Statistics show that that MetaTrader 4 is the most popular trading software in the world when it comes to Forex trading. MT4 is a masterpiece by MetaQuotes. However, the company has been actively promoting a newer version of the trading software, which is MetaTrader 5. The company’s experts say that the process of switching to the new software is very slow.
Even the Chief of the Sales Department of MetaQuotes had to admit that the company had fallen prey to its own previous success. In other words, despite all the efforts, the newer version of the software is still far behind the old one.
According to John Gordon, Chief Analyst at NordFX, the company offers both version of the popular trading software and lets the client decide which one is the best and most suitable for them. The newer version, which is MT5, is definitely a more innovative solution. It’s got rid of a major drawback, which is the inability to open several trades at a time for the same asset, including the opposite trades. Such trades are said to serve as the basis for many trading strategies you can find on the Internet. That’s why such traders have already switched from MT4 to MT5.
Should the developers have taken MT4 as the basis for MT5 and then added some new and cool features to it, the process of migrating to the newer version of the popular trading software could have been less painful and much faster. Unfortunately, the developers went back to the drawing board and started everything from square one, creating MT4 for a completely new trading style. Simply put, the average trader was offered to stop using a car and switch to an airplane or a ship.
On top of that, the amount of trading robots, custom indicators and other related stuff for MT4 still by far outnumbers the ones created for MT5. Creating MT5 versions of each of such plug-ins and add-ons is time-consuming and requires huge investments.
Apparently, MQL5 is way better than MQL4, but some developers don’t to migrate to the newer language since they got used to coding in MQL4. These days, you can find thousands of similar discussions on the topic on related forums. Some people try to create some kind of migrators helping coders to painlessly replace the old code with the new one.
Let’s consider another example. Both MT4 and MT5 make it possible to access the signals available at mql5.com. Let’s take a look at the ratio of the providers and subscribers between MT4 and MT5.
OK, we have 4040 signal providers for MT4 and just 180 signal providers for MT5. It’s 22 to 1.
Also, we have 4090 subscribers for MT4 and just 38 subscribers for MT5. It’s 108 to 1.
And finally, let’s take a look at the average profitability. Obviously, it’s not a direct indicator in this case. But it can make the entire picture more comprehensive. TOP10 for MT4 gives 90% a month while TOP10 for MT5 gives just 26% per month.
For now, the bottom line is, that none of the trading software version can replace each other, using both versions can be a good solution for now. They make up for each other. The only thing we can do is hope that MT6 will eliminate those discrepancies and become the ultimate solution embracing the best features of both MT4 and MT5.
