MetaTrader 4 Domination Counters the World’s Biggest Trend
The world has gone towards mobile and cloud software. But don't tell that to MetaTrader 4 which hums along with

It’s a given that we all bash MetaTrader 4 at some time or another. It doesn’t do this or it doesn’t do that. Natively it was created exclusively for market making, and integrating STP means utilizing some liquidity bridging hacks. Reporting of individual trades isn’t available in real time. But the bottom line is that despite the platform’s disadvantages, it remains synonymous with the online retail forex industry, with around 45% of global volumes (excluding Japan) transacted on the platform. Despite other platforms arriving as meaningful challengers, MetaTrader’s real competitor are broker proprietary platforms. But even in that battle, MetaTrader is gaining meaningful momentum as broker’s with their own platforms such as IG Markets, Saxo Bank, and FXCM have launched MT4 in recent years.
But, if you had to show one point that shows just how strong MT4’s position in the market is, it’s the fact that it is a downloadable platform in the new world of cloud computing and mobile technology. According to statistics from Comscore, between the latter part of 2013 and middle of 2014, mobile surpassed desktop for both consumption of the internet in minutes and number of users.
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MetaTrader accounts for around 45% of all non-Japanese online retail forex and CFD trading
Among the largest corporations in the world, the mobile and app trend has caused them to reorganize their businesses and how they market to the world. Perhaps the greatest example is at Microsoft, the software company dominated by its downloadable Windows and Office Suite products. Evolving to fit user preferences, they have pivoted their focus towards mobile and the cloud, creating the Office 365 cloud offering as well as a new hybrid operating system with Windows 8. But, despite the trend towards the cloud, MetaTrader hasn’t shown any shown signs of downloads slowing down.
During the first day of last week’s iFX Expo, panelists during the Business Trends panel were asked about whether MT4 was vulnerable to the move towards mobile trading and overall public sentiment against downloadable desktop products (Editor’s note: author was the moderator of the panel). Panelists, which included representatives from Divisa Capital and CFH Group that include MT4 in their white label solutions, answered that the platform’s strong position in the industry allows it to be the exception to the mobile trend. Part of that appeal is the uptake of EA’s being developed, distributed and sold by third parties both through MetaQuotes and externally. With EA’s, customers can operate automatic trading strategies on the downloadable desktop platform.
The continuation of desktop growth for MT4 occurs even as brokers such as CMC Markets, OANDA, and Saxo Bank have reported greater than 50% penetration of their mobile platforms among customers, as well as reports of over 30% in volumes originated from these trading apps. Therefore, while every major broker platform is seeing mobile trading as a major component of their business model, MT4 remains strong without it.
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One could counter that MetaQuotes does provide a mobile version of MT4 for smartphones and tablets. However, while concrete usage figures are difficult to calculate as MT4 Manager reports don’t naturally segregate between desktop and app volumes, rough estimates are that the app only composew between 5-10% of trading.
Another interesting statistic that reveals the importance of mobile, were search statistics from Google. Presented by Panos Lamprakos, Forex Industry Manager at Google, during the second day of the iFX Expo, he showed that forex related searches of top 20 keywords was nearing parity between desktop and non-desktop devices. (On a side note, interestingly enough, the mobile search trend wasn’t nearly as strong in binary option)
40-50% of broker leads arrive from mobile devices
According to Lamprakos’s research, desktop searches account for around 60% of forex industry searches, with many Asian and some Middle Eastern countries being closer to 50%. On this, Lamprakos noted that when companies ask for his advice of which are the hot Asian markets to enter, he then asks what type of mobile offering do they have? With around 40-50% of leads reaching brokers on mobile devices, not having a suitable platform to match their internet consumption preferences poses greater challenges to convert these potential traders.
Nonetheless, an executive from a MT4 broker pointed out to Lamprakos that their internal research showed very little interest for mobile trading among their customers. Following up with the executive after the Google presentation, he pointed out that due to lack of demand the broker had discontinued a mobile platform they had licensed, but continue to support the simpler iOS and Android app available from MetaQuotes.
Overall, the industry may have different reasons to explain the success of MetaTrader 4. Regardless of what is behind its domination, user statistics of continued desktop downloads in the face of rising mobile internet uptake, clearly show that MT4 is doing a great job of positioning itself as the de-facto platform of the online retail trading industry.
mt4 is primarily an algorithmic platform. So unless a mobile platform can be devised with complete algo capability and redundancy that comes with being always connected to reliable internet (co-located), then we will have to stick with desktop vps. If you want mobile access, use Splashtop, RDP, etc to access the desktop remotely from your mobile device.
Question: What is the mt4 equivalent in Japan? What top 2 or 3 platforms do Japanese use to submit their algo trades.
mt4 is primarily an algorithmic platform. So unless a mobile platform can be devised with complete algo capability and redundancy that comes with being always connected to reliable internet (co-located), then we will have to stick with desktop vps. If you want mobile access, use Splashtop, RDP, etc to access the desktop remotely from your mobile device.
Question: What is the mt4 equivalent in Japan? What top 2 or 3 platforms do Japanese use to submit their algo trades.
Here in Pakistan, this is probably the only trading software that new traders learn at first. Metaquotes has an office in Lahore, Pakistan. Gets to show you, how valid they are within the Asian region.
Here in Pakistan, this is probably the only trading software that new traders learn at first. Metaquotes has an office in Lahore, Pakistan. Gets to show you, how valid they are within the Asian region.
There are categories of traders who are likely to never abandon desktop as their primary work tool: 1) Technical traders: try doing technical analysis on a mobile phone or an iPad. Technical traders usually need a big screen(s) to draw channels, fibs, trend lines, etc. and watch several currency pairs, commodities, indices at the same time. 2) Algo traders – Jon’s comment answered this Unless your trade planning/analysis is really simple or you only trade fundamentally, I can’t see trading solely from a phone a viable option. Phones and tables are great however for monitoring running trades or executing new… Read more »
@Jozef – thanks for your comments. In terms of “This article really misses reasoning what would traders gain from abandoning MT4”. For existing traders, there is minimal if not no gain. But from the perspective that we all know that forex is a high churn industry, despite most new traders having no previous bias of desiring MT4 before getting involved in the market, it is impressive that new customers aren’t looking elsewhere and searching for other brokers that have different platform options.
Ron, you forgot my question: Question: What is the mt4 equivalent in Japan? What top 2 or 3 platforms do Japanese use to submit their algo trades?
@Jon – didn’t forget, still reviewing. In Japan, the majority of platforms are created for brokers by a few platform developers such as Simplex. They are a bit similar to Devexperts in that broker have options how they want to customize the platform to their needs. But these basic platforms, don’t have native algo offerings within them and are for click trading.
Ok, thanks. Perhaps a separate article about this is worth it.
But surprisingly for a technological country like japan, why was mt4 or something similar not embraced by the masses of retail forex clients?
@Jon – two reasons inhibited Japanese/MT4 adoption
1) On user side the platform didn’t have Japanese documentation (not sure how good it is now, but as of late 2013 when I researched it, this was the case)
2) On the broker side, the native reports from MT4 didn’t satisfy reporting requirements from Japanese regulators.
Another factor is that FX is more popular in Japan than the rest of the world and is very competitive. So broker spreads are among the lowest, and native risk management with MT4 without using external bridge providers and their software is poor.
One more comment. I noticed an article last year about a Japan firm dropping mt4 and I asked similar questions: http://www.financemagnates.com/forex/brokers/yjfx-becomes-latest-major-japanese-broker-abandon-metatrader4-platform/
I will copy them here:
“…
1) they do not mention why they will quit mt4 offering altogether.
2) they do not mention an [algorithmic] alternative.
Does this make any sense? I would think especially in Japan that algorithmic trading would be a huge deal out there for retail traders…..”
There are categories of traders who are likely to never abandon desktop as their primary work tool: 1) Technical traders: try doing technical analysis on a mobile phone or an iPad. Technical traders usually need a big screen(s) to draw channels, fibs, trend lines, etc. and watch several currency pairs, commodities, indices at the same time. 2) Algo traders – Jon’s comment answered this Unless your trade planning/analysis is really simple or you only trade fundamentally, I can’t see trading solely from a phone a viable option. Phones and tables are great however for monitoring running trades or executing new… Read more »
@Jozef – thanks for your comments. In terms of “This article really misses reasoning what would traders gain from abandoning MT4”. For existing traders, there is minimal if not no gain. But from the perspective that we all know that forex is a high churn industry, despite most new traders having no previous bias of desiring MT4 before getting involved in the market, it is impressive that new customers aren’t looking elsewhere and searching for other brokers that have different platform options.
Ron, you forgot my question: Question: What is the mt4 equivalent in Japan? What top 2 or 3 platforms do Japanese use to submit their algo trades?
@Jon – didn’t forget, still reviewing. In Japan, the majority of platforms are created for brokers by a few platform developers such as Simplex. They are a bit similar to Devexperts in that broker have options how they want to customize the platform to their needs. But these basic platforms, don’t have native algo offerings within them and are for click trading.
Ok, thanks. Perhaps a separate article about this is worth it.
But surprisingly for a technological country like japan, why was mt4 or something similar not embraced by the masses of retail forex clients?
@Jon – two reasons inhibited Japanese/MT4 adoption
1) On user side the platform didn’t have Japanese documentation (not sure how good it is now, but as of late 2013 when I researched it, this was the case)
2) On the broker side, the native reports from MT4 didn’t satisfy reporting requirements from Japanese regulators.
Another factor is that FX is more popular in Japan than the rest of the world and is very competitive. So broker spreads are among the lowest, and native risk management with MT4 without using external bridge providers and their software is poor.
One more comment. I noticed an article last year about a Japan firm dropping mt4 and I asked similar questions: http://www.financemagnates.com/forex/brokers/yjfx-becomes-latest-major-japanese-broker-abandon-metatrader4-platform/
I will copy them here:
“…
1) they do not mention why they will quit mt4 offering altogether.
2) they do not mention an [algorithmic] alternative.
Does this make any sense? I would think especially in Japan that algorithmic trading would be a huge deal out there for retail traders…..”