What keeps MT4 relevant after two decades
MetaQuotes stopped issuing new MT4 licences some time ago, nudging brokers toward MT5. Still, most retail forex traders stayed put. The reason is straightforward: MT4 has twenty years of muscle memory behind it. More than a decade's worth of custom indicators, Expert Advisors, and community scripts run on MT4. Moving to MT5 means rewriting that entire library, and the majority of users can't justify the effort.
After testing MT4 and MT5 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 is nearly identical. For most retail strategies, MT4 still holds its own.
Setting up MT4 without the usual headaches
Installation takes a few minutes. What actually causes problems is getting everything configured correctly. On first launch, MT4 loads with four charts squeezed onto a single workspace. Shut them all and start fresh with the pairs you actually trade.
Save yourself repeating the same setup by using templates. Configure your usual indicators on one chart, then right-click and save as template. Then you can load it onto other charts instantly. Small thing, but over time it saves hours.
One setting worth changing: open Tools > Options > Charts and check "Show ask line." MT4 only shows the bid price on the chart, which makes your entries look off by the spread amount.
Backtesting on MT4: what the results actually mean
The strategy tester in MT4 lets you run Expert Advisors against historical data. Worth noting though: the quality of those results depends entirely on your tick data. Standard history data from MetaQuotes is not real tick data, meaning it fills in missing ticks using algorithms. If you're testing something that needs accuracy, you need proper historical data.
That quality percentage in the results tells you more than the bottom-line PnL. Below 90% indicates the results aren't trustworthy. People occasionally show off backtests with 25% mt4 brokers modelling quality and can't figure out why the EA fails in real conditions.
The strategy tester is one of MT4's stronger features, but only if you feed it decent data.
MT4 indicators beyond the defaults
MT4 comes with 30 built-in technical indicators. Few people use more than five or six. But the real depth comes from custom indicators coded in MQL4. There are a massive library, spanning simple moving average variations to complex multi-timeframe dashboards.
Installing them is straightforward: copy the .ex4 or .mq4 file into your MQL4/Indicators folder, refresh MT4, and the indicator shows up in the Navigator panel. One thing to watch is quality control. Publicly shared indicators are hit-and-miss. A few are solid tools. Some stopped working years ago and can freeze your terminal.
If you're downloading custom indicators, look at how recently it was maintained and if people in the forums have flagged problems. Bad code doesn't only show wrong data — it can lag the whole terminal.
Managing risk properly inside MT4
MT4 has some risk management features that most traders skip over. First worth mentioning is maximum deviation in the trade execution window. It sets the amount of slippage you'll accept on market orders. Without this configured and the broker can fill you at whatever price is available.
Stop losses go without saying, but the trailing stop function are overlooked. Click on an open trade, choose Trailing Stop, and enter the pip amount. It moves automatically as price moves into profit. Not perfect for every strategy, but if you're riding trends it removes the urge to micromanage the trade.
These settings take a minute to configure and they take some of the guesswork out of trade management.
EAs on MT4: what to realistically expect
Expert Advisors on MT4 attract traders for obvious reasons: set rules, let the code trade, walk away. In practice, most EAs fail to deliver over any meaningful time period. The ones marketed using incredible historical results are usually over-optimised — they worked on past prices and break down the moment conditions shift.
This isn't to say all EAs are useless. A few people develop personal EAs for specific, narrow tasks: time-based entries, calculating lot sizes, or closing trades at fixed levels. These utility-type EAs tend to work because they execute defined operations that don't require judgment.
When looking at Expert Advisors, use a demo account for at least a few months. Forward testing tells you more than backtesting alone.
MT4 beyond the desktop
MT4 was built for Windows. Running it on Mac deal with a workaround. The old method was Wine or PlayOnMac, which was functional but introduced rendering issues and the odd crash. Some brokers now offer Mac-specific builds built on Wine under the hood, which work more smoothly but remain wrappers at the end of the day.
MT4 mobile, on both iOS and Android, are surprisingly capable for keeping an eye on your account and managing trades on the move. Full analysis on a 5-inch screen doesn't really work, but adjusting a stop loss on the go has saved plenty of traders.
Look into whether your broker has a native Mac build or just a wrapper — it makes a real difference day to day.