Trading platforms serve as a trader’s workplace and the coming of MetaTrader 4 and 5 into the African financial landscape has been a huge blessing in the Black continent.
Both variants of MetaTrader have unique features and tools that endear them to the African trading public, though a few challenges have been pinpointed.
What is MetaTrader?
MetaTrader is described as an online third-party trading platform foreign exchange traders leverage in trading forex, futures, and contracts for differences (CFDs).
MetaQuotes Software Corp – a Russian software company is the developer of MetaTrader which comes in two variants.
The first variant of the trading platform is MetaTrader 4 or MT4.
The MetaTrader 4 app was developed in 2005 and the second variant, MetaTrader 5 or MT5 was launched in 2010 with more robust features and tools.
Opportunities for African Traders on the MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 Platforms.
Below are some of the numerous opportunities African traders stand to reap from using the Meta Trader 4 and Meta Trader 5 platforms.
MetaTrader 4 (MT4) Offers its Traders a Diverse Market.
Since they were released in 2005 and 2010 respectively, both MT4 (MetaTrader 4) and MT5 (MetaTrader 5) have debuted in the competitive African financial market and are making their present felt by multi-asset traders trading instruments like commodities, CFDs, stocks, futures, bonds, and options.
As they are gradually getting integrated into the African financial landscape, these two industry-standard platforms present multi-asset traders in the continent with a lot of opportunities to explore.
While MT4 is generally associated with forex trading this variant of MetaTrader has proved to be equally robust for trading in several other markets such as cryptocurrencies, indices, commodities, and more. It achieves this through CFD (Contract for Difference) trading.
This multi-feature nature of MT4 has benefited multiple investors in the African financial market who explore these markets.
MT4 is Offered Free to Traders
Traders in the African financial landscape are enjoying the free services of MT4, all they need do is to download the platform and install it without paying any upfront cost.
However, they would have to go through financial brokers who may have a few minor charges and may also incur some trading-associated costs including commissions, spreads, and broker’s charges.
The broker charges tend to vary depending on things like the trading account a trader chooses and the broker.
Important to note that there are brokers who offer premium or improved versions of the MetaTrader 4 platform to traders.
While the premium version comes complete with additional tools and advanced features, it may attract additional fees.
The Customization Feature of MetaTrader 4 is of Huge Benefit to the African Financial Landscape
MT4 is a highly customizable platform that offers African investors opportunities to tailor its tools and features to their individual needs.
The platform leverages predefined parameters to support algorithmic trading.
The Robust Analytical Tools of MT4 are Another Advantage in the African market
African traders who choose to do their business on MetaTrader have above 30 built-in technical indicators at their disposal which makes for flexibility in trading.
With the aid of indicators like MACD, RSI, and Fibonacci retracements, traders in the African markets are better equipped to analyze the movement of prices across different timeframes.
MT5 or MetaTrader 5 comes with Extended Markets
The markets offered by MetaTrader 5 are more extended than what is obtainable in MT4.
The MetaTrader 5 app goes way beyond forex and allows traders access to financial instruments like stocks, commodities, and futures.
Traders on MT4 and MT5 Enjoy Interactions on Big Community
Through the big communities offered by both platforms, traders connect to each other, find additional tools and resources, and help themselves get better.
The MT5 community is called the MQL5 Community and it comes a bit livelier than MT4, offering its traders additional support through webinars and tutorials.
It also features a special unit on the MetaQuotes website specifically for MQL programming.
In addition, the advanced feature of MT5 offers traders enhanced charting, additional order types, and more timeframes, suitable for automated and manual trading.
Challenges of MT4
- Though it can support other markets, MetaTrader 4 is largely designed for forex trading which reduces its versatility. In addition, the limited order execution types that MT4 supports are just four – markets, limit, stop, and trailing stop while MT5 includes a stop limit in addition to what MT4 offers.
- What the market depth of MT4 can show is limited and traders are not allowed to view the complete range of bids, cannot ask prices, and number of orders per price level.
- Traders on MT4 find it difficult to accurately evaluate and test their trading strategies because its backtesting capabilities are limited.
- The MQL4 programming language favored by MT4 is less powerful and its technical analysis tools come in a limited number.
Challenges of MT5 in the African financial markets
- The higher system requirement of MT5 calls for more computing resources including more memory and a faster processor, making it a a big challenge for people who use less powerful and older computers to run.
- There is little compatibility between MT5 and MT4 making it difficult for traders to use custom indicators and trading robots developed for MetaTrader 4 on MT5.
- When it comes to viewing and analyzing data, it may be difficult for traders on the MT5 platform because of its limited chart customization feature.
- Again, because of its highly technical nature, advanced tools, and features, MT5 is more complex to navigate and new traders in the African financial landscape may find it challenging. However, traders must note that both MT4 and MT5 have alternatives that are equally great.
In Conclusion
Both MT4 and MT5 have come to stay in the African financial landscape and have managed to establish a strong, devoted client base in the Black continent despite the teething challenges they faced in their early days.