What keeps MT4 relevant after two decades
MetaQuotes stopped issuing new MT4 licences a while back, pushing brokers toward MT5. Yet most retail forex traders kept using MT4. The reason is simple: MT4 has twenty years of muscle memory behind it. Thousands of custom indicators, Expert Advisors, and community scripts only work with MT4. Migrating to MT5 means rewriting that entire library, and the majority of users don't see the point.
After testing both platforms side by side, and the differences are marginal for most strategies. MT5 has a few extras such as more timeframes and a built-in economic calendar, but the core charting is about the same. If you're weighing up the two, there's no compelling reason to switch.
Setting up MT4 without the usual headaches
Downloading and installing MT4 is the easy part. The part that trips people up is getting everything configured correctly. By default, MT4 opens with four charts squeezed onto one window. Close all of them and start fresh with the instruments you follow.
Chart templates save time. Build your usual indicators once, then save it as a template. From there you can apply it to any new chart instantly. Sounds trivial, but over weeks it saves hours.
One setting worth changing: open Tools > Options > Charts and tick "Show ask line." By default MT4 displays the bid price by default, which can make entries appear wrong until you realise the ask price is hidden.
How reliable is MT4 backtesting?
MT4's built-in strategy tester gives you the ability to run Expert Advisors against historical data. But here's the thing: the quality of those results depends entirely on your tick data. The default history data is not real tick data, meaning the tester fills gaps mathematically. If you're testing something more precise than a quick look, grab proper historical data.
Modelling quality is more important than the headline profit number. If it's under 90% means the results aren't trustworthy. People occasionally show off backtests with 25% modelling quality and wonder why the EA fails in real conditions.
This is one area where MT4 genuinely outperforms most web-based platforms, but it's only as good as the data you give it.
MT4 indicators beyond the defaults
MT4 comes with 30 standard technical indicators. Few people use more than five or six. That said, where MT4 gets interesting is in user-built indicators written in MQL4. The MQL5 marketplace alone has over 2,000 options, ranging from simple moving average variations to elaborate signal panels.
The install process is painless: place the .ex4 or .mq4 file into your MQL4/Indicators folder, reboot MT4, and the indicator shows up in the Navigator panel. One thing to watch is quality. Free indicators are hit-and-miss. A few are well coded and maintained. Some are abandoned projects and may crash your terminal.
Before installing anything, look at when it was last updated and if people in the forums report issues. Bad code doesn't only show wrong data — it can slow down your entire platform.
Risk management settings most MT4 traders ignore
There are a few native risk management features that a lot of people don't bother with. The most useful is maximum deviation in the trade execution window. This defines how much slippage is acceptable on market orders. Leave it at zero and you'll get whatever price is available.
Everyone knows about stop losses, but MT4's trailing stop feature is underused. Right-click an open trade, choose Trailing Stop, and define the pip amount. It moves with price moves your way. Not perfect for every strategy, but on trending pairs it takes away the urge to stare at the screen.
These settings take a minute to configure and the difference in discipline is noticeable over time.
Expert Advisors — before you trust a robot with your money
Automated trading through Expert Advisors attract traders for obvious reasons: additional information set rules, let the code trade, walk away. The reality is, a huge percentage of them underperform over any decent time period. The ones sold with flawless equity curves are often over-optimised — they performed well on the specific data they were tested on and break down the moment conditions shift.
None of this means all EAs are worthless. Some traders build their own EAs to handle well-defined entry rules: entering at a specific time, managing position sizing, or exiting positions at predetermined levels. These smaller, focused scripts work because they handle repetitive actions without needing judgment.
When looking at Expert Advisors, use a demo account for at least several weeks in different conditions. Forward testing is more informative than backtesting alone.
Using MT4 outside Windows
The platform was designed for Windows. Running it on Mac face friction. Previously was emulation, which did the job but came with display glitches and occasional crashes. A few brokers now offer native Mac apps wrapped around Crossover or similar wrappers, which is an improvement but remain wrappers at the end of the day.
On mobile, on both Apple and Android devices, work well for monitoring open trades and managing trades on the move. Serious charting work on a 5-inch screen doesn't really work, but managing exits on the go has saved plenty of traders.
Check whether your broker offers a native Mac build or just a wrapper — it makes a real difference day to day.