A practical look at MT4 for forex traders
What keeps MT4 relevant after two decades
MetaQuotes stopped issuing new MT4 licences some time ago, pushing brokers toward MT5. Yet most retail forex traders haven't moved. The reason is simple: MT4 has twenty years of muscle memory behind it. A huge library of custom indicators, Expert Advisors, and community scripts were built for MT4. Moving to MT5 means porting that entire library, and most traders would rather keep trading than recoding.
I spent time testing both platforms side by side, and the gap is marginal for most strategies. MT5 adds a few extras like more timeframes and a built-in economic calendar, but the core charting feels nearly identical. If you're weighing up the two, MT4 is more than enough.
MT4 setup: what the manual doesn't tell you
Installation takes a few minutes. Where people waste time is getting everything configured correctly. Out of the box, MT4 opens with four charts crammed into the screen. Shut them all and start fresh with the instruments you follow.
Chart templates save time. Configure your go-to indicators once, then save it as a template. Then you can load it onto other charts in two clicks. Minor detail, but over time it saves hours.
Something most people miss: go to Tools > Options > Charts and enable "Show ask line." The default view is the bid price by default, which makes buy entries seem misaligned by the spread amount.
Backtesting on MT4: what the results actually mean
The strategy tester in MT4 allows you to run Expert Advisors against historical data. But here's the thing: the quality of those results depends entirely on your tick data. Standard history data is interpolated, meaning gaps between real data points are estimated using algorithms. For anything beyond a rough sanity check, grab proper historical data.
That quality percentage in the results tells you more than the headline profit number. If it's under 90% suggests the results aren't trustworthy. Traders sometimes show off backtests with 25% modelling quality and wonder why their live results don't match.
Backtesting is where MT4 earns its reputation, but it's only as good as the data you give it.
MT4 indicators beyond the defaults
MT4 comes with 30 default technical indicators. Most traders never touch them all. That said, the platform's actual strength comes from community-made indicators coded in MQL4. The MQL5 marketplace alone has thousands available, spanning tweaked versions of standard tools to full trading dashboards.
Adding a custom indicator is simple: drop the .ex4 or .mq4 file into the MQL4/Indicators folder, reboot MT4, and it appears in the Navigator panel. One thing to watch is quality control. Free indicators vary wildly. A few are genuinely useful. Some haven't been updated since 2015 and may crash your terminal.
If you're downloading custom indicators, look at how recently it was maintained and if people in the forums mention bugs. A broken indicator won't just give wrong signals — it can freeze your entire get more info platform.
The MT4 risk controls you're probably not using
You'll find some risk management options that a lot of people never configure. First worth mentioning is maximum deviation in the order window. This defines the amount of slippage you'll accept on market orders. Leave it at zero and you'll get whatever price comes through.
Stop losses go without saying, but the trailing stop function is underused. Right-click an open trade, pick Trailing Stop, and define the pip amount. The stop adjusts with price moves your way. Not perfect for every strategy, but on trending pairs it reduces the need to sit and watch.
None of this is complicated to set up and the difference in discipline is noticeable over time.
Running Expert Advisors: practical expectations
Automated trading through Expert Advisors have obvious appeal: program your strategy and stop staring at charts. The reality is, the majority of Expert Advisors underperform over any decent time period. Those advertised with flawless equity curves are usually curve-fitted — they look great on historical data and stop working once the market does something different.
This isn't to say all EAs are a waste of time. Some traders code custom EAs for specific, narrow tasks: opening trades at session opens, managing position sizing, or taking profit at predetermined levels. These utility-type EAs work because they do repetitive actions without needing judgment.
When looking at Expert Advisors, run them on a demo account for a minimum of a few months. Forward testing reveals more than historical results ever will.
Using MT4 outside Windows
MT4 was built for Windows. Mac users deal with a workaround. The old method was emulation, which was functional but came with display glitches and the odd crash. Certain brokers now offer macOS versions using Wine under the hood, which are better but still aren't built from scratch for Mac.
MT4 mobile, on both iOS and Android, work well for keeping an eye on your account and tweaking stops. Full analysis on a phone screen isn't realistic, but closing a trade on the go is genuinely handy.
Look into whether your broker has real Mac support or a compatibility layer — the experience varies a lot between the two.