Home Forex Education MetaTrader 5 Beginner’s Guide

MetaTrader 5 Beginner’s Guide

1840
0
MetaTrader 5 Guide

MetaTrader 5 is an advanced charting and trading platform widely used in the forex and contracts for difference (CFD) market. Most brokers provide it. The software was developed by MetaQuotes, which licenses it to these brokers. In this article, we will guide you on how to download and use it in trading. We will also look at some of its best features.

How to install MetaTrader 5 (MT5)

There are two main ways of installing the MT5 on your computer. First, you can install it directly from its website. When you visit its website, you just need to select the Download for Windows, Linux, or macOS, depending on your operating system. After downloading it, you should follow the prompts until it finishes the installation. 

MT5 website

The second option of installing the MT5 software is through your forex broker. If you are a new customer, you need to sign up and be verified. After this, the broker will give you a link to a page where you can download the MT5. The difference between this MT5 and the one you downloaded above is that this one is customized for the customer. As such, you will find all assets that the broker offers.

Finally, you can also download the mobile version of the MT5 software. You can get it in Android’s play store or iOS app store. In this app store, you can download and install the generic ones or the ones made specifically for your broker. 

How to use the MetaTrader

Installing the MetaTrader 5 software is only the simplest part. The difficult section is using it. The first step is to either create an account or log in.

In this, you need to first select the type of account that you need or have. There are two main types of accounts. There is a demo account, which is the most popular among beginners. A demo account is similar to a real account. The only difference is that it has virtual or fake money.

There is also a real account, which requires real cash. You can sign up for a real account directly on the platform. The chart below shows how to access the login page.

MT5 login link

After signing into your account, you need to understand the various sections of the MT5. First, you should look on your left side and see what is known as the marketwatch. This is a section where you will see the various assets that the broker offers. In the chart below, you can see some of these assets.

MT5 market watch

In most cases, the watchlist will not show you all assets that the company offers. You can uncover them by just right-clicking inside the market watch tab and then selecting show all. 

As you can see above, in addition to the asset, there are two prices. The bid is the price the buyers want to pay, while the ask is the price the sellers want to sell. The third column is known as a spread. It is the difference between the bid and spread.

MT5 market watch columns

Still, the MT5 marketwatch has more hidden information. The chart below shows some of this information and how you can access it. They include volume, maintenance margin, volatility, and theoretical price, among others.

MT5 features

The MT5 indicator has some features that will help you in your trading. Let us look at some of the most important ones and how to access them.

Economic calendar

An economic calendar is an important tool that is used in fundamental analysis. This tool provides a schedule for key economic events like retail sales, interest rates, inflation, employment, and manufacturing PMIs. 

MT5 calendar

It is relatively easy to find the calendar on most platforms like TradingView and Investing.com. However, the MT5 comes with an inbuilt calendar, which you can access, as shown above.

Technical indicators

Indicators are important tools that are used in technical analysis. These tools are all built using mathematical calculations. There are several types of indicators, such as trends, oscillators, and volume. Examples of these indicators are the Relative Strength Index (RSI) and the Moving Average Convergence and Divergence (MACD). 

MT5 indicators

The MT5 comes with more indicators than the MT4. You can access these indicators as shown above.

Price action tools

The MT5 comes with a number of tools that traders use in price action analysis. For example, it has inbuilt tools to help you in conducting in-depth chart analysis. 

MT5 charting tools

Some of the most popular tools it offers are Elliot Wave, Gann lines and grid, and regression lines. You can add these tools as shown above.

Expert advisors and strategy tester

Expert advisors, also known as trading robots, are tools that are programmed to help investors with market analysis. A well-designed advisor can send signals when market conditions happen. It can even open and close trades automatically when you have the algo trading tool activated. 

strategy tester in MT5.

In addition to having some inbuilt expert advisors, it also has a strategy tester. A strategy tester is that allows you to test a robot using historical data. The chart above shows how to access the strategy tester.

Virtual Private Server (VPS)

There is usually a delay between real market data and what you see on the MT5. This often depends on where you are located, and the delay can be in microseconds. Therefore, advanced traders prefer using a Virtual Private Server, which gives them faster data.

VPS

The MT5 has features that allow you to incorporate a VPS, which will help you accelerate your trading. You can access the VPS feature, as shown in the image above.

Summary

In this article, we have looked at what a MetaTrader 5 is, how to download and install it, and some of its top features. Other features that we have not talked about are its alerts, journal, news, and a platform to build algorithms. 

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

8  +  1  =