| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Software |
| Founded | 2000 |
| Headquarters | Limassol, Cyprus |
| Key people | Renat Fatkhullin CEO |
| Products | Trading systems; MetaTrader 4 MetaTrader 5 MetaTrader 4 Mobile TeamWox |
| Employees | 50+ |
| Website | www.metaquotes.net |
MetaQuotes Software Corp is a software company that produces online trading platform MetaTrader 4 more commonly known as MT4. It specializing in the development of software for financial markets and is registered in Cyprus but founded and primarily based in Russia. Its main product MT4 is used by a large number of brokers and banks around the world. As of 2009, the number exceeded 250 companies.
Contents |
MetaQuotes Software Corporation was established in 2000 in Russia with the launch of FX Charts an online charting package used for margin FX trading. It became popular with traders as it could be run on a standard PC running Windows and did not require dedicated and expensive equipment.
In 2001 it released its second major revision of application MetaQuotes which expanded the range of instruments that could be traded. In addition to currencies it also included support for the newly emerging CFDs (Contracts for difference). In addition, the application allowed users to write their own trading programs and strategies using its own MetaQuotes Language (MQL). This substantially increase the flexibility and utility of the client trading palatform.
In early 2002, it released its third revision MetaTrader. This again expanded the number of financial products with the addition of futures contracts, but more importantly it expanded programming language for trading strategies with MQL II. A number of users and third parties started to develop functions and libraries using the new version of the built in programming language and APIs.
On July 1, 2005, it released MetaTrader 4 or MT4. This was a major overhaul of the platform. This version allowed the client trading platform to connect via an optional 'Data Center' which dramatically increase the server side stability, reduced server load and made it more resilient to security threats such as Denial-of-service attacks. The client software was also upgraded with a new version of the C-like language for trade strategies programming called MetaQuotes Language 4 (MQL 4). Later that year MetaQuotes also released its first version of the trading platform for mobile devices.
The MT4 communication protocol was not backwardly compatibility with previous versions and MetaQuotes Software refused to open the Client API meaning all of the previous client developed code no longer worked. The client API did however significantly extend the functionality of the programming language for trading strategies with MQL4 including support for a DLL interface. This version of the software became popular with a large number of users and became to main product for MetaQuotes Software for the next 5 years.
On June 1, 2010 MetaQuotes Software official released MetaTrader 5 the next version of its trading platform. MetaTrader 5 was designed to provide brokerage services in Forex, CFD, and Futures, as well as the stock, however as of October 2010 stock had still not been implemented. MT5 also includes a new version of the programming language called MQL5. Take up of the new version however was slow and as of the end of 2010 most brokers and users were still running MT4.
Starting in 2006, the company started holding annual auto trading championships for software developers in MQL4 with the aim of demonstrating the possibilities of automated trading.
Under the terms of the championship all of the programs would run simultaneously for three months under identical conditions.
The company is registered in the offshore zone in Cyprus from where it does sales and marketing. Software development and technical support are done from Kazan (Russia). The company also has representative offices in China and Singapore.