Let me tell you a story. Most small brokers are gangsters and they do everything to make your trading as hard as possible, laughable as if it wasnt hard enough without at. I learned trading the FX and commodites markets with MetaTrader. !!! Dont trade with MetaTrader !!! I really really like Meta Trader for charting, but ONLY for charting, NOT for trading. Because the software is created to cheat. 90% of the MetaTrader Brokers are small bucket shops. (MB trading and CitiFXpro, might be the only serious brokers i know, who also have MetaTrader) When i learned trading and traded with MetaTrader, i had an open trade and the price spiked and gave me a margin call and put my account into the negative, but this spike never happened in the real market, i checked 3 different price information provider. After i have contacted my broker and said this is not correct, its stopp loss hunting against customers and price manipulation, they corrected it and gave me my money back and reopened my positions. Right after that, i closed this trade and my account - and - i promised to myself that i will never ever trade with this software, as well with a small broker - i must have the best as possible trading enviroment or i will never make it. That was one of my most important lessons i had to learn. Because they fake the price, i still can see it on many products when i chart with the software. I have real accounts with MetaTrader Brokers, but only for charting, that means, i have paid in the minimum deposit and made 100% gain, paid it out and its free now. I also like, independent charting softwares, like Esignal or tradesignal and the citifxpro software is also very good. But i prefer the Metatrader, because its the most easy handysoftware out there - and its the only one where i can really fast analyze my markets. But you need of course the right server time zone for your charts, so you must find the right broker for this. at 100forexbrokers.com you find what you are looking for. Also you must have the period converter optimizer Expert Indicator, you can download from the metaquotes homepage or somewhere else, only with this tool the MetaTrader is useful, so you can chart all timeframes you want, with maximum of 3Weekly and Monthly - if you need more you need other softwares, if you need 2 or 3 months charts, go to the independent charting softwares - with independent i mean independent from brokers. So, i just wanted to help some guys who might be there where i already have gone through. Of course, dont trade with small brokers, always check their company net capital, at least they should have over $100M, everything below is just too risky and your brokers should be regulated and be in the right country, what is USA,Canada, UK, Germany, Switzerland - that only counts for me. Exceptions of course are big banks. So, my advice is just, that you always must do a lot of research, with who you are doing business and never trust your broker. Only trust the safed money on your bank account. Good trading, HTR
Here, only with this the MT4 is a powerful charting machine. http://codebase.mql4.com/277 Download it and burn it on cd and print it out, so that you have it forever.
I think its the right version i have on my computers. If you follow the installation instruction, you can open as many customized charts timeframes at the same time, as you want and they are updating in real time - regardless that they show the name offline chart. I work with it for years, never had any problem. Just follow the instruction. Best, HTR
Good, the first upload works, if you open it in the Meta Editor. It worked for me. So i have some more usefull experts indicators. Here is one which show the remaining left time until the end of the bar in %.
And finally, for those of you, who want to trade with MT4. Useful account check, with all details of your account and the product, which chart is open. It should be a standard, but in default mode, its not there, another reason why i dont like to trade with it. So what. Hope it helps. Good luck, HTR Its a script for experts folder, not an indicator. The other 2 ones are indicators for the expert folder.
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'
Good broker's reviews at www.forexpeacearmy.com or google "metatrader brokers reviews". Look for the bad reviews! Felix