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 straightforward: MT4 does one thing well. More than a decade's worth 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 would rather keep trading than recoding.
I spent time testing MT4 and MT5 side by side, and the differences are less dramatic than the marketing suggests. MT5 adds a few extras such as more timeframes and a built-in economic calendar, but chart functionality is nearly identical. If you're weighing up the two, MT4 is more than enough.
Setting up MT4 without the usual headaches
Installation takes a few minutes. Where people waste time is configuration. Out of the box, MT4 loads with four charts crammed into a single workspace. Close all of them and start fresh with the pairs you follow.
Save yourself repeating the same setup by using templates. Set up your preferred indicators once, then right-click and save as template. Then you can apply it to any new chart in two clicks. Minor detail, but over weeks it saves hours.
A quick tweak that helps: open 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.
MT4 strategy tester: honest expectations
MT4 comes with a backtester that gives you the ability to run Expert Advisors against historical data. That said: the reliability of those results depends entirely on your tick data. Standard history data is not real tick data, meaning the tester fills gaps with made-up prices. If you're testing something that needs accuracy, you need proper historical data.
That quality percentage in the results matters more than the bottom-line PnL. If it's under 90% indicates the results are probably misleading. People occasionally share screenshots with 25% modelling quality and ask why live trading looks different.
The strategy tester is one of MT4's stronger features, but only if you feed it decent data.
Custom indicators on MT4: worth the effort?
MT4 comes with 30 built-in technical indicators. Most traders never touch them all. However the platform's actual strength is in user-built indicators coded in MQL4. The MQL5 marketplace alone has thousands available, spanning basic modifications to full trading dashboards.
Adding a custom indicator is simple: place the .ex4 or .mq4 file into the MQL4/Indicators folder, refresh MT4, and the indicator shows up in the Navigator panel. The catch is quality control. Free indicators vary wildly. Some are genuinely useful. Some stopped working years ago and may crash your terminal.
Before installing anything, verify how recently it was maintained and if other traders mention bugs. Bad code doesn't only show wrong data — it can slow down MT4.
Risk management settings most MT4 traders ignore
There are a few native risk management features that a lot of people never configure. The most useful is the maximum deviation setting 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 is worth exploring. Click on an open trade, select Trailing Stop, and set a distance. Your stop loss moves automatically as price moves into profit. Not perfect for every strategy, but if you're riding trends it takes away the temptation to sit and watch.
None of this is complicated to set up and they remove a lot of the emotional decision-making.
Running Expert Advisors: practical expectations
Automated trading through Expert Advisors attract traders for obvious reasons: set rules, let the code trade, walk away. In reality, most EAs fail to deliver over any decent time period. EAs advertised with incredible historical results are usually over-optimised — they look great on past prices and stop working when market conditions change.
This isn't to say all EAs are worthless. Certain traders build custom EAs for one particular setup: entering at a specific time, managing position sizing, or exiting positions at set levels. That kind of automation are more reliable because they execute mechanical tasks that don't require interpretation.
If you're evaluating EAs, run them on a demo account for no less than two to three months. Live demo testing tells you more than any backtest.
MT4 on Mac and mobile: what actually works
The platform was designed for Windows. Running it on Mac has always been compromises. The old method was emulation, which was functional but had display glitches and occasional crashes. A few brokers now offer native Mac apps using Wine find out here under the hood, which work more smoothly but still aren't true native apps.
On mobile, available for both iOS and Android, work well for watching open trades and tweaking stops. Doing proper analysis on a mobile device doesn't really work, but adjusting a stop loss while away from your desk 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.