MetaTrader 4 — a program from one place, an account from another (Jordan)
A terminal published by an outside software house, connected to an account kept by the broker — what each of the two contributes to the window on the screen.
Open Exness Account →A banking program and the money it shows come from one organisation, so nothing in the window needs attributing. MetaTrader 4 splits that. The timeframes, the indicators, the chart types, the order ticket and the system requirements belong to the program, published by a software house that is not the broker. The instrument list, what each instrument costs, the execution mode and the server the terminal connects to arrive with the account. Reading the screen correctly here means knowing which of the two put a given element there.
Measured order execution — Standard
How orders actually filled when real market orders were placed on Exness’s MT5 feed — fill time, slippage and rejects by order size:
| Instrument | Order size | Avg fill | Avg slippage | Fails |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EURUSDm | 0.01 lot | 151 ms | -0.333 pts | 0 |
| EURUSDm | 0.1 lot | 151 ms | -0.333 pts | 0 |
| EURUSDm | 1.0 lot | 146 ms | -0.333 pts | 0 |
| GBPUSDm | 0.01 lot | 141 ms | 0.667 pts | 0 |
| GBPUSDm | 0.1 lot | 130 ms | 0.0 pts | 0 |
| GBPUSDm | 1.0 lot | 135 ms | 0.333 pts | 0 |
| XAUUSDm | 0.01 lot | 141 ms | 0.0 pts | 0 |
| XAUUSDm | 0.1 lot | 151 ms | 80.0 pts | 0 |
| XAUUSDm | 1.0 lot | 130 ms | -72.333 pts | 0 |
Small sample (a few round-trips per size); indicative. The same pricing engine feeds every platform the broker offers.
What comes from the program and what comes from the account
- From the program: 9 chart timeframes, 30+ built-in technical indicators, multiple chart types and custom indicators
- From the program: market and pending orders (Buy/Sell Limit and Buy/Sell Stop) with Stop Loss and Take Profit
- From the program: builds for Windows and macOS, the MT4 WebTerminal and the MT4 mobile app
- From the program: desktop requirements of Windows 7 or later, about 1 GB RAM and 100 MB free disk space
- From the program: one-click trading and free real-time quotes, the same for everyone who connects
- From the account: which symbols appear in the window and what each of them costs
- From the account: instant or market execution, depending on the account type
- From the account: the type behind the connection — Standard, Standard Cent, Pro, Raw Spread or Zero
- Shared by both: the encrypted link between the terminal and the servers the account lives on, 128-bit SSL
- MetaTrader 4 has been an industry-standard trading platform since 2005
Delays and slippage may occur. No guarantee of execution speed or precision.
Four windows, two of them written elsewhere
| Platform | Pricing model | Suited to | Devices |
|---|---|---|---|
| MetaTrader 5 | Spread (+ commission on Raw/Zero) | Traders who want the fullest toolkit the publisher ships | Windows, Mac, Web, iOS, Android |
| MetaTrader 4 | Spread (+ commission on Raw/Zero) | Traders who want the classic terminal and its habits | Windows, Mac, Web, iOS, Android |
| Exness Terminal | Spread (+ commission on Raw/Zero) | A browser session with nothing installed | Any modern web browser |
| Exness Trade app | Spread (+ commission on Raw/Zero) | Holding an account and its positions on a phone | iOS, Android |
The pricing column is the account speaking and the devices column is the program speaking. All four windows open the same account.
Where each half is obtained
Download MetaTrader 4 (MT4) from your Personal Area area after you open an account, or try it first on a free demo.
Open Exness Account →One window, two authors
The classic terminal is a general-purpose program. It was written to connect to accounts in general, and the same build is in use across the industry, which is why nothing in its layout is specific to whoever holds the account behind it.
That has a consequence readers rarely expect: a screenshot of the terminal says very little about the account. The menus, the timeframe buttons and the indicator list would look the same behind a different account entirely.
What only appears once an account is connected
An empty terminal has no instruments in it. The symbol list, the price of each symbol, the execution mode that applies when an order is sent and the type behind the connection are all delivered from the account side. Standard, Standard Cent, Pro, Raw Spread and Zero all reach MT4, and the difference between them shows in what the quotes cost, not in what the window looks like.
The connection itself works the same way. The terminal asks for a login number, a password and a server; the first and the third are properties of the account, and the program has no opinion about either.
Why a change on one side leaves the other alone
A new build of the terminal changes the program: it may add a chart type or correct a behaviour, and it arrives on the schedule of whoever publishes it. It does not change what a trade costs, because the price never lived in the program.
The reverse holds as well. Moving to a different account type changes the pricing model behind the connection and leaves the timeframe list, the indicator set and the disk requirements exactly where they were.
Who put this on the screen
| Element in the window | Comes from | Changes when |
|---|---|---|
| Timeframes and built-in indicators | The program | A new terminal build is installed |
| Chart types and the order ticket | The program | A new terminal build is installed |
| Requirements on the desk | The program | A new terminal build is installed |
| The list of symbols | The account | A different account is connected |
| What each symbol costs | The account | The account type changes |
| Instant or market execution | The account | The account type changes |
| Login number and server | The account | A different account is connected |
Delays and slippage may occur. No guarantee of execution speed or precision.