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Trading Strategies >> Development >> MetaTrader 4
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Message started by Algo Designer on 05/29/09 at 06:24:57

Title: MetaTrader 4
Post by Algo Designer on 05/29/09 at 06:24:57

Do we have any MetaTrader 4 developers in this forum?

Title: Re: MetaTrader 4
Post by DerikB on 07/29/09 at 18:42:50

Hi Algo,

Yes we have. How can I help?

Regards
Derik

Title: Re: MetaTrader 4
Post by Algo Designer on 08/01/09 at 00:52:58

Hi Derik,

That's good to know. I would like to exchange a few ideas on MT4 space.

Are you running any of your or third-party strategies on live account(s)? If so, how long for? How well do you know the language and the platform?

Title: Re: MetaTrader 4
Post by DerikB on 08/01/09 at 15:58:17

Hi Algo,

I know the language well (4 years). I don't trade any strategies on a live account yet. I do demo a lot of systems.

Regards
Derik

Title: Re: MetaTrader 4
Post by Algo Designer on 03/19/10 at 11:36:58

Any luck with your MT4 strategies?

Title: Re: MetaTrader 4
Post by DerikB on 03/23/10 at 20:25:02

Algo, no luck yet. I haven't test systems recently but will hopefully do so in the near future.

Title: Re: MetaTrader 4
Post by Zoggie on 12/30/10 at 03:58:03

MT4 is to slow to be real Algo contender.

I used it for many years and it saved me a lot of money, mainly because it is free and data is easy to collect.

Saying that the back testing is useless, which ends up being misleading. And MT itself is to slow to keep up with professionally written JAVA, C++ and especially FIX API engines.

MT4 has one serious Achilles heal. It can process as fast as any other system, but when you send an order, it needs to wait for the reply or you get a "Trade Context " error. So it's dead time and suddenly you can only trade as fast as your internet connection, because everything stops, you can't carry on processing and sending.

With my JAVA app I can keep calculating and sending orders and deal with the reply later, which means in the case of FX I can run through 30 orders easily in the time MT4 can do 1.

It's for that reason that I ditched it. Was just to slow.

Title: Re: MetaTrader 4
Post by Algo Designer on 01/10/11 at 10:15:46

I have also been using MT4 for quite a while.

I ended up implementing a fairly simple proxy strategy connected to my quant engine. The responsibility of the proxy strategy is to act upon signals generated by the quant engine and manage the risk. Its execution style can be compared to that of a short-lived implementation shortfall (IS) strategy with a relatively short TTL (time to live) setting. The back-testing and crash simulations are taken care of by the quant engine itself.

To give MT4 some credit, I really like their implementation of the charting engine and the ease at which new indicators can be put together. I also use it occasionally for prototyping simple trade automation strategies. Obviously, all the math is done outside, in the custom-made engine and/or R.

I have been programming Java ever since it came into existence and a big fan of the language. I would not even dare to compare MT4 to some top-notch HFT systems implemented in Java. IMHO, MT4 targets predominantly the retail and perhaps small wholesale market participants. Despite all the obvious shortcomings, I reckon they have done a pretty good job on the GUI.