Liquidity Bridge vs MT5 Gateway
The main difference between liquidity bridges and gateways is their nature. A gateway is a native component of the MetaTrader 5, while liquidity bridges are solutions developed by independent companies. Therefore, bridges can work with both MetaTrader 4 and 5. It allows brokers to stream quotes from chosen liquidity providers and pass clients’ trades back to the counterparties.
While their basic functionality is very similar, installation, configuration, and maintenance are rather specific.
Installation and configuration
- Installation for the gateway is very straightforward. It is installed on the trading platform almost like a plugin, and then it is available for all other components of the MetaTrader 5 cluster.
- A liquidity bridge requires a dedicated database and should be hosted separately. In most cases, it should be installed by a technology provider as it involves extra steps, like setting up databases, running any additional services on VPS, and connecting it to the trading platform.
Routing and order execution
- The gateway performs the routing process by specific rules available in the admin terminal.
- Liquidity bridges first receive all trade requests from the trading platform to the core module and process them by the routing rules stored internally.
Stock Trading on MetaTrader
- Stock real-time pricing is extremely expensive, and in most cases, brokers use an indicative price, which may lead to the trade being rejected or requoted.
- MetaTrader 5 gateways make it work by either processing trade with a supported fill policy, like “Fill or Kill,” “Immediate-or-cancel,” and “Return,” or by placing a pending order on the market, so it gets executed straight away when a matching order appears.
- A liquidity bridge will most likely process trade requests as they come, merely forwarding them to the LP. Thus, slippages may be more common when operating with liquidity bridges, especially with stock markets.
Read a full comparison via “MetaTrader Bridge and MT5 Gateway: A head-to-head comparison.”
What should a broker choose: MT5 Gateway or a Liquidity Bridge?
Choosing one technology over the other primarily depends on the planned infrastructure and required functionality.
- The gateway will suffice if a broker has a MetaTrader 5 server and plans to STP trades to a single liquidity provider.
- However, if a broker has MetaTrader 5 and 4, it will be easier to manage the whole infrastructure when all the settings are configured in one place – a liquidity bridge.
You may request a demo of Brokeree’s Liquidity Bridge or a list of supported gateways via [email protected]