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Beginner’s Guide to MT5 Trading

Each and every person with an interest in trading must have heard about the MetaTrader platform. MetaTrader 4 and Metatrader 5 happen to be the most widely used trading platforms on a global level. MetaTrader 5 or MT5 is the advanced successor of the classic MT4 trading platform. The developers of MT5 have done their best to ensure that each and every trader transitioning to the MT5 platform gets a better and superior trading experience. But they also have retained the simplicity and user friendliness of the former version as that made the MetaTrader suite a popular choice among traders in the first place. With this article, you will get a complete beginner’s guide to MT5 trading as we will be drawing a one-on-one comparison between MT4 and MT5, the process of downloading and using MT5, advantages, downsides, adding indicators and trading on MT5.

How to Start Trading with MetaTrader 5 (MT5)?

The first step to start trading with MT5 is opening an MT5 account. For first time users, it is better to practise with a demo account first before getting into actual trading. You can choose to make an account on MT5 directly without a broker for demo trading but a broker is a must when you move forward with live trading. So, it is recommended you opt for a broker of your choice even for demo trading as it will be good to test the trading conditions beforehand. You just have to find a suitable broker who offers MT5 for trading and will be able to download the MT5 version integrated with the broker platform. You can request for login credentials from the broker and can easily log in to your MetaTrader 5 demo account.

Once you download and login to the platform, you can see the intuitive interface loaded with all essential trading tools which can be easily accessed with the main menu bar. You will see tabs like file, view, insert, charts, option, and help. You are free to customise and personalise your trading environment as per your preference. There are certain shortcuts in MT4 & MT5, which make trading a whole lot easier. . You are free to customise and personalise your trading environment as per your preference. Take your time and experiment with all tools until you get used to the advanced trading terminal. You can also see a built-in toolbar right below the main menu where you will find duplicate commands and functions for the main menu which can also be customised as and when needed. You can easily change the chart types, time frames and more for your convenience.

Coming to the chart, you can see the market watch on the left side where prices of all your chosen trading instruments will be displayed. You can also see some other details such as contract specifications on this section. One important feature you can access here is the one-click trading option. Right below the chart, you can see a toolbox to keep track of all your open positions, pending orders and more. You can cancel or modify the orders from here itself. This multi-functional window will also give you some other useful information which might come handy for trading. This includes account history, alerts, news, internal mailbox, expert journals and more.

Placing an order on MT5 is just as easy. Go to the market watch window and right click on the financial instrument that you have chosen for trading. Select the new order and then specify the order type and fill in all the information that is required. Then your order will be placed once you click ‘place’. The simplicity is still there which is what makes MT5 appealing to newbie traders.

MetaTrader 5 Vs MetaTrader 4

Like mentioned before, MetaTrader 5 is an upgraded version of the MetaTrader 4 trading platform. A comparison of MT5 and MT4 will be essential to understand why MT5 can be better for you as a trader and how it differs from its predecessor.

• MT4 is often considered as a primary forex trading platform whereas MT5 was introduced as a multi-asset trading platform for forex, stocks, indices, crypto and more.
• MT4 has 30 in-built indicators, whereas MT5 has 38 indicators.
• MT4 has 31 graphical objects but MT5 has 44.
• The number of timeframes in MT4 is limited to nine, meanwhile MT5 has 21 timeframes. ‘
• MT4 offers 2 market orders and 4 pending order types. MT5 has 2 market orders, 6 pending orders and also offers stop orders in addition.
• MT4 is still the most widely used platform in comparison to MT5. Most brokers will be providing an MT4 integrated trading platform for clients but brokers who provide MT5 functionality are less in number.
• MT4 is still very popular and used by novice and experienced traders alike. It is quite an apt choice for a traditional trader. Whereas, advanced traders prefer MT5 due to its larger fleet of tools and a solid UI.

So, based on the comparison one can conclude that MT5 is a perfect match for a modern trader as it comes with many advanced tools and additional features that are not there in MT4. But an old school trader may still prefer MT4 due to its basic design and limited set of tools.

Learn to Use a Trading Calculator With Ease

Any beginner trying to step into the forex market would get intimidated with the vast amount of knowledge that they are required to learn for becoming a forex trader. This includes many fundamental concepts, technical terms and some basic yet complex calculations.

Calculations are a must for getting the desired outcome in any task. When it comes to forex trading, calculations are crucial as they will determine your trading results in the end. You can do these calculations manually using a regular calculator but that will surely take a lot of time and effort. But a trading calculator can perform these calculations with greater ease and in no time.

What is a Trading Calculator?

A trading calculator is used for performing various calculations that are essential for forex trading. Previously, traders had to perform these calculations manually on their own. And for someone who is not experienced enough in trading, doing all these calculations before every trade can be a tiring task. Also for experienced traders, the chances of errors will increase when there are large figures involved in calculation for fast paced trading. So, keeping these things in mind many brokers started to provide a built-in forex trading calculator on their online platform for users. These online forex calculators are free to use and are a part of the trader’s toolkit as well. This tool can be used to save the time and effort that would be required for doing these calculations manually.

How Does a Forex Trading Calculator Work?

A forex trading calculator works by using and applying the same basic mathematical functions but combining them with the technicalities of forex so that a trader gets the results that can be directly applied to his/her trading activity. A trading calculator will be often divided into different calculators to perform specific functions as and when needed. So, when you check the trading tools on your broker’s platform, you will see a bunch of different forex calculators with a brief description about its usage.

This includes position size calculator, lot size calculator, pip calculator, profit calculator , margin calculator and more. Using them is quite simple once you are well-versed with the technical terms. You just need to enter the values and specify the details in the calculator and it will be returning you accurate results instantly.

What Are the Advantages of Forex Trading Calculators?

The first and foremost thing that one has to do for profitable trading is coming up with a well-defined trading plan or strategy. But just planning or devising the perfect strategy is not enough to get the desired results. You will have to pay utmost attention to the execution part, in order to make sure the strategy you chose for trading is being followed with every step you take. Deviating from a strategy or trading plan will also lead to deviation in trading results.

The role of a trading calculator is simple yet crucial here. Because the price at which you enter a trade, your exit plan, margin levels and many such details can have a huge impact on your end results. You will be risking your trading capital in the process of trading. Hence, even a small mistake may cost you a lot when it comes to forex trading. As mentioned earlier, manual calculations have greater possibility of errors and such errors can have a negative impact on your trading performance as a whole.

Thus, using a trading calculator one can make sure that they don’t make any mistakes in the calculation part of trading. They can leave the calculation process to the online forex trading calculators and focus on other aspects of trading instead.