How to Post a Product in the Market

Conveniences and Advantages of the Market

The Market service offers unique opportunities for developers of analytical systems and trading robots - now your programs go directly to traders' terminals and are available to all MetaTrader 5 users. This means that with the status of the Seller, you can access the large market of potential customers, and the simple technology will help your MQL5 program become a mass product.

A program can be purchased only from the MetaTrader 5 Client Terminal. Each MQL5 program is strictly linked to a computer and must undergo activation. For example, when buying a trading robot, its special copy is generated, which will work only on the associated computer. Even having this file, an intruder cannot run the program on another computer. This solution helps to protect the interests of developers and their customers.

All purchases in the Market are associated with an MQL5 account and specific computers. They do not depend on the brokerage company or the type of a trading account.

Any program published in the Market program has a free demo version which can be run only in the Strategy Tester. Demo versions cannot be run in the terminal or used in trading. However, this option allows to test the performance and efficiency of any application before purchasing it. The interests of developers will be protected, while the buyer is protected from buying a pig in a poke.

After each purchase of an MQL5 program through the Market, the payment for the product equal to its price (which is set by the seller) less the service commission are transfered to the sellers account in the payment system. If you have programs that can be useful to MetaTrader 5 users, the Market service is a great opportunity for you to earn.

1. Register as a Seller

To get the "Seller" status, you should complete a registration procedure.

You can prepare an application in the "Seller" tab of your profile:

Fig. 1. The Seller tab in the profile

First you need to prepare the application - indicate your name, country, address, city, region, contact telephone numbers and attach a scan of your identity document.

All fields must be filled out in English, the document submitted must have a photo and be of good quality. You can attach a passport or driver's license for the required document . Use only a valid document. All fields specified in the application must comply with the document.

Also pay attention to the Address field - specify the full postal address and an index.

Fig. 2. Filling the Seller data

You can register your company as a seller. Select "register as a company," fill in the name of the company and attach registration documents. Be attentive when entering your mobile phone number - it will be used for sending SMS to you.

After filling in all the data, read the Terms of the Market service and agree to them by checking the "I agree with the rules of the MQL5 Market service".

Then click "Register" and the application for registration will be sent for review.

Fig. 3. An application for registration sent

If some of your data need clarification, the service administration will contact you.

Once your data are verified, a message "You have been approved as a Seller in the Market service" will be sent to your mobile phone.

The "Seller Profile" tab will appear after that:

Fig. 4. Registration completed successfully

2. Prepare a Product for Publication

As an example, we consider the preparation and publication of Advanced Moving Average - an Expert Advisor that uses signals of the Moving Average technical indicator. This EA contains a money management system, in which the trading volume depends on the results of previous deals. In addition, the Expert Advisor has limitations in terms of trading positions (in % of the deposit).

2.1. General Information

After you click on "Create New Product", the Common tab appears in the draft. Specify here general information about the product - its name, product type, category and price. If the product is free, check "Free".

Fig. 5. General information about the product

Once you have filled in the common parameters, click "Add".

This will bring up a message that the draft has been saved. The following tabs will appear in your profile:

Fig. 6. Product management tabs

Since the Common tab has been completed, proceed to the next.

2.2. Logo

In this tab you set the product logo:

Fig. 7. The Logo tab

Two logos are required for a product:

• 200x200 (displayed in the product description on the website and in the terminal)
  
• 60x60 (shown in the list of products in the terminal)

Advanced Moving Average uses moving averages, so the following logo suits well:

Fig. 8. Sample logos for Advanced Moving Average

After uploading the logo sized 200x200, the logo with the size of 60x60 will be created automatically. However, remember that automatically generated images are not always of good quality. For this purpose there is a separate option for uploading a logo 60x60.

Example:

Fig. 9. Logos: an automatically generated from an image 200x200
and an image sized 60x60 prepared manually

In the terminal, our product will be displayed as follows:

Fig. 10. Product view in the MetaTrader 5 terminal

Since logos are displayed in the terminal against a white background, use a contrast background of the logo.

After you have added a logo, click "Save".

2.3. Product Description

In the Description, add information about the product. For an Expert Advisor you may indicate indicators used, risk management, parameters of the trading system, etc.

Description of the product can be filled in English and Russian:

Fig. 11. Product Description

Read more information about the features of the editor in the article "MQL5.community - User". Note that pictures cannot be inserted in the product description, images are added separately in the "Screenshots" tab.

After you have added information, click "Save".

2.4. Screenshots

To illustrate the results of the product, attach some screenshots. For an Expert Advisor you may use the results of testing on the history and the statistical characteristics of trading. For indicators/control panels, you can attach chart screenshots from the terminal.

You can add screenshots in the appropriate tab:

Fig. 12. The Screenshots tab

For EAs, it is important to show the dynamics of the balance and equity curves, the statistical characteristics of trading. This information makes it possible to evaluate the performance of the trading robot.

Examples of screenshots of Advanced Moving Average are shown in Fig. 13-14. Note that the screenshots are in English. It is a mandatory requirement for the pictures.

Fig. 13. Screenshot 1 - the test results of Advanced Moving Average on historical data

Fig. 14. Screenshot 2 - Statistical characteristics of Advanced Moving Average

To add a screenshot click "Attach image". They will appear in the "Screenshots".

Fig. 15. Screenshots added successfully

If you use several screenshots, and their order is important, then you should add the screenshots in reverse order. The order in which the screenshots will be displayed can be seen in the reduced images (Fig. 14).

After you have added screenshots, click "Save".

2.5. Versions

The next tab is Version, in which you upload and update the product code.

Fig. 16. The Product Versions tab

Specify the product version and its description in the code. In addition, a good idea is to add icons for your software as a graphical file in ICO format. This gives your product a professional finished look and allows the trader to easily find it from other compiled EX5 files:

#property icon path_to_icon_file

Properties of MQL5 programs are defined by the #property directive. All the graphical and sound files needed to run the program, can be placed in the form of resources directly into the executable file EX5. More information can be found in article "Use of Resources in MQL5".

#property copyright   "2012, Mikhail Antonov"                                     // copyright
#property version     "1.00"                                                      // Version
#property description "This Expert Advisor is based on Moving Average indicator." // Description (line 1)
#property description "The input parameters are optimized for EURUSD H1."         // Description (line 2)
#property icon        "\\Images\\EA_icon.ico";                                    // A file with the product icon

The version number, description and icon appear at startup of the Expert Advisor in the terminal:

Fig. 17. The product version and description at EA startup in the terminal

Over time, the product can be modified, so you should pay attention to the timely update of the versions. The Market service includes the version control, i.e. you cannot upload a product version below the published one.

To upload the product, click "Add product file":

Fig. 18. Uploading the product file

An uploaded file appears in the Versions tab (Fig. 19). If you need to replace the product file, you can upload it again by clicking on .

Fig. 19. Product file successfully added

3. Proofreading

After preparing the product for publication, send it for review. To do this, click the appropriate button and it will be sent for review (Fig. 20).

Fig. 20. The product is sent for review

If you need to make corrections to you product, click "Cancel", after which it gets the "Draft" status and can be edited. After making changes, it must be sent back for review.

If any comments appear during verification, you will see a private message:

Fig. 21. Informing about the comments on the product

After making the necessary corrections and re-sending the file for review, the product status changes:

Fig. 22. Your Product is being checked by moderator

4. Publish the Product

If everything is ok, the product is published in the Market:

Fig. 23. The product has been published in the Market

The published product also appears in the Seller's profile:

Fig. 24. The product in the profile

Now it is available to all MetaTrader 5 users:

Fig. 25. The product is in the terminal

Now traders can buy your product or download its demo version that will work only in the strategy tester of the client terminal.

Fig. 26. The product is in a terminal (description)

Screenshots of the product are displayed in a separate tab:

Fig. 27. The product is in a terminal (screenshots)

The statistics on the number of purchases and downloads of demo versions of the product is only available to the Seller in the "My Products" section:

Fig. 28. Statistical information about the product

5. Updating Product Versions

The product versions can be updated in the Versions tab.

Fig. 29. The current product version is 1.0

To upload a new version, click on "New version". After that it will appear in the "Version" section:

Fig. 30. An updated version of the product successfully uploaded

Add description to the new version: for this you need to click on the Edit button ("pencil" icon). After that, the new version should be sent for review, and after verification it will be published.

Take Advantage of the Market

The Market service is a convenient site for buying and selling applications for the MetaTrader 5 terminal. Buyers can be assured that the purchased software does not contain malicious code, and demo versions of programs provide an opportunity to test their functionality.

For developers, this is an excellent opportunity to earn - after each purchase the seller receives money through the MQL5.community payment system. The seller can also access the statistics on the number of purchases and downloads of demo versions of the products. All MQL5 programs purchased through the Market are protected from unauthorized use.

If you have a potentially successful commercial application for the MetaTrader 5 users, post it in the Market. A huge army of traders in the market of applications for MetaTrader 5 is waiting just for you!