A practical look at MT4 for forex traders
MT4 in 2026: why it refuses to die
MetaQuotes stopped issuing new MT4 licences years 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. Thousands of custom indicators, Expert Advisors, and community scripts were built for MT4. Moving to MT5 means porting that entire library, and few people don't see the point.
I've tested MT4 and MT5 side by side, and the gap is marginal for most strategies. 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.
Getting MT4 configured properly the first time
Installation takes a few minutes. What actually causes problems is configuration. Out of the box, MT4 loads with four charts tiled across a single workspace. Shut them all and start fresh with the pairs you care about.
Save yourself repeating the same setup by using templates. Set up your go-to indicators once, then right-click and save as template. From there you can load it onto other charts without redoing the work. Minor detail, but over weeks it saves hours.
Something most people miss: open Tools > Options > Charts and enable "Show ask line." MT4 only shows the bid price by default, which can make your entries look off until you realise the ask price is hidden.
How reliable is MT4 backtesting?
MT4 comes with a backtester that lets you run Expert Advisors against historical data. Worth noting though: the accuracy of those results hinges on your tick data. Built-in history data is not real tick data, meaning gaps between real data points are estimated with made-up prices. For anything that needs accuracy, download real tick data from a provider like Dukascopy.
The "modelling quality" percentage tells you more than the bottom-line PnL. If it's under 90% means the results shouldn't be taken seriously. I've seen people post backtest results with 25% modelling quality and wonder why their live results don't match.
This helpful resources 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 ships with 30 built-in technical indicators. The average trader uses maybe a handful. That said, where MT4 gets interesting lives in custom indicators written in MQL4. The MQL5 marketplace alone has thousands available, ranging from simple moving average variations to full trading dashboards.
Installing them is straightforward: copy the .ex4 or .mq4 file into your MQL4/Indicators folder, restart MT4, and the indicator shows up in the Navigator panel. One thing to watch is quality. Community indicators are hit-and-miss. A few are well coded and maintained. Some haven't been updated since 2015 and can freeze your terminal.
When adding third-party indicators, check how recently it was maintained and whether other traders have flagged problems. A broken indicator doesn't only show wrong data — it can freeze the whole terminal.
Risk management settings most MT4 traders ignore
There are several built-in risk management features that a lot of people skip over. The most useful is maximum deviation in the new order panel. This controls the amount of slippage is acceptable on market orders. If you don't set it and you'll get whatever price is available.
Everyone knows about stop losses, but the trailing stop function is worth exploring. Click on an open trade, select Trailing Stop, and enter a distance. Your stop loss moves when the trade goes into profit. Not perfect for every strategy, but for trend-following it removes the need to micromanage the trade.
These settings take a minute to configure and they remove a lot of the emotional decision-making.
EAs on MT4: what to realistically expect
Expert Advisors on MT4 have obvious appeal: program your strategy and stop staring at charts. The reality is, a huge percentage of them fail to deliver over any meaningful time period. Those sold with incredible historical results tend to be over-optimised — they look great on historical data and fall apart when market conditions change.
None of this means all EAs are worthless. A few people build custom EAs to handle specific, narrow tasks: time-based entries, managing position sizing, or exiting positions at set levels. That kind of automation work because they do mechanical tasks where you don't need judgment.
Before running any EA with real money, test on demo first for no less than two to three months. Forward testing is more informative than any backtest.
Using MT4 outside Windows
The platform was designed for Windows. If you're on macOS has always been friction. The old method was running it through Wine, which was functional but had rendering issues and stability problems. Certain brokers now offer native Mac apps wrapped around Wine under the hood, which work more smoothly but still aren't true native apps.
The mobile apps, available for both Apple and Android devices, are surprisingly capable for keeping an eye on positions and making quick adjustments. Doing proper analysis on a phone screen isn't realistic, but closing a trade while away from your desk is worth having.
Check whether your broker offers a native Mac build or just a wrapper — the difference in stability is noticeable.