The incredible resilience of MT4 vs MT5

Like many of us I discovered forex and trading across websites, blogs, forums. Just after, you find a (doesn’t look too much as a scam) broker, open a demo account and then download the first platform available to start your new life.
On the next months you have downloaded dozen, hundred, thousands? amazing, useless, awful, must to have indicators and applied many holy grail strategies (ok, not as good as that, but the next one will be the good one).

Quite recently after reading a nice article on a new product I discovered that the indicator was a MT5 one’s. During the last 5 years, I have to admit that I didn’t met too many of them and often I don’t go further. But this time, I really wanted to learn more and decided to download and install the MT5 platform. Boring process across a lazy VPS, but was finally able to make everything properly working. Just needed a bit of time to load properly the indicator in the good file process.

And so what ?

Well, ok, you have your MT5 indicator loaded on the new platform, but all your strategies, all your others indicators are not here, you feel a bit like when you have a totally new computer, a bit naked, and you don’t know where to start. I came back to my lovely MT4 platform and decided to investigate a bit more, why MT4 is still in the place ?!

For the story, MT4 was released in 2005, more than 12 years ago ! MT5 was released 5 years later in 2010. It’s obvious that MT5 didn’t took the lead. Often when a company release a new version of a product you can observe a period of transition before shifting to the new one. You have what is call the Early Adopter, people always trying and buying the new product and then people shifting when the current version become too old. When Microsoft launch a new version you can expect a 3 years transition. When Google launch a new Android system, you have to wait before seeing the proper shift. But here we are reaching more than 7 years after the new versions and nothing is changing. When you take a look to Google Trends you can see the huge difference and the fact that MT5 is not trending at all or taking more share.

I took a look to 10 different famous brokers. They are one of the main providers for the trading platforms. 8 of 10 are not proposing the MT5 system. Meaning that the main companies working with Metatrader are not convinced or didn’t saw the interest of having the new platform available. It has a huge impact in the low adoption level.

Finally, 90% of indicators and strategies available to download are under MT4. MT5 is a totally different coding language and converting a MT4 to MT5 is not a one stop click situation. More the code is complex less it is easy to transform from one to the other. As majority of the top indicators and strategies are not available on the new platform, nobody will shift to this one.

MT5 is giving some new interesting features such as:
6 types of pending orders (vs 4 in MT4)
Additional Chart time frame (M2, MI3, MI..)
Built-in economic calendar
Depth of Market

But it seems it’s not enough to convince programmers to make the move and Metaquotes doesn’t want to kill the MT4 platform for creating an artificial shift from one to another. They are afraid to loose the current market share they have. MT4 still here for a long time !

And you, why are you still on MT4?

PipsFisherman

Yes I see, many traders are using the live trading service of Mt5 trading platform but till now I am trading with the Mt4; I am quite happy on the technical features of the Mt4! So, I have no plan to change it.

To put it simply, I am using MT4 because I am used to it. I know the platform, I am comfortable using it and I see no reason why I should be moving to another platform and learning it from scratch when I find this one perfectly serviceable. Basically, no need to fix something that's not broken.

Agreed:
- MT4 is much more popular than MT5, even after so much time has been given for adoption of MT5
- most EAs / indicators have been created for MT4 and would require conversion into a new language for MT5
- if a trader is making money, or if a broker is utilising a platform advantage for their benefit, why change business process and risk reduced income / potential losses?

IMHO the MT5 features you mention should be integrated into MT4.

As the saying goes 'Why fix it if it ain't broke?'. There is nothing seriously wrong with MT4 to force users (brokers and traders) to change to MT5.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MetaTrader_4

Here's something I didn't know:

Metatrader 5 was actually designed to do some things that Metatrader 4 could not do. In reality, it was aimed at a different market, and thus, there is really very little reason to enter a discussion about “MT4 vs. MT5”.

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.

https://www.dailyforex.com/forex-articles/2016/09/metatrader-4-vs-5-2016-review/63840

This might explain a bit why MT4 is still around and still so popular.

mlawson71 posted:
To put it simply, I am using MT4 because I am used to it. I know the platform, I am comfortable using it and I see no reason why I should be moving to another platform and learning it from scratch when I find this one perfectly serviceable. Basically, no need to fix something that's not broken.

I think, not only you almost more than 80% Forex traders are involved with the Mt4 trading platform. I am doing technical analysis quite comfortably by using technical stuff of the Mt4.

Biggest problem with MT5 is that it doesn't have the Ticket Order system as MT4. Means you can't have multiple (opposite) positions, but only one where you average in and out. At least that was when I last checked MT5 almost 2 years ago and that was the reason I neglected it and went back to MT4.

AniLorak posted:

mlawson71 posted:
To put it simply, I am using MT4 because I am used to it. I know the platform, I am comfortable using it and I see no reason why I should be moving to another platform and learning it from scratch when I find this one perfectly serviceable. Basically, no need to fix something that's not broken.

I think, not only you almost more than 80% Forex traders are involved with the Mt4 trading platform. I am doing technical analysis quite comfortably by using technical stuff of the Mt4.

Which indicators do you use the most? I am assuming you're referring to indicators.

I've been using MT4 and I'm doing very well, I'd have to think if I can actually go to the other platform, but actually I've done quite well with MT4

Happy New year everyone and wish you lovely pips for 2018.

Thanks for all your comments. MT4 still have a long life!

I'm currently working on some indicators on MT5 for maximizing order feed and using Market Depth. Results are not bad for the moment I will continue to investigate and see if it can apply in MT4 as well. Just boring to have MT4 and MT5 working at the same time. I would prefer to just have one platform.

PipsFisherman posted:
Like many of us I discovered forex and trading across websites, blogs, forums. Just after, you find a (doesn’t look too much as a scam) broker, open a demo account and then download the first platform available to start your new life.
On the next months you have downloaded dozen, hundred, thousands? amazing, useless, awful, must to have indicators and applied many holy grail strategies (ok, not as good as that, but the next one will be the good one).

Quite recently after reading a nice article on a new product I discovered that the indicator was a MT5 one’s. During the last 5 years, I have to admit that I didn’t met too many of them and often I don’t go further. But this time, I really wanted to learn more and decided to download and install the MT5 platform. Boring process across a lazy VPS, but was finally able to make everything properly working. Just needed a bit of time to load properly the indicator in the good file process.

And so what ?

Well, ok, you have your MT5 indicator loaded on the new platform, but all your strategies, all your others indicators are not here, you feel a bit like when you have a totally new computer, a bit naked, and you don’t know where to start. I came back to my lovely MT4 platform and decided to investigate a bit more, why MT4 is still in the place ?!

For the story, MT4 was released in 2005, more than 12 years ago ! MT5 was released 5 years later in 2010. It’s obvious that MT5 didn’t took the lead. Often when a company release a new version of a product you can observe a period of transition before shifting to the new one. You have what is call the Early Adopter, people always trying and buying the new product and then people shifting when the current version become too old. When Microsoft launch a new version you can expect a 3 years transition. When Google launch a new Android system, you have to wait before seeing the proper shift. But here we are reaching more than 7 years after the new versions and nothing is changing. When you take a look to Google Trends you can see the huge difference and the fact that MT5 is not trending at all or taking more share.

I took a look to 10 different famous brokers. They are one of the main providers for the trading platforms. 8 of 10 are not proposing the MT5 system. Meaning that the main companies working with Metatrader are not convinced or didn’t saw the interest of having the new platform available. It has a huge impact in the low adoption level.

Finally, 90% of indicators and strategies available to download are under MT4. MT5 is a totally different coding language and converting a MT4 to MT5 is not a one stop click situation. More the code is complex less it is easy to transform from one to the other. As majority of the top indicators and strategies are not available on the new platform, nobody will shift to this one.

MT5 is giving some new interesting features such as:
6 types of pending orders (vs 4 in MT4)
Additional Chart time frame (M2, MI3, MI..)
Built-in economic calendar
Depth of Market

But it seems it’s not enough to convince programmers to make the move and Metaquotes doesn’t want to kill the MT4 platform for creating an artificial shift from one to another. They are afraid to loose the current market share they have. MT4 still here for a long time !

And you, why are you still on MT4?

PipsFisherman

The main advantage is real tick backtesting in mt5, taking ages though.

hotakac posted:
I've been using MT4 and I'm doing very well, I'd have to think if I can actually go to the other platform, but actually I've done quite well with MT4

This is very common scenario actually! Same here, I am also quite happy on Mt4; that’s why never tried for Mt5 or others trading platform.

PipsFisherman posted:
Like many of us I discovered forex and trading across websites, blogs, forums. Just after, you find a (doesn’t look too much as a scam) broker, open a demo account and then download the first platform available to start your new life.
On the next months you have downloaded dozen, hundred, thousands? amazing, useless, awful, must to have indicators and applied many holy grail strategies (ok, not as good as that, but the next one will be the good one).

Quite recently after reading a nice article on a new product I discovered that the indicator was a MT5 one’s. During the last 5 years, I have to admit that I didn’t met too many of them and often I don’t go further. But this time, I really wanted to learn more and decided to download and install the MT5 platform. Boring process across a lazy VPS, but was finally able to make everything properly working. Just needed a bit of time to load properly the indicator in the good file process.

And so what ?

Well, ok, you have your MT5 indicator loaded on the new platform, but all your strategies, all your others indicators are not here, you feel a bit like when you have a totally new computer, a bit naked, and you don’t know where to start. I came back to my lovely MT4 platform and decided to investigate a bit more, why MT4 is still in the place ?!

For the story, MT4 was released in 2005, more than 12 years ago ! MT5 was released 5 years later in 2010. It’s obvious that MT5 didn’t took the lead. Often when a company release a new version of a product you can observe a period of transition before shifting to the new one. You have what is call the Early Adopter, people always trying and buying the new product and then people shifting when the current version become too old. When Microsoft launch a new version you can expect a 3 years transition. When Google launch a new Android system, you have to wait before seeing the proper shift. But here we are reaching more than 7 years after the new versions and nothing is changing. When you take a look to Google Trends you can see the huge difference and the fact that MT5 is not trending at all or taking more share.

I took a look to 10 different famous brokers. They are one of the main providers for the trading platforms. 8 of 10 are not proposing the MT5 system. Meaning that the main companies working with Metatrader are not convinced or didn’t saw the interest of having the new platform available. It has a huge impact in the low adoption level.

Finally, 90% of indicators and strategies available to download are under MT4. MT5 is a totally different coding language and converting a MT4 to MT5 is not a one stop click situation. More the code is complex less it is easy to transform from one to the other. As majority of the top indicators and strategies are not available on the new platform, nobody will shift to this one.

MT5 is giving some new interesting features such as:
6 types of pending orders (vs 4 in MT4)
Additional Chart time frame (M2, MI3, MI..)
Built-in economic calendar
Depth of Market

But it seems it’s not enough to convince programmers to make the move and Metaquotes doesn’t want to kill the MT4 platform for creating an artificial shift from one to another. They are afraid to loose the current market share they have. MT4 still here for a long time !

And you, why are you still on MT4?

PipsFisherman

I am trading on both platforms
MT5 advantage is functional and precise backtesting at which area MT4 simply sucks.
MT5 disadvantage is completely different programming language, so there are not so many tools as for mt4

togr posted:

PipsFisherman posted:
Like many of us I discovered forex and trading across websites, blogs, forums. Just after, you find a (doesn’t look too much as a scam) broker, open a demo account and then download the first platform available to start your new life.
On the next months you have downloaded dozen, hundred, thousands? amazing, useless, awful, must to have indicators and applied many holy grail strategies (ok, not as good as that, but the next one will be the good one).

Quite recently after reading a nice article on a new product I discovered that the indicator was a MT5 one’s. During the last 5 years, I have to admit that I didn’t met too many of them and often I don’t go further. But this time, I really wanted to learn more and decided to download and install the MT5 platform. Boring process across a lazy VPS, but was finally able to make everything properly working. Just needed a bit of time to load properly the indicator in the good file process.

And so what ?

Well, ok, you have your MT5 indicator loaded on the new platform, but all your strategies, all your others indicators are not here, you feel a bit like when you have a totally new computer, a bit naked, and you don’t know where to start. I came back to my lovely MT4 platform and decided to investigate a bit more, why MT4 is still in the place ?!

For the story, MT4 was released in 2005, more than 12 years ago ! MT5 was released 5 years later in 2010. It’s obvious that MT5 didn’t took the lead. Often when a company release a new version of a product you can observe a period of transition before shifting to the new one. You have what is call the Early Adopter, people always trying and buying the new product and then people shifting when the current version become too old. When Microsoft launch a new version you can expect a 3 years transition. When Google launch a new Android system, you have to wait before seeing the proper shift. But here we are reaching more than 7 years after the new versions and nothing is changing. When you take a look to Google Trends you can see the huge difference and the fact that MT5 is not trending at all or taking more share.

I took a look to 10 different famous brokers. They are one of the main providers for the trading platforms. 8 of 10 are not proposing the MT5 system. Meaning that the main companies working with Metatrader are not convinced or didn’t saw the interest of having the new platform available. It has a huge impact in the low adoption level.

Finally, 90% of indicators and strategies available to download are under MT4. MT5 is a totally different coding language and converting a MT4 to MT5 is not a one stop click situation. More the code is complex less it is easy to transform from one to the other. As majority of the top indicators and strategies are not available on the new platform, nobody will shift to this one.

MT5 is giving some new interesting features such as:
6 types of pending orders (vs 4 in MT4)
Additional Chart time frame (M2, MI3, MI..)
Built-in economic calendar
Depth of Market

But it seems it’s not enough to convince programmers to make the move and Metaquotes doesn’t want to kill the MT4 platform for creating an artificial shift from one to another. They are afraid to loose the current market share they have. MT4 still here for a long time !

And you, why are you still on MT4?

PipsFisherman

I am trading on both platforms
MT5 advantage is functional and precise backtesting at which area MT4 simply sucks.
MT5 disadvantage is completely different programming language, so there are not so many tools as for mt4

Hello mate, for the same trading instruments? Or you have listed pairs for Mt5 only?

AmDiab posted:

togr posted:

PipsFisherman posted:
Like many of us I discovered forex and trading across websites, blogs, forums. Just after, you find a (doesn’t look too much as a scam) broker, open a demo account and then download the first platform available to start your new life.
On the next months you have downloaded dozen, hundred, thousands? amazing, useless, awful, must to have indicators and applied many holy grail strategies (ok, not as good as that, but the next one will be the good one).

Quite recently after reading a nice article on a new product I discovered that the indicator was a MT5 one’s. During the last 5 years, I have to admit that I didn’t met too many of them and often I don’t go further. But this time, I really wanted to learn more and decided to download and install the MT5 platform. Boring process across a lazy VPS, but was finally able to make everything properly working. Just needed a bit of time to load properly the indicator in the good file process.

And so what ?

Well, ok, you have your MT5 indicator loaded on the new platform, but all your strategies, all your others indicators are not here, you feel a bit like when you have a totally new computer, a bit naked, and you don’t know where to start. I came back to my lovely MT4 platform and decided to investigate a bit more, why MT4 is still in the place ?!

For the story, MT4 was released in 2005, more than 12 years ago ! MT5 was released 5 years later in 2010. It’s obvious that MT5 didn’t took the lead. Often when a company release a new version of a product you can observe a period of transition before shifting to the new one. You have what is call the Early Adopter, people always trying and buying the new product and then people shifting when the current version become too old. When Microsoft launch a new version you can expect a 3 years transition. When Google launch a new Android system, you have to wait before seeing the proper shift. But here we are reaching more than 7 years after the new versions and nothing is changing. When you take a look to Google Trends you can see the huge difference and the fact that MT5 is not trending at all or taking more share.

I took a look to 10 different famous brokers. They are one of the main providers for the trading platforms. 8 of 10 are not proposing the MT5 system. Meaning that the main companies working with Metatrader are not convinced or didn’t saw the interest of having the new platform available. It has a huge impact in the low adoption level.

Finally, 90% of indicators and strategies available to download are under MT4. MT5 is a totally different coding language and converting a MT4 to MT5 is not a one stop click situation. More the code is complex less it is easy to transform from one to the other. As majority of the top indicators and strategies are not available on the new platform, nobody will shift to this one.

MT5 is giving some new interesting features such as:
6 types of pending orders (vs 4 in MT4)
Additional Chart time frame (M2, MI3, MI..)
Built-in economic calendar
Depth of Market

But it seems it’s not enough to convince programmers to make the move and Metaquotes doesn’t want to kill the MT4 platform for creating an artificial shift from one to another. They are afraid to loose the current market share they have. MT4 still here for a long time !

And you, why are you still on MT4?

PipsFisherman

I am trading on both platforms
MT5 advantage is functional and precise backtesting at which area MT4 simply sucks.
MT5 disadvantage is completely different programming language, so there are not so many tools as for mt4

Hello mate, for the same trading instruments? Or you have listed pairs for Mt5 only?

Mostly I trade EURUSD.

You say that MT5 is better for backtesting but how do you get long periods of historical tick data? For MT4 you can use tickstory but I do not know anything that is available for MT5.

mwfx posted:
Biggest problem with MT5 is that it doesn't have the Ticket Order system as MT4. Means you can't have multiple (opposite) positions, but only one where you average in and out. At least that was when I last checked MT5 almost 2 years ago and that was the reason I neglected it and went back to MT4.

Oh really? Then, it’s such a minus point for sure. Basically, I have never tried for Mt5, since I’m quite satisfied on Mt4.

Astronautica posted:
You say that MT5 is better for backtesting but how do you get long periods of historical tick data? For MT4 you can use tickstory but I do not know anything that is available for MT5.

In MT5 you do NOT need to provide data.
These are downloaded from broker directly.

togr posted:

Astronautica posted:
You say that MT5 is better for backtesting but how do you get long periods of historical tick data? For MT4 you can use tickstory but I do not know anything that is available for MT5.

In MT5 you do NOT need to provide data.
These are downloaded from broker directly.

I think, which traders using EA or automatic trading; for them mt5 is the better choice.

AmDiab posted:

togr posted:

Astronautica posted:
You say that MT5 is better for backtesting but how do you get long periods of historical tick data? For MT4 you can use tickstory but I do not know anything that is available for MT5.

In MT5 you do NOT need to provide data.
These are downloaded from broker directly.

I think, which traders using EA or automatic trading; for them mt5 is the better choice.

I don’t see any problem for the manual trader! Even, mt5 is the latest version; so no way to ignore!