MetaTrader 4
MetaTrader 4 is a trading platform that was designed by a professional Russian software firm MetaQuotes, back in 2005, and they have since dominated the forex niche with this piece of software. The Metatrader 4 was designed to support online trading in forex, futures market and contract for differences (CFDs). MetaTrder 4 can be downloaded free of charge from the MetaQuotes website (metaquotes.net), as well a dozen other online forex brokerages.
The tools and resources that are available on MetaTrader 4 are designed to enable traders analyze price, enter and manage positions, as well as deploy trading robots also known as expert advisors. As at the time of writing, the MetaTrader 4 is 10 years old and by far has remained the most widely used trading platform by retail forex investors.
The dominance of the MetaTrader 4 has come under scrutiny over the last couple of years, as the emergence of other software companies with a launch of their own platforms, hence offering investors variety.
cTrader
cTrader Limited is a London based firm that owns the cTrader forex trading platform. Its uniqueness is derived from the fact that it is specially tailored for use with ECN brokerages. The cTrader has remained one of the most rumored competitor to the more dominant Metatrader4. It is a trading platform from Spotware systems, a financial technology firm saddled with the responsibility of creating trading platforms and software tailored for web based fx trading, CFD brokerages and financial institutions. Spotware’s primary emphasis is hinged on fashioning integrated FX platforms for ECN that will enable its software direct access with other financial systems.
This article will be focused on how the MetaTrader 4 platform compares to the cTrader platform, and why I prefer the cTrader platform i.e. why it is worth making the switch over to the cTrader platform.
cTrader ECN Execution vs MT4 ECN Bridge
A more accurate way of trading currencies online is via ECN execution, where traders have their prices directly connected to liquidity providers instead of an intermediary market maker. Settlement turnaround times are greatly minimized. However, the ECN execution takes place at more accurate prices, which reduces lag time and possible slippage.
The cTrader employs the Direct Market Access (DMA), that allows the trader submit buy or sell orders to the order book of an exchange without going through an intermediary. Originally, to be able to deal directly with the order book, one has to be a broker-dealer or market makers, but with the help of the DMA, private companies and traders can communicate with the order book directly.
It is evident that the cTrader trading platform is more advanced in view of the Level 2 market depth it offers, while the default method of opening positions entails having your broker quote price from market makers and then offers you the best quote, i.e. a single price at any point in time. The onus is on you whether to accept it or not. Meanwhile, the DMA enables the cTrader deliver to clients varying prices of varying orders, allowing you enter your own order accordingly, without employing intermediaries.
The sophistication that the cTrader offers in terms of the Level 2 market depth via the DMA surpasses that of the MetaTrader 4 and this is likely going to lure large ticket traders, along with scalpers.
We all know that the MetaTrader 4 trading platform was designed to carter for dealing desk brokers, but its increasing popularity as a choice trading platform will then mean that retail investors as well as brokerage firms kept trying to offer means to connect directly to the interbank market exchanges via its MetaTrader 4.
The MetaTrader 4 ECN Bridge however, is MetaQuotes answer to this flaw. This technology allows retail investors on the MT4 to connect the interbank market exchanges on the MetaTrader 4 (MT4) trading platform. Knowing fully well that the MT4 trading platform did not make provision for features that will enable it connect orders it receives to market makers via the electronic communication networks (ECNs), a number of third party application developers have designed straight-through processing bridging software to enable the MetaTrader 4 server link orders entered by customers directly to a market maker and relay back confirmations immediately.
cTrader Design
The cTrader’s trading platform is designed to deliver on fast trades execution and fluid charting experience. The visual interface of the cTrader trading platform is extremely attractive and clean. The layout is well arranged and appealing to the eye. The overall design of the cTrader platform is crafted to exhibit simplicity. Many years during my firt experience with the MetaTrader 4 – I discovered that it’s much harder to get around the MT4 than it is for a first timer on the cTrader.
cTrader Programmable Language
Just like its main counterpart, the cTrader trading platform supports automated trading or cBot protocol and back-testing. Spotware Limited’s cAlgo platform supports automated and algorithmic trading which is free for anyone with a cTrader account. Automated trading programmes for the cTrader is based on C#, a very popular language that has a huge number of devoted programmers.
C# is an intuitive programming language, that is easy for newbies to pick up quite well, and currently developers are flooding here to create cbots (robots that are tailored to trade via the ctrader). Users on the cAlgo platform are unable to modify programs and indicators in such a way that it becomes quite simple for those not vested with programming skills to develop simple training program.
Alternatively, you can employ a programmer to create custom cbots for the cTrader platform, just as seen with Expert Advisors (EA) on MetaTrader 4. There are commercially traded cbots on the internet, and a trader can decide on buying an efficient one. There are a couple of tools that are available for traders who’re wishing to convert EA’s on MT4 into cbots for the cTrader platform, but these tools are not 100% effective and as such some tweaking might still be needed on the converted EA’s.
cTrader is by far most sophisticated than the MetaTrader 4, you'll find a large number of set ups on the MT4 brokerages offering bid data during backtest, which leaves the trader guessing about the spread the broker has, and this information will alter with different Expert Advisor, and also varying sessions within the day. It is usual to find MT4 brokers offering between 2 - 6 weeks of accurate back testing data. The result can be moderate or even show huge disparity in profit from what is obtained in live trading with the same broker. The ctrader comes out tops, as it offers the bid and ask prices for a 10- month’s duration on a tick chart. ctrader is made up of a good mix, i.e. the bid and ask prices on tick data for about 10 months in composition.
cWeb Overview
It a bid to carter for a wide range of its network of international client base, cTrader offers a suite of platform to its customers in a bid to enable compete favorably in the market. That brings us to a web client tagged the cWeb.
cWeb, just as the names implies, is cTraders’ web trading interface that enables its customers to connect fx markets online. It has been proven that the web client of trading firms are usually not as powerful as their downloadable equivalents. The cWeb afford traders almost the same number of features that are found on the cTrader downloaded bundle. Spotware systems understands the need for the huge number of traders to be linked to the financial world anywhere they go.
cMirror
The cMirror was launched by Spotware Systems, as an added feature of its cTrader platform which allows copy trading. Copy trading has continued to gain increasing popularity within the investment community. Mirro trading is a key area that Spotware Systems is expanding into as a result of growing demands, and the cMirror is one of the most feature-equipped platform in the market with an unparalleled advanced risk management, low latency and most importantly, simplicity.
When mirroring a strategy, the advanced risk management setting includes volume percentage, equity stop loss, direction mirroring, stop loss and take profit forcing for every order. Seemingly, as a strategy provider on the cMirror platform, you have full control over your fee to investors in US dollar for every million traded. There’s support for around 16 languages on the cMirror i.e. English, Magyar, Polish, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, French, Turkish, German, Vietnamese, Arabic, Italian and Greek.
cTrader Mobile
The cTrader Mobile is Spotware’s solution towards meeting the goals of on-the-go traders, as they can now access their trades from any Android or iOS device. The cTrader Mobile allows for superior responsive trading conditions directly from you on-the-go devices like mobile phones. The interface on the cTrader Mobile is sleek, allows for order execution, order modification, account management and order termination.
cTrader charts
cTrader prides an excellently build chat interface that’s easy to understand. The chart interface supports different modes i.e. free-chart, mono-chart and multi-chart modes. Viewing of multiple charts are further simplified, since they are carefully placed beside one another. Alternatively, you can choose to view a single chart and switch between other charts.
Charts can be taken apart to form separate windows away from the trading platform itself. This is a cool feature since the detached chart window forms a new tab on Windows via the Taskbar located at the bottom of your screen.
Chart window theme can be easily customized into the user preferred color, away from the default green and red sitting on a dark background. Although, for every chart window that is launched, it pops up with the default color theme and can be clumsy if you have to change the color for each of such sessions. Albeit, the platform reopens into its customized form after it has been shut down i.e. you don’t have to re-customize on relaunching.
The cTrader comes equipped with the 1min, 10min, 5min, 15min, 30min and 45min timeframes. There a provision for another option, the tick timeframe. There’s also the usual 1-hour, 4-hour, 1-day, weekly and monthly charts. The cTrader goes further to offer some out-of-the-box timeframe – higher timeframe. This is obviously absent on the MetaTrader 4 chart timeframes.
The list of indicators on the cTrader is over fifty, divided in groups of Volume, Volatility, Trend and Oscillator. There’s also a group that is tagged “Other.” The cTrader does not shy in offering a full list of indicators from these groups, ranging from Bollinger Bands, Moving Averages, Parabolic SAR, MACD, and it goes on.
Special Features
Knowing fully that the cTrader is a platform that is designed for brokers that deliver no-dealing, or real market makers. What this connotes is that you’re actually dealing with a genuine counterparty when you trade on an instrument. We have basically mentioned a host of good stuffs that can be enjoyed when using the cTrader, some are familiar features while others are unfamiliar. These and some more special characteristics, puts the cTrader ahead of the MetaTrader 4:
Trading Times: the cTrader trading platform displays financial centres along with their open, in line with their market trading hours
Traders who have firewalls installed on their internet access, can connect their cTrader via its proxy ports, thereby allowing connectivity from anywhere.
Conclusion
Without fear or bias, I can rightly say that the cTrader is more pleasant to deploy, and technically more encompassing to deploy, when compared to the MetaTrader 4 or other proprietary trading platforms that can be seen flying all over the place. It is eye catching as it is very simple to use. The visuals of the cWeb (web based cTrader platform) is married with the flawless well-grafted trading application. It is clear that so much energy was being put into making the cTrader a trading platform that is appealing to a large spectrum of traders, and as such it has proven successful. The cTrader trading platform is thus highly recommended.