As you find yourself immersed in the realm of prop trading, particularly with a platform such as MetaTrader 5 (MT5), you soon discover it’s more than simply hitting buttons or gazing at candlesticks prancing about. No way — there’s an entire vocabulary behind those charts, and if you’re serious about maintaining your funded account or completing that prop challenge, you’d better learn to converse with it fluently. Prop firms are not seeking wild trades on whim. They are seeking thought-out, chart-based decisions. And MT5? That’s your arsenal.
Let’s discuss what prop firms are requiring of you when you are looking at those MT5 charts. Spoiler: It’s more than recognizing what a red or green candle is.
It Begins With Clean Charts, Not Cluttered Chaos
First impressions count — even on your charts. Perhaps one of the most overlooked things prop firms look for in traders is chart cleanliness. If your MT5 terminal is a spaghetti disaster of indicators, trendlines, and scribbles, that’s a bad sign. The best prop firms need traders who know how to read a clean, clear, confident chart.
Don’t mean you shouldn’t use indicators. But use them intentionally. Not because you read some guy on YouTube telling you that the RSI is “magic.” Less is more. A few judiciously placed tools used correctly trounce 10 indicators used mindlessly.
Candlestick Patterns Aren’t Just for Show
Prop houses anticipate you to learn candlesticks as a wise detective learns a case file. Each candle has a story to tell — who’s in charge, bulls or bears? Where’s the war zone? Where did buyers jump in? Where did sellers push the price back down?
If you’re in a trade and you notice a solid bullish engulfing candle off a significant support level, that’s a big one. If you pass this by and close your position simply because your gut is telling you it’s time, that’s where you’re not being in sync with what prop firms want. They want you trading on what the chart indicates, not on how you feel.
Multiple Timeframes: Your Secret Superpower
Much of reading MT5 charts — the way prop firms would like you to — is about taking a step back and seeing the bigger picture. That involves using multiple timeframes.
Suppose you’re trading off the 15-minute chart. That’s great. But what does the 4-hour say? What does the daily say? Are you trading against the prevailing trend without even knowing it?
Prop shops expect you to know. If you’re mindlessly scalping short setups on a pair that’s been trending up strong on the daily and 4-hour, you’d best have a solid reason — or you’re just fighting the current.
Pro traders zoom and focus. That’s what’s expected. You coordinate your setups with the big picture and stack probabilities in your favor.
Support, Resistance, and Supply/Demand Zones Matter
Drawing neat support and resistance lines (or supply and demand zones, if that’s your preference) is one of the most fundamental — yet most essential — skills prop firms recruit traders with.
The MT5 trading platform facilitates this with horizontal line objects, rectangles for zones, and zooming functions. But the skill is identifying where to draw them and why.
You must be able to identify where price has respected a level in the past, where it was rejected, and where significant moves began. Prop firms want you to apply those zones to expect reaction areas — not respond emotionally when price does move.
Here’s the thing: if you’re constantly making trades right into powerful resistance or support with no justification, you’re going to blow your prop account. Quick.
Understanding Volume (Yes, Even on MT5)
MT5 does not give you true tick-by-tick exchange volume for forex (because forex is decentralized), but you do receive tick volume, which is still very helpful.
Prop firms anticipate that you will employ this information to measure momentum. For instance, if the price penetrates through a resistance level with big tick volume, that’s usually a valid breakout. If it penetrates through on thin volume, it’s likely a fake-out waiting to give your stop-loss a slap.
Reading volume surges, dissonance between volume and price, and volume evaporations at significant levels — these are all indicators prop firms anticipate you to recognize.
Chart Patterns Aren’t Textbook-Only
Those iconic chart patterns — double tops, head and shoulders, triangles, flags? Prop firms anticipate you to recognize them in real-time, not in hindsight.
But most importantly, they want you to know what those patterns psychologically mean. A double top? That is a buyers’ failed bid to drive higher. A bull flag? That is a rest before the next possible leg higher.
MT5 provides you with all the facilities to draw these patterns out, but if you’re not conditioning your eye to identify them — particularly in live markets — you’re not living up to expectations.
It’s not perfect. It’s about being aware enough to say, “this is a flag forming. If price takes out this consolidation, we could see a continuation.” That’s pro-level thought.
Trendlines and Channels — But Use ‘Em Correctly
Trendlines and channels are mighty if drawn well. But here’s the catch: most traders get it wrong — drawing arbitrary diagonal lines so a chart will “look technical.”
Prop firms can spot the difference. They want you to draw trendlines that get respected by price. That means drawing at least two (better three) important swing highs or lows.
Same with channels — they should allow you to see the rhythm of the market. Are we trending? Are we consolidating? Where’s the midpoint? They’re not cosmetic tools. They dictate your entries, stops, and take-profits.
