Trade Stock Indices

Learn Stock Indices Trading for Beginners Tutorials

MetaTrader 5 Terminal Window

The MetaTrader 5 Indices Trading Platform Terminal Window is mainly used for monitoring your Indices Trading MetaTrader 5 account balance, MetaTrader 5 account equity and transaction reports mainly. There are other operations that can be set up on this panel but most of these are not commonly used.

On the online indices trading platform MT5 the Terminal Window is shown below:

MT5 Terminal Window and Terminal Button View Menu - MetaTrader 5 Transactions Tabs Panel

Terminal Window - MT5 Online Indices Trading Platform

The Terminal Window has the Following Sub Menu or Tabs:

  1. Trade
  2. Account History
  3. News
  4. Alerts
  5. Mailbox
  6. Signals
  7. Code Base
  8. Experts
  9. Journal

Let us look at each on its own:

Trade Tab

If you open a Indices Trading on the MetaTrader 5 Platform, the transaction will then be recorded here on this Trade Tab. For Example if you sell The Indices, open a sell indices trade order the following details will be recorded on this Trade Tab panel.

Account Balance and Open Trade Details on MT5 Terminal - Stock Index Trading MetaTrader 5 Online Trading Software

Trade Tab - Indices Trading Platform Trading Windows

From the above example we have opened a Sell Indices: The transaction details are shown above under the column details marked

Order, Time, Type, Size, Symbol, Indices Price, S/L,T/P, Commission, Swap, Profit

Order, - The transaction number

Time, - The Time

Type, - The Type of order, Sell or Buy

Size, - Size of transaction, 1 Standard Lot

Symbol, - stock indices Symbol, Indices

S/L, - Stop Loss Indices Order

T/P, - Take Profit Indices Order

Current Indices Price

Commission, - Commission (no commission charged by this broker)

Swap, - no swap charged as per now, the trade has not stayed overnight

Profit - $ 51 dollars

The most common operation after opening a transaction is to place the Stop Loss Indices Order and Take Profit Indices Order, These are abbreviated as S/L and T/P. There is likely no other operation to setup after this only to monitor the stock indices trades within the trading platform work-space after setting these two levels, the stop loss will close your order with a minimum loss and the take profit will close your it at a reasonable profit.

To place this S/L and T/P, we shall Right Click anywhere within this Trade Tab, the part shaded grey, the following menu will appear, this is used to make changes to the current order that is open.

This will appear as:

Trade Tab Menu on MT5 Terminal Window

Modify a Indices Order on the MetaTrader 5 Platform

Broker

The Menu has The following Options:

  1. New Order - Put a new transaction
  2. Close - Can close this transaction at current indices price
  3. Modify or Delete - Can Modify the S/L and T/P, (order cannot be deleted, delete is for pending stock indices orders that are not yet executed)
  4. Trailing Stop - Set a trailing Stop Loss Indices Order
  5. Profit - View profit as either pips, term indices trading or deposit currency; depending on which option you favor.
  6. Commission, Taxes, Comments, are additional columns that you can chose to show or hide by ticking/unticking(Checking/Unchecking) them.
  7. Auto Arrange - Arrange indices charts according to alphabet, time of open, most profitable according to sorting by choosing a column of arranging priority, for example "Time" column.
  8. Grid - Show Grid or do Not Show Grid, by Checking/Unchecking This MetaTrader 5 option.

    To Set Take Profit Indices Order and Stop Loss Indices Order, T/P and S/L we use the third option, "Modify or Delete", after clicking this the following panel will popup:

    S/L is placed at 250 points - 25 pips

    T/P is placed at 500 points - 50 pips

    You can set this two points by selecting 250 and 500 on the part labeled points, the red part marked copy is for Stop Loss Indices Order and blue part marked copy as is for Take Profit Indices Order as shown on the screenshot below.

    After that press the wide red button marked modify to modify.

    Setting Up a Market Order to Buy or Sell indices in MT5 - Index Trading MetaTrader 5 Terminal Window - Stock Index Trading MetaTrader 5 Online Trading Platform

    Modify a Trading Order on MT5 indices trading Platform

    The order will then appear as below, note that the S/L and T/P columns for our trade have now been updated as shown below.

    Indices Sell Order with Take Profit Indices Order and Stop Loss Indices Order Levels on MT5 - MetaTrader 5 Transactions Tabs Panel

    Take Profit Indices Order and Stop Loss Indices Order Levels Shown on Meta indices trader Platform

    MT5 Terminal Window Profit, Loss and Account Balance

    S/L and T/P Trading Order Details Updated on the Meta 5 trader Platform Transaction Window

    If you were to close the above transaction now, then the trade transactions will be updated as follows, to reflect that the transaction has been closed and the profit added to your MetaTrader 5 account balance.

    Profit Recorded on MT5 Terminal Window for Closed Indices Trade - Index Trading MT5 Online Trading Software

    Indices Trading Account Balance Updated on the MetaTrader 5 Platform

    Account History

    This is used to generate trade reports of stock indices trades that have been opened previously and have been closed. This is a record of all previous transactions.

    Account History Tab for Recording Closed Trade Orders on MT5 - MetaTrader 5 Transactions Tabs Panel - Stock Index Trading MT5 Online Trading Software

    Trade Reports Window on MT5

    On the above example, there are currently no trade records on this transaction history recorded. There needs to be a couple of closed trade transactions for this record to show some entries. Let us see what happens when we close our open position of indices.

    Account History Tab Indices Sell Trade Recorded on MT5

    Indices Closed Transaction Recorded on MetaTrader 5 Indices Trading Account History Transaction Tab

    From the above example, once our open stock indices order was closed the transaction was then recorded as an entry within the "Account History" of the MT5 Indices Trading Platform

    Account History Menu for Generating Detailed Trading Reports

    MetaTrader 5 Indices Trading Account History Menu

    Account History Menu

    This menu is shown above and can be accessed by right clicking anywhere within the MetaTrader 5 account history panel. The last Four (commissions, Taxes, comments, Auto Arrange and Grid are used more for formatting purposes but not for trading in general, therefore we shall not look at these as they are self explaining)

    The following 6 options are Shown Below:

    All History, Last 3 Months, Last Month or Custom Period - all these options can be used to select the time period for which you want to generate the history of transactions.

    Save as Report, Save as Detailed Report - This will generate a report of all trade transactions along with profit and loss calculation, draw-down calculation, profit factor calculation, expected payoff factor of the system you use along with the total number of profitable transactions, losing ones, the average loss per transaction and the average profit per transaction as shown below.

    Generating Trading Reports and Detailed Trading Reports on MT5 - MT5 Transactions Tabs Panel - Index Trading MT5 Online Trading Platform

    Generating Trade Reports of Your Indices Trading Account on MetaTrader 5 Trader Platform

    Save as Report

    Stock Index Trading MetaTrader 5 Terminal Window

    Save as Detailed Report

    Save as Detailed Report on MT5 Terminal Window - Index Trading MetaTrader 5 Online Trading Platform

    Saving detailed Reports of Trading Transactions History on Meta Trading 4 Platform

    Broker

    News Tab

    This is the third option within the MT5 Terminal Window this panel is used to display a list of current news provided as a news feed by your indices broker. This is shown below:

    News Tab Menu and News Feed Menu on MT5

    Indices Trading News Stream on MetaTrader 5

    Alerts Tab

    This is used to set an alert for stock indices price when it reaches a pre determined level. For example you may be using a Bollinger bands, an indicator that forms an upper boundary and lower boundary and you want to set an alert for stock indices price when it gets to any one of these levels.

    For example, in our above example we may want to put an alert for at 50 pips below the current indices price, we shall open the Alerts Tab, and right click to activate the menu below:

    Alerts Menu and Alert Tab for Setting Trading Alerts on MT5 - Index Trading MT5 Terminal Window - Stock Indices Trading MetaTrader 5 Online Trading Platform

    How to Set Indices Price Alerts on MetaTrader 5

    On the above panel, select, Create and create one as follows:

    MT5 Window for Setting Trading Alerts on MT5 Terminal Window

    Setting Indices Price Alerts on MT5 Software

    Put the sound as the alert action, indices symbol is the Indices, set the condition to set is when bid stock indices price is less than(Bid<) and put the value for example at 1.34730, select the source of the alert sound as above, (This is a sound file with extension Alert.wav), adjust timeout to 10 seconds and iterations at maximum of 50, then select OK to activate it.

    Trade Alert Setup in MetaTrader Alerts Tab

    Setting Indices Price Alerts on MetaTrader 5

    The above alert is then set and an alert will sound off once this stock indices price of Indices goes below this level.

    By right clicking on this, the Alert Menu will provide options for modifying it, deleting it or turning it off. You can download the MT5 and practice opening This MetaTrader 5 option to see how you can put a new alert or delete the same or modify it.

    Mailbox Tab

    Mail box is used to view the messages that have been sent to you, to your Online indices trading platform as shown below:

    MT5 Mailbox for Emails Sent to Trader's Software - Stock Indices Trading MT5 Terminal Window - Indices Trading MT5 Online Trading Software

    Mail Box on MT5

    Signals Tab

    Contains of a list of Indices Trading Signal Providers that traders can subscribe to through their MT5 Indices Trading Platform, this is shown below, one can select any signal provider and click subscribe to get the stock indices signals.

    Signals Tab on MT5 for Accessing MQL5 Trade Signals

    MT5 Signals Provided From MQL5 Indices Trading Website Directly to the Trading Platform

    To learn and know more about MT5 MQL5 Signals, navigate to the MQL5 Indices Trading Signals Page.

    CodeBase Tab

    CodeBase contains a list or a library of Automated Indices Trading Expert Advisors that one can purchase from through their MetaTrader 5 Indices Trading Platform and then use this Automated Indices Expert Advisors which are automated programs used to trade indices. These EA Indices Trading Robots are set up Automated Indices Expert Advisors on the indices traders MetaTrader 5 Indices Trading Platform. To use these Automated Indices Expert Advisors (EAs) one has to activate automated trading option within their platform a topic explained in the next tutorial. The Code Base is shown Below:

    Code Base Tab on MT5 for Accessing MQL5 Automated Indices EAs Library - Stock Indices Trading MetaTrader 5 Terminal Window

    MT5 Automated Indices Expert Advisors Provided From MQL5 Indices Trading Website Directly to the Trading Platform

    To learn and know more about MT5 MQL5 Automated Indices Trading Expert Advisors, navigate to the MQL5 Automated Indices Expert Advisors Page.

    Experts Tab

    Shows a list of all Automated Indices Expert Advisors that have been installed on the MT5 Platform, for Example the image below shows two EA Indices Trading Robots are installed on this indices trading platform. This MetaTrader 5 option also shows the trading specifications of each EA, these include trading parameters such as Take Profit Indices Orders, Lot Size, Trailing Stop Levels and all the other custom trading parameters of the EA that has been installed on the indices trading platform.

    MT5 Experts Tab Showing List of Installed Automated Indices Trading EAs

    Automated Indices Expert Advisors Installed on MT5

    Journal Tab

    Tracks login activities of the Meta 4 trader and from which computer and the IP address of the computer used to login to the platform.

    This is more on the technical stuff and traders do not use this one a lot and therefore we shall not explain it here but you can look at this at your own free time, on your MetaTrader 5 Indices Trading Platform.

    Regulated Indices Broker Information: Read About Regulated Indices Broker Review

    Takes 5 Minutes to Open an Account, Open an Account Early: Open Indices Account


    XM Copy Trading


    Broker