While the last days of the summer months are usually quiet in terms of new product announcements, MetaQuotes has just made quite an important one. The company’s flagship MetaTrader 4 platform is getting Web Trading support in the latest build of the beta version of the platform. Back in June, Finance Magnates exclusively reported on the development planned for the third quarter of 2015.
The news could make life much easier for a number of brokers who have been resorting to third party solutions to provide their traders with an appropriate alternative to the Windows native MetaTrader 4 platform.
With the new solution in beta, we are still months away from seeing an officially available product, but the news that MetaQuotes is working on a web-based solution should please a number of brokers and possibly lead to concerns for various developers of web-based alternatives to run the MT4 platform from a browser.
MetaTrader 4 native web-based platform, Source: MetaQuotes
All of the features of the platform will be available for traders from a web browser of their choice within a secure environment. The trading account number and passwords will be encrypted and stored locally in the browser’s settings, minimizing any risks of hacking.
The new feature is available for all owners of an MQL5.community account. Users may test the web platform under the newly available "Trade" section. The running version of the new MetaTrader 4 build 865, is currently working only with demo accounts.
The current version of the web Trading Platform is somewhat limited in its functionality, but in an official forum posting the company pledges on expanding its functionality.
Currently the features included in the beta version of the web-based MetaTrader 4 solution include placing market and pending orders, getting real-time market quotes, customizable price charts on 9 time frames and basic analytical objects such as horizontal, vertical and trend lines, equidistant channels and Fibonacci levels.
As previously announced, the company has been developing a solution to simplify the purchase of Virtual Hosting. Clients will no longer need to pay separately through their MQL5.community but instead use a convenient Payments system of their choice.
One-Time Password (OTP) Authentication
Looking at the standard versions of the MetaTrader 4 platform a new authentication feature has been added through the OTP (one-time password) protocol for a more secure trading account. The feature involves the user entering a unique one-time confirmation password every time he/she accesses the trading account.
MT4 one-time password authentication
The system works in a similar way to a security token as the user accesses the MetaTrader 4 mobile terminals for iPhone or Android instead of a dedicated physical device. To activate one-time passwords, the trading account has to be linked to the mobile apps and the OTP option should be enabled on the trade server. So far, this option is only available on the demo server of MetaQuotes.
The feature could provide an additional layer of security for clients of MetaTrader accounts at no additional costs to the broker, unless MetaQuotes decides to introduce an additional fee for the feature to be active.
