In this video we will go over the Metatrader 5 platform.
We will demonstrate how to navigate in the platform, place orders, set stop loss-take profit and trailing stop, go over chart windows, check account history, add indicators and scripts, create templates, install expert advisors, customize the platform, and much more. Our goal is that after you watch this video you will be ready to use the MT5 platform!
If you would like to use your phone to trade check or tutorial on the mobile version of MT5.
To start on the MT5 platform you will need to download the MT5 client, you can do that from any Broker that supports the platform or head to meta guoates.net and download it there. After that install and open the application.
Dependless on what broker you may have used to create an account and download the MT5 client, the platform is the same with some minor exceptions. For this video, I have downloaded the client from XM broker, one of the top forex brokers in the market, and I have created a demo account to navigate around.
The first step will be to log in to your account. To do that click file and log in to the trading account. On the pop up enter your login and password, choose your server which will be given to you on the email received by the broker you created the account, and finally click ok.
Excellent you have logged in to your Metatrader 5 account, and you will know that by the sound that you will hear assuming you have your speakers on, plus the price boxes that will appear inside the charts will indicate you are logged in.
It is extremely important prior we place any orders to make yourselves familiar with the platform and what each section has to offer.
Market Watch
So let’s start with the market watch window which can be found on the top left side of the Metatrader 5 application. In this particular window, you can find all the symbols and quotes offered by the broker. To do that right-click inside the window, and then pick show all. To reverse that right-click again and click hide all.
If you want to trade specific instruments and you don’t like to scroll around too much, right-click on the box, pick symbols, and depends on your broker you will have additional options. Last you can simply add symbols by clicking click to add, type in the currency you are interested in, and add it. Many traders prefer to trade only specific symbols so Market watch allows you to display only the ones you truly want and need.
To add the symbol to your chart-window you can either right-click on it and then pick the “chart window option” which will open a new window. You can hold more than 4 chart windows open if you would like, after you open a new one just click the arrange window on the top bar and it will align it accordingly. If you want to get back to 4 or even less just close the window or windows and click the arrange button once more.
Also, you can drag an instrument on one of the existing windows. With this method, of course, the previous chart will be replaced.
On the market watch window, you can see the bid and ask prices next to each pair. You can add extra columns by right-clicking inside the window and scrolling down to columns, as you can see there are more than 45 pieces of data to add, such as High low, volume, spread, and so on. Pick the one or ones you think that will help you trade better and add them.
Last on the top of the Market Watch window you can always check the time, which is extremely important in Forex as you need to operate with that time for opening and closing of the markets around the world as well as for important news which play a significant role on the market and how the pairs move.
Navigator Window
The navigator window can be found below the Market Watch Window. There you can navigate around to some very useful features. First, you can switch accounts if you use more than one, clicking accounts.
Bellow the accounts slot you have the Indicators one, which allow you to easily add indicators to your chart, the one offered here are Trend, Oscillators, Volumes, Bill Williams and of course you have the options to download yours. We will extend to the indicators section later in this video. Meanwhile, once you decide which one you want double click on it or just click and scroll it to the chart you wish and the indicator will be added after you confirm it.
Moving on, The Experts advisors slot, which allows you to perform prompt technical analysis of price data and control trading activities based on signals received. You can add them to your chart by double-clicking or dragging it over, but you will have to allow modification of the Signal setting and also trading if you wish along with choosing inputs. Again we will expand further on this later in the video.
The Scripts tab allows you to use your scripts. They need to build and parameters need to be imputed for it to run properly. And you guessed it right We will expand further on them later in the video.
The Markets slot, gives you access to a store of free and paid applications where you can get access to a plethora of trading bots, technical indicators, and other products that could potentially help you trade.
The signals slot, allows you to follow signal providers, you can check how much profit they have provided since they started, the number of people following them and by clicking on one of them you can get more info. You can also become a signal provider yourself, but first, you will need to create an MQL5 account if you have not already. Our advice is that you create an account in there as well, it is extremely simple and takes less than a minute.
Last, by clicking the VPS button you can directly purchase a specialized VPS for MetaTrader 5.
To note here that the Navigator window could be entirely hidden by just clicking Control+ N. and can be brought back the same way.
Chart Windows
Moving on to Charts windows, which capture the majority of the application when it comes to space. As with any trading chart, they present the historical data based on the financial instrument and timeframes you pick. The first chart on the screen displays the Hourly move of EUR/USD with each candle to represent the movement that occurred that given hour.
Of course, you can change the timeframe along with the entire window, as you can add more tools that could help you trade better as well as customize the entire window. To do that right-click anywhere inside the window, on the pop-up window you will get several options such as Buy or trade, one-click trading, Check indicators list, switch to a line chart, change timeframes, and so on.
We will get to them a bit later, now we will change the timeframe of this chart to 15 minutes. Then we will use the zoom-in option as it gives a better look at those candles, you can use the right-click and zoom in from the options, click the zoom-in or zoom-out buttons on the top toolbar or just simply click the plus or minus button on your keyboard.
You can create objects. The tools to do that are located at the end of the toolbar above, or you can access them by clicking insert and then pick objects. We will add a line, for example, I will click the vertical line button on the toolbar, and then go to the chart and add it. To manage the object right-click on the line and you will get a pop-up with extra options such to delete it. Additionally, you can right-click anywhere on the chart and pick an object list. On the pop up you can edit the object or delete it.
One thing that many traders find extremely useful is to switch the colors of the candles, to do that right-click on the chart and then click properties. On the new pop-up, you have options to customize your chart window, or to have additional metrics add it to it, such as real volume, tick volume, and of course OHLC, which is an indicator that displays the values of open, Hi, Low and Close.
Last, enable the asking price. To do that mark the box and a red line will appear showing the asking price, that way you have both the bid and ask price displayed on your chart. To move on to our primary objective which was to change the colors click the colors tab, and change the colors manually or change the scheme. For this video will pick the color manually to represent the red and green colors which we can all relate to when it comes to price rising or declining, feel free to edit this to your liking.
After you finish your edits, and you have created the window chart that you like, you can save the template by right-clicking on the chart, scroll to the template and then click save the template, there, name the new look you created, “Favorite “: for example and click save.
Now if you wish you can go to the other charts in your platform, right-click, template, and click “Favorite” or the name you gave it. This way if you have created your perfect trading chart with the indicators, scripts, and colors you like in it, you can always use it on other pairs.
Last, To organize the display of multiple charts click the window tab on the top bar, from there you can pick Cascade, Vertical, and Horizontal format and even change resolution.
Terminal Window
Below the charts is where you will find the terminal window. From here you can perform a plethora of options and check vital information about your account, with the most important ones being your balance, margin, and open orders. To better understand what these tabs have to offer I have opened a few orders, but we will demonstrate later in detail how to place these orders. For now, let’s focus on the terminal window and the important tabs on it.
The trade tab allows you to check your active and pending orders. The orders displayed above the account status line are the active ones while the orders below are the pending ones. You can open a new order from here, close an existing order or even modify it by right-clicking on it. Also, from here you can attach a trailing stop, we will check all these options in detail later on in this video.
The history tab allows you to check your past trades, when you opened them, the volume, the price, and of course if you had profit or loss on them. The total profit or loss is been displayed on the bottom. By right-clicking in that panel, you can check specific periods or even generate reports if you wish and save them on your desktop.
The Calendar tab is one of the most important parts that you have to check while trading forex, as it can help less-experienced traders understand how markets behave around the time of news releases – usually there is a high volatility on the pair or pairs affected by the news. Many professional forex traders will close out their deals a few minutes before a big announcement happens.
The Alert tab is where you can create and check an alert for specific pairs. To create an alert right click on the terminal, pick your symbol, the condition, enter the value you wish and click ok. Every time that value is reached you will get a notification sound.
The codebase tab allows you to access the published codebase at the mql5 community directly from the client terminal. You can also select your preferred EI indicator or script form here and download it, right-click on it and you will get the option, and then you can attach it to the chart right away. To do that though, you will need to have or register an account on MLQ5, and that is different from the account you will create with the broker.
The Experts tab displayed information about the functioning of the attached EI that you choose to add or any other EI you added prior and includes the opening, closing, and modifying positions.
The Journal tab shows you the entire activity you have performed on your account so far.
On the right side, you will see the Markets tab, which gives you access to a store of free and paid applications where you can get access to trading bots, technical indicators, and other products that could potentially help you trade.
The signals tab, which is located next to the markets icon, allows you to follow signal providers, you can check how much profit they have provided since they started the number of people following them and by clicking on one of them to get more info.
Last, by clicking the VPS button you can directly purchase a specialized VPS for MetaTrader 5.
There are three more tabs, that of the news, mailbox, and articles which are self-explanatory and not as crucial as the ones we checked in depth.
Placing Orders, Set Stop Loss and Take Profit
Having made ourselves comfortable with the platform we can now proceed and place orders.
There is more than one way to place an order and we will try to cover all of them in this video.
For this section we will use one chart so I will go ahead and close the other 3 charts in the platform, plus I will move the cancldes a bit to the let by using the push left button on the toolbar.
Prior to starting, If you have not enabled one-click trading or you have and you wish to take it off, you can click tool, and then options on the top bar. There on the trade tab, you can enable it or disable it by marking the box. Currently is turned off. So we will place an order without it, to check the process and then enable it for faster trading.
The first way to place an order is by the market watch window, double click on the pair you wish to place an order, and a pop-up window will appear. There you can choose the type of order you want to place, market execution and pending order are your options, set volume, stop loss, and take profit and click buy or sell. If it is a pending order of course you will just place the order. WE will proceed with a sell-by-market in this case. Done the order was placed.
The second way to place an order is by clicking the buy or sell box inside the chart. If that box is not appearing in your chart, right-click and then click one-click trading. You can make it disappear the same way. Again the pop-up window will keep appearing until we enable the one-click trading, for some options.
Third, right-click inside the chart and click buy or sell. The latest option is mostly used for buy or sell limit orders. Be careful here as in order to sell you need to click on the chart in a place above the current price and to buy on a place below the current price
Fourth, click new order on the toolbar menu above the chart, and populate the window.
Fifth way right-click inside the chart, trading, new order, or even pick buy or sell limit from there directly.
The sixth way is to open an order from your terminal window, right-click into that space window, and then click new order.
Dependless on the way you decide to open the order the process remains the same.
Now if you want to place orders faster enable the one-click trading, again tools, options, trade tab, one-click trading, and ok. One the pop-up disclaimer window read and accept the terms. Now placing an order is fast for some options.
Clicking the windows buy and sell options inside the chart will place the order on the spot, and the same will happen if you decide to close the order from the terminal window.
As mentioned before, all your open orders will appear on the Terminal window on the trade tab. The ones with the blue color are your buys and the ones with the red your sells. To close an open order you can click the “x” button on the right side, or right-click on the order and choose close-position. since the one-click trading is activated it will close right away, if not you will get a pop-up window to confirm the closing.
You can always choose to modify an order, right-click on it, modify, here you can set stop loss, take profit, or even set a trailing stop if you like.
And since I mentioned take profit and stop loss let’s spend a bit more time on those two functions as they are essential trading. As for the trailing stop function, we will expand further in a few minutes.
For those unaware, a stop-loss is designed to allow you to pick how much you are willing to risk with your trade, while a take profit is pretty much the exact opposite. It allows you to set how much you are willing to make as a profit with one trade and close it once you’re happy with the amount.
But let’s see how they work in action. There are quite a few ways to place a stop loss or take profit. Since we have activated one-click trading, the pop-up window will not open if we click the buy or sell button in the chart, so click the new order on the toolbar above or any other options from the one we described besides using the buy and sell buttons on the chart.
You can then select stop loss and take profit from here, you can use the arrows or you can delete and manually add the price, you do exactly the same with the take profit.
Once you are done click buy or sell. Now you can see on the terminal window the prices of your stop loss and Take profit, additionally, you will see inside the chart the two red spaced lines which indicate your strop loss and take profit price points.
To modify those points you can either do it through the terminal window, right-click on the order, modify or delete, and on the pop-up window you can edit the price or an alternative way is to click and drag the lines inside the chart.
To do that Move your pointer to the line, until you see the two-sided arrow, and drag it based on the direction you will like, the price will be seen below on the terminal stop loss and take profit windows as well.
Another way to set up a stop loss or take profit, and that can happen on an existing order is by moving your mouse pointer to the order line, click and drag, similar to what we did earlier, but this time since there was no stop loss or take profit limits set we will be creating them from scratch.
Trailing Stop
Trailing stop is one of the most important functions offered by the Metatrader 5 platform, it is quite popular among forex traders as it helps them securing profits or minimizing losses.
For those unfamiliar with the term, trailing stop is designed to protect gains by enabling a trade to remain open and continue to profit as long as the price is moving in the investor’s favor
For example, for every 10 points that the price moves up, the trailing stop would also move up 10 points. If the price moves up 30 points, the stop loss will also move up 30 points. But if the price starts to fall, the stop loss doesn’t move from its last place, and the order will be executed at that price.
Now let’s see how this works in action so you can better understand it. To note here that you can put a trailing stop on an open or pending order, but both types need to appear on your terminal window first.
So head there, right-click in it, scroll to trailing stop, and pick the level of risk or better say it the points you feel comfortable risking. I have picked 30 points.
What that means is that as long as the order moves in my favor, this order was a buy order btw, so as long as the price increases so do my stop loss which you can always check on the terminal window below. Until my order is in profit the trailing stop loss function will not appear, but once it turns profitable it will/
Currently the order I have placed is on a loo, but the trailing stop was set as you can see a small T symbol on the symbol area of the terminal window.
As you can see now is 30 points away from the current price. However, if the price starts declining the Stop loss will remain the same, and if it hits the order will close.
That way you can always be in control of how much you will risk, but above all, if the market continues to be in your favor you are securing profits.
Indicators Scripts and Expert Advisors
We briefly touched base on the indicators and scripts earlier but it is a section of the MT5 platform we owe to focus more on.
Indicators are graphical or metrical tools that provide you with the ability to analyze the market conditions. As we mentioned earlier you can access them from the navigator window or just head to your top bar and click Insert, and then indicators.
Besides the ones offered as default by the MT5, you can also download more from the mgl5.com website which provides more than 5000 indicators or use the code base tab on your terminal window.
If you decide to download it from the website, first ensure you download the mq5 file and not the zip folder that contains the file ( if you do you will need to unzip it, not a big deal but an extra step), and second add it to your terminal folder. To locate where your folder is at click the file, open the data folder.
Now you need to locate the indicators folder, click MQL5, Indicators, and copy or drag and drop the indicator you downloaded in this folder.
This path can be used for both indicators and scripts. MT5 will not recognize this new indicator we just downloaded until the application is been restarted. So if you added yours and you wonder why it doesn’t appear, restart the application.
After restarting the application you should be able to see your indicator or script you downloaded in their respective place. To add it to your screen double click or drag it.
Scripts now are programs written in MetaQuotes Language 5 (MQL5) and intended for a single performing of any actions. A script can fulfill both analytical and trading functions. You can find more than 100 scripts on the mql5 website, but you can always build your own as well. To download them and install them follow the method we described above for the indicators.
Last The Experts advisors allow you to perform prompt technical analysis of price data and control trading activities on the basis of signals received. You can add them to your chart by double-clicking or drag and dropping them over, but you will have to allow modification of the Signal settings, trading, and choose inputs. More than 650 expert advisors are offered on the mql5 website. To add To enable executions of your scripts go to tools, options, and then on the expert advisors tab allow algorithm trading.
To summarize The main difference between indicators, scripts and expert advisors is that indicators help you analyze the market, the scripts allow you to perform market activities, and last experts advisors allow you to backtest your trading strategies and perform automated trading.
Metatrader 5 is considered by many traders the top forex trading platform in the market and evolution of the older MetaTrader 4, however many will argue that Metatrader 4 is the top one, and MT5 was not such a great upgrade.
We strongly believe that both platforms are equally important, and if you choose to trade on MT4 make sure you watch our dedicated tutorial for it, you can find the link on our screen or on the description below.
Also watch MT5 For IPhone Tutorial and MT5 For Android Tutorial