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Learn Stock Indices Trading for Beginners Guide

Stock Indices Trading MetaTrader 4 Transactions Tabs Panel

The MT4 Stock Indices Platform Terminal Window is mainly used for monitoring your stock index trading account balance, account equity and transaction reports mainly. There are other operations that can be set up on this panel but most of these are not commonly used.

On the online stock index trading platform MetaTrader 4 the Terminal Window is shown below:

MT4 Terminal Window and Terminal Button View Menu

Terminal Window - MetaTrader 4 Online Stock Indices Platform

The Terminal Window has the Following Sub Menu or Tabs:

  1. Trade
  2. Account History
  3. News
  4. Alerts
  5. Mailbox
  6. Signals
  7. Code Base
  8. Experts
  9. Journal

Let us look at each on its own:

Trade Tab

If you open a Stock Indices Trading on the MT4 platform, the transaction will then be recorded here on this Trade Tab. For Example if you sell The Stock Indices, open a sell stock indices trade order the following details will be recorded on this Trade Tab panel.

Account Balance and Open Trade Details on MT4 Terminal - Stock Index MetaTrader 4 Transactions Window

Trade Tab - Stock Indices Platform Trading Windows

From the above example: The transaction details are shown above under the column details marked

Order, Time, Type, Size, Symbol, Indices Price, S/L,T/P, Commission, Swap, Profit

Order, - The transaction number

Time, - The Time

Type, - The Type of order, Sell or Buy

Size, - Size of transaction, 1 Standard Lot

Symbol, - MT4 Symbol

Open Indices Price - 1.35185

S/L, - Stop Loss Stock Indices Order

T/P, - Take Profit Stock Indices Order

Current Indices Price

Commission, - Commission (no commission charged by this broker)

Swap, - no swap charged as per now, the trade has not stayed overnight

Profit - $ 51 dollars

The most common operation after opening a transaction is to place the Stop Loss Stock Index Order and Take Profit Stock Indices Order, These are abbreviated as S/L and T/P. There is likely no other operation to setup after this only to monitor the trades within the trading platform work-space after setting these two levels, the stop loss will close your order with a minimum loss and the take profit will close your it at a reasonable profit.

To place this S/L and T/P, we shall Right Click anywhere within this Trade Tab, the part shaded grey, the following menu will appear, this is used to make changes to the current order that is open.

This will appear as:

Trade Tab Menu on MetaTrader 4 Terminal Window - Indices Trading MT4 Online Trading Software - Stock Indices MT4 Transactions Window

Modify a Stock Indices Order on the MT4 Platform

Broker

The Menu has The following Options:

  1. New Order - Put a new transaction
  2. Close - Can close this transaction at current indices price
  3. Modify or Delete - Can Modify the S/L and T/P, (order cannot be deleted, delete is for pending stock indices orders that are not yet executed)
  4. Trailing Stop - Set a trailing Stop Loss Stock Indices Order
  5. Profit - View profit as either pips or in dollars; depending on which option you favor.
  6. Commission, Taxes, Comments, are additional columns that you can chose to show or hide by ticking/unticking(Checking/Unchecking) them.
  7. Auto Arrange - Arrange stock indices charts according to alphabet, time of open, most profitable according to sorting by choosing a column of arranging priority, for example "Time" column.
  8. Grid - Show Grid or do Not Show Grid, by Checking/Unchecking this option.

    To Set Take Profit Stock Index Order and Stop Loss Stock Indices Order, T/P and S/L we use the third option, "Modify or Delete", after clicking this the following panel will popup:

    S/L is placed at 250 points - 25 pips

    T/P is placed at 500 points - 50 pips

    You can set this two points by selecting 250 and 500 on the part labeled points, the red part marked copy is for Stop Loss Stock Index Order and blue part marked copy as is for Take Profit Stock Indices Order as shown on the screenshot below.

    After that press the wide red button marked modify to modify.

    Setting Up a Market Order to Buy or Sell a Indices Trading in MetaTrader 4 - Stock Indices Trading MT4 Online Trading Platform

    Modify a Trading Order on MetaTrader 4

    The order will then appear as below, note that the S/L and T/P columns for our trade have now been updated as shown below.

    Indices Trading Sell Order with Take Profit Index Order and Stop Loss Indices Order Levels on MT4 - MetaTrader 4 Indices Transactions Tabs Panel

    Take Profit Stock Index Order and Stop Loss Stock Indices Order Levels Shown on Meta Trader Platform

    MT4 Terminal Window Profit, Loss and Account Balance - Stock Index Trading MT4 Online Trading Software

    S/L and T/P Trading Order Details Updated on the Meta 4 trader Platform Transaction Window

    If you were to close the above transaction now, then the transactions will be updated as follows, to reflect that the transaction has been closed and the profit added to your account balance.

    Profit Recorded on MT4 Terminal Window for Closed Indices Trade - MetaTrader 4 Index Transactions Tabs Panel

    Stock Indices Account Balance Updated on the MT4 Platform

    Account History

    This is used to generate trade reports of trades that have been opened previously and have been closed. This is a record of all previous transactions.

    Account History Tab for Recording Closed Trade Orders on MT4 - Index Trading MetaTrader 4 Online Trading Platform

    Trade Reports Window on MetaTrader 4

    On the above example, there are currently no trade records on this transaction history recorded. There needs to be a couple of closed transactions for this record to show some entries.

    Account History Tab Indices Trading Sell Trade Recorded on MetaTrader 4

    MT4 Stock Indices Trading Transaction Recorded on MT4 Stock Index Account History Transaction Tab

    From the above example, once our open order was closed the trade transaction was then recorded as an entry within the "Account History" of the MetaTrader 4 Stock Indices Platform

    Account History Menu for Generating Detailed Trading Reports - MetaTrader 4 Stock Indices Transactions Tabs Panel - Indices Trading MT4 Online Trading Platform

    MT4 Stock Index Account History Menu

    Account History Menu

    This menu is shown above and can be accessed by right clicking anywhere within the account history panel. The last Four (commissions, Taxes, comments, Auto Arrange and Grid are used more for formatting purposes but not for trading in general, therefore we shall not look at these as they are self explaining)

    The following 6 options are Shown Below:

    All History, Last 3 Months, Last Month or Custom Period - all these options can be used to select the time period for which you want to generate the history of transactions.

    Save as Report, Save as Detailed Report - This will generate a report of all transactions along with profit and loss calculation, draw-down calculation, profit factor calculation, expected payoff factor of the system you use along with the total number of profitable transactions, losing ones, the average loss per transaction and the average profit per transaction as shown below.

    Generating Trading Reports and Detailed Trading Reports on MT4 - Indices MT4 Transactions Window

    Generating Trade Reports of Your Stock Index Account on MT4 Trader Platform

    Save as Report

    Save as Report History of Trades in MetaTrader Index Platform Terminal Window - Indices Trading MetaTrader 4 Online Trading Software

    Save as Detailed Report

    Save as Detailed Report on MT4 Terminal Window - Indices MetaTrader 4 Transactions Window

    Saving detailed Reports of Trading Transactions History on Meta Trading 4 Platform

    Broker

    News Tab

    This is the third option within the MetaTrader 4 Terminal Window this panel is used to display a list of current news provided as a news feed by your stock index trading broker. This is shown below:

    News Tab Menu and News Feed Menu on MetaTrader 4 - Stock Index Trading MT4 Online Trading Platform - Index MetaTrader 4 Transactions Window

    Stock Indices Trading News Stream on MT4

    Alerts Tab

    This is used to set an alert for stock index price when it reaches a pre determined level. For example you may be using a Bollinger bands, an indicator that forms an upper boundary and lower boundary and you want to set an alert for stock index price when it gets to any one of these levels.

    For example, in our above example we may want to put an alert for at 50 pips below the current stock index price, we shall open the Alerts Tab, and right click to activate the menu below:

    Alerts Menu and Alert Tab for Setting Trading Alerts on MT4

    How to Set Indices Price Alerts on MT4

    On the above panel, select, Create and create one as follows:

    MT4 Window for Setting Trading Alerts on MT4 Terminal Window - MetaTrader 4 Stock Index Transactions Tabs Panel

    Setting Indices Price Alerts on MetaTrader 4 Software

    Put the sound as the alert action, set stock indices symbol, set the condition to set is when bid stock index price is less than(Bid<) and put the value for example at 1.34730, select the source of the alert sound as above, (This is a sound file with extension Alert.wav), adjust timeout to 10 seconds and iterations at maximum of 50, then select OK to activate it.

    Trade Alert Setup in MetaTrader Alerts Tab - Indices Trading MT4 Online Trading Software

    Setting Indices Price Alerts on MT4

    The above alert is then set and an alert will sound off once this stock index price goes below this level.

    By right clicking on this, the Alert Menu will provide options for modifying it, deleting it or turning it off. You can download the MetaTrader 4 and practice opening this option to see how you can put a new alert or delete the same or modify it.

    Mailbox Tab

    Mail box is used to view the messages that have been sent to you, to your Online stock index trading platform as shown below:

    MT4 Mailbox for Emails Sent to Trader's Platform - Stock Index MT4 Transactions Window

    Mail Box on MetaTrader 4

    Signals Tab

    Contains of a list of Stock Indices Signal Providers that traders can subscribe to through their MetaTrader 4 Stock Indices Platform, this is shown below, one can select any signal provider and click subscribe to get the stock index trading signals.

    Signals Tab on MT4 for Accessing MQL5 Trade Signals - Indices Trading MT4 Online Trading Software

    MetaTrader 4 Signals Provided From MQL5 Stock Indices Trading Website Directly to the Trading Platform

    To learn more about MetaTrader 4 MQL5 Signals, navigate to the MQL5 Stock Indices Signals Page.

    CodeBase Tab

    CodeBase contains a list or a library of Expert Advisors that one can purchase from through their MT4 platform and then use this Expert Advisors which are automated programs used to trade stock indices. These EA Stock Indices Robots are set up Expert Advisors on the stock indices traders MT4 platform. To use these Expert Advisors (EAs) one has to activate automated trading option within their platform a topic explained in the next tutorial. The Code Base is shown Below:

    Code Base Tab on MetaTrader 4 for Accessing MQL5 Stock Index Expert Advisors Library - Index Trading MT4 Online Trading Platform

    MetaTrader 4 Stock Index Expert Advisors Provided From MQL5 Stock Indices Trading Website Directly to the Trading Platform

    To learn more about MetaTrader 4 MQL5 Stock Index Expert Advisors, navigate to the MQL5 Indices Expert Advisors Page.

    Experts Tab

    Shows a list of all Expert Advisors that have been installed on the MetaTrader 4 Platform, for Example the image below shows two EA Stock Indices Robots are installed on this stock indices platform. This option also shows the trading specifications of each EA, these include trading parameters such as Take Profit Stock Indices Orders, Lot Size, Trailing Stop Levels and all the other custom trading parameters of the EA that has been installed on the stock index trading platform.

    MT4 Experts Tab Showing List of Installed EAs

    Automated Stock Index Expert Advisors Installed on MetaTrader 4

    Journal Tab

    Tracks login activities of the Meta 4 trader and from which computer and the IP address of the computer used to login to the platform.

    This is more on the technical stuff and traders do not use this one a lot and therefore we shall not explain it here but you can look at this at your own free time, on your MT4 Stock Indices Platform.

    Regulated Stock Index Broker Information: Read About Regulated Stock Index Broker Review

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