Would you recommend using the MT4 platforms vs a regular one?
Are ther eany real differences and benefits of one over the other one?
I am considering MB Trading MT4. Anyone has experience with this one, I would appreciate your comments. Thank you. DPE

As experience shows, MT4 platform continues to hold the lead in the retail Forex. The biggest advantage of the MT4 platform is that it allows customising tools and creating virtually any indicator you want to. In addition, there is an enormous amount of custom indicators and trading Experts that are available for free over the net, which makes the demand for MT4 platform on the highest levels.

With that, MT4 isn't that perfect. It lacks many features, where the most evident are absence of one-click trading feature, inability to place/modify orders from charts, absence of OCO orders. Adding to that, in the new MT5 platform traders will be missing hedging capabilities of the platform.
If to look at the trading execution features, MetaTrader4 is a platform, first of all, for the convenience of the dealing desk brokers. Brokerage companies have an option to install various add-ons from MetaQuotes (MT4 developers) which help to emulate different market conditions, not always to the benefit of individual traders.

Some time ago, when this information became available to Forex traders, many turned away from MT4, blaming all brokers who use it a scam dealers.
however, the situation with MT4 isn't that bad. Many brokers use it cleanly and fairly, after all, the huge popularity of the platform pushed many veteran companies in the forex industry to buy the MT4 license and offer this platform along with their proprietary platforms - the demand dictates the market.

As I said earlier, MT4 was developed for dealing desk brokers, also known as market makers, who don't provide access to the real marketplace, but instead create an artificial market for the traders to trade in.

The latest developments and need for trading in the real market, opposed to artificial, brought a new wave of MT4 solutions. MT4 brokers become able to connect (bridge) their MT4 platforms to other advanced non-dealing desk (ECN) platforms, in order to allow traders who use and want to use only MT4 platform to trade in the real market. MB Trading is one of the good examples of such new MT4 ECN integration.

In my demo trade, how do I know the result of the trade I have placed in the market order menu and submitted, please?

On your trading platform there should be a so called "Trading window" where all your open and pending orders can be seen; as well as current and floating account balance.

Since it is different for every trading platform, and you didn't named yours, you have to ask your broker to help you find that "Trading window".

What is a good platform for beginners? Say if I wanted to start with a minimum of $100.00 or so? I understand the rewards aren't much but I just want to get use the the environment. Thank you. Andre

With $100 it is better to start with a micro lot broker (in fact, that the only possible way to keep those $100 "alive" after few trades or few days of trading).

Try this good Forex broker Search, where choose parameters: "Mini account - $0 - $100" and "Min lot size - 0.01 lot or less"
You'll get a list of brokers to choose from. There are also brokers with even smaller lot options: of 0.001 or less - absolutely no way to earn any profit since we talk about trading cents (1 cent per pip to be exact), but a great chance to practice live trading.

What are the best trading platforms for beginners

I would assume the FXGame platform from Oanda - one of the first large brokers in the industry - is the most approachable for a beginner. Another platform to master would be Metatrader4, although it is more complex to start with for a novice trader, you'll soon begin to appreciate the benefits of knowing it, since there are lots of interesting custom tools and indicators developed for MT4 and it is difficult to stand aside and never try them.

Hello,
would like to know if take profit and stop loss mechanisms are still applicable in the U.S based forex trading platforms and if non then why?

Both, stops and take profit mechanisms continue to exist on all platforms across all continents.
However, there has been a recent change to stop loss policies for US brokers regulated with NFA, namely since July 31, 2009 a new FIFO rule (First In, First Out) has been implemented to address the question of hedging. (In fact, with this rule, regular hedging became impossible).

The use of the regular stop loss has been changed - an ordinary stop order has been substituted to an entry order in the opposite direction. E.g. if you are holding a Buy position, to place a stop/exit you would have to initiate a Sell position.

NFA grounds of this can be found here:
http://www.nfa.futures.org/news/PDF/CFTC/CR2_43_ForexPriceAdj_112408.pdf

Again, this stop loss policy change applies only to US brokers and only to those who are registered with NFA (National Futures Association).

I am using an expert adviser in metatrader. Does m30 time frame mean after 30 minutes it stops trading or it makes a trade every 30 minutes. Please explain what the time frames in metatrader4 means

M30 or 30 minute time frame displays price data for 30 minutes intervals. Every 30 minutes a trader will see a new price bar. Every price bar on 30m chart stands for a trading period of exactly 30 minutes with all the changes, up and down moves the market was able to produce in 30 minute interval.

Your expert adviser will trade on 30 minute charts, which simply means it'll evaluate data every 30 minutes. It'll work non-stop.