Two years testing cTrader, and now the troubles of 5.0.40

Dear cTrader developers,

As a Team since a few years we are using MT4 and MT5 as trading platforms, but we are always open for different options.

I was personally impressed by cTrader and its graphical interface, so in 2002 we decided to give it a try and I was personally in charge of studying and exploring the many capabilities that it offers.

After more than 2 years I believe I have a clear understanding of the cTrader platform, therefore I invited my colleagues to try it and monitor the possibility of using cTrader as our trading platform.

The following is a brief summary of our own experience with cTrader Desktop on Windows.

The positive aspects

1. cTrader is the trading platform with the best user-friendly interface
   It is intuitive, the graphical layouts are gorgeous, the information provided is well done
2. from our point of view, the programming language for cBots is preferably compared to others because we already had a good understanding of C coding
3. the list of assets is adeguate
4. the forum is useful

The negative aspects

1. Stability is not optimal
   cTraders desktop application on Windows appears to be less stable compared to MT4 and MT5
   We have encountered quite a number of reconnections and a few times of software freezing requiring to quit and relaunch
   If that happens during an optimization, it means hours of work lost
   We have tested cTrader before on Windows 10 and then on Windows 11 and we can say there are no stability improvement
2. Updates are confusing and not stable
   We have assisted to a significant number of software updates. 
   Updates are positive because they show your efforts to improve the software
   But updates should be checked before released and with cTrader it was not the case
3. The tabs for each chart are a good idea but not efficient
   MT4 and MT5 have tabs for switching between charts
   They works fine and fast, they are easy and fast to reorganise
   cTrader tabs are tricky, reorganise them is slow, sometimes quite impossible
   When you add a new chart it goes automatically at the end of those already existing and moving it to the desired position is often impossible or at lest frustrating
4. Updates are not a user choice
   When a cTrader update is released there is no option for the user to choose since the software is automatically updated when quitting and restarting the program
   It is fine that some critical updates should be forced but not for every single update (unless we call them beta ?)
   When an update is provided there should be a list of changes and before updating the user should (and would) be aware of the changes and may need to make same steps before deciding to update
5. Too many bugs with every update
   This is the most negative, annoying and frustrating part
   We have encountered new bugs with every single update
   Some bugs were so evident just a few minutes after launching the application
   Therefore the question: since some bugs are so obvious is there any developer testing the updates ?
   Forcing the users to update with newest bugs is a big responsibility that should not be ignored
6. Latest version 5.0.40 is a nightmare
   During previous updates we have assisted to a number of more or less significant bugs, but version 5.0.40 is really a very bad update, just to mention the most relevant:
   - impossible to obtain an optimization since it freezes after some 10 minutes
   - News are not displayed after a few minutes
   - Calendar is not displayed after a few minutes
   - workspaces button is dimmed after a few minutes
   - some cBots are useless and missing both asset and timeframe
   - some cBots are active but not functioning
   How is it possible that functions that were working in the previous release do not work with the update ?
7. cTrader for Mac
   We understand that cTrader for Mac is still at a developing stage and not yet complete, and I am not going to list here its own bugs
   But paradoxically we found it is more consistent than the latest version of cTrader for Windows

Our conclusions

1. Updates should be tested before forcing users to update
   We have the opinion that some updates in the last 2 years were only beta (or alpha) versions
   Fine that you make them available but, please do no force users to update if the version is not safe to use
2. The graphic interface is not the primary aspect for a trading platform
   The beautiful graphic interface of cTrader is very welcome but it should be considered a secondary aspect and NOT the primary aspect to focus
   As traders, we need a stable, consistent, fast, reliable trading platform
   We need to operate inside an environment with as less bugs as possible
3. As developers of a trading platform you have a big responsibility 
   This is not a videogame, we deal with real money, our money and our clients money
4. Please correct the many bugs of cTrader 5.0.40 as soon as possible because they are making people mad. We have stopped using cTrader until it is solved

Our aim is purely to give you our feedback hoping that it is useful 
We wish that you continue your job developing a better cTrader platform and we look forward when it will work properly so we can use it every day for our trading

Best regards,

Patty