Hi there! Now, for those of you that are already members of our Forex signals
trading community, you know that we have a very vibrant chat going on over there;
discussing everything from trading opportunities, different platforms.
Everything you need to know about the Forex market, and I saw a chat going on
last week which I found quite interesting. It was basically, discussing
which trading platform is the best one to use: is it Metatrader4, often referred
to of course as MT4 or is it the new kid on the block, the squeaky clean
Ctrader platform which is now being offered by a number of brokers? So I thought,
I'll spend a few minutes today just discussing that. But before I do get into
that let me remind you to subscribe to the channel if you don't already do so,
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week ahead. I look forward to seeing you in there!
So first off, let me explain the basic difference. Now, Metatrader 4 or MT4 is
the most commonly used Forex platform on the planet. I think it was first
introduced back in around 2005. Now it's free, available by most Forex
brokers, and they offer to the customers. It's very simple to download, very easy
to install, and very very easy to use. Does have its drawbacks, though. For some,
it could be considered quite clunky, but I guess it is 15 years old so what do
you expect? But the huge advantage of using MT4 is that its programming
language has been adopted by many coders. So there are multiple providers out
there that are willing to code up your custom indicators or your strategies to
make your life as a trader much more automated. Some people find that a huge
advantage! These are known as EAS or Expert Advisors. Now the much newer,
Ctrader platform is considered by a few, to be the more professional version with
lots of additional functionality. Now, this is beneficial to both the
experienced trader and the new trader. In fact, it has a very useful advanced order
protection area, allowing multiple exits on an open trade. You also have the
ability to view the market depth of a particular Forex pair or indeed, any
trading entity that you're trading. Some people find that very very useful as
well. Now, let's jump onto the screens. I think the best way to compare is by
looking at the two, side-by-side, then you can decide which way you want to go. Okay,
here we are on the screens. Now, I'm going to start off by looking at the Meta
Trader 4, the MT4 platform, and then we'll switch over, and I'll show you the
Ctrader platform, then you can make your decisions on which one you think is best
suited to yourself. Alright, I just removed my video from the screen, so you
can see what we're looking at,and we'll get straight into it! Okay, so when you
first installed your MT4 broker platform, it's going to look something like this.
I suggest the first thing you do is have a glance down here, on the bottom right
to make sure that you've got connection to the broker, and getting live price feeds.
As you see, the blue green box. Now move over to the left of the
screen, you'll see the market watch window. Here you'll see all the currency
pairs that are available for you from your broker. If it's incomplete then just
simply right click, and then "Show All" vand then, you'll have the complete list that
is available; showing you the currency pairs and the commodities, and so
forth. If you drag onto a chart ofa particular currency pair, then that will
update and that will show you the live feeds for that particular currency pair.
You don't need to open market watch window all the time. Keep that closed to
optimize the chart size on your screen. Now, each chart can be maximized and
minimized of course, to allow for better viewing and clearer analysis. Now, at the
top here, you can see all these toolbars which are fully customizable and these
tools are available at various locations. So you can see here by going to "Insert"
and "Indicators", all the different indicators that are available, and these
are all provided by the MT4 trading platform. You can also access the
indicators by going to this green drop-down here, as well. Here you'll see the
different chart types that MT4 made available. Now, you've got the standard
candlesticks, there's the bar chart, the line chart. Personally, I only
really look at the candlesticks and the line chart. Some might say that the MT4
platform is quite limited in the available charts, but that's of course a
matter of taste. You can see different lines, you can draw on the chart. You've
got your horizontal lines,trend lines vertical lines. Right clicking on those
will allow you to change the properties, different colors and what they look like and
so forth-all fully customizable. The colors of the charts fully customizable,
right clicking going to properties and changing all the different colors,
background, different colors for the candles and so forth, as you would expect.
Now, once you're happy with a particular color scheme, you can save it as a
template. Going to Chart>Template>Save template,
and call it whatever you wish. Just call this demo, and once you are happy with
the particular color scheme, so now you can make other charts with the same look.
You can also set up profiles so that your screen configurations are
saved for your next visit, and you do that simply by going to Files>Profiles
and Save As, and just name the profile to whatever you want to call it. Now, there's
a whole raft of coded indicators that you can attach to the chart, and you simply
do that by going to Insert>indicators and picking any particular indicator
that you wish. You can delete an indicator by right-clicking on it , Delete
Indicator Window and it just takes them off the screen. Now, as I mentioned in my
brief introduction, there you can also design your own Indicators and Exper
Advisors and have someone code them up for you. Now, if that was the case you
place it , then put them into the File>Open Data>MQL, and put them into Expert or
Indicators depending on whether they are an Expert Advisor which will trade
automatically for you or show you signals, or indeed just an indicator. Going toView>Terminal pulls up or your Trade History. You can check the
history there. You can check the open trades, you can do adjustment of your
trades, as well just by pulling out the trade and making the necessary
adjustments. Going to Terminal again here you can see marketplace this is where
you can purchase all the different indicators that are being coded up,
trading strategies and so forth. So you can see it's quite an extensive
easy-to-follow functionality that makes the MT4 platform the most actively used
Forex platform on the planet. For now, I encourage you to explore its
functionality in your own time. There's plenty of free online tutorials in there
that will help you to explore the hidden wonders. Now. let's have a quick look at
the Ctrader platform. Okay, so here is the Ctrader platform first thing you'll
notice is the look and feel is very different. You start off your journey by
going to the left of the screen you will see the Watchlist. Here's where you can
create your own Watchlists. If you're looking to see a particular currency
pair, then you go to Finder, and and you can scroll down and see all the different
trading entities that your broker is allowing you to trade. Then you have
access to and you can create your own Watchlist there, as well by clicking that
+, naming your Watchlist and calling it whatever you wish. And by clicking on a
particular currency pair, will pull up a new Market Order ticket. Here, you can put
in the size of your trade hovering over here gives you a lot more information
than you get instantly on the MT platform. You put in your size. Note here
that the size is in the unit size, not in lot size. So for example, we know the lot
size of a currency pair is 100 thousand of the base currency so that would be
one lot; gives you the pip value, as well, in this particular currency pair. And
again hovering over, you'll see the position, also, you'll see the pip value
the commission, margin required and so forth. A lot of information there at your
fingertips. You can also place your stop and take profit targets on the order
entry ticket as well, as you could do with the MT4 platform-gives you
different options here, where you can risk a certain percentage of the account.
You can actually set your profit targets in terms of cash money or indeed on the
number of pips. Take profit and stop-loss gives you the estimated price, as well.
You can toggle between views by clicking this little icon here takes you to
different pages and back to the home page. In the usual wait, you can expand a
particular price chart by clicking that icon, and here you can see the different
options. You can look at the bar chart, candlestick, line chart, dot chart,
as wel. Now, this is one feature that is an improvement on the MT4platform. You
can have time intervals at multiple different settings. Anything from the one
minute, two minutes, three minutes. You can see here one hour, two hours, four hours,
six hours, eight hours, and so forth. Whereas MT4 just has the standard time frames.
And also look at tick charts. You might have a one tick chart, or five
tick chart as well. And of course, that would adjust the price chart accordingly.
This is the key little feature. Underneath the Price, you'll see this Sentiment
Indicator. This shows you that with all the clients at this particular broker, 80%
of them, by hovering over, expect this currency pair to rise so 80% are long on
this currency pair. They use this little tool. This is unique to the
individual broker's client positions. And as usual, you can change the color of the
charts by clicking that little icon there. Fully customizable, down the
right-hand side of the screen here, you can put in your trend lines, horizontal
lines in the same way. You can use your Fibonacci extension retracement levels,
retracement levels. Now, another key feature that I like about the Ctrader
platform is that you can detach a chart and move it to anywhere you like. So if
you've got multiple screens or you're limited for screens, you can literally
attach as many of these charts as you wish. Now, often with mt4, you may need
multiple versions of mt4 in order to look at different profiles at any one
time, but by detaching a chart you can literally move it to anywhere you like
on your trading platform. Now, another really cool feature that I
think the Ctreader platform has over the MT4 platform is the advanced order
protection. So, if you toggle between Looks and go to this particular look
where you can see the open positions, the order, and so forth; price alerts, you look
at this little Shield icon beside an open trade, click on that and it allows
you to pull up this advanced order protection ticket. Here will allow you to
exit that particular trade in multiple exits,
perfect targets and so forth. So, this position is one lot or a hundred
thousand wish to exit half the trade at 10 pip-profi. You might want to exit
another twenty thousand or point two of a lot at 20 pips and so forth, until you
get to the Complete Order. Apply that and that will exit the trade at these
varying profit target. Really cool feature! You can also move stop-loss to
break-even should you wish to. Just a really cool ticket, real cool bit of
functionality there that Ctrader platform has. Now, another cool feature
that a lot of people find useful with the Ctrader platform is the depth of
market. Basically, showing you where orders are surrounding the current
market price. So, if you go back to the Watchlist, look on a particular currency
pair>right click> and then Information. You'll put up this ticket, it shows you
much more information about that particular currency pair, and you'll also
be able to see the depth of the market. So, here you can see where orders are
placed around, where the current bid and offer. A lot of traders like to look at
that as well. Lots of information there at just a couple of clicks, or wait you
can also buy and sell from this ticket, as well- changing the lot size, unit size.
And similar to the Expert Advisors of course, you can put in your Cbot. Now,
Cbots basically are pre-coded indicators and tools that you can use to
assist in your trading. So these are the standard ones, but of course then you can
go to the Network, where coders have coded other indicators and so forth, and
made them available. So clicking on there, pulls up a new window where you can look
to see all the different available CBOTS that you can hook on to your
trading platform.And as with the Metatrader4 platform, there's a whole
bunch of functionality here that I'm not able to cover in a quick short
introduction video like this. So I encourage you to spend some time in
exploring it to see if it fits into your needs. There's also a whole bunch of
training videos out there, available, to help you in your exploration. Trying
some of these hidden wonders that the Ctrader platform offers. Okay, so I hope you
found that useful. I'll end up by giving
you here my two pennies worth. The trading
platform that you choose to use is really not that important if you have
what it takes to be a trade. The trading platform will not make that much of a
difference. Sure, one has its advantages over the
other, different trade offs, and so forth. But I'll say focus more on yourself as a
trader and not the platform. Once you've got some degree of success, some degree
of consistency in trading, and then perhaps look to explore the different
platforms out there and see if one is more suited to your needs than the other.
As always if you like my video, give me a thumbs up. If you didn't, give me a thumbs
down. Don't forget to leave a comment, and of course, as I said earlier don't forget
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Monday 2 PM London time for our free live stream. 'Till then. Happy trading
and good luck!