This is just my opinion on what has worked best for me.
This is copied from my reply to FXHalo
I pay for my charts. (Intellicharts)
People rave on about Metatrader but I can't stand it and only use it for COT data.
There are 4 reasons for this:
1. The price shown on Metatrader is always at least 2 pips out from the price shown on EFX (I use EFX as a broker)
2. Visually Metatraders candles are very scattered and gappy whereas the Intellichart candles move seamlessly from one candle to the next.
3. The candle formation on Metatrader can be vastly different from Intellichart. A perfect hammer setup on Intellichart can look just like an ordinary candle on Metatrader hence you miss the opportunity.
An example was a short trade I did a while back which went in my favour from the weeks start to finish.
The weekly chart on Metatrader showed the previous weeks candle (which was up) and the weekly candle where I started my trade as nothing special, however Intellichart showed that both candles formed tweezer tops (a good signal of a trend reversal) which had followed a steady up trend.
Because of this I had a pretty good idea that the trend was going to change so I could leave the trade open. In the end the currency pair steadily fell over the next month.
If I was using Metatrader I would be fretting about my trade reversing on me due to the insignificant signal it showed.
4. Metatrader has no 45min timeframe which is vital to me to confirm trading decisions and track/manage my trades.
Hope this all helps - Happy trading!
