MetaTrader 5 (MT5)
The name MetaTrader 5 will sound familiar to everyone in the forex trading space even though not everyone might just be conversant with it. This is because it is an improvement on a much more popular platform MetaTrader 4 produced by the same company – MetaQuotes Software Corp.
In this post, I will be talking about MetaTrader 5, and its features. If you are interested in knowing how MetaTrader 5 compares to MetaTrader 4, click here.
What is MetaTrader 5?
MetaTrader 5 just like its predecessor is a trading platform – a client terminal for forex trading. It is different enough from MT4 to be a separate application, but similar enough to be recognized and associated with MT4.
It is the second most popular trading platform in the world, behind its predecessor, MT4. More about the relationship between MT4 and MT5 is discussed here.
To learn more about MetaTrader 4, click here.
The MT5 user interface is a simple, yet comprehensive one which is user-friendly, easy to understand, and use.
You can navigate MT5 using your mouse, and the keyboard – function, special and hotkeys. For average computer users, the mouse is the go-to while those who are more tech-savvy and are more familiar may be more inclined to go with the keyboard controls.
Whichever method of navigation you choose, you must always choose the one which is the easiest for you to prevent accidents and mistakes.
Among the several other tasks that can be done using MT5, I will be discussing just three in this post – opening a trade, closing a trade, and modifying a trade.
Opening a trade on MT5
You can open a trade on MT5 using several ways. Only one such ways will be examined in this post. To learn about other ways to open trades on MT5, click here.
The very first way is from the market watch. To open a position in MT5 all you have to do is double click the symbol in the market watch.
The only thing left to do is to set your stop-loss and take profit levels. These can be done after the trade has been opened by modifying the trade. You can also change lot size in the interface. After setting the position parameters, depending on the position you want to take you can either click “sell” for a short position or “buy” for a long position.
To set a pending order, just click on the drop down named “Type”, to switch from instant execution to pending order.
Closing a trade on MT5
Open trades in the MT5 platform can be closed in a variety of ways.
You can close an open trade in MT5 in a number of ways. For the purpose of this post, only one of the ways will be examined. To learn more about closing trades in MT5, click here.
To close a trade in MT5, all you need to do is double click the order ticket in the terminal and then a popup tab will be opened where you can close your trade.
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Modifying a Trade on MT5
There are multiple ways by which you can modify your trades in MT5. The first way is to double-click the order ticket in the terminal. The popup tab will contain options to modify, open more, and close the trade.
To open only modification, you need to click the stop loss or take profit section in the ticket. This will open a popup tab where you can adjust the parameters of your trade.
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Features of MetaTrader 5
MetaTrader 5 has a lot of awesome features, which makes it one of the best forex trading platforms in the world. It is capable of charting, analysis, automation, and so much more.
Indicators
There are over 55 out-of-box indicators for MT5. But you need to know that you potentially have an unlimited number. This is because you can add custom indicators to MT5.
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Examples of indicators present on MT5 are moving averages, relative strength index, relative vigor index, MACD, bear’s power, ADX, and so on.
Analysis Tools and Objects
In addition to the indicators, other tools for analysis such as lines, channels, arrows, and shapes are also available on the platform. These tools and objects can be added to the chart to carry out analysis.
Charts
In MT5, there are majorly three types of charts. These are the line chart, the candlestick chart, and the bar chart.
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Price charts in forex are plotted as price against time. Each point takes a specific time to form and this is the chart timeframe. There are multiple chart timeframes in MT4. These include but not limited to M1, M5, M15, M30, H1, H4, D1, W1, and the MN, where M stands for minute, H stands for hour, D stands for day, W stands for week, and MN stands for month.
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The charts can be modified using buttons (blue boxes) just above the charts. These buttons can be used for zooming in and out, arrange chart windows as non-overlapping tiles, scroll to the end of incoming tick, and to shift end of chart from the right border.
Toolbox
The toolbox in MT5 is a window that contains 15 tabs. These are trade, exposure, history, news, mailbox, calendar, company, market, alerts, signals, articles, code base, VPS, experts, and journal tabs.
For a detailed description of all these tabs and their functions, click here.
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One-Click Trading
One-click trading is a feature in MetaTrader that allows you to open positions directly from the chart by clicking. Before you can start using it, you will have to agree to terms stating that you are aware of the risk involved etc.
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These two windows by default appear in the same column on top of one another. The market watch window is usually on top. However, this can be customized.
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The navigator window provides information about the account logged into the platform, and easy access to subscriptions, indicators, expert advisors, and scripts. The market watch window, on the other hand, displays the current market price for trading selected instruments. By default, only the bid and ask columns are available, but you can also add the spread column. There also exist other possibilities and information that can be displayed by the window.
The navigator window has two tabs. The common tab which displays all the information mentioned above. The favorites tab only displays the items that have been marked selected.
The market watch has three tabs. The symbols tab, the details tab, and the trading tab. The symbols tab is the major tab and has been covered earlier. The details tab displays the high and low of the bid and ask prices for a selected instrument. The trading tab contains the instruments on the market watch and trading buttons.
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Properties and Options
Chart properties such as color scheme, showing ask line, OHLC, grid, period separators, etc. can be changed to suit your preference on MT5. To do this just press F8 and the properties tab will popup. Alternatively, you can left-click the chart, then select properties.
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Several other customization options are available under the “Options” tab accessible from the Tools menu.
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Templates and Profiles
Templates are used to save chart setup and preferences. Different modifications can be made to the chart in MT5. The easy way to make sure your preferences are stored is by saving it as a template.
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Profiles, on the other hand, are used to save the whole interface rather than just the chart settings. It can be used to save the number of chart windows, the currency charts open, and many other customizations that can be made to the interface.
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Automation
Another one of the features that separate MetaTrader platforms from many other ones is the ability to accommodate automated trading. The platform’s script mql5 is a powerful one that allows the creation of diverse programs differing widely in capabilities.
In addition to being compatible with robots, MT5 can also be hosted on virtual private servers which offer 24/7 seamless connection which is ideal for automated trading. You can find VPS hostings directly from your platform interface.
There also exists a large mql market where a host of expert advisors are sold if you wish to purchase one. This is accessible from the terminal window on the platform.
If you do wish to create your own robot, you can do so by coding. For people who cannot code, the options available include paying a programmer or using robot creation wizards. A very good thing about MT5 is that it has its own wizard and gives non-coding traders the ability to turn their strategies into a robot without having to consult a third party.
Strategy Tester
Backtesting is an essential part of forex robot creation and it involves viewing how the program would have performed on historic data. This gives the trader or the programmer as the case may be an idea of how the robot will perform when installed.
The strategy tester in MT5 is accessible from the toolbox through a link at the bottom left corner.
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The strategy tester is loaded with a lot of features including strategy optimization, and stress testing.
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Multi-language
MetaTrader 5 supports over 50 languages, making it a truly universal platform. The language option can be accessed from the “View” menu on the platform.
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Help
MetaTrader 5 contains a help menu, which contains links to a variety of resources that can help in trading and understanding the platform. It also contains links to MQL5 community and other products.
If you do need help understanding anything about the MT5 platform, you can ask in our community and you will get an accurate answer.
In conclusion, although MT5 has not yet caught up to its predecessor in popularity, it surpasses it in functionality. MT5 is an overall smart platform to trade with.
Thank you for reading! Feel free to ask questions and comment. Do well to subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates about new posts. Also, follow us on social media and avail yourself of the different tools available on this platform. You can also read more of our blog or join our community.
