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Trading stocks on MT4

  • #1
  • First Post: Mar 2, 2012 3:36pm Mar 2, 2012 3:36pm
Does anybody know a way to trade stocks on MT4 or at least a MT4 demo account for stocks?
  • #2
  • Mar 2, 2012 3:48pm Mar 2, 2012 3:48pm
Some brokers do CFD's on stocks... but they are usually limited to just the largest hand full of stocks on various exchanges... and then you'd be trading the CFD quotes (wider spreads than the real market) and subject to high financing costs. It's not nearly the same as directly trading the equities...

MT4 would be really bad as an equity platform. To be honest.

What do you want to do with MT4 and stocks? Automated trading? Custom indicators on equity price charts?

Maybe I could recommend a better platform...
FXGears.com
  • #3
  • Mar 2, 2012 4:03pm Mar 2, 2012 4:03pm
Quoting Jack_Larkin
Some brokers do CFD's on stocks... but they are usually limited to just the largest hand full of stocks on various exchanges... and then you'd be trading the CFD quotes (wider spreads than the real market) and subject to high financing costs. It's not nearly the same as directly trading the equities...

MT4 would be really bad as an equity platform. To be honest.

What do you want to do with MT4 and stocks? Automated trading? Custom indicators on equity price charts?

Maybe I could recommend a better platform...
I don't wanna do automated trading. In MT4 i like candlestick bars, trendlines, etc. MT4 is very simple and digital in other words.

Thank you,

Constin
  • #4
  • Mar 4, 2012 11:09am Mar 4, 2012 11:09am
I could have sworn that I replied to this before... *shrugs* Maybe I forgot to hit submit on the post. Take 2:


Ok, I understand what you mean.. MT4 is pretty good for simple charting (it's actually quite fast and extendable compared to other charting solutions,) but it's still a bad choice for stock trading.

You are going to want to look for a few key things with a stock brokerage:

Local regulation is pretty big. Most discount brokerages will work closely with regulators so they can provide registered accounts and investment protection insurance. You'll have to do a little research here on what's commonly offered where you live (varies from country to country.)

A broker that's been around for a while and is known to be trusted is very important. Thanks to a central exchange and stiff equity regulation this isn't as hard to find as it is in the forex world.

Notice I didn't say anything about charting?

You can get free charting tools that are independent from your broker's feed for trading stock since most equity trading happens on a central exchange.

freestockcharts.com is a great example, real time level 1 quotes and charting within a web browser, does candlesticks and a whole bunch of other types of charts. It's ad supported, but you can register an account to remove ads.


Focus first on safety of funds, then execution and cost of trading, then finally you can look at charting. Keep in mind, stocks are usually a longer term trading instrument due to the cost of a transaction and much lower (or non-existent) leverage... so don't worry so much about paying for real time tick-by-tick data or any expensive platform fee from your broker... it won't be needed. Just a simple free charting site and web based order entry will be set. (I strongly do not recommend day trading stock on a retail cash account.. it's a hard game to do for a new traders and is best left to people who have a DMA account or do prop trading at a company.)
FXGears.com
  • #5
  • Mar 4, 2012 11:11am Mar 4, 2012 11:11am
Is there a system/platform for buying penny shares using automated code like in MT4 ?

Scoobs
  • #6
  • Mar 4, 2012 8:20pm Mar 4, 2012 8:20pm
Broco has CFD equities in MT4 if you really wanna go down that path. Not sure what the spreads are like.

NinjaTrader is better for stocks. Has a free Kinetick EOD feed with v7. Can also use Yahoo's free data with it. Best go with a proper feed if you want real-time though - certainly wouldn't rely on Yahoo. Only downside with ninja is it's only free for charting, you can't trade with it unless you buy a license.

MT4 really is a good little charting platform. Pity it's setup purely for bucketshops to rape the pockets of the uninformed.
  • #7
  • Mar 4, 2012 8:34pm Mar 4, 2012 8:34pm
Quoting Jack_Larkin
I could have sworn that I replied to this before... *shrugs* Maybe I forgot to hit submit on the post. Take 2:


Ok, I understand what you mean.. MT4 is pretty good for simple charting (it's actually quite fast and extendable compared to other charting solutions,) but it's still a bad choice for stock trading.

You are going to want to look for a few key things with a stock brokerage:

Local regulation is pretty big. Most discount brokerages will work closely with regulators so they can provide registered accounts and investment protection insurance....
+1

I agree with all the above, I might also add that stocks can be day traded with close to no transaction fees through direct access. If you know how to route your orders and earn rebates, then trading stocks can actually pay you commissions. Trading equities through direct access also almost eliminates the spread on liquid stocks which is a huge advantage to day traders.

I personally day trade the US equities, which I prefer over the FX market. This again, is a personal choice. Everyone has their arena, its important to explore all your options before you settle on a market that doesn't suit your personality.
  • #8
  • Mar 4, 2012 8:58pm Mar 4, 2012 8:58pm
Quoting split_unit
I might also add that stocks can be day traded with close to no transaction fees through direct access. If you know how to route your orders and earn rebates, then trading stocks can actually pay you commissions. Trading equities through direct access also almost eliminates the spread on liquid stocks which is a huge advantage to day traders.

I personally day trade the US equities, which I prefer over the FX market. This again, is a personal choice. Everyone has their arena, its important to explore all your options before you settle on a market...
Lots of restrictions on day trading US stocks directly. 25k account minimum or 90 day account freeze is the big one. This places most people out of the bandwagon (for good reasons IMHO).

http://www.sec.gov/answers/daytrading.htm
  • #9
  • Mar 4, 2012 11:52pm Mar 4, 2012 11:52pm
Quoting sebohsj
Lots of restrictions on day trading US stocks directly. 25k account minimum or 90 day account freeze is the big one. This places most people out of the bandwagon (for good reasons IMHO).

http://www.sec.gov/answers/daytrading.htm
Well, if your serious about trading then these rules shouldn't be a problem The advantages I mentioned earlier easily offset the disadvantages.
  • #10
  • Mar 5, 2012 4:39am Mar 5, 2012 4:39am
Trading stocks is not possible on MT4, since it was not designed for stocks.

However, trading stocks is possible with MT5
Forex is a losers game.
  • #11
  • Mar 5, 2012 3:01pm Mar 5, 2012 3:01pm
Quoting split_unit
Well, if your serious about trading then these rules shouldn't be a problem The advantages I mentioned earlier easily offset the disadvantages.
Dude, I've been trading for a long time and your advice does not make sense.

Do you know how hard it really is to earn rebates to cover the full or "most of" the transaction costs? You must use limit orders (provide liquidity) and for daytrading, you'd wanna be damn good at programming as well as trading to make it work.

As I also understand it, you also need to be well capitalised and the stock must be highly liquid because filling becomes a big issue.

Now considering that the OP is asking for MT4, they are obviously not funded and/or experienced enough to have a direct access broker. I am blatantly assuming that they don't have the programming expertise either to pull this off.

I am seriously asking myself if you even know what you are talking about...

Maybe it's the ambiguity, I'm not sure. Please enlighten me as to where I've missed your point.

I daytrade most US markets myself so I'd love to hear the nitty gritties of how you achieve this.
  • #12
  • Mar 5, 2012 3:12pm Mar 5, 2012 3:12pm
FxPro also have equity CFD's in MT4, spreads looks pretty crazy though.
http://www.fxpro.com/trading/conditions/shares
  • #13
  • Mar 5, 2012 3:17pm Mar 5, 2012 3:17pm
Quoting trader121
Trading stocks is not possible on MT4, since it was not designed for stocks.

However, trading stocks is possible with MT5
I just submitted an order of 5 lots to the SNFE in MT4 with an Interactive Brokers MT4 bridge. Could have been any exchange I wanted globally. So it is technically possible.
  • #14
  • Mar 5, 2012 8:13pm Mar 5, 2012 8:13pm
Quoting sebohsj
Dude, I've been trading for a long time and your advice does not make sense.

Do you know how hard it really is to earn rebates to cover the full or "most of" the transaction costs? You must use limit orders (provide liquidity) and for daytrading, you'd wanna be damn good at programming as well as trading to make it work.

As I also understand it, you also need to be well capitalised and the stock must be highly liquid because filling becomes a big issue.

Now considering that the OP is asking for MT4, they are obviously not funded and/or experienced...
Well ''dude'' as you said this thread is about mt4 and if you don't believe its possible then that’s your problem, you have been trading for a long time you should know if its possible yourself. But just incase your not smart to figure it out on your own, am here to let you know that your not the only experienced trader here. Trading direct access has its limitation of having a 25k account but as I wrote before the advantages more then outweigh the disadvantages. Here is the link, if you can read English I want you to check out the commission per share under the tab ''commission'', I then want you to open the tab next to it called ''mkt center'' and check for how much it costs to add and take liquidity. Incase you missed it check out the ''EDGA'' and ''BOSX'' venues that charge almost nothing for ''taking liquidity'' and if you don't know what that is you can Google it.

Next, I want you to sign up for a demo accounts with lightspeed. And set up your hotkeys to trade like a pro. If you don't know how to set up your hot keys to route correctly then that’s your problem Don't go saying you need programming to make this work, that’s just plain ignorant and lazy. As for liquidity, who on earth in their correct state of mind trade an illiquid stock? Here is a post I wrote on liquidity. If you don't know how to pick liquid stocks then that again, is your problem because there are plenty of them out there. For a start try picking stocks in the S&P 500, you do know what that is right?

That being said, I am the one who’s seriously beginning to doubt your capabilities as an ''experienced trader''. I don't know whether your plain ignorant or whether you’re trying to misguide others through your misguided posts.
  • #15
  • Mar 6, 2012 10:12pm Mar 6, 2012 10:12pm
I'm using MT4...loving it! but I do need a platform that can trade commodities as well...any recomend guys?
I trade to live
  • #16
  • May 3, 2012 2:57pm May 3, 2012 2:57pm
had to bump this thread, as Im also considering opening up a daytrading account to trade US equities.
Like the OP, I was curious as to whether this was possible using MT4.

Someone mentioned that it would make an awful daytrading platform, but im curious why?
I've used ninjatrader and I find it so 'buggy' and slow compared to MT4 (despite apparently being so much more advanced and a platform of choice to many pro traders).
You can load up charts and flick between instruments and timeframes effortlessly in mt4 compared to ninja.

However, I have also demo traded using a platform called 'DAS TRADER' and another called 'instaquote' which I gather are more the sort of platforms that most equity traders would use?
They are both LIGHTNING fast and very good, although the big problem is that you can't use custom indicators on the charts. You can't use any code whatsoever for anything.

I have some custom indicators in mt4 and what i'd like is a platform like 'instaquote' ('proper' daytrading platform/very fast) that also has the ability to use custom code.

Anything like that exists? Ideally all in one platform so that I dont have to be paying one company for a feed and another company for their platform etc etc.

cheers/
  • #17
  • May 4, 2012 12:39pm May 4, 2012 12:39pm
quick daytrading platform such as instaquote/sterling/dastrader, but the abililty to run custom indicators/scans etc....

ideas?
  • #18
  • May 17, 2012 6:22pm May 17, 2012 6:22pm
Quoting scooby-doo
Is there a system/platform for buying penny shares using automated code like in MT4 ?

Scoobs
HI SCOOBS

I have been using gkfx.com for spread betting on mt4 for the last 2 years. They are here in London and FSA regulated. Spreads are not bad, they have a large number of UK, US and European stocks on offer. Mind you their demo has a limited number of stocks on offer. The only drawback using mt4 for stocks is that volume indicator is not realistic for that I use ninjatrader.

Kind regards
  • #19
  • Jul 9, 2012 1:14pm Jul 9, 2012 1:14pm
I use mrcmarkets + MT4, it provides US stocks from Dow, about 50 UK stocks, and some other 100+ worldwide stocks
  • #20
  • Oct 3, 2017 5:57pm Oct 3, 2017 5:57pm
I need mt4 for charting w/ custom indicators from this site for US stocks/ETFs, would anyone suggest please?
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