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. But most retail forex traders kept using MT4. The reason is not complicated: MT4 has twenty years of muscle memory behind it. Thousands of custom indicators, Expert Advisors, and community scripts only work with MT4. Moving to MT5 means porting that entire library, and most traders can't justify the effort.
I've tested both platforms side by side, and the gap is marginal for most strategies. MT5 has a few extras such as more timeframes and a built-in economic calendar, but the core charting feels nearly identical. If you're weighing up the two, MT4 still holds its own.
Getting MT4 configured properly the first time
The install process is quick. Where people waste time is the setup after install. By default, MT4 shows four charts crammed into the screen. Clear the lot and start fresh with the instruments you care about.
Templates are worth setting up early. Set up your go-to indicators on one chart, then save it as a template. After that you can load it onto other charts instantly. Sounds trivial, but over months it saves hours.
Something most people miss: open Tools > Options > Charts and tick "Show ask line." The default view is the bid price on the chart, which can make entries appear wrong by the spread amount.
How reliable is MT4 backtesting?
MT4's built-in strategy tester allows you to run Expert Advisors against historical data. That said: the quality of those results comes down to your tick data. The default history data from MetaQuotes is not real tick data, meaning the tester fills gaps using algorithms. If you're testing something more precise than a quick look, you need real tick data from a provider like Dukascopy.
That quality percentage in the results tells you more than the profit figure. If it's under 90% suggests the results aren't trustworthy. I've seen people post backtest results with 25% modelling quality and ask why the EA fails in real conditions.
This is one area where MT4 genuinely outperforms most web-based platforms, but only if you feed it decent data.
MT4 indicators beyond the defaults
MT4 comes with 30 default technical indicators. Most traders never touch them all. But where MT4 gets interesting lives in community-made indicators built with MQL4. The MQL5 marketplace alone has thousands available, ranging from tweaked versions of standard tools to elaborate signal panels.
The install process is painless: 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. Publicly shared indicators vary wildly. Some are solid tools. Others stopped working years ago and can freeze your terminal.
If you're downloading custom indicators, look at how recently it was maintained and whether users have flagged problems. A broken indicator won't just give wrong signals — it can slow down MT4.
Managing risk properly inside MT4
There are some risk management tools that the majority of users never configure. First worth mentioning is the maximum deviation setting in the new order panel. It sets the amount of slippage is acceptable on market orders. If you don't set it and the broker can fill you at whatever price comes through.
Everyone knows about stop losses, but trailing stops are worth exploring. Click on an open trade, select Trailing Stop, and set the pip amount. Your stop loss moves with the trade goes into profit. Not perfect for every strategy, but for trend-following it removes the urge to micromanage the trade.
None of this is complicated to set up and they take some of the guesswork out of trade management.
Expert Advisors — before you trust a robot with your money
EAs have obvious appeal: define your rules and let the machine execute. In practice, the majority of Expert Advisors fail to deliver over any meaningful time period. The ones sold with flawless equity curves are usually over-optimised — they look great on past prices and fall apart the moment the market does something different.
This isn't to say all EAs are useless. Certain traders code their own EAs to handle well-defined entry rules: entering at a specific time, automating position size calculations, or closing trades at fixed levels. These utility-type EAs tend to work because they do defined operations without needing discretion.
When looking at Expert Advisors, run them on a demo account for no less than a few months. Forward testing reveals more than historical results ever will.
MT4 beyond the desktop
The platform was designed for Windows. Mac users deal with compromises. Previously was Wine or PlayOnMac, which mostly worked but came with rendering issues and occasional crashes. A few brokers now offer native Mac apps using compatibility layers, which are better but still aren't true native apps.
On mobile, available for both Apple and Android devices, work well for watching positions and tweaking stops. Serious charting work on a phone screen doesn't really work, but closing information resource a trade while away from your desk is genuinely handy.
It's worth confirming if your broker provides real Mac support or a compatibility layer — the difference in stability is noticeable.