The first time you open MetaTrader it looks busy, with panels and numbers everywhere. It is far simpler than it seems. The whole screen is just four areas, each with one job. Learn what they are and the platform stops being intimidating and starts being useful. Have MetaTrader open beside this lesson if you can.
01 The screen is just four areas
Whatever your broker's colour scheme, the layout is the same. Prices sit on the left, your charts fill the middle, a tools panel tucks under the prices, and a status panel runs along the bottom. Here is how they sit together.
02 Market Watch: your list of prices
The Market Watch panel lists instruments and their live buy and sell prices, updating every tick. Right-click it to show or hide symbols so you are only watching the pairs you care about. To open a chart, drag a symbol from here onto the chart area, or double-click it to bring up an order window. This is where most sessions begin.
03 The chart area and the Navigator
The chart area in the middle is where you actually read the market and place most trades, and it can hold several charts at once. Below the prices sits the Navigator, a tidy list of your accounts, the built-in indicators, and any automated strategies. To add something to a chart you simply drag it from the Navigator and drop it on. That drag-and-drop habit is most of what you need to know to start.
04 The Terminal: your control panel
The Terminal along the bottom is where you keep an eye on everything real. Its Trade tab shows your open positions, your live profit or loss, your balance and your free margin. Other tabs hold your order history and account records. When a trade is open, this is the panel you watch, and it is where you close a position by right-clicking it.
- Which panel lists live prices for your pairs?
- Where do you drag indicators from onto a chart?
- Which panel shows your open trades and current profit or loss?
Show answers
1) Market Watch. 2) The Navigator. 3) The Terminal, on its Trade tab.
- MetaTrader is four areas: Market Watch for prices, the chart area for analysis, the Navigator for tools, and the Terminal for your live account.
- Most actions are drag and drop: symbols onto charts, indicators onto charts.
- Watch the Terminal's Trade tab whenever a position is open.
Right-click inside the Market Watch panel and choose "Symbols" or "Show All", then pick the pair you want. It will appear in the list with its live prices.
On the Trade tab of the Terminal panel along the bottom. It shows your balance, equity, open profit or loss and free margin in real time.
It holds your accounts, MetaTrader's built-in indicators and any expert advisors. You drag items from it onto a chart to apply them.
Further reading: the MetaTrader 5 user manual, the official MetaQuotes walkthrough of the platform windows.
Next lesson: place and manage your first trade →