MT4 vs cTrader: Which platform would you recommend?

I've been trading with MT4 for a few years now, and recently decided to give cTrader a try....

Pros / Cons so far...

1) The user interface, tooling, look and feel, is far better than MT4: cTrader wins

Attached Image (click to enlarge)

2) When it comes to EAs though, MT4 has a far more developed community, you are spoiled with choice when it comes to 3rd party automation: MT4 wins



It would seem to me, it's easier and nicer to work with a cTrader interface, manual trading, short term trading and set ups that require some analysis might go better with cTrader. Automated trading, perhaps because I'm not familiar with the cBot market, seems to be more MT4s area.

But what do people that use it every day have to say?

 

1. 1) Is cTrader reliable? Can you trust what's behind it?
2. 2) Which brokers that offer cTrader are reliable and trustworthy?
3. 3) Has anybody ever used mt4 and cTrader from the same broker (eg. FxPro, any other broker)? If so, which one was better?

OK, I added a poll to keep track of user sentiment in a more visible form

MT4
Tested through time and most functional.

Its is also the world's most popular trading platform according to GOOGLE

Winner is MT5;

MT4 is just anachronism;
cTrader is dotNET and therefore slow(er), of course not necessarily if you run a supercomputer.

So true.. cTrader is dotNet based... you can even see it drag abit ...execution abit slow..thus alot of slippage

cTrader feels heavy

My pc is i7-3770, 8gb ram and ssd drive and i have an internet connection of 10 Mbits. I don't have any problems with the cTrader lagging. etc. Correct me if i'm worng but execution/slippage depends on the Broker and not on the platform.
I switched to ctrader from mt4 and currently seems a very good choice.

1. You can't hedge with MT5, which makes it a two legged horse.....it does not do any tricks MT4 can't. Order book is the ONLY feature that is mildly entertaining...but you can't really build a proper entry/exit strategy on that.
2. The tcp/ip socket management of MT5 is perhaps the worst ever written for an fx desktop installation, it's buggier than an anthole.
3. The subtle changes to the user interface are beyond impractical...

MT4 is a stable as the hardware and specs you have under it, anybody complaining about performance is just not running it under the right specs. I've run it for years on multiple platforms, NEVER had an issue. Even running on <1 GIG Ram set up, I've ran multiple instances of MT4 (with multiple pairs each) without a glitch.


So no, MT5 has nothing to claim superiority over MT4...aside of a bogus higher version number for less functionality.

In answer to an earlier question....I have tried c trader and mt4...both live through Pstone.

C trader has good features to set stop losses and take profits ( you dont have to type them in, you can preset them in the quick trade settings.)...but that is possibly where the advantage ends. The platform is slowish...and requires a faster machine to run it.

The stoplosses and take profits on MT4 can be set the same with the use of an ea anyway like rons auto sl_tp.

Ctrader is ok...but here is the reason that I chose mt4 over it. It took me a couple of trades to realise it....but the commission is more per trade with ctrader. I thought there was a mistake...so I contacted support. And the numbers were right. Commission for mt4 per 0.10 lot is 0.70......70 cents. And commission for c trader per 0.10 lot is 1.34.....$ 1.34. So you can see its pretty close to double. That is on their tightest spread account :razor.

This may not affect a long term trader too much...but if you take small profits...and many trades its quite significant.

I didnt get the reason for this....but I assume that some commission is paid to spotware...the maker of ctrader...for the use of the platform.

For me the best option is M4. I had tried several others including cTrader and some browser based. For me the best platform ever is the MT4 everything is made easy and you get addicted to it.

How very interesting, thanks Forexmeoff for this. This is exactly what I was hoping for, someone that had both cTrader and MT4 running under the same broker....and your findings are eye opening !!

That is a massive commission surcharge !!!

I want to say MT5 the function to test all symbols in market watch list is great! Lets you see what your strategy works on.

MT5 is clearly the biggest looser of them all ...
a hopeless try to get US-conform that failed.

updates for MT4 where less while MT5 was rolled out, but soon after even Metaquotes realised that nobody outside the US wanna use MT5
i did test it .. and have not seen any advantage that would make me any "better" in future results.

back to cTrader Vs. MT4

first i deeply HATE Windows, i have not used a windows computer for longer than a few minutes in the last 10 years before i get greatly anoyed by everything .. haha
so i use MT4 because it does run on other platform (more less)

but then i got hands on cTrader ... yes its slower (if you on a Computer build in 1999) and yes it uses the very core i hate the most in all digital inventions.

but let all the technical aspects aside, cTrader is a clear winner with a VERY large gap.
here is why: (opinions following)

1. if you do scalping (i mean by the true meaning of it) MT4 is just a big slow moving Turtle on the road to fast pips and with its 1995 design it will cost you the most of them anyway, with cTrader .. you see the priceaction, you get in you get out .. thats it ..
2. making a quick trendline .. is always like running a marathon on MT4 .. on cTrader you click and put and you done .. auto-snap as well so you not have to spend the rest of your life making this things perfect.
3. if you tend to manage your trades (ajusting things while they active or if you are a intraday trader)
   then mt4 is just overcomplicated.
   on cTrader you can have multiple trades on the same chart and never get confused which stopline is for what
   as they being visualy enhanced while you move them ..
4. you can easy manage sizes directly on the chart .. doubleclick the protection icon you will have multiple TP and trailing can work even before the purchase price is reached (just in case (minimize risk does ring a bell to some peoples).
5. if you place a order on MT4 you just making blind Money management guesses
   on cTrader you press F9 (like in MT4) .. set the stoploss and you will see your risk in pips, money and percentages .. (that alone does close the sale for cTrader) as you can actually see what this order will cost you. (see picture)

 

1. popularity.. well i dont know if that is a good or bad thing ... all indicators i use i was able to convert to calgo with just a few mouseclicks
   thanks to http://2calgo.com copy and paste the code .. save the results and you good to go.
2. support .. well have you ever had a issue (technical) with MT4 ? then you know that thing called support just doesn't not exist,
   unless you get a community solution
   but type somethings in the comment box within cTrader .. you will get a productive and helpful response in just a few hours.
   (even if you just trade on a demo account)​
3. copy trades .. cMirror is seamlessly build in .. has far better Money management and its comission based.. you win the provider wins .. not like on MT4 where you have to pay with no clue what you will get
4. i could go on for hours .. but thats enough troll-food for now

well lets give it a test drive then, shall we ?

MT4 ECN Pro account vs. cTrader ECN Pro both on Roboforex

placed the worst possible scenario: loss on short (see picture)


lets decrypt it:
0.01 Lot with Stoploss at 2.3 pip

1. MT4: -23 points, -0.04 Comission , -0.22 price, cost of transaction 0.26
2. cTrader: -2.3 pip, -0.04 Comission , -0.23 price, cost of transaction 0.27

​
0.10 Lot with Stoploss at 2.7 pip

1. MT4: -27 points, -0.40 Comission , -2.88 price, cost of transaction 3.28
2. cTrader: -2.8 pip, -0.40 Comission , -2.78 price, cost of transaction 3.18

lost 0.1 pip more on the 0.1 trade with cTrader but my financial loss was 10 cents less​

take your pick

lets talk speed (or "Why you can't scalp on MT4")

i placed a BUY STOP on both platforms buy 0.1 Lot at 1.10514 TP at 1.10520 (6 points / 0.6 pip)
(i copy and paste the values so there is no room for error)

- the price ran straight trough the order in just 2 seconds (eg. "the perfect scalp")

MT4 Order: order filled at 1.10516 (0.2 pip late) order closed at: 1.10518 (0.2 pip early)
MT4 Cost: Commission: 0.44 Profit 0.20 = -0.24 (minus)

cTrader Order: filled at 1.10514 (on price) order closed at 1.1520 (on price)
cTrader Cost: Commission: 0.44 Profit 0.60 (3 times the profit because 3 times the pips) = 0.16 (plus)



again: you pick

Stop / Limit /TP / SL orders are server side filled even when your platform is down.
So ask your broker why...not the platform.

thats true ..

well that was for a test only anyway .. i not complaining about this .. never hat this kind of slips on Pepperstone ... (i have no MT4 account with them
.. so i used Roboforex to make the comparision in addition to the 2 other posts above,

i did not know about this outcome until i made the screenshoots

my guess would be that the spread may have changed in this 2 sec where the order was placed ...

Hi, as i'm actually testing pepperstone and as a scalper i could be also interesting by ctrader and regarding to your test on both platform but not using the same broker, i also did that test with same pendinding order on mt4 and ctrader with pepperstone on 2 demo account.
And my results except error that you can verify by yourself is ctrader execution is unfortunately (unfortunately because ctrader is more friendly platform,and i m also mac user) worst but commission are also not the same and more expansive with ctrader.
And because specially for scalping execution is important mt4 is far > to ctrader, as you can see because the late execution with ctrader we were lucky that price action reached the TP later and not the SL.

Nullx8 as i understand you re also doing scalping so may be it is good for you to make this test as well, because if you confirm my results switching to mt4 for scalping will give you better results.
Regards
Ockham

Do yourself a favor and test on live accounts. Demo is just that, demo... so your conclusion is regarding demo, no live.

Exactly, i made the tests in live accounts, different results, also i have ALL triggers set to execute at the BID only, especially for scalping this is a must.
mt4 can not do that!
take the fed announcement as example, spread did widen from 0,2 to 3,5 for about 2 sec. In mt4 my order was filled with 11 pip slipage upwards by the spread (price did not yet move at all)
so nothing happen on the priceaction but i'm -40$ on equity.
on ctrader the order was executed with 1pip slipage, but at the time price actually went there.

Yes i scalp too but usually not below 4pip of movement, i'm not HFT