How to Use MT5 Platform for Beginners
How Can You Open Trades with MT5?
If you want to learn how to setup MT5 platform this tutorial explains the step by step guide on how to setup MetaTrader 5 for beginner traders with examples - Forex Get to Know Your MetaTrader 5 Software - Get to Know Your MetaTrader 5 Software.
The following example below shows the main MT5 inter-face. As a beginner trying to learn how to execute orders in online market, the main tool for trading the market is the MT5 software. This is the software that you will connect to your broker with and execute transactions and monitor your account equity balance.
The MT5 for trading forex is provided for free by brokers. This MT5 looks like the examples below:
Learn MT5 Software
Main Areas of this MT5 as shown above are:
- Navigation Menus
- Tool-Bars
- Chart Window
- Navigator
- Market Watch
- Terminal
- Connection Bars
For this MT5 Setup guide we shall look at a brief introduction for each of these:
1. MetaTrader 5 Navigation Menus Get to Know Your MT5 Platform Software
The MT5 navigation menus are:
- File Menu
- View Menu
- Insert Menu
- Charts Menu
- Tools Menu
- Window Menu
- Help Menu
These MT5 menus are the main navigation menus which can be used to navigate MT5 software platform. As a beginner you can start by just clicking any of these MetaTrader 5 software navigation menus to familiarize yourself with the various buttons which are arranged as sub-menus within these navigation menus.
These MT5 software navigation menus will be described & discussed in details in the next MT5 setup guides about navigation menus - Get to Learn Your MT5 Platform.
2. MT5 Tool-Bars MT5 Setup
The MT5 tool-bars are used to manipulate charts, either by setting indicators, line studies, change chart time frames and load an MT4 template from a list of saved templates in the MetaTrader 5 platform.
These MT5 tool bars will be discussed on other MT5 setup tutorials which will outline each button on this tool bar and how to add and customize these MT5 tool bars - Forex MT5 Platform Setup Tutorial.
3. MT5 Chart Window MT5 Setup
MT5 Chart Panel is the main area where charts are highlighted and trader can analyze the trend direction of a chart whether up or down, place indicators for technical analysis & even place orders from these charts - Get to Know Your MetaTrader 5 Platform.
5. MT5 Navigator MT5 Setup
MT5 Navigator will contain data about accounts, whether practice trading account or real account, this window will also have a list of all MetaTrader 5 indicators as well as EAs & scripts.
One can select which MT5 account to sign in by expanding the Accounts menu, select a chart indicator by expanding MT5 indicator menu or select an Automated Expert Advisor by expanding MetaTrader 5 Automated EA menu - Get to Know Your MetaTrader 5 Platform.
5. MT5 Market Watch MT5 Setup
MetaTrader 5 Market watch is used to show streaming quotes for forex currency pairs. This can listing as many symbols provided by your broker or a few selected by the trader. To save inter net band width, right-click inside the market watch window & choose 'Hide All', to hide the currencies that you are not transacting and save on inter-net bandwidth.
6. MT5 Terminal MT5 Setup
This is window that's like the bank account trade area for your forex currency transactions, on this window you can view your trading account equity balance, profit & losses statement, equity, margin used & also generate a copy of all your trades transaction history.
This also will listing all open trades & calculate all the profit and loss in real time as a currencies move upwards or down.
7. MT5 Connection Bar MT5 Setup
Red bars are for no connection, green bars show that there is connection to the servers and trade orders can be set. These MT5 connection bars should always be green when one logged into their demo trade account or live account.
These main areas form MT5 Software Setup guide and will be the main areas to be covered in detail in the next learn MT5 guides. For now it's best to download MT5 & familiarize yourself with MetaTrader 5 trading software interface.
Why MT5 Forex Software is Required for Placing Transactions with Brokers
MT5 is the software which is used to access the currency market and interpret these currencies using technical analysis. There are various reasons why one requires to use a good platform. A good software can determine if a as a trader you make a profit or not.
So why does a trader need a good platform:
To connect to the Server:
To place a order when trading online a trader needs to use a software that will connect to the servers of their broker & allow them to open and close orders. Good softwares will connect with ease to the online brokers' servers and allow traders to place orders at any time from desktop computer.
To analyze charts & currencies using technical analysis
To place buy or sell order one needs to first analyze the direction of a forex pair. This is why all good softwares provide technical trading tools such as charts, indicators and various different timeframes from which one-can interpret price moves using the chart timeframes of their choice.
MT5 Software Setup
From above MT5 inter-face, summary of all information required by a trader is provided on this MT5 interface
- Connection - connectivity to the online broker servers
- Charts - price charts that display prices
- Tool Bars - tool-bars to add tools & analysis indicators
- Market Watch - for displaying available financial instruments
- Data window - provides account data and other indicator data
- Exchange rates - shows current market price of a forex pair
- Menu bar - Shows all menu items on MetaTrader 5 platform
MT5 Setup
