A quoted price is one number. Depth of market is the list behind it: how much volume sits at every price a step away, on both sides. A trader watching only the top of book sees the price move. A trader watching depth sees the wall of sell orders that price has to get through first. MetaTrader 5, cTrader and eTrader all put a depth of market panel in front of traders, and the three panels are not built the same way underneath.
This matters more than it looks. Depth of market is only as real as the liquidity provider standing behind the platform. A terminal can draw a beautiful order book and still be showing you five rows that never fill at size, if the firm behind it does not have real depth to show.
What depth of market actually shows you
A standard quote gives a trader the best bid and the best ask, the top of book. Depth of market, sometimes called Level II or the order book, lists several prices above and below that, each with the size waiting there. A trader sizing a large order checks depth first: if the visible size at the next three levels is thin, a market order will walk through them and fill at a worse average price than the screen showed a second earlier. Scalpers watch depth for the same reason floor traders once watched the pit: size appearing and disappearing at a level is information, even before the price itself moves.
None of this is unique to one platform. What differs is where the numbers in that panel come from, how many levels a trader gets, and what happens when the underlying liquidity cannot support a full book.
MetaTrader 5's depth of market
MetaTrader 5 added a depth of market window as one of its headline differences from MetaTrader 4, alongside hedging and netting account modes and a multi-threaded strategy tester. The DOM window in MT5 shows the order book for the selected symbol, and a trader can place or modify orders directly from it. What appears in that window depends entirely on the broker's own liquidity setup and the symbol's execution mode; a market-maker synthetic instrument and an ECN forex pair are not going to look the same. MT5 traders check the DOM window from the desktop terminal; the mobile apps show market depth on their charts too.
cTrader's Level II depth of market
Spotware built cTrader with what it calls Level II depth of market as a standard part of the desktop and browser terminal. It sits on the Depth of Market chart type or as a dedicated panel, and like MT5's DOM window, it is one of the reasons cTrader gets picked by traders who scalp or who simply want to see size before committing to an order. The number of levels and how firm they are still traces back to the broker's own liquidity connection, not to cTrader itself. cTrader is the same application whichever broker offers it, so a broker with genuinely deep liquidity and a broker with a thinner book will both show a Level II panel that looks identical in layout and behaves very differently in practice.
eTrader's market depth panel
Every eTrader terminal, on web, Mac, iPhone and Android, has a depth panel that shows order book levels straight from the firm's own liquidity provider, moving with the live price. Because a firm's eTrader instance is tied to the liquidity it actually connects over FIX, the depth panel is not a generic layer sitting on top of an unrelated feed: it reflects what that specific firm's liquidity provider is willing to publish. If the provider will not share depth for a symbol, eTrader does not fake a book. Prices simply continue at top of book only for that instrument, and the trader sees a normal quote without an order book behind it. That is a deliberate choice: a depth panel that shows size which is not really there is worse than no panel at all.
Depth of market, side by side
| Platform | Feature name | Where it lives | Data source | If liquidity will not share depth |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MetaTrader 5 | Depth of Market (DOM) window | Desktop terminal; visible on mobile charts | The broker's own liquidity and execution setup per symbol | Depends on the broker; MT5 itself does not require a minimum book |
| cTrader | Level II depth of market | Desktop and browser terminal, dedicated panel or chart type | The broker's own liquidity connection | Depends on the broker; the panel layout stays the same regardless |
| eTrader | Market depth panel | Every terminal: web, Mac, iPhone, Android | The firm's own liquidity provider, tied directly to that firm's feed | Prices continue at top of book only, with no book shown for that symbol |
Why the liquidity behind the screen matters more than the screen
A firm evaluating platforms on depth of market should ask a different question than "does it have a DOM window." All three platforms do. The real question is what stands behind that window for the instruments the firm actually offers. On MetaTrader 5 and cTrader, depth is a function of whatever liquidity the broker has wired into that server, and two brokers on the same platform can show wildly different books. On eTrader, the same is true in one sense: the panel still reflects the firm's own liquidity provider, no more and no less. The difference is that eTrader is explicit about the failure case. When the provider will not publish depth, the platform does not paper over the gap with synthetic levels; it drops back to top of book and says nothing more than the price itself. For a firm choosing a liquidity provider and a platform together, that is worth confirming before launch, not after a client asks why the order book looks thin on a busy morning.
Traders comparing platforms side by side, rather than firms choosing one to run, are usually choosing between MetaTrader 5 and cTrader for the DOM experience itself, since both put real order entry controls directly in the depth window. Coverage of how each platform handles order entry from the chart, beyond the order book alone, is in our chart trading comparison, and readers new to the concept can start with our plain guide to depth of market.
What this means for a broker or prop firm choosing a platform
For a broker, the practical work happens before any trader opens the DOM panel: negotiating a liquidity provider that will actually publish depth, and confirming which symbols get a full book versus top of book only. eTrader connects to the firm's chosen liquidity provider over FIX and shows whatever depth that provider is willing to give, on every terminal from day one, with no separate DOM add-on to license. A firm still assembling MetaTrader 5 or cTrader around a broker stack needs to check the DOM feature is switched on for its account type and confirm with its liquidity provider what depth, if any, gets published. Either way, the fix is the same: ask the liquidity provider directly what it publishes, then test it on a live demo before quoting it to clients.
"A depth of market panel is only as honest as the liquidity behind it. We would rather show a real top of book than a fake full one."
— The SGHK Team
Key Takeaways
- MetaTrader 5's Depth of Market window and cTrader's Level II depth of market are both native features, but the size and levels shown depend on the broker's own liquidity connection, not the platform itself.
- eTrader shows market depth from the firm's own liquidity provider on every terminal, web, Mac, iPhone and Android, moving with the live price.
- If a liquidity provider will not share depth for a symbol, eTrader drops to top of book only rather than showing size that is not really there.
- Before comparing DOM features, confirm with the liquidity provider what depth it actually publishes per symbol; the panel layout tells a firm nothing about that on its own.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is depth of market in trading?
Depth of market, also called Level II or the order book, is the list of prices and sizes waiting above and below the current best bid and ask. It shows a trader what volume is available at each level, rather than only the single top-of-book price a normal quote shows.
Does MetaTrader 4 have depth of market?
No. A dedicated Depth of Market window was one of the features MetaTrader 5 added over MetaTrader 4, alongside hedging and netting account modes and a multi-threaded strategy tester.
Is cTrader's Level II depth of market the same on every broker?
The panel and its controls are the same cTrader software everywhere. What appears inside it, how many levels and how much size, depends on the liquidity the broker has connected behind that account, not on cTrader itself.
What happens on eTrader if the liquidity provider will not publish depth?
The market depth panel for that symbol falls back to top of book only. eTrader does not generate synthetic order book levels to fill the panel when the underlying liquidity provider is not sharing that data.
Which platform is best for a trader who relies on depth of market?
The platform matters less than the account behind it. A trader who scalps off the order book should ask any broker, on MetaTrader 5, cTrader or eTrader, exactly what liquidity provider sits behind the account and how many levels it actually publishes for the symbols they trade, then confirm it on a live demo.
About SGHK
SGHK is a FinTech company that designs and builds its own software for the trading industry: the eTrader trading platform, Launch your Broker and Launch your Prop Firm. Every product is written, hosted and supported in-house and licensed to trading firms, with the CRMs branded to them, all hosted by us in the cloud, managed by each firm and built to scale across clustered servers as our clients grow. Everything is encrypted, and each firm is the only one with access to its data and its clients' data.