MetaTrader 5 Public Beta Available At Last

The long wait is over! You can now download the first publicly available version of the MetaTrader 5 client terminal from the MQL4 forum.

Unfortunately it sounds as though you'll have to wait another 6 months before you will be able to use it in anger on a live account. "The nearest future" that Alpari Russia were talking about last week doesn't mean this week or even this month as far as demo accounts are concerned. A live account certainly sounds as though it won't be arriving until some time next year.

Here is the current beta testing roadmap according to MetaQuotes:

1. The platform testing will take about 5-6 months.
2. This will be a step-by-step testing. New possibilities will be added at each step. During the first testing stage that starts today, the client terminal will work only with Forex. Further we will add CFD, Futures, equities and options.
3. The current terminal version is offered without a strategy tester. It will be included at next steps.
4. From November, 2009, we open the testing of back-office components of the platform in brokerage companies.

For the moment you can at least experiment with the new platform using a demo account provided by MetaQuotes themselves. There is one downside to doing so though. There is lots of news, but at the moment all of it seems to be in Russian.