MetaTrader 5 or MT5 had a rough start. Its predecessor MT4 was still much more popular despite MT5 being its successor. However, this trend started to change as MT5 has slowly started to become a prominent player when it comes to advanced trading platforms for Forex trading. MT5 has a modern design and its mobile app was upgraded to be even more user-friendly and useful. It attracted Japanese retail traders which was also supported by the local brokers who started to provide the platform to their traders. Let’s explain the key features of MetaTrader 5 that made it so popular among Japanese FX and multi-asset traders.
Background – The Japanese trading landscape overview
MT5 has become a cornerstone of Japanese retail Forex trading with many reputable brokers offering it as a main trading platform. There are distinctive reasons why so many regulated brokers chose this platform. One of those reasons is the Japanese retail trading landscape characterized by significant retail volume. The country is a major Asian financial center and during Tokyo trading sessions markets are most liquid. Surely, London and NY overlap offer more liquidity but Asian traders are not trading during those hours due to huge daytime differences.
Japanese culture emphasizes precision, careful innovation, and attention to detail, which are major advantages of the MT5 platform.
Japan’s robust economy influenced local traders’ focus on multi-asset trading which includes Forex, commodities, stocks, and indices. Historically, Japan has been a significant player in international trading which was encouraging for local traders to focus on accuracy and sophisticated strategies. Candlestick charts, which are most popular among retail traders, were developed in Japan emphasizing how the country is an important place for financial trading.
To deploy complex trading strategies and algorithm trading systems, MetaTrader 5 is almost a must as it offers support for custom indicators and Expert Advisors (EAs).
Advanced analytical tools and charting capabilities
MetaTrader 5 is an advanced platform meaning it offers an extensive set of technical indicators and advanced charting tools that are super useful for in-depth market analysis. The platform offers more than 38 built-in indicators including moving averages, Bollinger bands, and the MACD, and enables traders to deploy multiple indicators at once, increasing their accuracy and chances of success. These indicators can offer great aid to beginner traders to detect support and resistance levels, define price momentum, and so on. One important feature of the MT5 platform is the Depth of Market or DOM, which offers real-time insights into order flow. Order flow is critical when trading commodities, cryptos, and stocks. This tool can be very valuable during volatile markets and enables traders to assess the balance between buyers and sellers.
MT5 also allows custom timeframes where traders can use 2-minute and other timeframes that were not accessible on the MT4 platform.
Multi-asset trading flexibility
One of the key benefits of using MT5 for Japanese traders is its support for a broad range of asset classes. This is beyond traditional Forex pairs. MT4 was predominantly focused on Forex, commodities, and indices, while MT5 offered stocks and even cryptos as well. All these assets are tradable in a single trading platform which is super flexible for multi-asset brokers. As a result, many reputable brokers started to actively adopt the platform which contributed significantly to the platform’s popularity in Japan and the rest of the world. This multi-asset capability also offers great benefits to traders who can diversify their portfolios very quickly and comfortably all within one single platform. For example, if a trader wants to hedge against Forex volatility, they can simultaneously invest in commodities. This flexibility is superior to other platforms and enables traders to implement complex risk management strategies and tap into new profit avenues.
Customization and automation
MT5 shares the robustness of MT4 when it comes to customization and trading automation. It allows traders to fully edit and adjust everything they see within their trading platform from interfaces like chart layouts and indicator settings to color schemes. This is super helpful to align the platform to the specific and personal trading needs of a trader. This level of customization is coupled with full automation capabilities. MT5 offers MQL5 programming languages, which allows traders and developers to create custom indicators and Expert Advisors (EAs). EAs are capable of fully automated trading systems and are wildly popular among retail FX traders. EAs can be used to translate one’s profitable strategy into an automated trading system, eliminating the time needed to stare at charts.
This is only a fraction of the capabilities offered by the MT5 which enabled it to quickly gain popularity among traders and brokers alike. MT5 is more than a trading platform, it offers multi-device access and is available on mobile devices as a trading app, enabling raiders to speculate on financial markets on the go.
