MT4 and MT5 user interface suggestions
Probably all good suggestions, but it's unlikely that a developer will read this and even more unlikely for them to implement any of it, sadly.
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MT4 and MT5 are ubiquitous in the trading world. They are both excellent choices for placing trades, connectivity, and programmability. But, the user inteface is stuck in the past and lacking polish and usability. This has bugged me for a long time. Their is no need for their user experiences to be inferior to other charting packages. In fact, it is so bad that I and many, many others do my charting with another package while trading with this one. This is seriously annoying.
Here is the first list off the top of my head in no particular order.
First and most irritating, the commission for a trade was removed in MT5. This makes me have to always do the math when looking at a trade.
The user interface is dated and clunky. This needs updating. User interface design has made huge strides since the 2000s. For example:
Expanding or contracting the date range is backwards from what you would expect and it is levelized. I'm always looking for a value between the two presets. The bars are often too large or too small.
Next, the auto-sizing needs to be selectable so you can turn it off and zoom in or out freely on any chart and not limited to the chart extents.
The auto-scroll works exactly wrong. By default, auto-scroll and chart shift should be always on. You should be able to use your mouse in the chart to move the bars around the chart. When you release the mouse, whatever the rightmost bar when you release is the bar that stays there. If that bar happens to be the latest bar, then auto-scroll from there and keep the latest bar in that place.
Use the mouse scroll wheel with a combo of shift/alt/ctrl to zoom and pan left/right or up/down.
Change the indicator editing process. Allow picking and moving whatever the cursor is over.
Allow the user show the indicator list on the screen by default. Then they don’t have to go through menus to find an indicator.
Allow a user to use their local time-frame. This is easy to implement and very handy.
Add different display options for date and time. I don’t need to see the day and month on all intraday charts, just the time with an added line showing when the date changes.
Add many more hot keys. One for each section of the menu bar at least. Allow users to select their own hot keys and make it theirs.
As I said, this was off the top of my head, I’m sure there are other issues. but fixing these would help a lot. Just bring the interface into the 2020’s, give the user fast ways to execute things and customize their user experience. If nothing else, expose all the UI elements in MQL5 and let people offer customized UIs to the users.