Forex broker Crown Forex said it was appealing against a bankruptcy ruling by Swiss regulator FINMA and might also sue the regulator.

Crown has 30 days to appeal the bankruptcy ruling and claims that FINMA ignored its earlier appeal against the liquidation.  FINMA is standing its ground saying that Crown's problems started with a money-laundering probe and that it has applied the law correctly.  More...

MetaTrader 5 has been under development for two years and beta testing will finally begin this summer.  MT5 is a complete rewrite of the MetaQuotes platform and is not backward compatible with MT4.  So if you purchased expert advisors to trade on MT4 and you plan to use MT5, you might as well throw those MT4 EAs away.  They won't work on MT5.

MetaTrader 5 offers several new features that may make it necessary for retail traders to adjust to new terminology and, possibly, a new way of thinking about order processing and trade management.

First, a new order type - Exchange - will now enable trading of stocks, futures and options directly from the MT5 platform in addition to the Forex order to which MT4 traders are already accustomed.



The addition of Depth of Market data, which I mentioned in my previous post, will also give traders access to market data previously not available.

Traders will also have to get familiar with the differences between how MetaQuotes is defining position, order, and trade. An Order is now defined as a request to execute a trade operation. A Position is the total state of trades on a specified financial security; and a financial security can only have one position. So, two 1-lot EURUSD orders placed in MT4 are now reported in MT5 as a single 2-lot position. Multiple buy-sell orders in MT4 are consolidated and reported as a single position in MT5.

Order	Buy 1.00 EURUSD	Buy 1.00 EURUSD	Sell 3.00 EURUSD
MetaTrader 5 Position	Buy 1.00 EURUSD	Buy 2.00 EURUSD	Sell 1.00 EURUSD
MetaTrader 4 Position	Buy 1.00 EURUSD	#1 Buy 1.00 EURUSD #2 Buy 1.00 EURUSD	#1 Buy 1.00 EURUSD #2 Buy 1.00 EURUSD #3 Sell 3.00 EURUSD

I'm sure this will inspire lots of conversation about hedging as traders try to understand how this will impact their trading. 

MT4 gave the trader 9 timeframes from Monthly down to 1-Minute. MT5 gives the trader 21 timeframes with which to analyze quotes as long as the timeframe adheres to their rule of multiplicity: one hour must contain the integer number of minute periods. So, the following timeframes comply with this rule: M1, M2, M3, M4, M5, M6, M10, M12, M15, M20 and M30.

There is lots more to talk about with this new release. Next, MT5's impact on autotrading.

Everyone has been waiting for the release of MetaTrader 5 and now we've had our first glimpse of the new platform and its features.  The new MT5 platform is not an upgrade of MT4 but rather an entirely new client terminal, written from scratch.  As I wrote in a previous Forex Magnates post, MT5 will feature:

• 5 order types and 4 execution modes available for trading
• Implements practically any trading strategies
• Built-in reports on all trading activities
• Built-in indicators and graphical objects
• Allows quicker analysis of quotes and trade decision making
• 3 chart-types, 21 timeframes and over 70 analytical tools
• High performance and outstanding speed
• Strategy tester MetaTrader 5

Over the next few days I will try to explain in some depth what these features really offer the trader and the impact it will might have on your trading.

Today, I'll focus on MetaQuotes' new Depth of Market (DOM) window. What DOM affords a stock trader is a view of current market activity for a particular stock. Market depth information is not available for retail Forex traders because their is no central exchange from which to derive the data.  The best a Forex broker can do is provide a mechanism to show a consolidated view of available orders from their liquidity providers. A small broker, for example, with only one liquidity provider is more restricted in what they can offer a trader.  Since their pool of orders is smaller, the trader may not get an order filled at the price requested.  A broker with more liquidity providers will have a larger pool of orders from which to match a trader's order and trading generally runs smoother.  Fewer requotes and less slippage.

Tradeview Forex's Platinum trading platform offers DOM information, but market depth data has been generally unavailable to retail traders up to this point.  MT5 will change all that.  Here's an example of how it could help you as a retail trader.

Let's say that you want to place a buy order for 1 lot EUR/USD and the market depth window on the platform indicates that, on the buy side, there are 10 lots available at 1.4000.  You can then request to trade your 1 lot and be guaranteed an immediate fill at 1.4000.  There's no requote and no slippage.  You should then see the DOM window reflect the change in buy-side order availability.

Access to that kind of information can take a lot of anxiety out of the trading environment and potentially change a lot of traders' strategies.

Tomorrow, more about MT5's 21 timeframes and how this feature could make a big difference in your trading.

We did a quick review of our MT4 brokers list this week and found:

Our original list contained 132 brokers around the world that offer MT4 as a trading platform. I'm sure that 132 is not an accurate count but it gave us a good foundation to work from.

From that list, there are 56 brokers in our MT4-Brokers quick list. These are companies for which we have already completed a company profile in our database.

29 of the original 132 are either out of business; or we could not connect to their website; or they are up for sale; or they don't offer MT4 as a platform anymore, etc.

Defunct MT4 Brokers
Former MT4 Broker	Former URL
1st Trader Company	http://www.1sttrader
Adamaz Forex	http://fractal.uniweb.ru/
CFGTrader LLC	http://www.cfgtrader
COESfx (COES Inc.)	http://www.coesfx
CompassFX	http://www.compassfx
Dunhill Scott, Inc.	http://www.dunhillscott
EuroNet Financial Network LLC	http://www.euronet-fn
FINEX Group GmbH	http://www.finex
Forex Global Investment LLC	http://www.forexgi
Forex India	http://www.fxindia.org/
Forex Private	http://www.forexprivate.ru/
FX4us	http://www.fx4us
GoldMany Investment Holdings Ltd	http://www.goldmany.org
Inforex IB	http://www.inforex.org/
INTX (Inteks)	http://www.intx.ru/
Joy Financial Group	http://www.joyfg
Lefco Bank	http://www.lefco.ru/
Masterpiece Futures	http://www.masterpiecefutures
North Shore FX	http://www.northshorefx
One World Forex	http://www.1world-forex
Performance Capital	http://www.fxpcil
PFEC	http://www.eforex-asia
ProFXBroker	http://www.profxbroker
SNC Investments	http://www.sncfx
Solid Gold International	http://www.sgfs.us/
SpaceVision Switzerland SA	http://www.spacevision-fx.ch/
Spencer Financial	http://www.spencerfx
Tradeco Clearing Group	http://www.tradeco
Tradex Indo (Tradex Swiss AG)	http://www.tradexindo

We will add the remaining 47 MT4 brokers to our profile database over the next couple of weeks. We'll try to keep up with this. New MT4 brokers open their doors for business every day.

My jaw dropped when I read that InvestTechFX is offering 500:1 leverage because some newbie fool is going to blow up his account trying to get rich quick.  Leverage is a two-edged sword and, if you don't use it properly, you can become an ex-forex trader real fast.

I wrote a blog post for Forex Magnates in May about leverage, revealing that IG Markets offers 700:1 leverage.  700:1 is insane and only appeals to gamblers with a thirst for the big hit.  Anyone who knows anything about money management, the most important aspect of trading, would never risk their account in such an undisciplined manner. 

InvestTechFX is not helping anyone but themselves with 500:1 leverage.  They're the only ones who are going to get rich quick.