XAUUSD is the price of one troy ounce of gold quoted in US dollars. XAU is the metal's ticker and USD is the dollar, so the symbol tells you how many dollars one ounce of gold is worth. On MT5 it trades like any other symbol with bid, ask and spread.

What moves the gold price?

Gold is driven mainly by US dollar strength, real interest rates and bond yields, risk sentiment and safe-haven demand, inflation expectations, and central bank buying. A stronger dollar and higher real yields tend to pressure gold, while fear, falling yields and inflation worries tend to support it.

What are the best hours to trade gold?

Gold is most active during the London session and the US session overlap, roughly 08:00 to 17:00 London time. This is when liquidity is deepest and spreads are tightest. Major moves often happen around US economic releases such as CPI, jobs data and Federal Reserve decisions.

What is the best indicator for trading gold?

There is no single magic indicator. Because gold trends hard and reverses sharply, a structure-based reading that confirms whether the market is genuinely trending or chopping is more useful than a lone oscillator. Market Structure Pro fuses 27 tools into one TRADE, TRANSITION or NO TRADE verdict for XAUUSD.

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Beginner

MT4 vs MT5: Which Platform Should You Actually Use?

MT5 is not "MT4 with a bigger number". It is a different platform written in a different language, and that single fact explains both why it is better and why MT4 is still everywhere.

In one sentence:

MT5 is the newer and more capable platform in almost every measurable way, but MT4 survives because a vast library of old indicators and automated systems simply will not run on MT5.

MT4 vs MT5 at a glance

Short answer	Choose MT5 unless you specifically need a tool that only exists for MT4.
Timeframes	MT4 has 9. MT5 has 21, including M2, M10, M20, H2, H6, H8 and H12.
Order types	MT4 has market, limit and stop orders. MT5 adds stop-limit orders and explicit fill policies.
Programming language	MQL4 for MT4, MQL5 for MT5. They are not compatible, MT4 code will not run on MT5.
Strategy tester	MT4 tests one symbol at a time on one CPU core. MT5 tests multiple symbols, multiple cores, and real tick data.
Depth of market	MT5 only. MT4 has no DOM at all.
Economic calendar	Built into MT5. Absent from MT4.
Market Structure Pro	MSP is an MT5 indicator today. MT4, TradingView and cTrader versions are planned but not released.

What it is and why it works

MetaTrader 4 launched in 2005 and became the default retail trading platform for a generation of forex traders. MetaTrader 5 arrived in 2010 as its intended replacement. Fifteen years later, both are still in wide use, which is unusual for a piece of software and its successor, and it confuses almost every new trader who has to pick one.

The confusion exists because MetaQuotes did not build MT5 as an upgrade. They rebuilt the platform from the ground up to handle exchange-traded instruments (stocks, futures, real volume, order book data) not just the over-the-counter forex market MT4 was designed around. That rebuild included a new programming language, MQL5, which is closer to C++ in structure and is not backwards compatible with MQL4.

That incompatibility is the whole story. Every custom indicator, every Expert Advisor, every script written for MT4 between 2005 and today has to be rewritten to work on MT5. Thousands of them never were. Traders who depend on a specific old tool stayed on MT4, brokers kept offering MT4 to keep those traders, and a platform that should have been retired a decade ago is still being installed today.

Meanwhile MetaQuotes has effectively stopped developing MT4. It receives maintenance and little else. MT5 gets the new features. So the honest framing is not "which is better", MT5 is better on the feature list, but "is there a specific reason you need MT4?"

How to trade it, step by step

Check what your broker actually offers. Open your broker’s downloads page before you install anything. Some brokers offer both platforms but only support certain account types, instruments or symbols on one of them. If your broker only gives you an MT4 account, the comparison ends there. Our broker list notes which platforms each one supports.
List the tools you cannot trade without. Write down every indicator, Expert Advisor or template you currently rely on, and check whether an MT5 build of each one exists. If a single critical tool is MT4-only and the developer has no MT5 version, you either stay on MT4 or you replace the tool. There is no third option and no converter that reliably does this for you.
Decide whether you need instruments beyond forex. If you want to trade exchange-listed stocks, futures or anything with genuine traded volume and an order book, MT5 is the only one of the two that was designed for it. MT4 can show you a CFD on a share, but it has no depth of market and no real volume data behind it.
Check whether your account needs to be hedging or netting. MT4 is always hedging: you can hold a long and a short on the same symbol at once. MT5 supports both hedging and netting, but the mode is fixed by the broker when the account is opened and cannot be changed afterwards. If you run strategies that hold opposing positions, or you trade with a US-regulated broker, confirm the account mode before you fund it.
Test your strategy on the platform’s own tester before committing. If backtesting matters to you, this is the clearest single difference. Run the same idea through both testers. MT5’s multi-threaded, multi-symbol, real-tick tester will finish faster and model the market more honestly. See backtesting a strategy for what those results are and are not worth.
Install the one you chose and keep the other off the machine. Running both platforms simultaneously is the single most common source of "my indicator has disappeared" support tickets, because traders drop MT5 files into the MT4 data folder or the reverse. If you must run both, note that each has a completely separate data folder: MQL4 for MT4, MQL5 for MT5.
Migrate deliberately, not gradually. If you are moving from MT4 to MT5, rebuild your chart templates and re-add your indicators from scratch rather than trying to copy settings across. Templates, profiles and preset files are not interchangeable between the platforms either. Give yourself a week on a demo account to rebuild your workspace before you trade it live.

Size every one of those entries with the position size calculator and check the trade is worth taking with the risk/reward calculator before you commit.

The conditions it needs

New traders with no legacy tools

If you are starting today and own nothing, there is no argument for MT4. You get more timeframes, a better tester, a built-in economic calendar and a platform that is still being developed. Starting on MT4 means starting on software that will be harder to leave later and that fewer new tools are being written for.

Traders who backtest seriously

MT5’s tester is the single biggest practical upgrade. It uses multiple CPU cores, can test several symbols at once, supports real tick data from the broker rather than interpolated ticks, and includes forward testing on out-of-sample data. On MT4 you are testing one symbol on one core against modelled ticks and hoping the modelling quality figure is honest.

Anyone trading beyond spot forex

Indices, commodities, exchange-listed shares and futures all behave better on MT5, because MT5 understands genuine exchange data. Depth of market and real volume simply do not exist on MT4. If your analysis uses volume at all, MT4 is showing you tick count, not traded contracts.

Traders who need finer timeframes

The extra intermediate timeframes on MT5 (M2, M10, M20, H2, H6, H8, H12) are not a gimmick. H8 divides the 24-hour day into three clean sessions, and H12 splits it into two. On MT4 you would build those with a custom indicator or do without.

Traders committed to a specific MT4-only tool

This is the one honest case for MT4. If your entire process depends on an Expert Advisor or an indicator that was written in MQL4 and never ported, MT4 is the correct choice for you and the feature comparison is irrelevant. Just be aware that you are making a decision with a shelf life.

When it fails

MT4 code does not run on MT5, and there is no reliable converter. MQL4 and MQL5 differ in how indicator buffers, order handling and event functions work. Automated conversion tools exist, produce code that compiles, and then behave differently on live data. Assume any migration means a rewrite and a full retest.
MT5’s netting mode surprises people. On a netting account you cannot hold a long and a short on the same symbol: a buy against an existing sell closes it. Traders who move from MT4 without checking this discover it mid-trade. The mode is set when the account is created and cannot be switched.
Neither platform’s backtest is the truth. MT5’s tester is far better than MT4’s and still does not include slippage as you will experience it, requotes, variable overnight financing or your own hesitation. A better tester produces a more believable wrong answer, which is arguably more dangerous.
MT4 receives maintenance, not development. MetaQuotes has moved on. New features go to MT5, and MetaQuotes has been steering brokers towards MT5 for years. Choosing MT4 in 2026 is choosing a platform whose future is being actively wound down.
The MT4 tool library is shrinking, not growing. The huge free library of MT4 indicators is genuinely large, but it is largely historical. Serious tools built in the last few years are increasingly MT5-first, and some are MT5-only. The advantage MT4 has is in the past tense.
MT5 is not automatically better for your broker. Execution quality, spreads and slippage come from the broker’s infrastructure, not the platform badge. A good MT4 broker will beat a poor MT5 broker every time. Do not treat the platform choice as a substitute for choosing the broker carefully.

For different levels of experience

If you are brand new

If you are new and have not installed anything yet: install MT5. That is genuinely the whole decision. Everything you will be taught, every tool you will buy and every new feature is being built for MT5 first.

The reason you keep seeing MT4 recommended is that a lot of trading content on the internet was written between 2010 and 2018, when MT4 really was the default. It is old advice, not wrong advice for its time. When a course or a YouTube video tells you to download MT4, check the upload date.

One practical point: the two platforms look nearly identical. Same dark charts, same Navigator panel, same Market Watch. So do not worry that MT5 will be harder to learn, if you can use one you can use the other. What differs is under the surface. When you are ready to add an indicator, the install guide walks through the whole process step by step.

If your results are inconsistent

The realistic situation for an intermediate trader is that you have a workspace on MT4 you have spent two years building, and moving feels expensive. It is expensive. Do it anyway, but do it in one deliberate block rather than drifting between the two.

The specific things that will bite you in a migration: your .tpl templates will not transfer, your .set preset files will not transfer, custom indicators must be replaced with MT5 builds, and any EA needs a full rewrite and retest. Your trade history stays with the old account. Budget a week of demo time, not an evening.

The thing that will actually improve your trading is the tester. If you have been backtesting on MT4 with 90% modelling quality and treating the equity curve as meaningful, running the same system on MT5 with real ticks and honest spread modelling is usually a sobering experience. That is a good thing. It is better to be disappointed by a backtest than by a live account.

If you are experienced

The technical case is settled: MQL5 gives you an object-oriented language, proper class support, standard library components, structured event handling, and a tester that will use every core you have plus the MQL5 Cloud Network if you want it. Multi-symbol and multi-currency testing alone justifies the move for anyone running portfolio systems.

The execution layer differs in ways that matter for automation. MT5 exposes order fill policies explicitly (fill or kill, immediate or cancel, return) and separates orders, deals and positions into distinct entities rather than MT4’s single order concept. If you are porting an EA, that model change is where most of the rewrite effort goes, and it is also where silently different behaviour hides. An MT4 EA that assumed one ticket equals one position will produce subtly wrong position management on MT5.

The remaining argument for MT4 is infrastructural: legacy bridges, existing VPS deployments, prop firm requirements, and copy-trade infrastructure that was built around MT4. Check what your prop firm actually supports before you migrate anything. Some still evaluate on MT4 only, and that constraint outranks any feature comparison.

Risk management for this strategy

The risk in this decision is not the platform; it is the transition. Every migration between MT4 and MT5 involves rebuilding tools, and rebuilt tools behave differently. Traders lose money in migration weeks because an indicator they trusted for two years is now calculating on a slightly different bar, or because an EA that was rewritten passes its backtest and then manages positions incorrectly on a netting account.

Do the whole move on a demo account first, and specifically check three things live: that your indicator draws the same levels on both platforms for the same symbol and period, that your position sizing still produces the lot size you expect, and that opening and closing a position does what you assumed on your account’s fill mode. Only then trade it with real money, and start at a fraction of your usual size for the first week.

Also confirm the symbol names. MT5 brokers frequently use suffixes such as EURUSD.r or EURUSDm, and any script or EA carrying a hardcoded symbol name from MT4 will fail to find the instrument or, worse, trade a different one.

Where Market Structure Pro fits

Market Structure Pro is an MT5 indicator. Versions for MT4, TradingView and cTrader are planned but are not released, so if MSP is part of your decision, MT5 is the platform that runs it today.

The reason MSP was built for MT5 first is not fashion. MSP fuses 27 separate tools into one verdict (TRADE, TRANSITION or NO TRADE) with a confidence percentage, an A/B/C grade and a plain-English explanation of what is supporting or limiting that verdict. Running that many calculations across multiple timeframes on every bar is meaningfully heavier than a moving average, and MQL5 gives it the structure and the performance headroom to do that without dragging the terminal down.

MSP is also session-aware and spread-aware, both of which lean on data MT5 exposes cleanly. It is non-repainting: the state locks on the closed bar, so what you saw yesterday is what the chart still shows today. It is decision support and nothing more; it does not place trades, it is not a signal service, and it guarantees nothing. If you are choosing a platform now and expect to use tools like this, that is one more reason the answer is MT5.

TRADETRANSITIONNO TRADE

One verdict with a confidence score, an A/B/C grade and a plain-English reason. Non-repainting, on every MT5 instrument and timeframe.

Stop guessing whether the setup is valid

Market Structure Pro reads structure, trend, momentum, levels, volatility, volume and session in one pass and gives you a single answer with the reasoning attached. Free 7-day trial, no card required.

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Frequently asked questions

Is MT5 better than MT4?

On features, yes, MT5 has more timeframes, more order types, depth of market, a built-in economic calendar and a far better strategy tester, and it is the platform MetaQuotes still actively develops. MT4 remains popular only because a huge library of older indicators and Expert Advisors was written in MQL4 and never ported. If you have no legacy tools to protect, MT5 is the better choice.

Can I run MT4 indicators on MT5?

No. MT4 uses the MQL4 language and MT5 uses MQL5, and they are not compatible; an MT4 indicator file will not compile or run on MT5. It has to be rewritten by a developer. Automated conversion tools exist but frequently produce code that compiles and then behaves differently on live data, so any converted tool needs to be fully retested.

Why do brokers still offer MT4?

Because a large number of their clients still depend on MT4-only Expert Advisors, indicators and copy-trading infrastructure, and those clients would leave rather than rebuild. Some prop firms and older automated systems also still require MT4. Brokers keep it running for retention, not because it is the better platform.

Should a beginner use MT4 or MT5?

MT5. The two platforms look and feel almost identical, so there is no extra learning curve, and a beginner has no legacy tools tying them to MT4. Starting on MT5 means the tools you buy, the tutorials you follow and the platform features you learn will all still be relevant in five years.

How many timeframes does MT5 have compared with MT4?

MT4 has 9 timeframes: M1, M5, M15, M30, H1, H4, D1, W1 and MN. MT5 has 21, adding M2, M3, M4, M6, M10, M12, M20, H2, H3, H6, H8 and H12. The extra intermediate periods are genuinely useful: H8 splits the trading day into three sessions and H12 into two.

What is the difference between hedging and netting on MT5?

On a hedging account you can hold long and short positions on the same symbol at the same time, exactly as MT4 always allowed. On a netting account, opening an opposite position reduces or closes the existing one, so you only ever have one net position per symbol. The mode is fixed by the broker when the account is created and cannot be changed later.

Is MT4 being discontinued?

MetaQuotes has not announced a shutdown date, but MT4 receives maintenance rather than development, and all new platform features go to MT5. MetaQuotes has been steering brokers towards MT5 for years. MT4 will keep working for the foreseeable future, but it is a platform in wind-down rather than one with a roadmap.

Does Market Structure Pro work on MT4?

Not currently. Market Structure Pro is an MT5 indicator today. Versions for MT4, TradingView and cTrader are planned but have not been released, so MT5 is the only platform it runs on at the moment.

Will switching from MT4 to MT5 improve my results?

Not by itself. Spreads, slippage and execution quality come from your broker’s infrastructure, not from the platform. What MT5 gives you is better tools for making decisions (a more honest strategy tester, more timeframes and real market depth) which only helps if you use them.