Description of platform

INSTALLING THE TERMINAL

To install Client Terminal, it is necessary to download its distributive and launch it. Then it will be necessary to choose a directory for installing the program there and follow the Installation Wizard tips. After the terminal has been installed it will run automatically.

 

Terminal can also be installed over an installed version of it. At that, all terminal settings remain as they were in the preceding version. Exceptions can be: DEFAULT profile and template, as well as standard MQL4 programs included in the delivery set. This is why it is not recommended to change standard templates or profiles, but to create MQL4 programs named uniquely.

If there is a need to work with several accounts simultaneously, the corresponding amount of terminals must be installed in different directories. At that, each terminal has its individual settings, except for registration details and interface language, that are stored in the Registry.

 

OPENING OF ACCOUNTS

Terminal allows working with two types of accounts: demo accounts and real accounts. Demo accounts enable working under training conditions, without real money on them, but they allow working out and test trading strategy very well. They possess all the same functionality as the real ones. The distinction consists in that demo accounts can be opened without any investments, though one cannot count on any profit from them.

 

Opening a demo account

A demo account can be opened by the "File - Open an Account" menu command or by the same command of the "Navigator — Accounts" window context menu. Besides, the terminal will offer to open a demo account at the first program start to begin working immediately.

The first stage of account opening is selection of a server to connect to. Addresses of available servers, their names and ping are listed there. The most preferable is the server having the lowest ping. To perform additional checking the ping, you should press the "Scan" button. After that the ping information becomes refreshed.

Also in this window you can add a new server to connect to. To do it, press the "add new server" button or the "Insert" key. A server can be specified in different ways:

• Write its address and port separated with a colon. For example, 192.168.0.100:443;
• Write its domain name and port separated with a colon. For example, mt.company.com:443;
• Write an accurate name of a brokerage company.

As soon as you specify a server, press "Enter". To delete a server, select it and press the "Delete" key.

  

ACCOUNT TYPE

At this stage a user can specify details of an existing trade account or start creating a new one.

The following data will be requested to open an account:

• Name - the user's full name;
• Country - country of residence;
• State — area (region, territory, state, etc.) of residence;
• City — city of residence;
• Zip code — zip code;
• Address — exact mailing address (street name, house and apartment numbers);
• Phone — contact telephone number;
• Email — email address;
• Account Type — account type to be selected from the list defined by the brokerage company;
• Currency — the basic currency of the deposit to be set automatically depending on the account type selected;
• Leverage — the ratio between the borrowed and owned funds for trading;
• Deposit — the amount of the initial deposit in terms of the basic currency. The minimum amount is 10 units of the specified currency.

To activate the "Next" button and continue registration, it is necessary to flag "I agree to subscribe to your newsletters".

After the registration has successfully completed, a window will appear that contains information about the open account: "Login" — the account number, "Password" — the password for access, "Investor" — the investor's password (connection mode in which it is possible to check the account status, analyze the price dynamics, etc., but no trading is allowed).

 

After registration has been completed, the new account will appear in the "Navigator — Accounts" window, and it is ready to work with. At that, the server sends a message to the terminal containing login and passwords of this newly opened account. This message can be found in the "Terminal — Mailbox" window. Besides, after the account has been successfully registered, it will be authorized automatically.

 

OPENING OF A REAL ACCOUNT

Real accounts, unlike demo accounts, cannot be opened from the terminal. They can only be opened by brokerage companies under certain terms and conditions. Real accounts are marked correspondingly in the "Navigator — Accounts" window. To start working with them, one must perform authorization.

 

AUTHORIZATION

Authorization is connection of terminal to the server through a login and a password. It allows managing a trading account. Two accesses to the account are possible in the terminal: a normal password and an investor password. Being authorized with the standard password, one gets full rights for working with the terminal. Investor authorization allows you to see the account status, analyze prices, and work with your own Expert Advisors, but not trade. Automated trading by Expert Advisors is not allowed either. Investor access is a convenient tool used for demonstration of trading at the account.

To be authorized, it is necessary to execute the "Login" command of the context menu of the account (context menu is called by clicking with the right mouse button at the account number) in the "Navigator" window or "File" menu. Then, the account number, one of its passwords (standard or investor) should be given in the appearing window, and a server should be chosen. After all data have been specified, the "Login" button should be pressed.

Attention: If the "Keep personal settings and data at startup", option is enabled, the latest account used will be automatically authorized at the next start of the terminal. The "Keep personal settings and data at startup" option in terminal settings carries out the same action. If you disable this option, the information about previously used account and saved passwords will be deleted upon the next restart of the terminal.

 

USER INTERFACE

Interface of the terminal includes the following components:

• Common Window Heading

The program heading includes the current account number, application name, as well as the active chart window name and its period (timeframe).

• Main Menu

All commands and functions that can be executed in the client terminal are collected in its main menu. It contains: "File", "View", "Insert", "Charts", "Tools", "Window", "Help".

• Toolbars

Four toolbars are built into the terminal: "Standard", "Charts", "Line Studies", and "Timeframes". The toolbars contain duplicated commands and functions of the main menu. However, these toolbars are customizable, so one can collect only mostly used widgets in them.

• Market Watch

This window contains the symbol list. Commands of this window allow to control trade positions and charts.

• Depth of Market

The depth of market displays the current market for a trading symbol. This tool provides the ability of quick and easy order management.

• Data Window

This window shows information about prices, as well as indicators and expert advisors imposed. This data window does not allow to perform any actions.

• Navigator

Open accounts, expert advisors, indicators, and scripts are grouped in the navigation window. The "Navigator" can help to control them promptly.

• Terminal

Terminal is a multifunctional window intended for working with trade positions, news, account history, alerts, internal mail, and logs of the program and of expert advisors, as well. Moreover, the "Terminal" window allows to open and modify orders of different kinds and manage trade positions.

• Tester

This window is intended for testing expert advisors. Besides testing and viewing of various reports, the expert parameters can be optimized in this window, as well.

• Tick Charts

A tick chart is the basis of data analysis. Besides price changes, various analytical objects can be located in the chart: line studies, technical and custom indicators, texts, and geometrical figures.

• Status Bar

For additional information to be visualized, the status bar is used in the terminal. The status bar contains indicator of the server connection, amount of incoming and outgoing traffic, names of active template and profile, as well as command prompts and price data.

• Fast Navigation Tools

Hot keys, acceleration keys, and fast navigation bar are intended for quick work with the terminal. Using of keys allows to execute various commands of the program promptly, and the fast navigation bar makes it possible to move the chart along its time base precisely, change its timeframe, and even the symbol itself.

 

TERMINAL

"Terminal" is a multifunctional window allowing to access to various terminal features. This window allows to control over trading activities, view news and account history, set up alerts, and work with the internal mail and system journal. The window can be opened by the "View — Terminals" menu command, by pressing of accelerating keys of Ctrl+T, or the button of the "Standard" toolbar. There are several tabs in the window:

• Trade — in this tab, one can view the status of open positions and pending orders, as well as manage all trading activities. Besides, the total financial result for all open positions is published in this tab;
• Exposure — this tab contains the summary information about the state of assets by all open positions;
• Account History - history for all performed trade operations and balance without taking open positions into consideration are published here. The efficiency of all trade activities can be estimated with the results given in this tab;
• News - all financial news incoming in the terminal can be viewed from this tab. This prompt information is indispensable for fundamental analysis;
• Alerts - various alerts can be viewed and set here. Any files executable in the operational environment (including wave files) and messages to be sent by email can be used as alerts;
• Mailbox - all message income in the terminal by internal email are stored here. Electronic messages are sent from here, as well;
• Company - this tab displays a useful web page for a trader;
• Market - buying or downloading applications from the market of MQL4 applications at MQL5.community.
• Signals - this tab displays trading signals of the "Signals" service, which are available for subscription;
• Code Base - here you can download any application published in the "Code Base" section of the MQL5.community website;
• Search - this tab displays the result of searching through the client terminal;
• Expert Advisors - information about functioning of the attached expert, including opening/closing of positions, order modifying, the expert's own messages, etc., are published in this tab;
• Journal - information about terminal launching and about events during its operation, including all trade operations performed, is stored in the journal.

Attention: Some tabs of the "Terminal" window can be absent. This means that they are empty at the moment. For example, the "Expert Advisors" tab will be hidden until a message from MQL4 program incomes.

 

Trade

The "Trade" tab contains information about the current status of the trading account, about open positions and pending orders placed.

 

All open positions can be sorted by any field. Then there is a line of the account balance and financial result of open positions followed by the list of pending orders. When a pending order triggers, a new position will be opened and the pending order line will be replaced with that of the position opened.

 

Trade Operations

All trade operations are displayed as a table having the following fields (from left to right): 

• Order — the operation ticket number. It is a unique number of the trade operation;
• Time — time of position opening. The time is represented as YYYY.MM.DD HH:MM (year.month.day hour:minute). This is the time at which the position was opened;
• Type — type of the trade operation. There are several types of trading operations that can appear here: "Buy" — long position, "Sell" — short position, and pending orders named Sell Stop, Sell Limit, Buy Stop, and Buy Limit;
• Size — the amount of lots participating in operation. The minimum amount of lots to participate in operations is defined by the brokerage company, and the maximum is limited by the deposit size;
• Symbol — this field displays the name of the security participating in the trade operation;
• Price — price of position opening (no to be mixed up with the current price described below). This is the price at which the position was opened;
• S/L — the placed Stop Loss order level. If the order has not been placed, a zero value will be written in this field. More details about working with orders can be found in the corresponding section;
• T/P  — the placed Take Profit order level. If the order has not been placed, a zero value will be written in this field. More details about working with orders can be found in the corresponding section;
• Price — the current price of the security (not to be mixed up with that of position opening described above);
• Commission — commissions charged by the brokerage company at performing trade operations are written in this field;
• Taxes — taxes charged when performing trade operations are written in this field;
• Swap — charging of swaps is stored in this cell;
• Profit — the financial result of the transaction made will be written in this field taking the current price into consideration. Positive result means that the transaction was profitable, and negative one means that it was unprofitable;
• Comments — comments on trade operations are stored in this column. A comment can only be written at the position opening or at placing of a pending order. Comment cannot be changed at order or position modifying. Besides, the brokerage company can store a comment to a trade operation, as well.

 

Trading

This tab allows not only to view the open positions and placed orders, but to manage trading activities. One can do the following here: open a new position, place a pending order, modify or delete it, and close a position. To do all this, one has to use the following context menu commands:

• New Order - a new order. The orders managing window will appear at this command. A new position can be opened and a pending order can be placed in it. At that, the following must be specified: the security, amount of lots, order type (market order or a pending one), as well as Stop Loss and Take Profit order levels. More details about placing of orders can be found in the "Control over Trade Positions" section;
• Close Order - close a trade position. This command becomes active only if the context menu has been called at an open position. The order managing window appears at this command, as well. This window displays not only "Sell" and "Buy" buttons, but also the "Close#XXXXXXX ..." button (where XXXXXXX is the position ticket number). Besides, having executed this command, one can close the selected positions together with the hedged ones. More details about closing of positions can be found in the corresponding section;
• Modify or Delete Order - change the "Stop Loss" and "Take Profit" values of open positions or the pending order price. If the Stop Loss and Take Profit levels specified are too close to the current price, the error message will appear, and the levels will not be placed. Their values must be changed to be not so close to the current price, and then they can be placed again. More details about modifying of orders can be found in the section of the same name;
• Trailing Stop - place, modify, or delete the "Trailing Stop" level. Having selected the corresponding level in the menu, one can activate the trailing stop with the given parameter. The "None" value is used for disabling of the order. "Delete All" — disable all trailing stops. More details about trailing stops are given in the "Trailing Stop" section;

The "Trailing Stop" command may be missing in the context menu, in case using that function is disabled on the broker's side.

• Profit - show profit/loss as points, as term currency, or as deposit currency. Changes in this parameter are displayed in the "Profit" field. If the parameter of "show profit in the term currency" (quote currency) is selected had, there are, for example, open positions for USDJPY, the profit will be shown in Japanese Yens;
• Commissions - show/hide the "Commissions" column where the commission for each of the performed trade operations will be displayed;
• Taxes - show/hide the "Taxes" column to display the tax for each trade operation;
• Comments - show/hide the "Comment" column. Comments to trade operations are written in this column. A comment can be written only if a position is being opened or an order is being placed. It cannot be changed at modifying of an order or of a position. Besides, the brokerage company can write a comment to a trade operation;
• Auto Arrange - automatic arrangement of columns at changing of the window size;
• Grid - show/hide grid to separate columns.

Accelerating keys of Ctrl+F9 switch the the focus in the "Terminal — Trade" window. After they have been pressed, one can trade with the keyboard.

 

One Click Trading

The tab provides the possibility to close positions and delete pending orders by a single mouse click. This function is available in case the following conditions are met:

• "One click trading" option is enabled in the terminal settings;
• execution type of the symbol, by which position is closed — "Instant" or "Market".

 

"Profit" column of each open position and trading order has the button . If you click the button for a position, it will be immediately closed without additional confirmations. If you click the button for a pending order, it will be immediately removed without additional confirmations.

• If it is impossible to perform a deal in one click ("One click trading" option is disabled or "Request" execution mode is used for a symbol), clicking the button will lead to the standard position closing or order deleting dialog.
• When a getting a requote, the corresponding message is written to the terminal journal and the requote sound is played.

NEWS

The list of income news is stored in the "News" tab. 

The news topics are represented as a table and arranged according to the incoming time. The news incoming time, its topic and category are published in the table. This list is updated automatically at incoming of the latest news.

The number of news received for the last 24 hours is displayed next to the tab name.

The following commands are available in the context menu:

• View - view the selected news. One can also read news by double-click with the left mouse button on the topic;
• Copy - copy the news to the clipboard;
• Categories - this command appears only if the terminal receives several categories of news. It opens the sub-menu for selecting news categories to be displayed. In order to hide a category a check near it should be removed. If terminal receives only news that belong to one category, this sub-menu is not shown. If there are additional subcategories, the "Customize" command appears. Use it for a detailed setup of news categories;
• Category - show/hide the "Category" column;
• Auto Arrange - automatic arrangement of columns when changing of the window size;
• Grid - show/hide grid to separate columns.

Attention:

• If there is no "News" tab in the "Terminal" window, it means that no news have income yet.
• If the "Enable news" option is disabled in terminal settings, news will not income.
• If the given account has no appropriate rights, this can be one of the reasons why news do not income or cannot be viewed.

Text is taken from the help topics of MetaTrader 4