Many people asked MetaQuotes to develop a mobile version of Metatrader 4 for Iphone. Unfortunately, the mobile version of MT4 is only available for the Windows Mobile platform ( Smartphones and Pocket PC's, look for the download links in "MT downloads" sidebar ). However the good news is that Metatrader 5 will be available for Iphone and Google Android platforms! It was recently confirmed by MetaQuotes staff in this thread. The development of the Iphone app is progressing, and it will be probably released first. Bad news is that there wont be a version anymore for the Windows Mobile platfrom, Windows Phone 7 will be also avoided. I think this is because of the bad reputation Microsoft got with the countless bugs of Windows Mobile 6 and the drastic changes in code in the 7th version.

The Metatrader 5 Iphone app will feature a uniform design that will seamlessly fit in the Iphone interface. The app is developed from scratch and will be 100% native to the Iphone OS. Also, it will be different from the interface in Metatrader 4 Windows Mobile. The release date is not known yet. If the mobile version of Metatrader 5 is one of the reasons you will buy a smartphone, this information will help you to decide what platform to buy. I personally like the Android OS.

If you want to use Metatrader 4 on your Iphone, you can use tools that create a remote connection to your desktop, where Metatrader 4 is running. For example, you can use the TeamViewer app for Iphone, it connects to any PC around the world and you can remotely control the PC as if you were sitting right in front of it. You can also seamlessly use iPhone to login directly to your PC running MT4 using the PC2ME app. With PC2Me you can remote control of your Windows PC, using your iPhone via the Safari browser. There is also a Iphone app that allows you to monitor your Metatrader 4 accounts using myfxbook.com's backend:

Actually, the remote connection to the desktop version of the Metatrader terminal is in some cases better than a mobile version of MT for the smartphone. On the smartphone you have always limited computing resources and not all features of the full version of Metatrader. For example, if you are using a expert advisor on your desktop, you can only control it via a remote connection. But if you want to quickly check the market quotes, the mobile version is better.

Check out this great blog about MQL programming and Metatrader 5 related stuff: http://mqlmagazine.com The authors of the blog are Bogdan Caramalac and Bogdan Baltatu, professional traders and MQL programmers from Romania. The blog has many great articles, for example: Tick events in MQL5: complicated for now, but functional or Quoting – A new activity in MT5

About their blog:

MQLmagazine.com is a web magazine for MetaTrader users and MQL programmers, covering automated trading in forex, futures, options and equities.

Metatrader 5 – A Probably New Beginning For Everything

This was the title of my last post in my former blog on the vamist.ro website – the romanian forex community. At that time I was announcing my decision to move my blog on a brand new domain – my own. However, things changed and there had come the decision to write a magazine. But what kind of magazine ? Well, there are plenty magazines for traders. Take a look at the ones better known – CurrencyTrader , Futures & Options Trader… They target most of the time the strategical type of trader. The one that takes long term trades that span on months. This is why most of their analysis are floating around market forecasts. Of course, around these, different platform commercials and explanations of “forex” terms.

The retail forex market is around for some good years. In the so-called “western world”, these markets became known and called for retail traders right from beginning. But here, in Romania, where the authors are located, forex is still not too much known. However, we will not make a forex magazine. As I said, forex was what was offered to beginners at that time.

Things have started to change a bit a few years ago, when forward steps have been made by several brokerages, that started to offer futures and equities under MetaQuotes’ most acclaimed platform, Metatrader 4. But it wasn’t the time of a revolution in retail trading. Because Metatrader 4 was not designed – although it is the best retail trading platform – to trade the manner professional traders think and do it. Therefore, several trading strategies that were known to professional traders and , in general, to the hedge fund world, have remain hidden from the sight of retail traders.

Even more, brokerages commercials and forums accentuated the traders indoctrination that forex was the ultimate market that could have been traded. Lots of trading strategies and markets were hidden : pair trading strategies, quoting, forex arbitrage (although it was tackled at that time by a few, including myself) , forex / futures arbitrage, commodities arbitrage, and finally option strategies. Option strategies still are, at this time, the realm of derivatives quants. Even professional option traders don’t trade the way they might think – because either the platforms can’t do it and the NFA regulations restrict it. Here are some facts about trading platforms and regulations:

- most of them do not have a backtesting module;
- most of them do not support even exchange traded options, not speaking about exotics;
- most of them do not offer automation for options, and that including the well-known TradeStation and OptionStation;
- option stations may not support any other assets – example RAN Order and IKON.
- the ones that have a backtesting module may not backtest multiple assets;
- data feed is dependant on either broker or data provider; so you may have, or not, what you desire to trade;
- they might offer their own scripting language or API ; professional platforms might offer only FIX specification and leave automation on the hands of extremely skilled C++ programmers;
- under NFA regulations you cannot trade in a forex account anything else besides forex, gold and silver. Anything else, including forex options or real futures, trade in a separate account;
- under NFA regulations you cannot trade CFDs (broker manufactured assets that mimic real market, being tailored to small investors);
- under NFA regulations you can trade futures, equities, and options in the same account;
- and finally, under NFA regulations, you cannot hedge – that is, you cannot be long and short at the same time on an instrument ; even more, positions open and close in a FIFO manner.

Unfortunately, Metatrader 4 didn’t score too much either ; a limited platform, extremely latent , which can’t backtest anything but strategies trading one asset and with no implementation of options. As a result, anything quite constructive that could have been built in theoretical conditions (i.e. textbook strategies) could not be backtested or not even implemented at all.

But with the emergence of the new MetaQuotes’ flagship platform, Metatrader 5, things have started to change. At the time this article is being written, Metatrader 5 is in open beta. The “Strategy Tester” module (which is well known by some of our readers and will be also presented in future articles) is not present in the platform. It is our belief that the Strategy Tester will allow development of multiasset strategies. Multiasset backtesting is needed in a lot of situations. I might even say that all successful trading is multiasset trading. You might ask why. And the answer is simple. All [successful] trading is a form of arbitrage. Some will argue and say that very good trading systems don’t arbitrage – but when you look at a sheet with trades and see a good percentage of profitable trades that are not offset by bad trades, somehow the system knew to buy something cheap and sell something expensive, so it does nothing else than a price-value arbitrage. But one-asset markets are just too random for the unexperienced trader to handle. After all, what is of value is the multiasset approach, because markets can’t be too efficient overall. Correlations are broken, parity relations are broken, add to this the magic of options, and look at the big picture : markets become full of opportunities! Now don’t ask why they got into the crysis : they had too much money, way too much money in order to make enough using opportunities. After all, we’re not interested in universal strategies that apply to everyone. But in strategies that apply to US, THE SMALL GUYS.

So, given that the new Metatrader 5 comes with new features, like multiasset backtester, option trading and event-based programming, we decided it was time for a magazine for all things MetaTrader. Of course, with the accent on MQL programming. The magazine will be addressed to all categories of MetaTrader users: absolute beginners that never heard of trading and are making the first steps in the world of markets, MetaTrader traders that use the terminal , and finally all categories of MQL programmers – task specific programming and also complex strategies design and programming.

Source: Mqlmagazine.com

The website mql5.com is now online! ;) The forum , mql5 documentation and articles section are already working, but the code base is still in development. Great news for all MQL5 developers: a MQL5 book is planned and it will be written by Sergey Kovalyov, author of the MQL4 book.

Now that the MQL5 documentation is online, you don't need a local version of the MQL5 help. The MQL5 language continues developing and the official documentation will be extended and improved, so the online version will contain always the last updates. So if you plan to learn MQL5, the mql5 documentation is the best place to start!

All forum accounts were moved from the MQL4 website, so you can use your existing login, you should only fill your profile and upload an avatar if you use one.