As I’ve started to quickly convert one of my most trusted scalpers to MetaTrader5 (to trade on the Alpari UK ECN MT5 platform) I found this little gem: http://www.mql5.com/en/articles/81
It quickly describes most of the changes needed to get a MQL4 based EA running. When I go through the list I actually can’t understand why some of these have changed. Change without reason is always bad. It does omit trading functions, which is changed quite a bit in MQL5. It is probably a good idea to implement these from the ground up.
By accident I just visited the site of Alpari UK and noticed that their MT5 offering now is enabled for live trading (last time I looked it was only open for demo trading). MetaTrader 5 hasn’t been able to replace the old and trusted version 4 despite being available for quite a long time now.
Alpari UK is apparently hoping this will change if they sweeten the deal a little and is currently offering a MT5 ECN account without commission (!). And you only even have to deposit $200 to test it. The promotion is valid until 2nd of July 2012. Unfortunately I have no EAs to trade the account with, but hopefully I can convert some of my old MQL4 bots without too much trouble.
It is possible to trade micro lots and DOM is available (6 levels). Sounds really good when combined with razor thin spreads without commission (after the promo they will be $6/lot round turn, which is competitive for sure). I’m signing up as I’m writing this 
Check it out: http://www.alpari.co.uk/en/trading-accounts/ecn.html (don’t know if you get any rebate by signing via Cashbackforex.com since you don’t pay any commission, but it never hurts either so do it. After the promotion is ended it could be a good idea).
I recently stumbled upon a tool for backtesting and validating EA strategies in MT4 that is quite interesting actually. I have manually been doing the same a few times, but it is a lot of work. The testing strategy is called a Walk Forward Analysis.
Check out the Walk Forward Analyzer. There is a 14 day free trail and cost (only) $30.
I was browsing for eligible brokers when I stumbled across a feature at IBFX AU (which actually seems quite nice. There are some remarks of stop hunting thou…) that I found quite funny. They publish clients positions, in real time. The graph over open positions (of the members) quite clearly shows investor sentiment. Right now everyone seems to think that you should short GBPUSD.
They also seem to have some contest including a quite funny one where you are to guess the coming Non-farm Payroll figure. $1000 to the one who guesses closest to the actual figure.
Check it out at: https://www.ibfxconnect.com/
