What is MT5?

After the enormously successful MetaTrader 4 (MT4), MetaQuotes released MetaTrader 5 (MT5), their most recent platform. Although MetaTrader 5 (MT5) was designed primarily for currency trading, it has several asset classes in mind. For the modern trader looking to improve their trading experience with a variety of strong and useful new features, as well as practical trading tools and resources, MT5 is now the best multi-asset platform.

The MT5 platform's proprietary programming language, MQL5, is used to create trading robots, technical indicators, scripts, and function libraries. However, the MQL5 community can also provide a range of trading services to all MT5 customers. You will be able to communicate with other traders by going straight to the community through your trading platform.

Additionally, you can get a skilled programmer to write your technique, build your own unique trading tools and tactics, or download, rent, or buy a variety of trading software. Traders can also purchase VPS (Virtual Private Server) services in the MQL5 marketplace, which will enable them to employ automated techniques continuously even while their trading devices are off.

Defining MetaTrader5

Numerous brokers provide their traders with the robust MT5, which enables them to trade a wide range of assets, including CFDs on forex, stocks, commodities, indices, futures, energy, and cryptocurrencies, with variable leverage and zero slippages, price rejections, or requotes.

The ability to trade whenever and wherever you choose from the convenience of your smartphone or tablet is one of the main advantages of the MetaTrader 5 platform. This is because a trader can trade their preferred assets from any web browser on any device thanks to the Web platform. The MT5 platform also provides copy trading, trading signals, and trading robots. All of these tools and capabilities may be accessed from a single, robust trading platform.

MT5 lets users see charts, stream real-time pricing, and place orders with their broker, just like the majority of other online trading platforms. Among its many features are automatic trading, copy trading, and tools for technical and fundamental research.

The most well-liked aspect of MT5 is its trading robot functionality, also referred to as Expert Advisors or EAs. Without the trader's involvement, the robots monitor prices and carry out trading operations by adhering to an underlying algorithm.

MT5 offers additional advantages such as a multi-threaded strategy tester, account-to-account fund transfers, and an alert system to be informed about the most recent market developments.

The integrated MQL5 community chat allows traders to interact with one another and exchange trading advice and tactics.

Functions of MT5

The client terminal has an integrated editor and compiler as well as access to a free software, article, and help library. The software allows traders to create custom indicators, scripts, and expert advisors using the proprietary MQL5 scripting language. The main reason for MetaTrader 5’s appeal is because it encourages algorithmic trading.

Pending orders and market orders are the two kinds of trading orders offered by MetaTrader 5. Orders that are pending will only be filled when the price hits a certain threshold. There are four different ways that market orders can be executed: instant, request, market, and exchange:

• If the order is completed instantly, it will be executed at the price that is shown on the platform. The order will be fulfilled at a known price, however, if there is a lot of volatility and the desired price is not available, a good trading opportunity may be lost.
• The request execution mode can complete a market order in two steps: first, they can request a price quote, and then they can use that price to determine whether to buy or sell. It takes a trader a few seconds to determine whether the received price is worthwhile to trade.
• Orders executed via market execution will use the broker's pricing, regardless of whether it differs from the price shown on the platform. This mode has the benefit of allowing trading without any kind of requotes. However, amid erratic price swings, divergence might increase significantly.
• In Exchange execution mode, the order is processed by the external execution facility. The trade is executed according to the current depth of market.

How to use MT5

Create an account

To use MT5 with brokers, you’ll first need to create a live account. Next you can set up a live MT5 account from the brokers’ dashboard.

Download MT5

You have to download MT5 after you have created an account on the device you are going to use. The broker will provide you with your log in credentials.

Open a position

When you ready to start trading go to ‘tools’ and click ‘new order’. You’ll be presented with the order window. Depending on what type of trade you are placing, you’ll then be faced with the following options:

• Instant execution which will enable maximum deviation from the quoted price. To place your trade, click ‘buy’ if you think the market will rise in value, or ‘sell’ if you think it will fall.
• For a pending order, choose the type of order you want to place, from ‘buy limit’, ‘sell limit’, ‘buy stop’ and ‘sell stop’. You need to select the price level at which you want your order to be triggered. Next you need to check the expiry box to specify a date and time for your order to expire if the market does not reach your ‘at price’. Lastly you clink on ‘place’ when you are ready to place your order.

Monitor and close your positions and pending orders

To monitor your open positions and pending orders open the ‘terminal’ window by clicking ‘view’ in the toolbar and selecting ‘terminal’. Navigate to the ‘trade’ tab. You can close a position or delete a pending order by clicking the small ‘x’ on the far right of the profit column.

Modify stops and limits on open positions

To modify stops or limits on open positions and pending orders, you do the same as in the previous mentioned steps.

Customise MT5 charts

There is a number of tools available to use to customise charts. You can draw on the charts, add indicators or change the timeframe.

• Draw on charts

To draw on charts, you simply select the object from the toolbar and click on the chart. You can adjust the width and positioning of some objects by moving your mouse as you click on the chart, while others open a separate window in order to do so.

If you want to remove or edit an object, right click on the chart then select ‘objects list’ from the menu. A window will open that displays a list of all the active objects shown on the chart. Select the one you want and click ‘edit’ to customise the indicator settings or ‘delete’ to remove.

• Add indicators

You can also add indicators to charts by simply dragging your chosen indicator from the ‘navigator’ window and drop it on top of a chart. A window will open where you can customise how the indicator is displayed.

You also have the option to add indicators to a selected price chart using the menu bar. Just click ‘insert’ then ‘indicators’ and choose your chosen indicator from the drop-down menu.

You can right-click inside the chart window and choose "indicators list" from the menu in order to change or remove an indicator that is currently displayed. This will cause a popup to open with a list of every indicator that is currently displayed on the chart. Choose the desired indicator from the list, then click "edit" to change the settings or "delete" to remove them.

• Change timeframe

A price chart's timeframe can be altered by performing a right-click on the chart, selecting "timeframe," and then selecting the desired option from the drop-down menu. The time intervals vary from one minute to one month. Using toolbar buttons, you can easily alter the timeframe of a chosen price chart.

Set up a price alert

Go to the "alerts" tab after opening the "terminal" window to set up a price alert. Within this window, use your right mouse click to bring up the "create" menu. By doing this, the "alert editor" window will open, allowing you to modify your price alert.

View your trade history

To view your trade history, enter the ‘terminal’ window and navigate to the ‘account history’ tab. By right-clicking inside the window and choosing one of the following choices, you can modify the date range. You can choose all history, last three months or last month. You also have the option to choose a custom period where you can type in a date range.

Download trade reports

Simply navigate to the ‘terminal’ window and go to the ‘account history’ tab. Right click within the window then select the option to either ‘save as report’ or ‘save as detailed report’.

Both options will produce a report detailing individual trades plus an account summary. The detailed report includes additional metrics such as drawdown and profit factor.

Pros and Cons of MT5

Conclusion

MetaTrader 5 (MT5) is a trading platform utilized by lots of traders and brokers. Traders use it to view currency values in real time, place orders, modify orders, and obtain technical and fundamental analysis.

Given that MetaTrader 5 is the most recent version of the MetaTrader platform, one may assume that it is better than MetaTrader 4. However, a greater number of traders continue to using MetaTrader 4. This is due to the fact that the two are truly designed for distinct types of trade. MetaTrader 4 was designed with currency trading in mind, and it does so exceptionally well.

Due to its multi-asset trading functionality, MetaTrader 5 is often preferable when dealing in assets other than currencies. It enables the thorough study of any kind of asset and includes additional order types and indicators.