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 has twenty years of muscle memory behind it. A huge library of custom indicators, Expert Advisors, and community scripts only work with MT4. Switching to MT5 means rewriting that entire library, and the majority of users don't see the point.
I spent time testing both platforms side by side, and the gap is less dramatic than the marketing suggests. MT5 adds a few extras like more timeframes and a built-in economic calendar, but the charting feels about the same. For most retail strategies, MT4 is more than enough.
MT4 setup: what the manual doesn't tell you
Downloading and installing MT4 is the easy part. Where people waste time is configuration. By default, MT4 shows four charts tiled across one window. Clear the lot and open just the pairs you care about.
Chart templates save time. Set up your preferred indicators on one chart, then right-click and save as template. After that you can apply it to any new chart without redoing the work. Sounds trivial, but over months it saves hours.
A quick tweak that helps: open Tools > Options > Charts and tick "Show ask line." MT4 only shows the bid price on the chart, which makes your entries look off until you realise the ask price is hidden.
How reliable is MT4 backtesting?
MT4's built-in strategy tester lets you run Expert Advisors against historical data. That said: the quality of those results comes down to your tick data. The default history data from MetaQuotes is modelled, meaning gaps between real data points are estimated mathematically. For anything more precise than a quick look, you need real tick data from a provider like Dukascopy.
That quality percentage in the results matters more than the profit figure. If it's under 90% suggests the results shouldn't be taken seriously. Traders sometimes show off backtests with 25% modelling quality and can't figure out why the EA fails in real conditions.
Backtesting is where MT4 earns its reputation, but the output is only useful with quality tick data.
MT4 indicators beyond the defaults
MT4 ships with 30 standard technical indicators. Few people use more than five or six. But where MT4 gets interesting comes from user-built indicators coded in MQL4. You can find a massive library, spanning basic modifications to full trading dashboards.
The install process is painless: place the .ex4 or .mq4 file into your MQL4/Indicators folder, refresh MT4, and you'll find it in the Navigator panel. The risk is quality control. Publicly shared indicators range from excellent to broken. Some are well coded and maintained. Others stopped working years ago and may crash your terminal.
When adding third-party indicators, check when it was last updated and if users report issues. Bad code doesn't only show wrong data — it can lag your entire platform.
Managing risk properly inside MT4
There are some risk management options that a lot of people never configure. The most useful is the maximum deviation setting in the order window. It sets the amount of slippage you're willing to tolerate on market orders. If you don't set it and you're accepting whatever price is available.
Stop losses go without saying, but trailing stops is underused. Click on an open metatrader 4 trade, select Trailing Stop, and enter a distance. The stop follows automatically as price moves your way. It won't suit every approach, but for trend-following it reduces the need to sit and watch.
You can configure all of this in under five minutes and they remove a lot of the emotional decision-making.
EAs on MT4: what to realistically expect
Expert Advisors on MT4 have obvious appeal: set rules, let the code trade, walk away. The reality is, most EAs fail to deliver over any decent time period. Those sold with perfect backtest curves are usually over-optimised — they look great on historical data and break down the moment conditions shift.
This isn't to say all EAs are worthless. Certain traders build their own EAs to handle specific, narrow tasks: entering at a specific time, calculating lot sizes, or closing trades at fixed levels. These smaller, focused scripts tend to work because they handle mechanical tasks where you don't need judgment.
When looking at Expert Advisors, use a demo account for a minimum of a few months. Forward testing reveals more than backtesting alone.
Using MT4 outside Windows
MT4 is a Windows application at heart. If you're on macOS face a workaround. The traditional approach was emulation, which did the job but had display glitches and stability problems. Some brokers now offer Mac-specific builds using Crossover or similar wrappers, which work more smoothly but still aren't true native apps.
The mobile apps, on both iOS and Android, are genuinely useful for keeping an eye on open trades and managing trades on the move. Full analysis on a phone screen isn't realistic, but closing a trade on the go is genuinely handy.
It's worth confirming if your broker provides a native Mac build or just a wrapper — the experience varies a lot between the two.