Why traders still pick MT4 over newer platforms
MetaQuotes stopped issuing new MT4 licences a while back, steering brokers toward MT5. Still, most retail forex traders haven't moved. The reason is straightforward: MT4 works, and people trust what works. A huge library of custom indicators, Expert Advisors, and community scripts were built for MT4. Migrating to MT5 means porting that entire library, and the majority of users don't see the point.
I spent time testing MT4 and MT5 side by side, and the gap is less dramatic than the marketing suggests. MT5 adds a few extras like more timeframes and a built-in economic calendar, but chart functionality is 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. What actually causes problems is getting everything configured correctly. On first launch, MT4 shows four charts tiled across one window. Close all of them and start fresh with the markets you actually trade.
Templates are worth setting up early. Configure your usual indicators once, then save it as a template. From there you can apply it to any new chart in two clicks. Small thing, but over months it saves hours.
A quick tweak that helps: go to Tools > Options > Charts and enable "Show ask line." The default view is the bid price by default, which can make buy entries seem misaligned 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 gaps between real data points are estimated mathematically. For anything more precise than a quick look, download proper historical data.
That quality percentage in the results is more important than the profit figure. Anything below 90% means the results shouldn't be taken seriously. Traders sometimes share screenshots with 25% modelling quality and wonder why their live results don't match.
This is one area where MT4 genuinely outperforms most web-based platforms, but only if you feed it decent data.
Building your own MT4 indicators
MT4 comes with 30 built-in technical indicators. The average trader uses maybe a handful. But where MT4 gets interesting is in user-built indicators coded in MQL4. You can find a massive library, ranging from tweaked versions of standard tools to complex multi-timeframe dashboards.
Installing them is straightforward: copy the .ex4 or .mq4 file into the MQL4/Indicators folder, reboot MT4, and you'll find it in the Navigator panel. The catch is quality. Publicly shared indicators vary wildly. Some are solid tools. Many are abandoned projects and will crash your terminal.
If you're downloading custom indicators, check when it was last updated and whether other traders report issues. A broken indicator doesn't only show wrong data — it can slow down the whole terminal.
Risk management settings most MT4 traders ignore
You'll find a few native risk management features that most traders don't bother with. 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 comes through.
Stop losses go without saying, but trailing stops is underused. Right-click an open trade, pick Trailing Stop, and enter your preferred distance. Your stop loss adjusts when blog the trade goes in your favour. Not perfect for every strategy, but for trend-following it takes away the need to stare at the screen.
These settings take a minute to configure and they take some of the guesswork out of trade management.
Expert Advisors — before you trust a robot with your money
Automated trading through Expert Advisors sounds appealing: program your strategy and stop staring at charts. In reality, a huge percentage of them fail to deliver over any decent time period. EAs advertised with incredible historical results are often fitted to past data — they worked on past prices and stop working once market conditions change.
That doesn't mean all EAs are worthless. A few people build custom EAs to handle one particular setup: opening trades at session opens, calculating lot sizes, or taking profit at set levels. These utility-type EAs are more reliable because they handle repetitive actions that don't require discretion.
If you're evaluating EAs, use a demo account for a minimum of several weeks in different conditions. Running it forward in real time is more informative than historical results ever will.
Using MT4 outside Windows
The platform was designed for Windows. Running it on Mac face a workaround. Previously was running it through Wine, which was functional but had visual bugs and occasional crashes. A few brokers now offer macOS versions built on Wine under the hood, which work more smoothly but still aren't true native apps.
The mobile apps, available for both iOS and Android, are genuinely useful for watching open trades and managing trades on the move. Doing proper analysis on a 5-inch screen doesn't really work, but adjusting a stop loss on the go is genuinely handy.
Look into whether your broker has real Mac support or a compatibility layer — it makes a real difference day to day.