Key Takeaways
- Expand your trading beyond forex by using MT5’s ability to support stocks, commodities, and crypto.
- Improve your market analysis by using the platform’s 38 built-in indicators and 21 timeframes.
- Make more informed decisions by following market-moving news with the integrated economic calendar.
- Discover how you can test your trading ideas against historical data before risking any real money.
MT5 is an updated version of the iconic forex trading tool, MT4, which has been enhanced to allow for more features to traders in different markets.
In this article, we shall speak about the key functionality of MT5 every starter should know and use to build effective trading strategies.
What is MT5?
MT5 is a new version of the popular platform MT4, preferred by forex traders around the world. While the previous platform collected a huge audience, it wasn’t able to expand to multi-asset trading. Therefore, MT5 addresses this limitation. It has the favorite features of MT4, its usable interface, and adds some new and asked-for functionalities like multi-asset trading, built-in economic calendar, depth of market, and more.
To enhance the functionality and speed of operations, the new platform is also built on the new programming language, which is MQL5 – it supports the faster speed of operations and guarantees better security and automation.
Built in 2010, MT5 has become of the the most profound tools of the time and stays one of the most popular round the world today.
How MT5 is Different from MT4?
The key difference between the two platforms is that MT4 only supports forex trading, while MT5 can support commodity, Forex, cryptocurrency, and other kinds of trading, forming what is called multi-asset trading.
As for the key features, there are enhancements as well. For example, the new version of the program supports six order types instead of four (Buy/Sell Stop Limit added), offers 21 timeframes instead of 9, has 38 built-in graphical indicators instead of 30, and supports multi-threaded, multi-currency strategy testing, while the older version supported only single threaded strategy testing.
What Are the Key Features of MT5?
As we have seen by now, MT5 offers an enhanced version of the MT feature set, being more versatile, faster, and richer in some of the functionality sets. In other words, here we may stress that MT5 has taken all the best from MT4 and made it even better. As a result, the newer version features:
1. Multi-asset trading
MT5 supports trading in various assets, including Forex, stocks, indices, commodities, and futures. It also presents a vast array of trading instruments to use.
2. Advanced charting tools
While the advanced charting tools were the key feature of MT4, in MT5, this advantage is stressed out. For example, 21 timeframes for in-depth market analysis, 38 built-in technical indicators, and 44 graphical objects.
Also, the MQL5 programming language allows for the creation of indicators and objects.
The clear interface of the charting tools simplifies tasks related to price analysis as they are simple to view and manipulate.
3. More order types
MT5 offers more order types, including market, pending, stop, and trailing stop orders. While market orders allows for instant trading on the price which is currently actual on the market, other types of orders allow for multiple scenarios of trading pre-programming.
For example, pending orders allow to postpone the trade to the moment when the price of the asset reaches the predicted range.
4. Depth of market integration
The depth of market indicators in this program is included in the core feature offering, meaning the depth of market (DOM) here is built-in. This functionality is perfect for volume-based trading and is quite an enhancement.
5. Economic calendar
The built-in economic calendar helps users with real-time news and event updates. With the help of this feature, traders stay informed about market-moving events and can make timely decisions to enhance their strategies.
6. Netting and Hedging
MT5 tool also includes profound netting and hedging tools in the offering, allowing traders to manage their positions effectively. The netting feature limits users to a single position per symbol. Hedging allows for simultaneous buying and selling orders.
7. Tools and Community
Being built on the basis of MQL5, the MT5 offers users to built and plug in custom MQL5 solutions, like automatization scripts to enhance the existing feature set and customize it to make more fir for your needs.
8. Strategy testing
This feature allows users to test their plans and assumptions on real-world or historical data to refine their plans of action. This feature allows for multi-threaded and mufti-currency strategy testing, which is great for traders keen on improving their skills.
Summing up
The cutting-edge features of MT5, its simple and user-friendly interface, sleek design, and speed of operations make the platform popular among traders worldwide. At the same time, it stays beginner-friendly, allowing users of different experience levels to effectively implement their trading strategies.
