Forex Charting from Esignal to Metatrader

I mentioned last week that I was ridding myself of Esignal due to price, performance, and features.  Esignal was costing me about $160 per month and yet I found that it was very slow and the features they offered just weren't anything special.  I compare Esignal to Microsoft.  The development process is very slow probably due to bloated code and new features make their way into the application once every two years.  

I've found the alternatives out there just flat out better than esignal and cheaper.  I hear a lot about Xtick because it's cheaper, $85 a month and features are added when requested.  The downside is that there isn't any backtesting functionality and no way to develop custom indicators. 

I've found Metatrader to be unbelievable.  First, it's free. Second, they have backtesting functionality, and third, a language to develop experts and indicators.  It is also very fast.  But at the expense of speed, there is a downside.  There are no 10 minute charts and no 180 minute charts.  In fact, you can only select from 1 min, 5 min, 15 min, 30 min, 1 hour, 4 hour, daily, weekly, and monthly.  Their database probably contains data specific to each time period and therefore you cannot just select an arbitrary time period.  This is still sufficient for most people though and like I said, since it's free, you just cannot beat it.  

One thing that I've heard from many people is that it is very beneficial to use charting software that has a feed from the broker you make trades with especially if you are trading the shorter term charts.  If I am trading short-term, I use FXCM Power Charts because they are very good "web" charts and the feed is directly from FXCM (my broker.)  

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Comments

3 Responses to “Forex Charting from Esignal to Metatrader”

  1. Mike on November 10th, 2006 4:00 am

    Rich,

    I use MT right along with my live platform and notice very little discrepancy between the two.

    I downloaded the software from both StrategyBuilderFX’s site and the MetaQuotes site itself, as this provides a backup when one of the demo servers is down, which is not an unusual occurence. [Background: MetaQuotes offers MT4 to brokers on a "private label" basis.]

    Or–as I’m doing right now–I run them both at the same time when trading a news strategy while still monitoring my normal trade method.

    If I’m not mistaken, MT demo accounts (fed by InterbankFX) expire regularly, while the SB ones don’t (the demo server for SB belongs to MoneyTec).

    Perhaps you could run MT in parallel with Esignal for a while.

  2. Rich on November 10th, 2006 6:57 am

    Metatrader is software really for brokers to provide to their clients so I’ve noticed so many different brokers where I can sign up for a demo yet I don’t know which is the best. I’ve noticed the same with Interbank. My demo expires quickly. I already canceled esignal but I’m exploring other options. The great thing about metatrader is the ability to use http proxy and socks proxy.

  3. Alex on December 20th, 2006 2:51 pm

    On 13 July, 2006, Tradeco Clearing Group, LLC. (USA) has signed an agreement to obtain a license of MetaTrader 4 platform. This company became the 100th client that has chosen MetaQuotes Software Corp. solution.

    http://www.metaquotes.net/news

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