Why traders still pick MT4 over newer platforms
MetaQuotes stopped issuing new MT4 licences some time ago, pushing brokers toward MT5. But most retail forex traders kept using MT4. The reason is simple: MT4 works, and people trust what works. Thousands of custom indicators, Expert Advisors, and community scripts only work with MT4. Switching to MT5 means rewriting that entire library, and most traders don't see the point.
I've tested MT4 and MT5 side by side, and the differences are smaller than you'd expect. MT5 adds a few extras like more timeframes and a built-in economic calendar, but the core charting feels very similar. If you're weighing up the two, MT4 still holds its own.
MT4 setup: what the manual doesn't tell you
Installation takes a few minutes. The part that trips people up is the setup after install. By default, MT4 opens with four charts crammed into one window. Close all of them and open just the pairs you actually trade.
Chart templates save time. Build your usual indicators on one chart, then save it as a template. After that you can load it onto other charts without redoing the work. Sounds trivial, but over months it adds up.
One setting worth changing: open Tools > Options > Charts and enable "Show ask line." The default view is the bid price on the chart, which can make entries appear wrong by the spread amount.
MT4 strategy tester: honest expectations
The strategy tester in MT4 lets you run Expert Advisors against historical data. That said: the accuracy of those results depends entirely on your tick data. Built-in history data from MetaQuotes is not real tick data, meaning it fills in missing ticks using algorithms. If you're testing something that needs accuracy, grab third-party tick data.
The "modelling quality" percentage is more important than the profit figure. If it's under 90% suggests the results shouldn't be taken seriously. I've seen people post backtest results with 25% modelling quality and ask why live trading looks different.
This is one area where MT4 genuinely outperforms most web-based platforms, but the output is only useful with quality tick data.
MT4 indicators beyond the defaults
MT4 ships with 30 standard technical indicators. Most traders never touch them all. However where MT4 gets interesting lives in community-made indicators coded in MQL4. You can find over 2,000 options, ranging from simple moving average variations to complex multi-timeframe dashboards.
Installing them is straightforward: drop the .ex4 or .mq4 file into your MQL4/Indicators folder, restart MT4, and it appears in the Navigator panel. The catch is quality control. Free indicators range from excellent to broken. A few are genuinely useful. Many haven't been updated since 2015 and can freeze your terminal.
Before installing anything, check when it was last updated and if people in the forums report issues. A poorly written indicator won't just give wrong signals — it can slow down your entire platform.
Managing risk properly inside MT4
You'll find several built-in risk management options that the majority of users don't bother with. Probably the most practical one is maximum deviation in the order window. It sets the amount of 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 are obvious, but trailing stops are worth exploring. Right-click an open trade, select Trailing Stop, and define your preferred distance. The stop moves with price moves into profit. Not perfect for every strategy, but on trending pairs it takes away the urge to stare at the screen.
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
EAs sounds appealing: define your rules and let the machine execute. In reality, a huge percentage of them underperform over any meaningful time period. The ones advertised with incredible historical results are usually over-optimised — they worked on historical data and stop working when the market does something different.
That doesn't mean all EAs are useless. Some traders build their own EAs to handle specific, narrow tasks: entering at a specific time, automating position size calculations, or exiting positions at predetermined levels. These utility-type EAs work because they do repetitive actions that don't require discretion.
If you're evaluating EAs, use a demo account for at least several weeks in different conditions. Running it forward in real time is more informative than backtesting alone.
Using MT4 outside Windows
MT4 is a Windows application at heart. Mac users deal with compromises. The traditional approach was running it through Wine, which was functional but had display glitches and occasional crashes. Certain brokers now offer Mac-specific builds using Wine under full article the hood, which are better but still aren't true native apps.
MT4 mobile, on both iOS and Android, are genuinely useful for keeping an eye on your account and making quick adjustments. Serious charting work on a phone screen is pushing it, but closing a trade on the go has saved plenty of traders.
Look into whether your broker has real Mac support or a compatibility layer — it makes a real difference day to day.