Ryan L Johnson / Profilo

Here's a global map of where traders are using my software. It really is a small world.😊

I've seen quite a few posts about hardware selection, so I'm sharing my experience on that subject here...

The MT4/MT5 mobile phone/tablet apps are mainly for monitoring current price and open trades, and receiving alerts--not for chart analysis nor placing trades. The mobile apps have fewer built-in indicators than the desktop platforms, and the mobile apps cannot run custom indicators. Also, mobile wireless devices inherently have slower and less reliable connections to data and trade servers. For example, my desktop's hardwired Ethernet has a 1000 Mbps connection while my 5G wireless devices have a 433 Mbps connection on the same modem-router. Keep in mind that cheaper internet service subscriptions are proportionally slower.

And if my wireless device and I go outside of my router's wireless broadcast range, wireless internet service is lost and then I'm totally reliant on my device carrier's mobile data service. My mobile data connection is never as fast as my home network connection. Therefore, I never use MT5 mobile for trading analysis nor placing trades. I only use it for receiving push notifications of disconnections between desktop MT5 and my broker-dealer's trade server, and notifications of trade executions (sent from my desktop platform).

Mac desktops are better than mobile devices but not best for running MT4/MT5. These trading platforms have been designed around the Windows pc operating system for decades. Metaquotes eventually created Mac "versions" so that more people can use the platforms without having to buy a new pc. However, Mac users generally must install and run virtual machine software and even so, the Mac functionality is never 100% on par with the pc functionality. Although Mac's are the gold standard for graphic design and desktop publishing, they are less than ideal for desktop trading.

Windows pc's have been the standard computers for both retail traders and commercial traders for decades. As retail traders, we have quite enough disadvantages to overcome. Commercial traders set up shop right next to exchange/market data centers, and they use pc's and/or field-programmable-gateway-array (FPGA) chipped computers. These folks are not using wireless devices (unless maybe, they're right on the floor of an exchange). Given the army that we're trading against, it makes no sense to disadvantage ourselves further by using workaround devices and slow/unreliable connections.

Post pubblicati The Biggest Reason Why 90% of Retail Traders Lose Money

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URGENT... PAYPAL AND CARD TRANSACTIONS IN ALL NORTH AMERICAN COUNTRIES AND THE U.K. ARE NO LONGER ACCEPTED IN THE MQL5 MARKET.

UPDATE... Based on 3rd hand information, Metaquotes is working on securing a new card processor for these transactions.

UPDATE... Two factor authentication text messages are no longer working for these transactions.

UPDATE... This problem is also affecting transactions outside of North America and the U.K. because the Market primarily uses U.S. payment processors overseas as well.

A brief explanation appears below.

Unfortunately, criminal money laundering has become widespread in the island Republic of Cyprus, which happens to be where Metaquotes Software Corporation is headquartered--after having moved there from Russia over 20 years ago. Cyprus has accepted help from the U.S. in the form of training local police and sending U.S. criminal prosecutors ( https://apnews.com/article/cyprus-us-financial-crimes-sanctions-evasion-law-enforcement-fbi-doj-f8bf9268335499bb911fe4abedb93134 ). The U.S. is also selling military grade weapons to Cyprus ( https://apnews.com/article/cyprus-us-weapons-military-equipment-f4267f7dafd40dd3d033e7d6b2582605 ).

Many bank accounts in Cyprus have been frozen due to U.S. and U.K. Sanctions ( https://knews.kathimerini.com.cy/en/business/assets-of-us-and-uk-sanctioned-entities-in-cyprus-will-be-frozen ). Unsurprisingly, Metaquotes' card processor, Unlimit ( https://www.unlimit.com/ ), and PayPal ( https://www.paypal.com/us/home ) are not accepting MQL5 Market transactions in the U.K., nor in North America. North American countries have some of the strictest anti-money laundering laws (AML's) in the world ( https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/td-bank-pleads-guilty-bank-secrecy-act-and-money-laundering-conspiracy-violations-18b ). Banks that are forced to freeze funds due to AML violations are not allowed to tell anyone why the funds are frozen. Accordingly, Metaquotes would not even be aware of any AML violation.

Both Unlimit and PayPal have offices in the U.S.--while Unlimit also has an office in Cyprus. Metaquotes has no office in the U.S. but does have an office in Mexico. All banks in Cyprus are working to improve compliance with U.S. Sanctions imposed on money traced to Russian sources or purposes ( https://exportcompliancedaily.com/article/2024/09/17/cypriot-banks-say-theyre-complying-with-all-us-sanctions-but-facing-legal-risks-2409160021 ).

To be clear, Metaquotes itself is not a bank nor a card processor but Metaquotes does hold money in Cyprus on behalf of MQL5 Market Buyers and Sellers around the world. In fact, the following warning now appears atop the MQL5 Payments page:

"⚠ Beware of Scammers! Do not trust suspicious offers, such as selling your products at inflated prices for a commission or artificially boosting your account statistics. Scammers often use these schemes to launder and cash out money from unknown or illegal sources. Avoid engaging in such activities, as they can result in financial losses and the blocking of your account."

Additionally, the Mastercard corporation maintains a nonpublic database of high-risk merchants (product or service retailers) and provides access to the database for other payment processors and banks. This is known as the Mastercard Alert to Control High-risk Merchants (MATCH) list. Mastercard and banks block such high-risk merchants by adding them to the list, generally for having too many chargebacks/payment disputes.

Upon being placed on the MATCH list, the merchant's account is terminated, and many institutions will refuse to do business with the merchant. Basically, this is a big red flag to other financial institutions. Even if the flagged merchant is lucky enough to find an accepting payment processor, the processor will charge sky high fees to compensate for the risk involved. ( https://www.chargebackgurus.com/blog/mastercard-match-list-are-you-on-it ). PayPal has a similar list known as the Restricted list.

Although Metaquotes requires Market Buyers and Sellers to participate in arbitration of disputes, arbitration cannot prevent chargeback requests from being submitted to 3rd party banks and payment processors (at least in the U.S.). Given the nature of the MQL5 Market--programmers all over the world, each selling one-off software products/services, there are many disputes as shown in Seller Arbitration numbers posted in the Market, complaints posted in the Forum, and reviews posted at https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.mql5.com

Metaquotes could likely implement paper check transactions to avoid card processing problems. Furthermore, Metaquotes could automate check printing and charge a withdrawal fee to cover the cost of printing and mailing. However, implementing paper check transactions would not solve any international sanctions problem. In fact, it would only violate those sanctions by attempting to circumvent them.

Complicating things even further in the U.S., "A commodity trading advisor (CTA) is an individual or organization that, for compensation or profit, advises others, directly or indirectly, as to the value of or the advisability of buying or selling futures contracts, commodity options, retail off-exchange forex contracts or swaps" ( https://www.nfa.futures.org/registration-membership/who-has-to-register/index.html ), and any such person or entity must be extensively educated, tested, and licensed by U.S. FINRA ( https://www.finra.org/ ).

As Metaquotes is merely a software provider, it cannot lawfully connect trading advice to live trading accounts of its U.S. customers. A legal disclaimer would have been helpful if Metaquotes had not blocked demo accounts from receiving trading signals.

In my estimation, both an institutional MATCH problem and an unlicensed CTA problem could potentially be mitigated with the help of an experienced attorney. However, a geopolitical sanctions problem is less within Metaquotes' sphere of control and would take more time to resolve itself.

A more legible example file has been attached to the U.S. Income Tax Strategies for Forex and Futures Traders article at https://www.mql5.com/en/blogs/post/756757

Gann Candles indicator for MT5 works on custom charts as well.

Gann Candles indicator for MT5 is up for Demo download!

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