Metatrader or Tradestation or ?

[MD27]

Hello,

Since this is my first post here, a brief presentation...

In 2005 I discovered that Forex was accessable for small investors like many of us (I knew about FX for many years, but always regarded it as a market for banks, corporations and rich investors). I also knew what technical analysis was, but had never studied it. My trading experience was limited to stocks, with a long-term strategy (the old "buy-and-hold"), with a positive return.

So, after discovering retail fx (maybe a bit late, but better late than never...), I plunged into it doing all the big mistakes...like following the signals from a "professional service", and (trusting them 100%) going directly to a standard account...

Oh yes...you already know the story...the result was losing 50% of my $10K account in 3 months...no additional comments necessary...

So I got out of FX for 6 months, and last month decided to come back, but doing what many say is "the right thing": started reading books on technical analysis, trading with a demo account, and trying to define my trading system.

That brings me to the point of this post.

I have seen references to several platforms that allow automatic trading, but 2 are repeatedly mentioned: metatrader and tradesation.

Having had a look at their sites, I was left with a series of questions, and thought that I would probably get a more independent opinion, asking here on the forum than asking them directly.

1 - I understand that they both allow backtesting a trading system, correct?
If so, which one is better?

2 - One thing that was not clear to me was: are they themselves brokers? That is, one can actually place live trades using their platforms? (we open an account with them?)
Or do we have to "associate" them to our brokers account?

3 - It seemed to me that metatrader has a more complex programming language (tradestation mentions an "english like" programming).
Which do you recommend for programming an auto-trading system?

4 - Do we have to pay them?
This one I did not understand...
Metatrader seems to have a client-server type of working...we download the client for free and install it, but we have to connect to their services, correct? Don't we have to pay some fee?
Tradestation seemed to be for free, if you use it for a certain amount of trades per month (correct me if I'm wrong).
All in all, which one is better, "moneywise"?

5 - Do you recomend any other platform?

Well, it turned out to be a big post...hope someone has the patience to read and answer.

Thanks

MD

[MTS_Trader]

MT4 is the preferred choice for FX traders TS is to expensive and your limited to only one broker for clearing while with MT you have many. I’m currently using the StrategyBuilderFX version of MT4 witch is supplied with data and free to use thay also have a huge community of followers to collaborate and build different strategies.

[truth_man]

tradestation is way to expensive. I much prefer metatrader as its free and you can demo test.

[MD27]

Hi,

Thanks MTS_trader and Truth_man.
From your posts and other stuff I've been reading, I'm very much inclined to opt by metatrader.

Right now I just don't understand some things about Metatrader:
- How long can we have a demo account with MT?
(is just one month as I read, I think on their site)?
- What's the difference between the strategybuilder version and metatrader itself?
- If I reallly go to a love account with metatrader, which broker (that accpets metatrader should I use)?

Hope to get some answers on this as well.

Regards

MD

[USDTrader]

Yes Metatrader is one great salutation.

Metatrader is developed by MetaQuotes thay are not a broker ( can't open account with them ) thay are strictly a software developer and thay license out Metatrader MT4 Software to banks and brokers. so if you download MT4 from MetaQuotes your only using the test version ( not fully working ) unstable sever connections, limited to 30day demo accounts and week feeds.


Theirs other broker using the MT4 platform software but no one gives us what StrategyBuilderFX dos;, the reliability of severs and feeds, thay also give us unlimited never expiring demo account to build and test our strategies on a great community of usurers and a choice of clearing brokers. >>


Hope this helps

[Aleph]

Metatrader is free to use, there are a lot of brokers offering demo accounts for 30 days and when they expire you just open a new account. It seems that metaquotes do have their own demo server which I used before, but actually I use a demo account with A.l.p.a.r.i. Check also f.x.d.d.com or StrategyBuilder how it seems. I use MT4 only for charting, as my broker has another interface.

The programming language of metatrader seems to be kind of C+ and rather difficult to understand (at least for me )

What's this about StrategyBuilder? Is this a demo server or a special MT4 version? Is it free? I'd like to know, thanks.

Aleph

PS: you may also check for a demo account. They have a pretty good charting for a browser based interface... and can be accessed from any pc without installing software (like at work )

[USDTrader]

Originally Posted by Aleph

What's this about StrategyBuilder? Is this a demo server or a special MT4 version? Is it free? I'd like to know, thanks.

StrategyBuilderFX is both a special MT4 version, alowing you to connect to multiple 3erd party brokers and a never expiring demo for building and testing Strategies.

[MD27]

Hi again,

Thanks USDtrader and Aleph.

So the strategybuilder version has a unlimited demo account? that's a plus!

But doesn't it allow only live trading via FXDD?

Impotant info you gave me, anyway. Think I'm going to download strategybuilder.

Regards

MD