In terms of the retail forex market, MetaQuotes and its top platform MetaTrader were at the top of many headlines during the second quarter. Rising to the head among trading platforms, a thriving eco-system of third-party providers began creating products for MetaTrader.
While friction between these providers and MetaQuotes began to heat up in previous years, during the second quarter the issue began to peak with the blocking of several signal providers such as Tradency, Myfxbook, and ZuluTrade. As a result, talk among brokers and traders has increased in regards to using rival platforms. Simultaneously, MT4 has shown itself to be as popular as ever with recent news that IG and City Index are offering the platform.
To learn more about MetaTrader 4, Forex Magnates analyzed the platform and its users in our Q2 Industry Report. We interviews Some of the questions we set out on answering:
1) Why has MT4 become so popular among brokers and traders?
2) Who are the platform’s main competitors?
3) What is the global retail forex usage of the platform?
Among our findings:
In terms of competitors, there really is no ‘all in one’ turnkey Trading Platform solution that is even close to owning similar market share to MetaTrader's. Much smaller rivals include cTrader, Act Forex, and ProTrader. In addition, there are several technology providers such as Leverate and Panda TS that operate in tandem with the downloadable MetaTrader 4 (MT4) ) platform, but can also be offered as standalone offerings.
In actuality, the real competitor to MetaTrader are proprietary platforms. When looked at as a group, 7 of the top 10 brokers operate proprietary platforms. However, evaluating the top 11-25 brokers shows only 6 out of 15 offering their own platforms. These figures are important as they explain the sweet spot for MetaTrader, smaller sized brokers seeking a cost effective platform solution.
Download the Q2 Forex Industry Report to read the entire article and view underlying volume usage.
