it's imo a real pity MetaQutoes never went the full distance with MT and designed MetaTrader to provide tick and up timeframes with the various chart types that other programs provide besides offering one of the best tools selections with 'unlimited' user inputs, the data feed is 100% dependable, well I've 100% confidence in it being reliable when compared to IB, eSignal, NinjaTrader/CQG/Zen-Fire feeds - see the repeated posts about disconnections, can't login, etc MT does have disconnections, one broker I used did some kind of server update every day for a few minutes, don't use Oanda's demo much but if it's anything like their FxTrade platform they purposely disconnect . . . check during tomorrows NFP release to see if you get disconnected another broker I use everyday did have repeated disconnections, I'd wait for a reconnect or switch servers - left click on the lower right corner of the MT page then used Chat once and was told they're working on updating the server to stop the problem and that seems to have happened MT updates are simply a matter of clicking the Start Update button, completed in a couple of minutes, and user files, charts remain the same if I want to trade futures I Have to use NT, but I've no confidence in it or the data feeds available, the only positive is AMP's (AMP is an FCM that clears for other brokers) trading desk whose response time to phone-in orders is fast and they are usually right uptodate about a feed going down, problem, fix and up again so if MetaTrader is so reliable, why not those other programs