Regardless of your experience level in the trading industry, it’d be difficult not to have heard of MetaTrader or MetaQuotes Software.
MetaQuotes Software Corp., a significant supplier of software applications for brokerages, banks, and exchanges, was formed in 2000. The company has built several well-known products, from a simple FX Charts platform to the MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 platforms (commonly known as MT4 and MT5).
Both MT4 and MT5 offer lightning-fast execution and a variety of trading tools to their users. Clients may trade on award-winning platforms, examine live streaming prices and charts, place orders, and manage their accounts with this software, which most brokers use throughout the world.
Despite this, there are a few comparisons between the two programs that are worth noting.
Essentially, MetaTrader 5 was designed to be able to trade markets other than Forex, such as stocks and commodities, essentially because it is better able to plug into a centralized trading exchange. At the time of the MT5 development and release, it can be assumed that Metaquotes foresaw a retail stocks and commodities trading boom, and designed the software to fit that market.
MT4 and MT5 have some key distinctions, as seen in the following table:
MT5 Is Superior, No Doubt in That:
MT5, is no doubt, a superior trading platform to MT4. The new version supports trading in a wide range of markets, compared to MT4, which only supports forex and CFDs trading. In addition, the platform provides better control with the need for fewer third-party plugins. It comes with an STP Gateway that allows any MT5 broker to connect directly to any other MT5 broker for liquidity.
Better control (fewer third-party plugins):
MT5 comes with ‘built-in order routing’. Brokers using MT4 would either need MetaQuotes’ own ‘Virtual Dealing Desk’ to handle this function or require third-party plugins like ‘Panda’ or ‘Ashira’ to provide the same features. The built-in order routing available in MT5 is astoundingly powerful. MT5 also offers extensive API support, allowing brokers to build custom applications and reporting tools, and even integrate MT5 with their websites. Customization and control are two very apparent themes that come to the surface with even the most cursory review of MetaTrader 5.
MetaTrader 5 becomes more popular than MetaTrader 4 among brokers:
MetaTrader 5 has become the most popular trading platform. The number of companies using MetaTrader 5 has exceeded the ones using MetaTrader 4 in June 2021. This is an expected result since the trading platform is constantly evolving, becoming even more powerful. For instance, the amount of MetaTrader 5 code has already reached 7 million lines, while the previous version had only 2 million.
Distributed architecture and 64-bit versions of platform components enable the usage of all hardware capabilities:
All MetaTrader 4 components are provided as 32-bit applications, due to which the available RAM amount is limited. The MetaTrader 5 was originally created to benefit from 64-bit opportunities provided by modern CPUs. Therefore, the platform has overcome the limitation of 10 million orders, as well as the limitations on the number of symbols and groups. Another limitation in MetaTrader 4 relates to the chart and tick history volume stored on the server side. The more symbols on the MetaTrader 4 server, the less space is left to store each symbol’s history. In MetaTrader 5, chart and tick history is only limited by the disk volume.
Algorithmic trading:
- Traders’ needs and requirements for writing trading programs are addressed by MetaQuotes Language 4 (MQL4) and MetaQuotes Language 5 (MQL5). Expert Advisers can be created by adopting and understanding this language used by traders (EA). As an EA, you can automate almost any trading strategy. Traders can also create their own custom indicators. Systems coded with MQL4 are not compatible with MQL5 programs.
- Another important difference to note is the trading system setup. MQL4 is used to develop trading programs based on the order system, while MQL5 implements a positional system.
- There’s a lot of talk about MQL5 being faster and easier to use than MQL4. Multiple functions are required in order to complete each trading operation in MQL4. In addition, the improved Strategy Tester for EAs on MT5 should be considered, as well as the Agent Manager for remote optimization.
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