MetaTrader as a Common Online Trading Platform
Interesting Features of MetaTrader for Forex and Stocks Trading
Apr 26, 2009
The choice of trading platform is of particular importance for online trading, as a trader needs to look at its screen all day long. In addition, its features are very important to manage a trading strategy. For instance, technical analysis and comparison of charts are the main factors in deciding about a possible trade.
In general, almost all well-developed platforms have the same features, and choosing a favorite platform is mainly related to the trader’s taste. Nevertheless, a popular platform has more customers and contributors; thus, has more chance for further development. This is indeed the case for any software, and a trading platform is just another type of software.
MetaTrader Platform
MetaTrader is an online trading platform by Metaquote Software, providing broker services to customers at Forex, Futures and CFD markets. MetaTrader is the favorite platform for many brokers and traders, because of the many capabilities it provides users, including:
- Fast Performance
- Available in 3 different versions: MetaTrader 4 Client, Mobile, and Multi-Terminal
- Multilingual Trading Interface (Available in 26 languages)
- Numerous technical indicators and line studies
- Numerous Expert Advisors
- Unlimited charting capabilities
- Real-time data import/export service, history database management
Indicators for Technical Analysis
MetaTrader is the default platform for numerous brokers, while many others use it as an available platform; many traders are using it, too. Thus, a coder or programmer prefers to write a new indicator for this platform in order to reach a larger audience. As a result, thousands of indicators are now available for MetaTrader (c.f. MT4 official repository).
According to the fact that charts are the most important tools for a trader, this feature is indeed critical, and an important advantage for MetaTrader over their competitors.
Expert Advisors
Since some trading systems are merely based on mathematical calculations, it is believed that an automated system can trade based on the signals given. Expert Advisor (EA) is a program that opens and closes positions according to a trading system, and no action of the trader is needed.
MetaTrader is the best platform to handle expert advisors. Like indicators, there are many expert advisors written for MetaTrader. On the other hand, some expert advisors are based on the indicators, which are available for MetaTrader.
An interesting feature of MetaTrader for testing expert advisors is the ability to run an expert advisor for a past period of time. For instance, before running the expert advisor with live data, it is possible to check the past performance of this expert advisor, e.g., during the past year.
Current Version
The current version of MetaTrader is 4, which is commonly called MT4. Although some brokers still allow their clients to use MT3, almost all traders have upgraded to MT4. The important issue is that the file format of MT3 (including indicators and expert advisors) is not readable by MT4. However, all of the MT3 original indicators have been re-written for MT4.
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