Getting started with Metatrader 5

Today I made a big step forward on my trading activities. I decided to start trading with metatrader in addition to my current eToro portfolio, thus widen my possibilities. Read in this post why I choose metatrader 5 over metatrader 4, which broker I picked and which goals I set for myself.

Why do I want to use metatrader?

For seven weeks I have been applying my self developed trading strategy on copper (I wrote about in this post). It looks promising in regards of performance, but has a major drawback: I have to apply it manually. Since I am human mistakes are inevitable. Indeed, the performance of my strategy suffers from mistakes I make at setting the orders. Metatrader offers the possibility to backtest a trading strategy and establish a trading robot that can trade 24/7 - hopefully without mistakes. As soon as I heard about it I was excited. A trading robot would give me more time to work on my strategy itself, rather than doing monotonous tasks. Another interesting aspect is the chance to run backtests on historical data. Maybe this would give me the chance to focus even more on the strategies, rather than further developing my backtesting tool.

Why metatrader 5?

From what I have read on my researches metatrader 5 (MT5) is not really a successor of metatrader 4 (MT4). They are rather two independent platforms, each with a huge user (and fan) base. Anyhow, as metatrader 5 is newer, it appears more forward-looking to me. Plus there are some benefits, that I don't want to miss:

• MT5 has an orderbook. Let's see if I will consistently use it...
• MT5 is supposed to be quicker regarding order execution - depending on the strategy this can be a great benefit
• MT5 offers more indicators and more instruments
• MQL5, the programming language of MT5, is based on or at least similar to C++, which could help me learning it much quicker

Of course the choice of the platform also influences the choice of the broker. Some brokers offer both platforms and let their customers choose. Others offer only one or the other. On my research I had the impression that there are more brokers for MT4 than for MT5. A reason might be, that MT5 requires a more expensive infrastructure from the broker. Many brokers avoid the additional costs and stick to the well-established MT4 platform. By the way, many experienced traders hesitate to switch and prefer continuing working  with MT4 (here is one example). 

Which broker should I use?

As I was already active on eToro, it would have been my first choice for my metatrader 5 experiment. An article on ForexSQ even described the possibility to use the metatrader 4 for eToro. Excited about this chance I tried to find out more, but unfortunately the article was not up to date. After quite a bit of research the eToro customer service confirmed, that they did indeed work on a metatrader interface, but have meanwhile stopped this endeavor. Too bad, now I had to find a new trader (although I will continue my activities on eToro).
A short research already revealed: There are dozens if not hundreds of brokers that offer a metatrader interface. And there are nearly as many websites with broker comparisons, user experiences and ratings. Of course every broker has its pro and contra. In order to get a quick decision I focused on four main aspects:

• low spreads
• free demo account
• CFDs on commodities in addition to forex only
• metatrader 5 interface (as described above, this limits the choices a little)

I decided to open demo account on ActivTrades.com. This broker matches my requirements and got good ratings on different websites. Besides MT5 it also offers an interface for MT4 - just in case I want to try that later, I don't have to search for another broker. In addition they offer free manuals for both MT4 and MT5, which come in pretty handy. Here is the direct link to the downloading section of their website. 

First impression and conclusion

After setting up the metatrader 5 and connecting it with my demo account I figured that it is less intuitive than eToro's web trader. So it will probably take a while to get comfortable with the new tool and I am very excited to find out all its possibilities. Also, I am looking forward to sharing my experience with you! Leave a comment if you have different view on things or some recommendations for me!

***

Related posts:
Strategy backtest pt.9 - "past performance is not an indication of future results"
backtesting tool V2
copper trading strategy
portfolio review 14.01.2017

***

Important remark: The results presented above and throughout my blog are no recommendation for your trading! I only share my personal findings and opinions to give ideas and let my followers and copiers know what I am currently working on. I can not guarantee the correctness of my calculations and my presented results. Furthermore past performance is not an indication for future results. Only trade with money you are prepared to lose!