MetaTrader 4 on the iPad: Trading via Remote Desktop

Want to download MetaTrader 4 for the iPad? I’m sorry to disappoint you: there’s no MetaTrader 4 app for the iPad, or for Mac OS in general.

So what can you do? How do you trade from an iPad? After all, it has such a good, high-quality display, Wi-Fi, and some models even have 3G!

There’s a way: remote desktop

MetaTrader 4 runs on a regular Windows computer, and the iPad connects to it over a remote desktop protocol (RDP or RDP+). You see your desktop on the iPad screen and control the terminal as if you were sitting at your computer.

One such product is Remote Desktop Manager Plus (RDM+) by SHAPE Services. It has two parts:

• a mobile client — the iPad app;
• a host application installed on a Windows computer (all versions are supported, including the recently released Windows 7). There’s also a client for Mac OS X.

RDM+ can connect even to computers behind a firewall or NAT.

Once the client connects to the host application, you see your PC’s desktop and run programs as usual — just on the iPad screen.

Things to keep in mind

• The computer running MetaTrader has to stay on the whole time you’re trading.
• You need a stable internet connection on both the iPad and the computer: if the connection drops, the terminal keeps running, but you temporarily lose access to it.
• Small terminal controls are harder to tap on a tablet screen than to click with a mouse — keep that in mind for fast trading.