In due time, i plan to always be using three, maybe four brokers, running identical trades through each of them. After X amount of time (a week, a month, a quarter, or every N number of trades) it should be easy to see which broker is allowing your account to make the most money. Every so often, "fire" the worst broker. If everybody did this, we'd all end up with some pretty good brokers, having sorted out the evil apples. Yes, brokers have the ability to cheat with MT4 using some additional software on their side. Whether or not they actually use that software, or to what extent they may be using it...remains to be seen.
About MetaTrader 4 !!!
- Thread starter HATEtheRisk
- Start date
Don't usually hear people complain about the charting... it's one of MT4's saving graces.
Some brokers have horrible execution speed through it, I've seen up to 5-10 seconds with a few shops.. they give MT4 a bad name in that department....
But, a few good brokers pride themselves on execution speed.
In most cases I'm getting ~200-300ms execution with Pepperstone.. Since their servers are in NY4 (Equinix):
https://pepperstone.com/mt4-forex-trading/equinix-ny4-mt4-server.php
This makes using a 2 pip trailing stop during volatile moves (market opens, news, tick scalping) viable on the EUR/USD.
If a broker can't execute your order in under a second.. it's the broker's problem, not MT4's.
I am bothered most by their lacking of sub minute charting. Also MQL4 not supporting multithreading and it has limited capacity to implement complicated strategies
All after that goes to the broker itself which most of them are crab bucket shops.
I am thinking to use Algo Trader ( open source java platform) + LMAX or Dukascopy.
All after that goes to the broker itself which most of them are crab bucket shops.
I am thinking to use Algo Trader ( open source java platform) + LMAX or Dukascopy.
If you wanna use Algo Trader and FIX to a broker, that's an awesome setup.
But what strategies can't you code with MQL4/MT4? I don't know of many limitations platform wise.. sometimes you'll get a broker with trading conditions that make some strategies not so great, but I've seen some pretty complicated stuff done with MQL4 before so I'm curious what you think it's unable to do.
Yeah, MT4 isn't perfect for everyone (different platforms have different strengths.) But my point was that just because a broker uses MT4, doesn't mean they are bad. Citigroup uses MT4, Dukascopy has an MT4 bridge agreement with a 3rd party, Oanda added on MT4, many more great examples.
Oh, as for sub-minute charting, that's not too hard to add using MQL4... here's a tick chart I use for instance:
HATEtheRisk
You should check Dukascopy. They are ECN broker and they have MT4 bridge as well.
You should check Dukascopy. They are ECN broker and they have MT4 bridge as well.
Quote from Jack_Larkin:
Great resources for MT4. No question there.
And great advice in general about doing due diligence on brokers. The only thing I'd want to add is not stopping at the location of the broker, as it's not good enough they happen to operate from a developed country, but go further and make sure they are properly regulated within their country as well. Location and regulation don't always go hand-in-hand.
One bit of advice I'll give though about the MetaTrader sentiment you have, since it might generally scoop up the good brokers with the bad given your statements:
Evil brokers will be evil if they use one execution environment or another.
An evil broker will be an ECN, STP, or Market Maker. They will use MetaTrader, their own platform, or 3rd party like MultiCharts / NinjaTrader...
But being a given type of broker, or using one given platform, however, doesn't make a broker evil in itself.
The tools they employ to provide their service will not, alone, dictate if they are evil or not. Only their actions.
Don't assume anything about a broker just because they use MT4... in most cases, they only use MT4 because clients demand it (as it's an awesome charting and trade management platform as you've said yourself.)
Example: Oanda added MT4 because their clients spent YEARS begging them for it. They were happy to just offer fxTrade as it was.
DO condemn evil brokers for being evil (if you've proven it.)
DO NOT condemn brokers because they happen to use one software package that's popular (and arguably the industry standard at this point) over other choices that aren't as well known or liked.
Just sayin'
Yes, i agree.
I just had that experience with the wrong ticks or false prices, what will blow out your account, because they are so hyper over dimensional, thats the problem with trading on the MT4 Software.
Also how i said, the most small brokers offer it and a lot of them, do not even have a real adresse.
Oanda is ok.
Just in general, not all MT4 Brokers are evil.
May be for you.
But for me its perfect, but only with the period optimizer indicator.
I like it much more than esignal or tradesignal, what i also have.
I just told my experience.
You dont have to like it or use it.
LOL
Good trading
I don't think so. Well, the only one saving is that it's for free. But what do you have then? Just OTC markets. Also no n-range bars, n-volume bars, n-tick charts natively.
The 1-tick chart you've shown is just half the story since you have to wait a while to get history. The feeds don't provide tick backfill. So if you close MT4 the history is gone. Except if the the history gets stored on your PC somehow. And what about n-tick etc.? And why is there no scroll bar available? Charts are kind of stiff. No trading sessions possible. No time shift, so you are trapped in server's timezone. And so on ...
I don't think so. Same broker different platforms .. MT4 is slower. Prove it by not using an OTC broker. Wait, that won't happen.
E.g. portfolio level backtesting not possible. Well, the whole backtesting engine of MT4 is untrustworthy. MT4 doesn't provide multi-threading. Also no 64-bit version available. I guess I can sum up some more limitations but I'm not here to write an essay.