Will brokers force the conversion to MT5?

 

I am curious if the brokers will be forced to make us switch to MT5 at some point? Do you think they will offer both 4 and 5 to keep business? Obviously they would want to but they are a regulated broker that may not be an option. I don't want to get behind in either language but the thing is, learning both gets confusing. I've also heard that no brokers will have MT5 live for another year or so. Can anyone clear up my hodgepodge of heresay?

 

Did they force us to switch from mt3 to mt4? Yes.

Did they provide both for a period, Yes.

 

The best idea is to talk directly to your broker.

 
i was under the assumption that MT5 would have a built in MT4 translator, i mean that MT5 would run MT4 programs. so the move wont be so harsh if that is the case. :-)
 
LanBar:
i was under the assumption that MT5 would have a built in MT4 translator, i mean that MT5 would run MT4 programs. so the move wont be so harsh if that is the case. :-)

no, at least in current version no support for mql4. and i think it's not planed. until now i have only took a first eye on mql5, but i think the advantages of OOP are bigger then the disadvantage of complexity of simple programs. i will wait until mql5 is bugfree and completed, and then my most valuable indicators/strategies gets translated.

the more interesting question is how long brokers will support us with mt4 ....

 
zzuegg:

the more interesting question is how long brokers will support us with mt4 ....


As long as "us" continue to have enough money in our MT4 accounts that they can pay their bills plus a little profit.

MT3 was available for years after MT4 debuted.

The question will really be "what am I depriving myself of by not going with MT5?"...there are so many shortcomings of MT4 backtester that MT5 could see a substantial migration from that alone.
 
1005phillip:

As long as "us" continue to have enough money in our MT4 accounts that they can pay their bills plus a little profit.

MT3 was available for years after MT4 debuted.

The question will really be "what am I depriving myself of by not going with MT5?"...there are so many shortcomings of MT4 backtester that MT5 could see a substantial migration from that alone.

in my case, my multitimeframe strategies don't trade always in the same direction. daily could trade long while m15 trades short.

i currently dont know how to maintain this logic without separate trades. especially resuming after a crash can here be a problem. currently i use only magic numbers/comments to identify my orders, this cannot be done in mql5. (maybe it can, but as i said i only took a short look.)

the same goes of course with more EA's running on the same account.

//z

 
zzuegg:

in my case, my multitimeframe strategies don't trade always in the same direction. daily could trade long while m15 trades short.

i currently dont know how to maintain this logic without separate trades. especially resuming after a crash can here be a problem. currently i use only magic numbers/comments to identify my orders, this cannot be done in mql5. (maybe it can, but as i said i only took a short look.)

the same goes of course with more EA's running on the same account.

//z


There are probably better "persistence" strategies out there than what I am about to suggest, so definitely look around and take advantage of them, but if I were in your shoes I'd have a csv file that tracked the needed info by order number. In the same csv you would you would include all the info your EA's need to know about the order number to know where it belongs and which EA is supposed to be managing it.

There are ways to improve the robustness of your existing persistence solution in MT4 that would then mitigate the barrier to transition to MT5.
 
WHRoeder:

Did they force us to switch from mt3 to mt4? Yes.

Did they provide both for a period, Yes.


Great, that is what I am hoping. FXDD claimed this would be the case but I never trust a broker's word. They have to say whatever benefits them and right now, not losing a customer is their only motive.

 
1005phillip:

As long as "us" continue to have enough money in our MT4 accounts that they can pay their bills plus a little profit.

MT3 was available for years after MT4 debuted.

The question will really be "what am I depriving myself of by not going with MT5?"...there are so many shortcomings of MT4 backtester that MT5 could see a substantial migration from that alone.
I don't trust backtesting on either system. MT5 seems a little deeper. Testing multiple currency pairs is nice because I like to code my EA's that way, but I can alway just run them seperately and line the charts up side by side looking for simultaneous peaks and valleys. And other than that, running them on demo or live with minis tells me so much more than their strategy tester does. i want a third party for my testing because neither of their systems are adequate. Unfortunately, a 3rd part cannot be found....yet
 
1005phillip:

There are probably better "persistence" strategies out there than what I am about to suggest, so definitely look around and take advantage of them, but if I were in your shoes I'd have a csv file that tracked the needed info by order number. In the same csv you would you would include all the info your EA's need to know about the order number to know where it belongs and which EA is supposed to be managing it.

There are ways to improve the robustness of your existing persistence solution in MT4 that would then mitigate the barrier to transition to MT5.

i can't think of a better persistence than identifying all the orders trough magic numbers,

if, and i am, able to 100% relate a order to its EA/timeframe, i don't know a scenario when recover fails (as long as the broker don't touches my orders). in addition i am able to manage open order from different places (servers in different datacenters) which i am not so easily when working with csv files.

.

when working with csv/databases you always have few leaks:

1) what if mt crashen between ordersend() and write to file/database

2) what if you have a hardware error (loss of all data)

in these you are not able to recover with a csv. meanwhile when working with magic numbers you are always on the save side.

//just my thoughts. z

Reason: