What forex traders should actually know about MetaTrader 4
MT4 in 2026: why it refuses to die
MetaQuotes stopped issuing new MT4 licences years ago, steering brokers toward MT5. But most retail forex traders kept using MT4. The reason is straightforward: MT4 works, and people trust what works. A huge library of custom indicators, Expert Advisors, and community scripts run on MT4. Migrating to MT5 means rewriting that entire library, and few people would rather keep trading than recoding.
I've tested both platforms side by side, and the differences are less dramatic than the marketing suggests. MT5 has a few extras like more timeframes and a built-in economic calendar, but the charting is about the same. For most retail strategies, MT4 is more than enough.
MT4 setup: what the manual doesn't tell you
The install process is quick. The part that trips people up is the setup after install. By default, MT4 loads with four charts tiled across the screen. Shut them all and open just the markets you care about.
Save yourself repeating the same setup by using templates. Set up your usual indicators once, then right-click and save as template. From there you can apply it to any new chart in two clicks. Small thing, but over months it adds up.
One setting worth changing: open Tools > Options > Charts and check "Show ask line." By default MT4 displays the bid price on the chart, which can make buy entries seem misaligned by the spread amount.
How reliable is MT4 backtesting?
The strategy tester in MT4 lets you run Expert Advisors against historical data. Worth noting though: 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 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. If it's under 90% indicates the results aren't trustworthy. I've seen people share screenshots with 25% modelling quality and wonder why the EA fails in real conditions.
Backtesting is where MT4 earns its reputation, but the output is only useful with quality tick data.
MT4 indicators beyond the defaults
MT4 comes with 30 default technical indicators. Most traders never touch them all. That said, the real depth comes from user-built indicators built with MQL4. You can find thousands available, covering everything from basic modifications to elaborate signal panels.
Installing them is straightforward: drop the .ex4 or .mq4 file into your MQL4/Indicators folder, reboot MT4, and you'll find it in the Navigator panel. One thing to watch is quality control. Publicly shared indicators range from excellent to broken. A few are genuinely useful. Others stopped working years ago and can freeze your terminal.
Before installing anything, check the last update date and whether other traders have flagged problems. Bad code doesn't only show wrong data — it can lag your entire platform.
The MT4 risk controls you're probably not using
MT4 has several built-in risk management tools that a lot of people skip over. First worth mentioning is the maximum deviation setting in the trade execution window. It sets how much slippage is acceptable on market orders. Without this configured and you'll get whatever price is available.
Stop losses are obvious, but MT4's trailing stop feature is worth exploring. Right-click an open trade, pick Trailing Stop, and enter a distance. It follows when the trade goes into profit. It won't suit every approach, but on trending pairs it removes the urge to micromanage the trade.
You can configure all of this in under five minutes and they remove a lot of the emotional decision-making.
Running Expert Advisors: practical expectations
Automated trading through full report Expert Advisors sounds appealing: set rules, let the code trade, walk away. The reality is, a huge percentage of them underperform over any extended time period. Those sold with incredible historical results tend to be fitted to past data — they worked on historical data and stop working the moment conditions shift.
This isn't to say all EAs are worthless. Some traders code their own EAs to handle one particular setup: entering at a specific time, calculating lot sizes, or exiting positions at fixed levels. These smaller, focused scripts tend to work because they execute repetitive actions where you don't need discretion.
If you're evaluating EAs, test on demo first for a minimum of a few months. Forward testing tells you more than historical results ever will.
Using MT4 outside Windows
MT4 is a Windows application at heart. Running it on Mac has always been a workaround. The old method was running it through Wine, which mostly worked but introduced display glitches and stability problems. Certain brokers now offer native Mac apps built on compatibility layers, which is an improvement but still aren't built from scratch for Mac.
On mobile, available for both Apple and Android devices, work well for monitoring your account and making quick adjustments. Full analysis on a phone screen is pushing it, but closing a trade from your phone is worth having.
Look into whether your broker has a proper macOS version or just Wine under the hood — the experience varies a lot between the two.