How to Use Trading Charts on MT5

MT5 charts showing several instruments and timeframes

MetaTrader 5 (MT5) is a powerful, multi-asset trading platform designed for modern traders. It builds on the simplicity of MT4 while offering enhanced charting, faster performance, and more advanced analytical tools. Whether you’re new to trading or looking to get more from your technical analysis, this guide will help you navigate and customise MT5 trading charts with confidence.

Getting to Know the MT5 Interface

Toolbars

At the top of the MT5 platform, toolbars provide quick access to essential features through shortcut icons. These include chart types, timeframes, indicators, drawing tools, and order execution options.

Charts

The main MT5 chart window showing price action

The central area of the platform displays your active charts. This is where you analyse price action, apply indicators, and identify trading opportunities across different markets and timeframes.

Market Watch

Located in the upper-left corner, the Market Watch window shows all available trading instruments along with real-time bid and ask prices. MT5 supports a wide range of asset classes, including forex, indices, commodities, shares, and cryptocurrencies.

Navigator

Found below Market Watch, the Navigator window helps you manage:

Trading accounts

Indicators

Expert Advisors (EAs)

Scripts

Toolbox

At the bottom of the platform is the Toolbox window. It contains tabs for:

Trade (open and pending positions)

History (closed trades and account activity)

Alerts

News

Mailbox

Calendar

Journal

How to customise Market Watch

To view all available instruments in Market Watch:

Right-click inside the Market Watch window

Select ‘Show All’

You can also switch to the Ticks view at the bottom of the panel to see real-time price movement for a selected instrument. Symbols can be hidden, rearranged, or grouped to suit your trading preferences.

How to open a chart

There are several ways to open a new chart in MT5:

Click the New Chart icon in the toolbar

Go to File → New Chart

Right-click an instrument in Market Watch and select Chart Window

Each chart opens in its own tab, making it easy to switch between markets.

Changing chart appearance

MT5 chart Properties dialog showing colour settings

To customise your charts:

Right-click on the chart and select ‘Properties’

In the ‘Colours’ tab, adjust background, grid, and candle colours

In the Common tab, choose between bar, candlestick, or line charts

You can save your preferred layout as a template:

Right-click the chart

Select Template → Save Template

Charts can be zoomed in or out, and timeframes can be adjusted from 1 minute up to 1 month, allowing for both short-term and long-term analysis.

Adding indicators to your charts

Click the ‘Indicators’ icon in the toolbar to access MT5’s extensive indicator library. Indicators are organised by category, including:

Trend Indicators

Moving Average

Bollinger Bands

Ichimoku Kinko Hyo

Parabolic SAR

Average Directional Movement Index (ADX)

Envelopes

Standard Deviation

Oscillators

RSI (Relative Strength Index)

MACD

Stochastic Oscillator

And more

MT5 also allows you to run multiple indicators simultaneously and adjust their parameters for deeper analysis.

Trading Central Indicator

easyMarkets clients can access Trading Central* indicators directly within MT5 charts.
These professional-grade tools provide:

Actionable trade ideas and price levels

Multilingual support

Customisable strategies and timeframes

The ability to trade directly from the chart

*Trading Central is the proprietary product of TRADING Central™.

Working with multiple charts

Multiple MT5 chart windows arranged together

To open a new chart with the same layout as an existing one:

Drag a new instrument from Market Watch onto the chart area

The new chart will automatically load with the same template. Charts can be tiled, resized, or arranged freely, allowing you to monitor multiple markets at once.