What MT5 Is And Where It Fits
MetaTrader 5 is a multi-asset trading terminal that blends charting, Depth of Market, advanced order handling, a multithreaded Strategy Tester, and a modern code engine called MQL5. It speaks to a broker’s MT5 server, which means the exact symbols, costs, and rules you see depend on the account you log in to rather than the terminal itself. Compared with older builds, MT5 adds better performance, native netting for exchange products, optional hedging for OTC accounts when the broker allows it, more order types handled server-side, and a cleaner separation between orders, deals, and positions, which helps you audit fills without guesswork. If you want faster testing, richer market data views, and a stricter model of how trades live on the server, MT5 earns a spot on your desk.
Install, First Run, And File Layout
Install MT5 from your broker so the server list arrives preloaded, or install a neutral build and then add your broker’s server by name. On first launch, connect a demo or live account, open Market Watch, and confirm quotes are updating. Use File → Open Data Folder to locate the working directory; that path holds MQL5 source, compiled files, profiles, templates, logs, tester cache, and history. Keep one clean chart template with your preferred colors, fonts, and a short set of tools, then save a workspace profile for active trading with only the instruments you actually trade. Set “One Click Trading” if you need speed, but double-check the default lot before sending the first ticket each session so muscle memory doesn’t surprise your margin.
Broker Accounts, Netting Versus Hedging, And Why It Matters
MT5 supports two position accounting modes. Netting keeps a single position per symbol, adjusting volume and average price as orders execute; this is common for exchange-traded products and some OTC accounts. Hedging allows multiple positions on the same symbol in both directions; this is common on many retail forex and CFD accounts when the broker enables it. Your entry logic, partial exits, and stop handling depend on the mode, so check the account properties window the moment you log in. In netting, a new buy can reduce or flip a sell position; in hedging, a new buy opens a separate ticket with its own stop and target. If your strategy was written for MT4 hedging and you land on a netting account, order intent and exit math change, so test on the exact account type you will fund.
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Symbols, Contract Specs, And Small Details That Change Costs
Open Market Watch, right-click a symbol, and read its specification page. Note tick size, tick value, contract size, minimum and step volume, allowed order distance from price, trading sessions, margin schedule, and swap rules. For indices, metals, energy, and exotics, sessions and margin tiers can shift by hour and by day. For futures, confirm month codes and whether your broker exposes the exchange calendar fully. Write down the exact suffix the account uses because EURUSD, EURUSD.m, and EURUSD-RAW can look alike in a list but cost and min size are not the same. That small text can move your break-even by more than you think.
Order Tickets, Depth Of Market, And Server-Side Logic
The MT5 ticket handles market, limit, stop, stop limit, and protective stop loss and take profit with time-in-force options that your broker may filter. With Depth of Market you can place limits inside the ladder and see partials fill against visible liquidity when the venue supports it. Protective orders often sit server-side, which means they’ll trigger even if your terminal is offline, though some features still rely on the client depending on broker policy, so read the fine print. For fast work, the one-click panel on a chart is quick, yet the ladder view gives better clarity around spread and last traded price. Either way, make sure slippage control, deviation, and volume rules match your plan rather than the last thing you tried yesterday.
Data Handling, Timeframes, And Why Your Candle May Differ From Someone Else’s
MT5 builds bars from the broker’s feed, and brokers source quotes from different pools. A five-minute candle can differ by a pip or two across accounts. That’s normal. For strategies that fire off small structures, test on the same feed you will trade. If your rules act on end-of-bar conditions, lock the timeframe and never let the tester cheat by reading partial bar data as if it were complete. Keep the terminal clock synced to an accurate source, because a clock a few seconds out can push “close above” logic to the wrong bar and quietly skew your stats.
The Strategy Tester: Multithreaded, Forward-Aware, And Fast Enough To Be Useful
The MT5 Strategy Tester runs single symbols or multi-symbol portfolios across CPU cores with tick-by-tick modeling, real-tick options when available, and forward optimization built in. Use the slow, honest mode first to confirm that the code behaves like live trading on your account, then switch to genetic optimization for broad parameter sweeps once you’ve nailed the logic. Tick data quality and spread settings should mirror your session; a cute curve built on idealized spread will melt fast on a busy London hour. Forward optimization is worth the time because it trains on one slice and checks on the next, which keeps you from handpicking a lucky run. Save reports, input sets, and the tester’s cache with date tags so you can reproduce a result months later without guesswork.
Orders, Deals, Positions: Learn The MT5 Model Once And Stop Being Confused
MT5 splits activity into orders (intent), deals (executions), and positions (current net exposure per symbol when netting is on, or individual tickets when hedging is on). An order can lead to one or many deals; deals update or create positions; positions represent what you actually hold. This model sounds wordy at first, but it makes audit trails simple. In the history tab, you can see the chain from the request to the fills and the resulting exposure with exact timestamps. EAs should log those IDs so you can trace a bad fill later without inventing a story.
MQL5 Basics: Events, The Trading Library, And Clean Patterns
MQL5 is event-driven with a richer standard library than older builds. You usually implement OnInit, OnTick, maybe OnTimer and OnTradeTransaction if you want to track fills precisely. For order flow, the CTrade class simplifies tickets and handles volume, stops, and targets with fewer low-level calls. Indicators use OnCalculate and return buffers for drawing. Keep inputs short and named plainly, version your code, and write to the log why a trade happened, not just that it happened. The small habit of tagging regime, spread, and reason next to a ticket saves hours during reviews.
Small EA Example With CTrade (educational only)
//+------------------------------------------------------------------+ //| Simple momentum + ATR stop (for teaching, not for live trading) | //+------------------------------------------------------------------+ #property strict #include <Trade/Trade.mqh> CTrade Trade;
input int FastMA = 10;
input int SlowMA = 30;
input double RiskMoney = 20.0; // risk in account currency
input double StopATR = 1.5; // stop = ATR multiple
input double TargetR = 1.5; // target multiple of stop
input ENUM_TIMEFRAMES TF = PERIOD_M15;
int OnInit(){ return(INIT_SUCCEEDED); }
void OnTick(){
static datetime lastBar=0;
MqlRates r[]; if(CopyRates(_Symbol,TF,0,100,r)<60) return;
ArraySetAsSeries(r,true);
if(r[0].time==lastBar) return; // run once per bar
lastBar=r[0].time;
double maF=iMA(_Symbol,TF,FastMA,0,MODE_EMA,PRICE_CLOSE,0);
double maS=iMA(_Symbol,TF,SlowMA,0,MODE_EMA,PRICE_CLOSE,0);
double atr=iATR(_Symbol,TF,14,0);
if(maF==0 || maS==0 || atr==0) return;
bool up = (iMA(_Symbol,TF,FastMA,0,MODE_EMA,PRICE_CLOSE,1) < iMA(_Symbol,TF,SlowMA,0,MODE_EMA,PRICE_CLOSE,1)) && (maF > maS);
bool down= (iMA(_Symbol,TF,FastMA,0,MODE_EMA,PRICE_CLOSE,1) > iMA(_Symbol,TF,SlowMA,0,MODE_EMA,PRICE_CLOSE,1)) && (maF < maS);
double pt = (_Digits==3 || _Digits==5)? _Point10.0 : _Point;
double stopDist = MathMax(atrStopATR, 10*pt);
double tickValue, tickSize; SymbolInfoDouble(_Symbol,SYMBOL_TRADE_TICK_VALUE,tickValue);
SymbolInfoDouble(_Symbol,SYMBOL_TRADE_TICK_SIZE,tickSize);
double pipValue = tickValue * (pt/tickSize);
double vol = NormalizeDouble( (RiskMoney / (stopDist/p t * pipValue)), 2); // position volume estimate
vol = MathMax(SymbolInfoDouble(_Symbol,SYMBOL_VOLUME_MIN), MathMin(vol, SymbolInfoDouble(_Symbol,SYMBOL_VOLUME_MAX)));
if(up){
double sl = NormalizeDouble(SymbolInfoDouble(_Symbol,SYMBOL_ASK) - stopDist,_Digits);
double tp = NormalizeDouble(SymbolInfoDouble(_Symbol,SYMBOL_ASK) + stopDistTargetR,_Digits);
Trade.SetStopLossPrice(sl);
Trade.SetTakeProfitPrice(tp);
Trade.Buy(vol,NULL,0,sl,tp,"EA-MA");
}else if(down){
double sl = NormalizeDouble(SymbolInfoDouble(_Symbol,SYMBOL_BID) + stopDist,_Digits);
double tp = NormalizeDouble(SymbolInfoDouble(_Symbol,SYMBOL_BID) - stopDistTargetR,_Digits);
Trade.SetStopLossPrice(sl);
Trade.SetTakeProfitPrice(tp);
Trade.Sell(vol,NULL,0,sl,tp,"EA-MA");
}
}
Risk, Sizing, And Simple Rules That Survive Busy Hours
Keep risk per trade as a fixed currency amount so volatility changes drive position size rather than emotion. ATR-based stops adapt to calm and busy tapes, while structure-based exits give the chart a say when trend breathes. Add a daily loss stop that ends trading for the day and a weekly cap that forces a break after a rough stretch. MT5 won’t enforce those by default; a small guardian EA can. Even without code, a checklist with spread, stop distance, risk in account currency, and swap direction pinned to the chart header keeps you honest when the tape starts yelling.
Backtesting And Optimization Without Tricking Yourself
Use high-quality ticks and realistic spread. If your rule reacts only at bar close, run “Open prices” to avoid looking inside the bar you can’t see live. If it reacts intrabar, use “Every tick based on real ticks” where possible and add slippage that matches your hours. Limit parameter sweeps to ranges that make sense, turn on forward optimization, and demand a minimum trade count so one hot week doesn’t crown a champion that fails next month. Once the test looks sane, forward test on demo with the same inputs, then go tiny live and compare distributions by hour and by regime rather than a single equity line.
VPS, Stability, And Housekeeping
Run live automation on a quiet VPS near the broker. Monitor CPU, RAM, disk, ping, and packet loss, schedule a weekly restart, rotate logs, and back them up to a second location. Sync the system clock and record the offset in incident notes when something odd happens. None of this is exciting, yet it turns scary outages into mild annoyances and keeps your audit trail intact.
Built-In Extras: Market, Signals, Virtual Hosting, And Custom Symbols
MT5 bundles a marketplace for indicators and EAs, a copy-trading panel, and a virtual hosting option that can run your setup without a full VPS. Treat marketplace items like any other strategy: verify on demo, then tiny live, and judge by forward stats rather than screenshots. Custom Symbols let you import external data and test ideas on synthetic series or alternative sources; document contract assumptions so your math stays straight when you switch back to live symbols. Signals are convenient, but size them with the same risk limits as your own rules and stop following the moment drawdown behavior no longer matches the track record style you signed up for.
Migration Notes From MT4
If you are moving from MT4, expect a stricter model and better performance. Indicators usually port with light edits; EAs need more care because order handling and the netting model differ. Replace low-level order calls with CTrade where possible, rewrite magic numbers and ticket lookups to use positions and deals cleanly, and adapt partial exit logic to the account mode. Backtest everything on the new feed even if it worked elsewhere; small feed differences and new execution rules can change outcomes more than cosmetic code edits.
Common MT5 Pitfalls And Quiet Fixes
Sending stop orders inside the broker’s distance band, assuming hedging on a netting account, forgetting that one-click lot size persists across restarts, running an EA that relies on client-side brackets while the terminal sleeps, and testing with perfect spread are the usual suspects. Fix them by reading symbol specs on each account, checking the account mode at login, adding a spread and freeze-level check before sending any order, keeping stops a touch wider during thin hours, and saving a tester preset for each symbol with realistic costs so you don’t drift back to rosy defaults.
A Straightforward MT5 Workflow You Can Repeat
Pick one symbol and one timeframe, write a rule with two signals plus a volatility filter, test it on your broker’s data with honest costs, forward test the exact same code on demo, then move to the smallest live size and collect a decent sample across London, New York, and Asia. Compare hit rate, average return after costs, and adverse excursion by hour and by regime. Scale only when the live shape matches the forward shape for long enough to trust it. Keep a pre-session checklist—data stream alive, clock synced, risk caps set, symbols verified, hotkeys tested—and an end-session habit of archiving logs and screenshots. The routine looks boring, then it starts paying rent.