Market Watch

The Market Watch window is a central collection of trading instruments, which is customizable by the user. For many, the Market Watch window is essential to trading with MT5 but we will share steps for how to add or remove instruments here. 

• Adding instruments
• Removing instruments

Adding instruments

1. Right-click anywhere in Market Watch.
2. Select Symbols.
3. Choose the symbol group of the instrument you would like to add. In general the categories you will find are:
   1. Forex for currency pairs (for example, EURUSD)
   2. Indices for indices (for example, US30)
   3. Energies for instruments like US Oil and UK Oil
   4. Stocks for stocks (for example, AAPL)
   5. Crypto for cryptocurrencies (for example, BTCUSD)

1. CryptoCross for cryptocurrency crosspairs (for example, BTCAUD)

Note: names of the groups may vary according to the account type. For exact details, please refer to this article on trading instruments.

4. Double-click on the instrument(s) you would like to add to the Market Watch window. Alternatively, you may also click on the preferred instrument(s) and click Show Symbol.

Removing instruments

1. Right-click the symbol.
2. Select Hide.

Having too many instruments in your Market Watch window can slow down your internet connectivity. Hiding them all at once may be more convenient, in which case:

1. Right-click anywhere in the Market Watch. 
2. Select Hide All (this removes all instruments without warning).

Navigator

The Navigator window is a central management hub for the following:

• Accounts
• Indicators
• Expert Advisors
• Scripts

Accounts

Trading accounts that are logged into are collected here, though only one trading account is logged into at any time. Double-click any trading account here to bring up a login popup with its credentials already entered, then confirm to log in quickly.

Indicators

The full list of preinstalled indicators available for MT5 are shown here. Indicators are programmed visual cues that measure certain market trends.

To add indicators

1. Drag any indicator onto the active chart.
2. Customize the indicator as desired.
3. Click OK to apply.

To delete or edit indicators

1. Right-click the chart and select Indicator list (or press ctrl + i).
2. To delete: select the indicator from the list and click Delete.
3. To edit: select the indicator from the list and click Properties.

Expert Advisors

Expert Advisors (EA) listed here can be used for automated trading. As an advanced topic, we recommend reading more about Expert Advisors before using them here.

To add EA

1. Drag the EA onto the active chart.
2. Customize the EA.
3. Click OK to apply.

To delete or edit EA

1. Right-click the chart, hover over Expert List.
2. To delete: select Remove.
3. To edit: Select Properties.

Scripts

Like EA, scripts are used for automated trading. Any scripts that are installed into MT5 are shown here.

Charts

The Charts area houses charts, of which many can be active at one time. The chart visually illustrates the performance of its displayed instrument. 

Right-clicking anywhere on the chart will bring up the main options for that chart, while various functions that apply to the chart can be found as icons just about it.

Clicking and dragging the mouse across the chart or rolling the mouse wheel will scroll the time period shown on the chart. Clicking and dragging the price column will expand or contract the price parameters tracked.

To customize the chart

1. Right-click and select Properties, or press F8, or click Charts > Properties.
2. The Colors tab lets you customize every element in the chart, or select from a number of preset color schemes.
3. The Common tab controls chart scale and type.
4. The Show tab will show/hide certain features for the chart.

To change timeframes:

1. Right-click and hover over Timeframes.
2. Select from the options available (the periods they represent are shown too).
3. These can be selected from the icons above the chart too.

To change between bar settings:

1. Select from Bar charts (alt+1), Candlesticks (alt+2), or Line charts (alt+3) by clicking their icon above the chart, or use their key shortcuts.

To display the ask line:

This setting is off by default, and is useful to users who create sell orders.

1. Right-click and select Properties, or press F8, or click Charts > Properties.
2. Open the Show tab.
3. Tick Show ask price line.

The ask price line appears in red by default, and may appear invisible if your background matches its color. Change this in the Colors tab to ensure it appears as intended.

Toolbox

The Toolbox window is an information center for MT5 where notifications, order history, trading activity and more is collected and stored. Technical news is collected in the News tab if it is enabled from the Tools > Options > Server menu.

The most important of tabs in the Terminal window include:

• Trade
• History
• Mailbox
• Alerts
• Experts
• Journal

Trade

Information about your trading account’s balance, equity, and margin are shown in the Trade tab, while managing active orders is also possible. If your trading account has any credit (previously known as bonus), it is shown here. 

• Right-click any active order here to bring up its options.
• Right-click anywhere in the Trade tab to various display options.

History

History will display all transactions, such as deposits and withdrawals, made with this trading account but also includes information about closed orders. Right-click anywhere in the tab to option some useful options such as:

• A preset or customizable time period for displayed history.
• Right-click an item, select Report > HTML to save a report.
• Select from the offered information columns.

Mailbox

The Mailbox is where Exness sends routine notifications of instruments affected by high importance news (which can result in higher margin requirements for that instrument). Exness will send other critical messages through the mailbox, so it’s important to monitor regularly.

Highlight any item and press Enter to bring it up instantly; press Esc to close it.

Alerts

Create custom alerts to trigger based on your own predefined criteria, i.e when an instrument’s price reaches a certain level.

Right-click and select Create to open the Alert Editor.

The Alert Editor presents limitless potential for creating alerts, including the ability to send yourself an email alert.

Experts

If your trading account makes use of any Expert Advisors (EA), information about this will be tracked in this tab.

Journal

The Journal tab tracks every event that occurs on MT5, including login attempts and terminal errors. As such this tab is very important for troubleshooting issues; you may be requested by Support to provide information from here.

To copy an event:

1. Right-click any item listed in the Journal.
2. Click Copy.
3. Paste this information either into a notepad application, or directly into an email as requested by Support.

Troubleshooting

Having trouble with MT5? Select from one of the most common errors below:

• Trading platform terminal errors

Trading platform terminal errors

Browse the Help Center for a full list of potential terminal errors and more troubleshooting guides.

Optimizing MT5

To improve speed and performance, there are some actions that may help correct connectivity issues, or even reduce and prevent freezing, chart lagging, and other common problems. Please note that your hardware may limit the effectiveness of some of these suggestions.

• Reduce max bars
• Disable News
• Optimizing RAM
• Create an optimized user profile
• Custom indicators
• Consider a VPS

Reduce max bars

Reducing the bars displayed limits how much your device needs to render which can lighten the processing load.

1. Select Tools > Options > Charts.
2. Find the Max bars in chart option; lower these values by 50%. You can go as low as you like, but test this setting for an improvement first.

Less bars need less rendering, and may improve overall performance.

Disable News

MT5 features a newsfeed (News tab) that automatically updates financial news of interest to users. This feature may increase the load on the application, causing some slowdown.

To disable this feature:

1. Select Tools > Options > Server.
2. Untick Enable news and then click OK.

Now the news feed will not update which could speed MT5 up.

Optimizing RAM

Sometimes background features can make use of RAM inefficiently; disabling some of these may improve performance.

1. Hide all unused instruments in the Market Watch window: right-click the instrument and select Hide. Consider the Hide All option if there are too many.
2. Similarly, close all charts not in use by clicking the X icon on that graph’s window.
3. If you are running any Expert Advisors, consider disabling any logging functions as this eats into your computer memory.
4. Restart MT5 regularly to refresh its memory.

Create an optimized user profile

Use the built-in user profile to save and load settings that optimize performance. Then, toggle these settings as needed:

1. Set your preferences as needed.
2. File > Profiles > Save As: then give your new profile a name.
3. Now you can simply return to Profiles and load your optimized profile from the list.

Create a profile where features are set to improve performance overall.

Custom indicators

Please be aware that custom indicators can impact performance negatively; however, the default indicators that come with MetaTrader are optimized so should not impact performance.

Consider a VPS

If you are looking to increase the execution speed of your trades specifically, and your problem is related to your internet connection and bandwidth, do consider applying for a VPS with Exness. It is completely free if your trading account qualifies for it.