MT5, Always the Platform of Tomorrow

For years, MT5 has been hyped as the next big forex platform. MetaQuotes has been pushing the software as a replacement for MT4, yet the market has yet to really adapt the new platform. The sheer resiliency of MT4 seems to have surprised even MetaQuotes.  Has MetaQoutes become a victim of its own success?

The success of MT4 has spawned several roadblocks making it less likely that a successful transition to MT5 will ever be fully completed. Smaller brokers, unable to afford moving their entire book to MT5 unilaterally, will have to support two trading systems simultaneously in order to manage a transition. In the face of tepid client demand, it is unlikely that many brokers will take the leap. Larger brokers, resentful of MetaQuotes fees, are more inclined to attempt to develop their own trading platform, rather than go through the hassle of moving their clients to another MetaQuotes solution.

Using Google searches as a proxy for investor interest, we see that searches for MT5 leveled off after an initial spike, and remain a fraction of MT4 searches.Based on the languages and regions displayed, MT5 doesn’t even standout in one particular region.

MetaQuotes inability to push has MT5 has not been consequence free. Metaquotes did not develop a mobile trading application for MT4, presumably hoping that MT5’s ability to trade over the iPhone would make that irrelevant. Instead, a flurry of tech start-ups have flowered to serve this market. Further investment by brokers into MT4 (buying, launching and marketing their mobile devices) are another sunk cost that will hold brokers back from migrating to the new system.

Whether MetaQuotes will be able to successfully manage this transition remains to be seen. Unless dramatic improvements in MT5 are offered, it seems likely that the planned transition will continue to move forward slowly.