MT5 or MT4 for a beginner?

Beginner Questions
1

Hi everybody,

I’m a beginner to automated trading and would like to learn programming on the Metatrader platform and start trading live in about 5-6months.

I’m thinking about whether to work on the MT4 or the MT5 platform.

1.) Should I start with the more established MT4, as most programs are written for this platform and most brokers are still using MT4 (correct?)? Also a nice introductory course is availabe for MT4 (S. Kovalyov Programming in Algorithmic Language MQL4)?

2.)Should I start with MT5 as it is the “newest” and will completely replace MT4 in the near future? Also it has backtesting capabilities and other advantages, right?

Thanks for any help and comments.

Best

2

I’m not sure if there are many (any) brokers that trade live with MT5. Also, you can backtest with MT4. Additionally, whatever you learn as far as EA programming for MT4 will still be applicable to MT5 - it just has some extended functionality (object oriented programming … which is probably a bit much for a beginner anyway).

3

I completely agree with the last poster’s comments. MQL4 has a long future. So far there is no compelling reason for traders and brokers to adopt MT5 despite its technically better features. It is experiencing lots of instability problems, so it has to be improved.

4

Many thanks! So’ll start with MT4.

Thx guys