MetaTrader 4 & MetaTrader 5
Platforms & ToolsThe two dominant retail trading platforms — MT4 for its simplicity and vast tool library, MT5 as the newer, more full-featured successor.
MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5) are the two most widely used retail trading platforms in forex, offering charting, one-click order execution, and automated trading via custom-coded programs. MT4 remains hugely popular for its simplicity and enormous library of third-party tools; MT5 is the newer, more capable platform, adding more timeframes, an economic calendar, more order types, and support for netting or hedging account modes.
Many brokers still offer both platforms side by side, since a large base of traders and existing automated strategies remain built specifically for MT4.