What keeps MT4 relevant after two decades
MetaQuotes stopped issuing new MT4 licences a while back, nudging brokers toward MT5. Yet most retail forex traders haven't moved. The reason is not complicated: MT4 does one thing well. A huge library of custom indicators, Expert Advisors, and community scripts only work with MT4. Moving to MT5 means rebuilding that entire library, and the majority of users can't justify the effort.
After testing MT4 and MT5 side by side, and the differences are marginal for most strategies. MT5 adds a few extras including more timeframes and a built-in economic calendar, but the core charting feels very similar. If you're weighing up the two, MT4 is more than enough.
Setting up MT4 without the usual headaches
Installation takes a few minutes. The part that trips people up is getting everything configured correctly. By default, MT4 opens with four charts crammed into the screen. Clear the lot and open just the instruments you actually trade.
Chart templates save time. Set up your go-to indicators once, then right-click and save as template. After that you can apply it to any new chart instantly. Sounds trivial, but over weeks it makes a difference.
A quick tweak that helps: go to Tools > Options > Charts and enable "Show ask line." MT4 only shows the bid price on the chart, which makes entries appear wrong until you realise the ask price is hidden.
MT4 strategy tester: honest expectations
The strategy tester in MT4 website lets you run Expert Advisors against historical data. Worth noting though: the quality of those results comes down to your tick data. The default history data from MetaQuotes is interpolated, meaning it fills in missing ticks mathematically. If you're testing something more precise than a quick look, download real tick data from a provider like Dukascopy.
That quality percentage in the results tells you more than the profit figure. Below 90% suggests the results shouldn't be taken seriously. I've seen people post backtest results with 25% modelling quality and can't figure out why live trading looks different.
This is one area where MT4 genuinely outperforms most web-based platforms, but it's only as good as the data you give it.
Building your own MT4 indicators
MT4 comes with 30 default technical indicators. The average trader uses maybe a handful. That said, the real depth comes from custom indicators coded in MQL4. The MQL5 marketplace alone has thousands available, spanning basic modifications to full trading dashboards.
Installing them is straightforward: drop the .ex4 or .mq4 file into the MQL4/Indicators folder, refresh MT4, and the indicator shows up in the Navigator panel. One thing to watch is reliability. Community indicators vary wildly. A few are solid tools. Many are abandoned projects and will crash your terminal.
Before installing anything, look at when it was last updated and whether people in the forums mention bugs. Bad code doesn't only show wrong data — it can freeze the whole terminal.
The MT4 risk controls you're probably not using
There are several built-in risk management options that the majority of users don't bother with. The most useful is the maximum deviation setting in the new order panel. This defines how much slippage you'll accept on market orders. If you don't set it and the broker can fill you at whatever price is available.
Stop losses go without saying, but trailing stops is worth exploring. Right-click an open trade, choose Trailing Stop, and set a distance. It follows when the trade goes in your favour. Not perfect for every strategy, but on trending pairs it takes away the need to micromanage the trade.
None of this is complicated to set up and they remove a lot of the emotional decision-making.
Expert Advisors — before you trust a robot with your money
Automated trading through Expert Advisors attract traders for obvious reasons: define your rules and let the machine execute. In reality, a huge percentage of them lose money over any meaningful time period. The ones marketed using perfect backtest curves are usually fitted to past data — they look great on the specific data they were tested on and break down the moment market conditions change.
That doesn't mean all EAs are a waste of time. A few people code personal EAs to handle well-defined entry rules: opening trades at session opens, automating position size calculations, or closing trades at predetermined levels. These utility-type EAs are more reliable because they handle repetitive actions where you don't need judgment.
Before running any EA with real money, use a demo account for at least a few months. Running it forward in real time tells you more than historical results ever will.
Using MT4 outside Windows
MT4 is a Windows application at heart. If you're on macOS deal with compromises. Previously was Wine or PlayOnMac, which mostly worked but introduced visual bugs and the odd crash. Some brokers now offer native Mac apps built on Crossover or similar wrappers, which work more smoothly but still aren't built from scratch for Mac.
On mobile, on both Apple and Android devices, are genuinely useful for monitoring positions and managing trades on the move. Doing proper analysis on a mobile device isn't realistic, but closing a trade from your phone has saved plenty of traders.
It's worth confirming if your broker provides real Mac support or a compatibility layer — the experience varies a lot between the two.