Resources / Platforms

We are often asked about which broker is best to demo on when a new trader is learning forex for the first time.

Demo trading will not fully prepare you for live trading. However, demo is good for getting comfortable with forex concepts, learning how a platform works, learning order types, and understanding trade size and risks. You will still need to spend time learning to adjust to live trading when you eventually move from demo to real money, but demo is where you should start. Starting with a demo account is important as you get to know the basics.

Forex is dominated by just a few major platforms. Some brokers offer platforms developed in-house by their own team, and these are referred to as "proprietary platforms" as they are unique to their respective brokers, but most brokers will offer platforms by one of two major software vendors: MetaQuotes and Spotware.

MetaQuotes offers the MetaTrader family of platforms. MetaTrader is the most widespread platform in the retail forex world, so learning how to use MetaTrader means you can switch between brokers without much of a learning curve. Right now MetaQuotes offers two versions of MetaTrader: MetaTrader 4, and MetaTrader 5. There are benefits and drawbacks of both versions:

MetaTrader 4 (MT4)

MetaTrader 4 is the original retail forex platform and has been the industry standard for over a decade. It was built for dealing desk / market maker style brokers and has a massive community of custom indicators, scripts, and expert advisors built in MQL4. If you're just getting started, MT4 is a solid choice simply because of how widely supported it is.

One thing to be aware of: MetaQuotes' own website will bait and switch your MT4 download into an MT5 install through their installer program. MetaQuotes is doing this to push the adoption of MT5. The brokers listed below offer their own branded MT4 downloads that install MT4 properly without the bait-and-switch.

✅ Pros

Wider set of community created indicators, strategies, and scripts available
MQL4 (the language MT4 uses) is less complex to use than its older brother MQL5 and has a cleaner API
Currently more brokers support MT4 (but that's changing as MetaQuotes has been forcing brokers over to MT5 for a while now)

⚠️ Cons

32-bit, single-threaded application. You're just not going to be able to toss more hardware at this guy to fix slowness. The code base was first written way back when a single core machine would be "beefy" with just 2GB or 4GB of RAM. It's not designed to scale up with modern hardware.
Lacks native exchange/ECN support, must be fed quotes by a single source dealer. This platform was designed to be used by dealing brokers / market makers. It has no support for proper exchanges. All ECN brokers who use MT4 are feeding the top of book on their ECN through a bridge to MT4 server or using other plugins to make it work.

Demo and test out the MetaTrader 4 Platform:
🇨🇦 Canadian Residents: Demo MT4 at PU Prime
🇬🇧 UK Residents: Demo MT4 at PU Prime
🇦🇺 Australian Residents: Demo MT4 at Pepperstone
🇪🇺 European Residents: Demo MT4 at Pepperstone
🌍 International Residents: Demo MT4 at PU Prime

MetaTrader 5 (MT5)

MetaTrader 5 is the successor to MT4 and addresses many of its technical limitations. It supports multiple cores for backtesting, has native exchange and ECN support, and will eventually replace MT4 entirely (MetaQuotes has been threatening this for years). If you're starting fresh and don't have a library of MT4 indicators you depend on, MT5 is the better long-term choice.

The same brokers that offer MT4 typically offer MT5 as well, and most will let you run both from the same demo account login.

✅ Pros

Native exchange and ECN support. Depth of market and proper order book support for exchange-like ECNs and even Futures Exchanges in some cases
Can make use of multiple cores on your PC for backtesting and even tap into a cloud of compute units should you want to pay for quicker results
Decent online community (thanks to MT4 roots) to help with issues
This will be the new standard once MT4 is fully retired (soon, so threatens MetaQuotes over the last 5+ years)

⚠️ Cons

Still dealing with MT4-like interface. Missed opportunity to refresh and make the user interface better
Depth of market window provided is not a drop-in replacement for a proper DOM as seen in various futures platforms

Demo and test out the MetaTrader 5 Platform:
🇨🇦 Canadian Residents: Demo MT5 at PU Prime
🇬🇧 UK Residents: Demo MT5 at PU Prime
🇦🇺 Australian Residents: Demo MT5 at Pepperstone
🇪🇺 European Residents: Demo MT5 at Pepperstone
🌍 International Residents: Demo MT5 at PU Prime

cTrader

Spotware offers the cTrader family of platforms. This platform family is newer but probably has been the biggest competition MetaTrader has seen in the better part of two decades. cTrader has a fresh, modern interface with full desktop, web, and mobile sync, native Mac support through its web platform, and a C#-based algo trading system that opens up a much wider world of programming libraries compared to MQL.

✅ Pros

Fresh interface that can be customized and accessed via desktop, web, and mobile platforms all while syncing preferences and workspaces between devices
Full support for Apple / Mac platforms via a fully featured web interface (yes, MT5 has a web interface as well, but cTrader's interface is feature compatible to the desktop software where as MT5's web interface is feature limited)
C# based algo system allowing the import and use of many common C# libraries (this is actually a pretty big deal)

⚠️ Cons

Less freely available indicators and custom code written for this platform as the community that uses it is smaller and it has only been around for a few years
Fewer brokers use cTrader when compared to MetaTrader, but this number is growing

Demo and test out the cTrader Platform:
🇦🇺 Australian Residents: Demo cTrader at Pepperstone
🇪🇺 European Residents: Demo cTrader at Pepperstone

We hope this helps anyone new to the FX game who is looking to master a platform and wrap their head around how the act of taking a trade even happens.