Why traders still pick MT4 over newer platforms
MetaQuotes stopped issuing new MT4 licences a while back, pushing brokers toward MT5. Still, most retail forex traders stayed put. The reason is simple: MT4 works, and people trust what works. More than a decade's worth of custom indicators, Expert Advisors, and community scripts were built for MT4. Moving to MT5 means rebuilding that entire library, and most traders can't justify the effort.
I spent time testing both platforms side by side, and the gap is marginal for most strategies. MT5 has a few extras including 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.
Setting up MT4 without the usual headaches
The install process is quick. Where people waste time is getting everything configured correctly. By default, MT4 loads with four charts crammed into the screen. Shut them all and open just the markets you care about.
Chart templates save time. Build 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 time it adds up.
One setting worth changing: go to Tools > Options > Charts and check "Show ask line." MT4 only shows the bid price on the chart, which can make entries appear wrong until you realise the ask price is get more information hidden.
MT4 strategy tester: honest expectations
MT4's built-in strategy tester lets you run Expert Advisors against historical data. Worth noting though: the accuracy of those results depends entirely on your tick data. The default history data from MetaQuotes is not real tick data, meaning the tester fills gaps with made-up prices. If you're testing something that needs accuracy, grab proper historical data.
Modelling quality tells you more than the profit figure. If it's under 90% means the results are probably misleading. I've seen people post backtest results with 25% modelling quality and ask why their live results don't match.
The strategy tester is one of MT4's stronger features, but the output is only useful with quality tick data.
Building your own MT4 indicators
MT4 ships with 30 built-in technical indicators. Few people use more than five or six. However where MT4 gets interesting comes from custom indicators coded in MQL4. The MQL5 marketplace alone has over 2,000 options, covering everything from tweaked versions of standard tools to complex multi-timeframe dashboards.
Adding a custom indicator is simple: place the .ex4 or .mq4 file into your MQL4/Indicators folder, refresh MT4, and the indicator shows up in the Navigator panel. The risk is quality control. Free indicators vary wildly. A few are genuinely useful. Some are abandoned projects and can freeze your terminal.
If you're downloading custom indicators, look at how recently it was maintained and if people in the forums mention bugs. Bad code doesn't only show wrong data — it can slow down the whole terminal.
Risk management settings most MT4 traders ignore
There are a few native risk management tools that a lot of people skip over. First worth mentioning is maximum deviation in the new order panel. This controls how much slippage is acceptable on market orders. Without this configured and you're accepting whatever price comes through.
Stop losses are obvious, but the trailing stop function are worth exploring. Right-click an open trade, select Trailing Stop, and enter a distance. It adjusts with price moves your way. Not perfect for every strategy, but if you're riding trends it takes away the urge to sit and watch.
None of this is complicated to set up and they take some of the guesswork out of trade management.
Running Expert Advisors: practical expectations
EAs attract traders for obvious reasons: set rules, let the code trade, walk away. In practice, most EAs lose money over any meaningful time period. The ones sold with incredible historical results are usually fitted to past data — they worked on the specific data they were tested on and break down once conditions shift.
This isn't to say all EAs are useless. A few people develop their own EAs to handle well-defined entry rules: time-based entries, automating position size calculations, or taking profit at predetermined levels. These utility-type EAs are more reliable because they do mechanical tasks without needing discretion.
When looking at Expert Advisors, run them on a demo account for no less than several weeks in different conditions. Forward testing tells you more than backtesting alone.
Using MT4 outside Windows
MT4 was built for Windows. Running it on Mac deal with compromises. The traditional approach was emulation, which was functional but had visual bugs and occasional crashes. Certain brokers now offer native Mac apps using compatibility layers, which work more smoothly but still aren't true native apps.
On mobile, on both iPhone and Android, work well for monitoring your account and tweaking stops. Serious charting work on a phone screen doesn't really work, but adjusting a stop loss while away from your desk is genuinely handy.
It's worth confirming if your broker provides a native Mac build or just a wrapper — the difference in stability is noticeable.