Synergy FX, a leading Australian forex broker, releases their new trading account with ECN pricing for professional forex traders using the Meta Trader 4 platform

In a move to expand their overall product offering, Synergy FX now offers their Standard Account and an ECN Account.

Importantly, forex traders have the opportunity to practice their trading in either account in the Synergy FX forex demo account.

Suitable for all style of traders, the demo environment is ideal for both currency trading for beginners as well as professional traders to test their forex trading strategies in a practice environment before switching over to the live account.

Manual traders can access Meta Trader 4′s wide range of technical indicators and powerful charting tools to test and confirm their trading decisions.

For automated forex trading strategies such as Expert Advisors and forex robots, traders can import the forex trading system onto the Synergy FX Meta Trader 4 platform to test the programme in the demo environment.

Source: www.sfgate.com

Without any official announcement or promotions eToro has recently soft launched the MT4 platform. While to some it may sound trivial as it’s another broker adding the popular MT4 to the list of its platforms – however in case of eToro it’s not trivial at all.

Unlike prevailing majority of forex brokers eToro was established as a venture capital funded start-up with its proprietary platform in the center. Instead of taking a readily available solution eToro went ahead and developed its own platform upon which it continues development of core features such as the successful OpenBook. For a start-up solely focused on its platform to start offering another platform is far from being obvious and it’s a sign for a major shift in eToro’s way of thinking and positioning.

eToro is here completing a transition from a start-up forex firm into a full blow forex brokerage with the purpose of making its shareholders happy regardless of the technology being used.

eToro in my opinion is doing this for two reasons: first one is the transition from a forex broker which is predominantly marketing to entry level traders using a very simplified platform to a broker catering to all kinds of forex traders – simple or sophisticated. Those long enough in the market will remember the first eToro platform with the simplified gaming interface – for instance graphic animated representation of countries pulling a rope symbolizing a currency pair going in one direction or the other. eToro started transitioning from that gaming interface long time ago realizing that while it is attractive to forex newbies it’s a turn-off for the sophisticated part of the trading public.

The other reason is that eToro has grown quite a lot and now has the market positioning to attract traders who specifically demand MT4. Adding MT4 now will not threaten the very basis on which eToro was founded – its platform. Adding MT4 will add more prestige, larger traders (eToro’s traders are typically not very large in size, albeit OpenBook is changing that) and ultimately volume.

MT4 will eventually help eToro better position itself as a forex broker capable of catering to all types of clients and potentially increase its growth at the expense of smaller MT4 shops which don’t have value adding features Etoro has such as OpenBook and others.

For now eToro’s MT4 is not directly available from its website but needs to be requested from your account’s manager. eToro’s MT4 is rumored to be supplied by Boston Technologies.

Source: www.forexmagnates.com

MetaQuotes continues to impress us with new features in MetaTrader 5.  As with any major software upgrade, however, there will be a period of time where both MT4 and MT5 will exist and perhaps be supported concurrently by brokers.  One excellent way MetaQuotes has helped manage that overlap is a feature that permits MetaTrader 5 to act as a signal provider for MetaTrader 4 with a little coding in the MQL languages.  This article outlines the process, and it was found on the MQL5 Community website, MQL5.com.  All MT4 users and administrators should be sure to keep up with MT5 news as the platform is adopted by the world’s brokerages.

Source: www.cmaplic.com

I have been helping a lot of customer install, setup and use MetaTrader 4 recently and although its not our preferred platform it defiantly has a place in the trade world for beginners or someone who wishes to have a minimal cost setup. I would even go as far as to say that its a good platform for automated order execution.

I have written this list of my top 10 shortcut keys int MetaTrader 4 that I think are very handy and can defiantly speed up using the platform and make it less of a drag! Like anything if you learn to use your tools properly the rest will come easy…. In theory

Left Arrow — chart scrolling to the left.
Right Arrow — chart scrolling to the right.
Page Up — fast chart scrolling to the left.
Page Down — fast chart scrolling to the right.
F12 — move the chart by one bar to the left.
Shift+F12 — move the chart by one bar to the right.
Ctrl+P — print the chart.
F11 — enable/disable the full screen mode. – This one is great for MetaTrade 4 as it can look a bit clunky sometimes
Ctrl+I — call the “Indicators List” window. – Dealing with indicators all day long this has become my favourite!
Ctrl+N — open/close the “Navigator” window. – Navigator is a handy little tool in MetaTrader 4 but can take up alot of room so this shortcut can save time.

Above are my top 10 but I have included all the others i know exist in MetaTrader 4 below.

Numpad 5 — restoring of automatic chart vertical scale after its being changed. If the scale was defined, this hot key will return the chart into the visible range.
Home — move the chart to the start point.
End — move the chart to the end point.
“-” — chart zoom out.
“+” — chart zoom in.
Delete — delete all selected graphical objects.
Backspace — delete the latest objects imposed into the chart window.
Enter — open/close fast navigation window.
Esc — close the dialog window.
F1 — open this “Userguide”.
F2 — open the “History Center” window.
F3 — open the “Global Variables” window.
F4 — download MetaEditor.
F5 — switch to the next profile.
F6 — call the “Tester” window for testing the expert attached to the chart window.
F7 — call the properties window of the expert attached to their chart window in order to change settings.
F8 — call the chart setup window.
F9 — call the “New Order” window.
F10 — open the “Popup prices” window.
Shift+F5 — switch to the previous profile.
Alt+1 — display the chart as a sequence of bars (transform into bar chart).
Alt+2 — display the chart as a sequence of candlesticks (transform into candlesticks).
Alt+3 — display the chart as a broken line (transform into line chart).
Alt+A — copy all test/optimization results into the clipboard.
Alt+W — call the chart managing window.
Alt+F4 — close the client terminal.
Ctrl+Z — undo object deletion.
Ctrl+A — arrange all indicator windows heights by default.
Ctrl+B — call the “Objects List” window.
Ctrl+C — copy to the clipboard.
Ctrl+E — enable/disable expert advisor.
Ctrl+F — enable “Crosshair”.
Ctrl+G — show/hide grid.
Ctrl+H — show/hide OHLC line.
Ctrl+L — show/hide volumes.
Ctrl+S — save the chart in a file having extensions: “CSV”, “PRN”, “HTM”.
Ctrl+W — close the chart window.
Ctrl+Y— show/hide period separators.
Ctrl+D — open/close the “Data Window”.
Ctrl+M — open/close the “Market Watch” window.
Ctrl+O — open the “Setup” window.
Ctrl+R — open/close the “Tester” window.
Ctrl+T — open/close the “Terminal” window.
Ctrl+F6 — activate the next chart window.
Ctrl+F9 — open the “Terminal — Trade” window and switch the focus into it. After this, the trading activities can be managed with keyboard.

Source: www.theindicatorguys.com

Alpari (UK) Limited (“Alpari (UK)”), a leading global provider of foreign exchange (“Forex”, “FX”), won “Best FX Broker” at the Shares Awards 2011 last week, making it the third year in succession the provider has won a major award at the ceremony.

Receiving the award, David Stuart, Chief Operating Officer at Alpari (UK), said: “I’m really pleased to accept this award on behalf of everyone at Alpari (UK). We are committed to offering a very competitive Forex product with excellent customer service. It’s great to see this endorsed by everyone who voted.”

Alpari (UK)’s vision is to be recognised as the world’s premier broker and last week, Alpari (UK) expanded its product range to offer spread betting on MetaTrader 4 (MT4) platform.

Source: www.marketwatch.com