Kenya had 42,349,405 smartphones connected to mobile networks by the end of March 2025, according to the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA). That one number hits home because when trading happens on a phone, convenience stops being a luxury and starts being the whole point, which is why platforms like MT5 keep coming up in everyday trader conversations.
In this article, we’ll keep it simple and practical: why forex still sets the tempo, why gold remains a smart companion market, and why indices now deserve a permanent spot on your watchlist, all inside one platform. Every statistic you’ll see is anchored to primary sources (CA Kenya, the Bank for International Settlements, the World Gold Council, and the Futures Industry Association), and I’ll be clear about what each dataset measures.
Big Market on A Small Screen
Forex is the market that teaches you speed. Not because you need to trade fast, but because prices move across time zones and headlines, and you can feel that motion even when you’re only checking charts between errands. The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) puts hard scale behind that feeling: OTC FX turnover averaged $7.5 trillion per day in April 2022 on a net-net basis across all FX instruments. If you’ve ever wondered whether it’s ‘worth’ taking your tools seriously, that’s your answer; this is one of the deepest pools of liquidity in global finance.
BIS methodology is also a quiet confidence boost. The 2022 Triennial Survey involved central banks and authorities in 52 jurisdictions, collecting data from more than 1,200 banks and other dealers, reported by sales desks on an unconsolidated basis. So when you use BIS turnover numbers as context, you’re not leaning on a guess or a marketing claim; you’re leaning on the most comprehensive benchmark we have.
Now bring it back to your phone. When your trading life is happening on a small screen, the enemy isn’t a lack of indicators; it’s context switching. Every time you jump between apps to check an instrument, re-build a chart view, or re-set alerts, you spend attention you don’t get back.
That’s where a multi-asset platform earns its keep. If forex is your always-on market, you’ll naturally want the other ‘reference markets’ close by so you can sense risk appetite without running a marathon of logins. And gold is usually next.
Gold is Still the World’s Favourite Safety Check
Gold stays relevant because it sits at the crossroads of fear, confidence, inflation expectations, and central bank behaviour. You don’t have to be a macro expert to benefit from watching it; you just need a steady routine.
The World Gold Council (WGC) gives us a clean, recent anchor: total gold demand reached 4,974 tonnes in 2024, a record annual total, and WGC notes this includes OTC investment. That breadth is a big part of why gold keeps showing up in conversations across the spectrum, from professionals to everyday traders.
There’s another detail worth holding onto because it explains why gold headlines don’t fade after one news cycle. WGC reports central banks bought over 1,000 tonnes for the third year in a row. When that kind of steady institutional demand exists, retail traders tend to treat gold as a market that can matter on any given week, not just during a crisis.
Here’s the out-of-the-box part that makes MT5-style multi-asset trading feel genuinely useful. Many traders don’t watch gold because they want to become gold specialists; they watch it as a fast ‘risk mood’ check that helps them interpret what they’re already seeing in currencies and indices.
If gold is pushing higher while currencies tied to risk are wobbling, that’s information, even if you take no trade at all. And honestly, repeating the same workflow across markets is underrated. When your chart template, alerts, and watchlist logic are consistent, you spend less time re-learning a new interface and more time noticing what’s actually changing.
Once you treat gold as a regular dashboard item, indices start to make even more sense.
Indices Are Where the Crowd Is
Indices are popular for a simple reason: they compress a lot of market information into one moving line. That makes them useful, even if you’re trading small sizes and keeping things conservative. The Futures Industry Association (FIA) confirms that index-linked activity is not a side show.
FIA reported global futures and options volume hit 137.3 billion contracts in 2023, the highest on record. More specifically, equity index futures and options reached 99.9 billion contracts in 2023, up 105% from 2022.
Those numbers don’t mean everyone should run out and trade index derivatives. They do mean indices are where a lot of participation, liquidity, and product innovation tends to gather, which is exactly why retail platforms keep making them easier to access.
Now connect that global reality to how Kenyans actually get online. CA reports 44,439,471 mobile broadband subscriptions (3G, 4G, and 5G) in Kenya for Jan to Mar 2025. CA also reports 57,177,232 mobile data subscriptions in the same period, showing how many connections exist even before you narrow to broadband-grade access.
So the ‘one platform’ story becomes straightforward: more connectivity plus more multi-market participation creates demand for fewer tools, not more. If you’re going to keep forex, gold, and an index in your orbit, the best approach is a repeatable routine that fits real life.
Here’s a simple three-part setup that stays calm and organised without asking for extra screen time:
- One forex pair you understand well, one gold symbol, and one major index; keep them pinned on the same watchlist.
- One chart template across all three (same timeframes, same basic indicators), so your eyes learn a consistent pattern.
- One alert habit: price levels plus scheduled news moments, so you’re reacting to your plan rather than your feed.
If indices can summarise market mood so quickly, why wouldn’t you want them sitting beside the currency and commodity that often react to that mood?
One Watchlist With Better Decisions
MT5 gaining traction makes sense when you look at the ingredients together: a mobile-first trading reality in Kenya, massive forex activity globally, record-scale interest in gold, and a surge in index-linked derivatives participation. The win is not having more markets; it’s having one place to observe them with the same tools, the same templates, and the same habits.
CA’s numbers are a helpful reminder that this direction isn’t niche. With 57,177,232 mobile data subscriptions in Kenya in Jan to Mar 2025, ‘markets in your pocket’ has become an everyday expectation, and platforms that reduce friction will keep feeling attractive.
Pick a small set of markets, build a repeatable workflow, and let consistency do the heavy lifting.
