What Trading Platform do Investors Prefer?

Among other factors, investors and traders will place a core focus on the trading platform before selecting a broker as they may require diverse features pertaining to their different trading styles. It is thus hugely important for brokerage firms​ to have a fairly accurate idea of their target market before deciding upon which trading system to offer.

Fazzaco has recently found a vote initiated on LinkedIn by Debbie Georgiou, Business Development Manager at FXPRIMUS, that polled investors on which trading platform they preferred. MetaTrader 4 (MT4), the most popular third-party trading platform for forex markets, received 65 percent of the votes, topping the list unsurprisingly.  

MetaTrader 5 (MT5), the successor to MT4, took the second spot with 15 percent, followed by cTrader with 13 percent. The results also revealed that only 7 percent of the investors casting a vote favor Webtrader, the web-based trading platform featuring easier access and greater convenience, but with limited functionalities.

MT4’s Dominance Continues

“MT4 smashes everything as it is the most resourceful at the moment with majority of EAs being compatible with it,” commented an advanced trader. Also, MT4 is believed to be the cheapest and most robust platform for brokers.

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Other reasons why MT4 continues to be the preferred trading platform for FX and CFDs investors lie in its user-friendly design and easy access. A trader with 11 years of experience remains loyal to MT4 because it is easy to use. Furthermore, the platform is available through a huge amount of brokers and banks across the world.

MT5 vs cTrader

MetaQuotes Software launched MT5 as the successor to MT4 back in 2010. Despite the added features and many advantages over its predecessor, MT5 is still far from replacing MT4 as the favorite trading platform of both forex and CFDs brokers and traders for it uses different programming languages from MT4. Traders have to relearn some techniques to use the platform. This, along with its advanced tools and features, may make MT5 an intimidating platform for most beginners and a certain proportion of experienced traders, allowing its main competitor, specifically Spotware’s cTrader, the chance to grow market share.

Spotware released cTrader less than a year after the initial launch of MT5. In addition to more built-in technical indicators and added execution models, cTrader is also preferred by investors and brokers for its user-friendly interface.     

“MT5 facilitates the ease of placing a trade. However, if we are talking about charting tools, or information helpful to traders etc., I think cTrader wins it,” explained a manual trader, after casting a vote.

Another Cypriot trader even ranked cTrader as “the best user-friendly platform for traders”. “It makes MT4 look so obsolete,” said the trader.