trading facilities, without human intervention. The product of-course was a hit (primarily because of the ease to use it on any standard windows-based computer), and thus it gained popularity among worldwide traders and global brokers. The company behind this software went on developing and releasing faster and superior version of this product at regular intervals and thus the series, MT, MT2, MT3, MT4 and now in 2010, MT5, the latest, most superior and the most advanced of all.

However, Even after four years of its release, the traders and the brokers continue reluctance to acceptance of this new version as compared to their interests and patronage to MT4, mainly because of the Incompatibility of this software to its previous versions, meaning that the expert advisors or trading Robots designed for use with the earlier version (I.e. MT3 and MT4) cannot be loaded on this platform unless the robot scripts are written again in the MQL language to go well with MT5. Traders are not keen to spend again on their EA’s and Robots for use with MT5, hence MT4 still continues to be the most popular choice, among traders, among brokers.

However, there are features and reasons that make MT5, a definitely better product, for any newcomer or a mechanical trader in Forex. Among the prominent new features, there’s the ability to switch to 21 time-frames on charts unlike only 9 time-frames available in MT4. Similarly, over 100 charts can be opened for comparative analysis at the same time while using MT5, but mt4 has limitations to this number. Additionally, for fundamental traders, MT5 has a separate economic calendar with all features like global news, events, Impact and forecast which wasn’t available with MT4. Similarly, this version MT5 has an inbuilt market place where you can analyze most of market available Forex EA’s and robot’s performances on your platform itself and can also directly buy from the platform itself instead of googling and visiting multiple websites to buy a good robot. Number of Inbuilt indicators (38 in MT5 unlike 30 in MT4) also is higher along with a higher number of graphic and analytical objects in MT5. MT5 also gives you an ability to place more number of pending orders (6 in MT5 unlike only 4 in MT4) along with an extra two stop-orders. Of course, there is also more number of Instruments available for trading in MT5 along with an extra Search box added to this version. Everything else is the same by looks or by functions like One-click trading and Drag and drop feature but a definitely better product when compared to MT4.

Then why is the reluctance? It’s probably because of the MT5 inability to allow Hedging, a very important element of trading, easily available with MT4. Similarly, MT5 follows government regulations strictly to implement FIFO (First in First out) rule instead of leaving it on the broker to decide which policies regarding Margin calls and stop-outs they want to adopt. MT4 allows brokers to discard FIFO rule (which helps them gain better client-retention rate). Quick scalping also is not allowed with MT5, hence discouraging the scalper traders more. To Top them all, there’s the backward in-compatibility (to previous version EA’s and Robots ) as I mentioned earlier, that makes it a less-adopted and less-liked product, among all traders.

From broker’s point of view, again the product is superior to its previous versions. While the basic functions of managing traders accounts, process trade operations, receive and translate News and prices of available financial instruments, MT5 can additionally create and maintain back-up copies of all information that appears in the client trading platform. Mt5 also an Inbuilt Advanced security system that helps in limiting access to system and reduces security risks to Broker business and Client accounts from hacker attacks. In addition, MT5 has different functions distributed over multiple broker servers, hence adding an extraordinary speed to their price quotes, order-acceptance and order-processing functions, thus preserving the highest quality of services to their clients. The platform can easily be configured by broker itself to add or remove certain functions or to add new looks to it.

As It appears, MT5 now is definitely one of the finest trading platforms, for both traders and brokers, in terms of its superior performance and high level of flexibility. The company Metaquotes Software Corporation is actively engaged in organizing Live trading championships and contests on MT5 so as to promote it further. It so appears that it’s just a matter of time that more traders start understanding the importance of its security features and speedy execution and start accepting it as a personal choice.