How To Add New Trading Symbol ?

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Hey Everyone,

Would have a question if someone could please help me.

On the left side of main dashboard is Market Watch menu. Here is a list of all trading symbols (trading assets) available to trade, regardless of type of financial instrument, 
e.t. stock, material, etc. I have there everything visible. The key information for you to answer my question is that NOTHING is hidden. I did some alphabetical relocating of 
those trading symbols but never hide anything. 

My question: I would like to know how could be possible to add few or few tens or few hundreds of CUSTOM trading symbols, regardless of type of financial instrument? Example1 
(for stock): If I want stock ABCD which is NOT in the list, how can I manually add it there? Surely it is irrelevant to which country does stock belong to. Just asking how can 
I add such custom symbol there so I can later analyze it, see its chart on different time frames, use default and custom indicators and other tools on it, draw some custom lines 
on it, zoom in/zoom out it, and so on? Example2 (for currency paid): If i want currency pair LMNOPQ in the list, how can I manually add it there? From where? The pair is only 
example of course. There is no real such pair on the market.

Main reason for asking my question is because I would like to sign up with secondary/thirdly/fourthly etc broker. They have a lot of trading symbols that are unavailable on my 
Metatrader but I want to do all my work in Metatrader. So thats why I am trying to find a way to attach/add/install needed trading symbols of different instruments into 
Metatrader symbols list (Market Watch menu).

I have done a lot of RESEARCH on this topic to find solution on my own but everything I see are just how to unhide hidden symbols (alternative to right click\Show All).

The broker doesn't support Metatrader. If broker supported it, then obviously the symbols list would get refreshed according to new broker that I switch to (log out on previous, 
log in on current broker). Obviously I cannot open and close orders/positions (regardless of type) if broker doesn't support Metatrader but I want to do the analysis work in 
Metatrader. This is the reason for my question.

Your assistance would be highly appreciated and thank you very much in advance.

Kindest regards.
 

Neighbour0: ...

  1. You can only have what your Broker supports. If a broker does not have Stocks, you can't just add them and hope to trade them. You can use Offline Charts, but that is something different (see point 4).
  2. If other brokers offer those symbols, then you have to ...
    1. ... either log off the first broker and log into the other broker to be able to trade those symbols, or ...
    2. ... you install two MetaTrader terminals and run them side-by-side, each with its respective broker account account.
  3. If a broker does not support MetaTrader, then you will not be able to use MetaTrader for their feeds and transactions. That is simply just not how it works. Some brokers do sometimes provide a MetaTrader bridge connection to connect their system to MetaTrader but that is not very common.
  4. The only way to do analyse symbol data from other sources with MetaTrader, is to generate Offline Charts with that data (you will have to code a script to be able to generate such charts), but you will not be able to trade it in MetaTrader nor run EA back-tests on it (unless you use special 3rd party tools).
 
Fernando Carreiro:
  1. You can only have what your Broker supports. If a broker does not have Stocks, you can't just add them and hope to trade them. You can use Offline Charts, but that is something different (see point 4).
  2. If other brokers offer those symbols, then you have to ...
    1. ... either log off the first broker and log into the other broker to be able to trade those symbols, or ...
    2. ... you install two MetaTrader terminals and run them side-by-side, each with its respective broker account account.
  3. If a broker does not support MetaTrader, then you will not be able to use MetaTrader for their feeds and transactions. That is simply just not how it works. Some brokers do sometimes provide a MetaTrader bridge connection to connect their system to MetaTrader but that is not very common.
  4. The only way to do analyse symbol data from other sources with MetaTrader, is to generate Offline Charts with that data (you will have to code a script to be able to generate such charts), but you will not be able to trade it in MetaTrader nor run EA back-tests on it (unless you use special 3rd party tools).

Thank you very much for your reply! So as far as I understand you, you are saying that in case if broker doesn't support Metatrader then (excluding programming work - i don't know how to) there is no way to do any analysis work of any kind in Metatrader before going back to the broker's trading platform and open position (the trade) there. You are saying if broker doesn't support Metatrader, I cannot use it to do analysis (e.g. indicators, resistance and support lines, trendlines, etc) inside Metatrader for broker's trading symbols being offered. This is very sad news because i was hoping i could just add the wanted symbol in Metatrader, do whatever i have to do and then open position, of wanted type (including Pending positions) on broker's platform. I was hoping to get a different answer but surely answer that disappoints me is better than no answer at all.

One more thing: you are saying that i can be connected to two (or more) different brokers at the same time in Metatrader but obviously only if they support this platform. So quantity of wanted brokers to who i want to be connected at the same time on the same computer must equal quantity of terminals, being runned side by side, ON THE SAME computer. How can I do multiple terminals then?

 
Neighbour0:

Thank you very much for your reply! So as far as I understand you, you are saying that in case if broker doesn't support Metatrader then (excluding programming work - i don't know how to) there is no way to do any analysis work of any kind in Metatrader before going back to the broker's trading platform and open position (the trade) there. You are saying if broker doesn't support Metatrader, I cannot use it to do analysis (e.g. indicators, resistance and support lines, trendlines, etc) inside Metatrader for broker's trading symbols being offered. This is very sad news because i was hoping i could just add the wanted symbol in Metatrader, do whatever i have to do and then open position, of wanted type (including Pending positions) on broker's platform. I was hoping to get a different answer but surely answer that disappoints me is better than no answer at all.

One more thing: you are saying that i can be connected to two (or more) different brokers at the same time in Metatrader but obviously only if they support this platform. So quantity of wanted brokers to who i want to be connected at the same time on the same computer must equal quantity of terminals, being runned side by side, ON THE SAME computer. How can I do multiple terminals then?

>> for your first paragraph:

Yes, that is correct. You would need programming skills and knowledge about both systems to be able to achieve that. Unless a broker offers multiple platforms to choose from, that is usually the point of the each broker's "unique" trading platform, to be able to "lock-in" the trader into using their system only.

Alternatively, assuming you been talking about MetaTrader 4, you can consider using MetaTrader 5 as the brokers in question offer many more Symbols and types of Exchanges.

>> for your second paragraph:

I will repeat ... you install two MetaTrader terminals and run them side-by-side, each with its respective broker account.

Usually, each broker will supply their own personalised Installer with their own data setup and icons. So just run each broker's installation file, and you will have multiple installations of MetaTrader available in your Windows Menu. Then you run each one with the respective broker/account login. This is obviously just a kludge, because any of those installations can connect to any broker and any account, but they serve as a way of you identifying each installation because they will each have their own brokers' respective icons.

Please note, there is a technical maximum of 32 terminals running at the same time on a PC (for given Window login). If you want to run more at the same time (provided your system has enough resources for it - RAM, CPU, etc), you will need to run the terminals under different Windows user logins (or just user another PC).

 
Fernando Carreiro:

>> for your first paragraph:

Yes, that is correct. You would need programming skills and knowledge about both systems to be able to achieve that. Unless a broker offers multiple platforms to choose from, that is usually the point of the each broker's "unique" trading platform, to be able to "lock-in" the trader into using their system only.

Alternatively, assuming you been talking about MetaTrader 4, you can consider using MetaTrader 5 as the brokers in question offer many more Symbols and types of Exchanges.

>> for your second paragraph:

I will repeat ... you install two MetaTrader terminals and run them side-by-side, each with its respective broker account.

Usually, each broker will supply their own personalised Installer with their own data setup and icons. So just run each broker's installation file, and you will have multiple installations of MetaTrader available in your Windows Menu. Then you run each one with the respective broker/account login. This is obviously just a kludge, because any of those installations can connect to any broker and any account, but they serve as a way of you identifying each installation because they will each have their own brokers' respective icons.

Please note, there is a technical maximum of 32 terminals running at the same time on a PC (for given Window login). If you want to run more at the same time (provided your system has enough resources for it - RAM, CPU, etc), you will need to run the terminals under different Windows user logins (or just user another PC).

Yes I understand you are saying I should install different Setup.exe files of Metatrader provided by different brokers. From aspect of Windows OS, this should be possible so I won't get an error message saying software, in this case Metatrader trading platform, is already installed.

However the problem may occur when trying to run multiple Metatraders on the same computer. When i run second (third/fourth/etc) Windows OS may report error message saying software is already running. Why? Because it is the same software. Just provided by different brokers. You cannot have same software runned on the same computer at the same time.

In this case I would probably have to install all custom tools (indicators, alert systems etc) in each terminal separately, right?

 
Neighbour0:

Yes I understand you are saying I should install different Setup.exe files of Metatrader provided by different brokers. From aspect of Windows OS, this should be possible so I won't get an error message saying software, in this case Metatrader trading platform, is already installed.

However the problem may occur when trying to run multiple Metatraders on the same computer. When i run second (third/fourth/etc) Windows OS may report error message saying software is already running. Why? Because it is the same software. Just provided by different brokers. You cannot have same software runned on the same computer at the same time.

You seem to be doubting what I stated! It is very common practice to run more than once instance of software on Windows, so I don't understand why you would state that it is not possible. Yes, some applications do detect and block multiple instances, but that is by design of the application, not a limit of Windows.

Did you even try to install more than one copy of MetaTrader?

Many, many users (including myself) run multiple instances of the MetaTrader terminal in order to run EAs on multiple brokers. As long as each installation is on a separate folder/directory you will have no problem at all.

 
Fernando Carreiro:

You seem to be doubting what I stated! It is very common practice to run more than once instance of software on Windows, so I don't understand why you would state that it is not possible. Yes, some applications do detect and block multiple instances, but that is by design of the application, not a limit of Windows.

Did you even try to install more than one copy of MetaTrader?

Many, many users (including myself) run multiple instances of the MetaTrader terminal in order to run EAs on multiple brokers. As long as each installation is on a separate folder/directory you will have no problem at all.

No, I haven't tried but will do so and will keep in mind to setup each terminal in different folder. Hopefully it will work but i need to install all custom tools into each terminal manually, thats fine. Thanks.
 
Neighbour0: No, I haven't tried but will do so and will keep in mind to setup each terminal in different folder. Hopefully it will work but i need to install all custom tools into each terminal manually, thats fine. Thanks.

There are ways to share certain folders and files between the different terminals, such as the Indicators, EAs, Templates, etc.

However, that requires the use of Hard Links and/or Junction points which is somewhat more complicated for someone who is not a Windows Power user as yourself.

Also, there is the option of setting up MetaTrader in Portable mode, allowing for added control for Power Users as well.

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