MetaTrader 5: The Best MT5 Brokers and How to Use It

MetaTrader 5: Are you an investor interested in online trading and looking for a top-quality platform? Here we introduce what currently looks like the best trading platform available: MetaTrader 5. You will find a list of the best brokers offering MT5 for PC, Mac, mobile and tablet, along with explanations of how to install and use this platform and its many practical features.

How to Install MetaTrader 5

First of all, before using MetaTrader 5, you will need to open a trading account with one of the brokers we have just presented.

It is easier to download the platform from the link on your broker’s website and connect your account to it than to do things the other way round.

Download MT5 on PC

MetaTrader 5 is a downloadable platform, so it has to be installed on your PC or Mac. To download MetaTrader 5 on a PC, follow these steps:

1. First, go to the website of the broker you have chosen to use this platform with.
2. Once your account has been created, you will be asked to choose a platform, including from the different versions of MetaTrader. Select MT5 or MetaTrader 5 to get the link to download the terminal.
3. If you are not redirected straight to the download link, you can find it in the “trading platforms” menu. Make sure you select MetaTrader 5 for Windows.
4. If your computer runs Windows, the platform will download directly through your web browser.

Download MT5 on Mac

As you may have noticed in our table of top MetaTrader 5 brokers, not every broker offers a version of the platform for macOS Catalina. If your broker’s website has a link to download MT5, follow the same steps as above; if not, there are fortunately other solutions.

You can install this trading platform on macOS using the free Wine application. Wine is open-source software that lets applications originally designed for Microsoft Windows run on Unix-type operating systems, and one version of Wine is designed specifically for macOS.

Bear in mind, however, that Wine is not entirely stable and can sometimes limit the features of certain applications. If you have trouble getting MetaTrader 5 to work on a Mac, you can use the web version.

MT5 for Mobile and Tablet

Mobile trading is now one of the most popular ways to invest, and it would be a shame to miss out on the chance to take positions on the market at any time, wherever you are.

Fortunately, a mobile and tablet version of MetaTrader 5 is available for Android and iOS. Several brokers offer MT5 versions adapted to these devices, along with links to the app download pages.

You can download MetaTrader 5 for free from the App Store or Google Play, or click the link provided by your broker to reach the right page.

Mobile trading gives you easy access to the stock markets from your smartphone or tablet and lets you connect to your broker’s server. Many of the features of the desktop version are of course available in the mobile version of MT5, including:

• The ability to follow and analyze quotes for various assets and market instruments.
• The ability to place orders and open or close positions.
• The ability to analyze securities.

How to Use MT5

Now that you know how to download the MetaTrader 5 platform, let’s look at how to use it, from placing orders to using its main features.

Depositing and Withdrawing Money on MT5

MetaTrader 5 is trading software, not a broker, so it has no function for depositing or withdrawing money. MT5 is not connected to a banking system, only to your trading account, which is held by your broker rather than in the software itself.

To deposit or withdraw money for MT5, you therefore need to use the relevant page on your broker’s website. Deposit and withdrawal methods, and any fees charged on these transactions, depend not on MT5 but on your online broker’s policy.

Placing an Order on MT5

Let’s move on to the practical side and see how to place orders on the MetaTrader 5 platform. Here are the steps to follow:

• First, go to the “Tools” tab in the menu bar on the platform’s home screen.
• Then click “New Order”.
• A new window called “Market Watch” opens. It lists the assets available from your broker; simply double-click the one you are interested in.
• Then select “New Order”.

You can also open this window by right-clicking in the lower terminal and selecting “New Order”. Alternatively, simply press F9 for one-click trading from the chart of the asset you are interested in.

Once you have completed these steps, you will see an order screen with a chart on the left and the customizable order details on the right. The chart shows bid and ask prices and spreads in real time. In the “details” section, you will find the following fields:

• Symbol – The asset you want to trade.
• Order type – Here you choose between Market Execution and Pending Execution.
• Volume – The quantity you want to trade, in lots. Lot size depends on your broker, as well as on the type of asset and the type of account you hold.
• Stop Loss & Take Profit: In this field you can set stop-loss and take-profit orders directly to protect your positions.
• Comment – Finally, you can add one or more notes about your trade directly in this section. Documenting your strategies and trading activity is strongly recommended if you want to improve your performance.

If you are struggling to work out how to use MetaTrader 5, you can easily find tutorials online, in PDF and other formats.

Order Types Available on MT5

The MetaTrader 5 trading platform offers a number of order types, including of course stop-loss and take-profit orders, which set your maximum loss or the price at which you will close your position to lock in profits. There are also market orders and pending orders.

When you place a market order, the buy or sell order is executed at the asset’s current price, in real time. A pending order, on the other hand, is triggered at a predetermined price, in the future.

MetaTrader 5 currently offers traders the following order types:

• Buy Stop – A buy order at a price higher than the asset’s current price. You expect the uptrend to continue once that level is reached and the position is opened.
• Sell Stop – A sell order triggered at a price below the asset’s current price. You expect the downtrend to continue after that level is reached.
• Buy Limit – A buy order at a price below an asset’s current price. You expect the price to rise after falling to that level.
• Sell Limit – An order to sell an asset at a price higher than the current price. You expect the price to fall after reaching that peak.
• Buy Stop Limit – This order combines a buy stop and a buy limit to give your positions extra protection. You can set both an upper and a lower limit that will trigger the purchase or sale of the asset.
• Sell Stop Limit – Like the previous order, this combines a sell stop and a sell limit: you set a sell stop level below the asset’s price and, once it is reached, a sell limit order is placed.

Of course, placing stop-loss or take-profit orders on your positions does not mean you have to wait for them to trigger automatically. You can always execute these orders manually and open or close your positions whenever you like.

Setting Up and Monitoring Positions

One of the advantages of the MT5 platform is how quickly and easily you can manage and configure your open positions. It provides several tools for this.

To monitor open positions, simply go to the “Trade” tab in the “Toolbox” window.

For each position, the following details are displayed:

• Financial instrument
• Type
• Volume
• Current profit/loss

You can also view the current state of your trading account and the total financial result of all open positions. The “Exposure” tab gives you a summary of the asset status of all open positions.

Note that the way capital is displayed depends on the broker’s risk management system and the type of account the trader has chosen.

In the “Assets” section, you can also see how your capital is being used. You can view the liquidation value there too, which corresponds to the funds invested and the price at which all positions would close at market prices.

Getting MT5 Reports

To help you perform well and improve your investment strategies, MetaTrader 5 lets you download reports on your trading activity. These reports bring together all the information about your trading positions and your losses or gains on all past transactions.

To access these reports, go to the “Terminal” section and click “History”. Select the report and period you want, then click “Save Report”.

The report is divided into the following sections:

• Header – Shows the brokerage firm, account number, account holder’s name, deposit currency and report date.
• Orders – The history of all orders placed, in a table with columns covering different information about each order.
• Deals – The positions executed on the account, also in a table, with the additional “Closed Trade P/L” parameter, i.e. the total profit and loss across all positions.
• Positions – All open positions on the account, in a table that also shows the “Floating P/L” parameter, i.e. the profit/loss on all open positions.
• Working Orders – Again a table, listing all active orders, i.e. pending orders and market orders that have not yet been executed.
• Summary – Finally, the “summary” block covers the account’s deposits and withdrawals, credit facilities, the total profit/loss of all closed trades and open positions, the account balance excluding the results of currently open positions, account equity including those results, the margin (the funds needed to keep positions open) and the account’s free margin.

Customizing MT5 Charts

The market charts in MetaTrader 5 are fully customizable. They are useful both for technical analysis of your assets and for running Expert Advisors, and of course for following asset prices in real time and trading the markets. You can open more than a hundred charts at once on this platform and customize what they show and how they look.

Opening a Chart and Changing the Timeframe on MT5

To open a chart on MT5, simply drag an instrument from the Market Watch window onto an open chart. This automatically replaces the asset previously shown there. To open the chart in a new window instead, hold down the Ctrl key while dragging the asset.

When several charts are open at once, you can quickly find the one you want by selecting the asset’s symbol in Market Watch, or by selecting an order or position in the Trade or History section.

Changing the Color of an MT5 Chart

You can also change the appearance of your MT5 charts, for example by showing or hiding elements or changing the chart colors. By default, the platform offers three different color schemes, which you can select from the chart properties.

You can also choose the color for each individual chart element yourself.

To open the chart properties, click “Properties” in the context menu or in the “Charts” menu.

Arranging Your Charts

If you have opened several charts on your MT5 trading platform, you can manage and arrange them however you like.

To do so, go to the “Window” menu and select the chart layout that suits you best from the options available.

Displaying Values on Charts

To further customize your charts, you can display the time, the exact price of the asset or the precise indicator values. Simply use the crosshair and the Data Window.

In the “Line Studies” toolbar, select the crosshair to display the exact values of any point on the chart on the price and time scales.

The Data Window gives you more details about the current position, such as the date and time, bar parameters, volumes or spread, and the values of the various indicators.

Displaying Indicators

For high-quality technical analysis, MT5 provides numerous indicators and graphical objects. In addition to being able to use many charts at once, you can display up to 38 built-in indicators and 44 graphical objects across 21 different timeframes.

Indicators can be displayed directly on MetaTrader 5 charts and are grouped into categories:

• Trend indicators
• Oscillators
• Volume indicators
• Bill Williams indicators
• Custom indicators

On top of these indicators, you can manually add graphical objects such as geometric shapes, channels, and Gann, Fibonacci and Elliott tools.

Diversifiez votre patrimoineInvestissez dans l’artDes tableaux originaux, pièces uniques signées par l’artiste. Un actif tangible, loin des écrans et des cotations.Voir les tableaux →

Adding and Editing a Chart Indicator

To use a chart indicator on MT5, simply drag it from the Navigator window. You can also choose your indicators from the “Insert” menu or with the “F” button on the toolbar.

You can insert a technical indicator in a separate indicator window with its own vertical scale, like the MACD, or apply it directly to a chart, as with moving averages.

Changing an Indicator’s Settings

Once an indicator has been added on MT5, you can change its settings. To do so, first select the indicator in the list and click “Properties”. You can also access its settings from the indicator’s context menu on the chart.

From this context menu, you can:

• Open the indicator’s properties
• Delete an indicator
• Delete the indicator window when the indicator is open in a separate window
• Open the indicator list window

Using Expert Advisors

MetaTrader 5 also offers trading robots, or Expert Advisors, programmed in the MQL5 language. These robots can open or close positions through automated trading. They act on the market according to a predefined trading strategy, opening, monitoring and closing orders on your behalf.

The strategies these MetaTrader 5 EAs follow are varied, ranging from the simplest strategies to highly complex algorithms such as high-frequency trading.

On the MT5 platform, Expert Advisors fall into several categories, including:

• Automated EAs that include order management and risk management
• Semi-automated EAs
• Manual EAs with alerts on orders or chart information

Creating an EA or an Indicator

If you are a trader who knows how to code, you can create your own expert advisors with MetaTrader’s MQL5.

MetaEditor lets you program Expert Advisors, indicators and scripts in this language.

To create your EA, open the editor from its toolbar button. There you can program indicators or trading robots, and also use ones developed by other traders. Scripts, meanwhile, work like small computer programs that automate short, repetitive actions.

Backtesting With the Strategy Tester

MetaTrader 5 also offers a Strategy Tester that lets you try out your Expert Advisors on historical price data, so you can test an EA’s performance in a simulated environment.

By testing your automated trading robot this way and aiming for a low drawdown, you can make sure your program is reliable before deploying it in your live trading environment.

Joining the MQL5 Community

Giving everyone the ability to create Expert Advisors and indicators has led to a genuine community of passionate MQL5 developers.

The community has its own independent website where you can find all the open-source MQL5 programs already developed. Some are free and others require a paid subscription. You can of course also sell or share your own EAs there.

You can also access the MT5 community database from within the platform by going to the Code Base tab of your terminal window, where you will find free scripts, EAs and indicators.

Assets and Markets on MT5

MetaTrader 5 is a comprehensive trading platform that gives you access to all markets, starting with Forex but also to other assets and instruments, which we look at in more detail here.

• Forex – You can trade major and exotic currency pairs on MT5, such as EUR/USD, EUR/GBP and USD/JPY.
• Stocks – The traditional stock market is also accessible from this platform, where you can trade CFDs on major international stocks such as Apple, Netflix, Facebook or Google.
• Stock Indices – Beyond individual stocks, MT5 also lets you speculate on the world’s leading benchmark indices such as the CAC 40, DAX 40, Dow Jones and S&P 500.
• Commodities – Again through CFDs, MetaTrader 5 gives you access to commodities, including precious metals such as gold and silver, energy commodities such as oil and natural gas, and agricultural commodities such as coffee, soybeans and cocoa.
• Cryptocurrencies – Finally, MT5 also gives you access to the cryptocurrency market and its most popular coins, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Ripple.

However, it is important to understand that the assets you can access on MetaTrader 5 depend entirely on your broker. The same goes for the trading conditions on these assets, such as spreads, margin and leverage. Be sure to check this information before opening your trading account.

Best MT5 Broker

Now that you know almost everything about MT5, all that is left is to choose the broker you will trade with on this platform. Before choosing your MT5 broker, you will of course need to compare the brokers we have mentioned, as well as others such as AvaTrade or Vantage, which offer retail or professional MetaTrader 5 accounts for Forex and other markets. To do this, check the following key criteria first.

Choose a Regulated MT5 Broker

• This is the first criterion to check before opening an MT5 account with a broker. A broker’s regulation is an operating license issued by a financial authority. Whether that authority is in France or elsewhere, regulation certifies that the broker follows certain rules and standards designed in particular to protect traders’ deposited funds and their transactions.
• The best-known regulators, which you can trust completely, include CySEC, the AMF, the FCA and ASIC.
• All the brokers we have selected for you, listed in the table at the top of this page, are regulated by one or more of these authorities, so you can be sure you are not making the mistake of choosing an unreliable or insecure broker.

Choose an MT5 Broker Based on Its Tools and Features

• Another important point to compare when choosing your broker is its features. While MetaTrader 5 has its own tools and functions that are the same whatever the broker, other features may be added on top and vary depending on the intermediary and the type of account.
• This includes, for example, deposit and withdrawal methods and the range of financial assets available. Also compare the minimum deposit, the leverage on offer and whether a demo account is available to test your strategies.
• Some brokers also offer market analysis, trading signals or training for beginner investors. These are all strengths that may lead you to choose one broker over another.

Choose an MT5 Broker With Low Trading Costs

The cost of your trades on the financial markets does not depend on the trading platform either, but on the broker’s pricing policy. The main thing to check is the broker’s spreads. Note, however, that most brokers offer variable spreads and advertise their lowest spread levels to attract investors.

When it comes to the cost of trading on MT5, also check whether the broker charges additional fees, such as transaction fees on certain assets, withdrawal fees, inactivity fees or swaps.

Choose an MT5 Broker With Available Customer Support

Although MetaTrader 5 is relatively easy to learn, you may have trouble carrying out certain operations or run into issues with your trading account. In that case, it is best to have access to accessible and effective customer service and support.

So make sure the support service is available and easy to reach, ideally by phone and in your native language. Customer advisors should be able to give quick, clear answers to all your questions.

Who Is the Best MT5 Broker?

• The best MetaTrader 5 broker is Vantage, which stands out in several ways if you want to use the MetaTrader 5 platform.
• This Australian broker is reliable and holds several regulatory licenses. In addition to offering several trading platforms, such as MT4 and MT5, also available online and on mobile and tablet, it provides investors with an ECN account that is one of the most competitive on the market in terms of spreads.
• Vantage also offers a wide range of assets, letting you invest across all the financial markets. Its MT4 and MT5 platforms are available on PC, Mac, WebTrader and mobile, with the Smart Trader extension.

MT5 Pros and Cons

Advantages of the MT5 Platform

It goes without saying that MetaTrader 5 offers traders many advantages, including its ease of use and very user-friendly design. Even beginners will find it fairly easy to get to grips with the interface’s features and start taking positions on the market.

Above all, though, it is the quality of the platform’s analysis tools that makes MT5 one of the most popular trading solutions on the market. Expert Advisors in particular, along with the MQL5 developer community, are a real asset and open up endless strategic possibilities.

Finally, there is the variety of financial assets you can trade on this platform, which, depending on your broker, lets you build an optimally diversified strategy.

Disadvantages of the MT5 Platform

The drawbacks are fewer, as the platform has so many strengths. The main one is that MT5 has a somewhat smaller selection of Expert Advisors than its predecessor MT4, and programs developed in the older MQL4 language have to be rewritten in MQL5.

Finally, the sheer number and variety of features and tools on MetaTrader 5 can sometimes overwhelm novice investors.

Why Is MetaTrader the Best Trading Software?

Many traders looking for an effective, high-performance trading solution turn to MetaTrader 5, and not without reason. Users seem unanimous that it is probably the best trading software available today.

Developed five years after MT4, MT5 has steadily gained ground on the market, notably because this newer version focuses on power and performance. It is a simple yet very well-designed tool built to help you generate profits quickly.

MetaTrader 5 is also one of the platforms most widely offered by brokers. It is compatible with many trading accounts, and millions of investors now use MT4 or MT5 to trade the markets.

Differences Between MT5 and MT4

Although it was developed later, MetaTrader 5 is not simply a newer version of MetaTrader 4 but an entirely different platform, aimed at a different audience.

MetaTrader 4 has a simple, user-friendly interface designed for beginners and was originally developed for Forex trading.

MetaTrader 5 has a different interface and lets you speculate on a range of markets. It offers more features and some specific capabilities, including a more complete tick and chart history. With some brokers, MT5 also lets you make deposits or withdrawals without leaving the interface.

Finally, MT5 offers more chart indicators than MT4. So if you are torn between the two, your choice will depend on the markets you want to trade and the tools you need.

See also: Trading MT5