A practical look at MT4 for forex traders

MT4 in 2026: why it refuses to die

MetaQuotes stopped issuing new MT4 licences years ago, steering brokers toward MT5. Still, most retail forex traders stayed put. The reason is simple: MT4 does one thing well. Thousands of custom indicators, Expert Advisors, and community scripts were built for MT4. Switching to MT5 means rewriting that entire library, and most traders don't see the point.

I've tested both platforms side by side, and the differences are less dramatic than the marketing suggests. MT5 has a few extras like more timeframes and a built-in economic calendar, but chart functionality is about the same. For most retail strategies, MT4 is more than enough.

MT4 setup: what the manual doesn't tell you

The install process is quick. Where people waste time is configuration. Out of the box, MT4 opens with four charts crammed into a single workspace. Close all of them and start fresh with the markets you care about.

Chart templates save time. Configure your preferred indicators on one chart, then save it as a template. After that you can load it onto other charts in two clicks. Small thing, but over weeks it adds up.

Something most people miss: open Tools > Options > Charts and tick "Show ask line." By default MT4 displays the bid price by default, which makes your entries look off until you realise the ask price is hidden.

How reliable is MT4 backtesting?

MT4 comes with a backtester that allows you to run Expert Advisors against historical data. That said: the quality of those results depends entirely on your tick data. The default history data from MetaQuotes is interpolated, meaning it fills in missing ticks using algorithms. If you're testing something more precise than a quick look, download real tick data from a provider like Dukascopy.

That quality percentage in the results tells you more than the profit figure. If it's under 90% suggests extra resources the results are probably misleading. Traders sometimes share screenshots with 25% modelling quality and wonder why the EA fails in real conditions.

Backtesting is where MT4 earns its reputation, but only if you feed it decent data.

Custom indicators on MT4: worth the effort?

MT4 ships with 30 built-in technical indicators. Most traders never touch them all. But the platform's actual strength comes from community-made indicators built with MQL4. You can find a massive library, spanning tweaked versions of standard tools to elaborate signal panels.

Adding a custom indicator is simple: drop the .ex4 or .mq4 file into the MQL4/Indicators folder, restart MT4, and the indicator shows up in the Navigator panel. The catch is quality. Publicly shared indicators are hit-and-miss. Some are well coded and maintained. Others stopped working years ago and can freeze your terminal.

When adding third-party indicators, look at how recently it was maintained and whether users mention bugs. A poorly written indicator doesn't only show wrong data — it can slow down your entire platform.

Risk management settings most MT4 traders ignore

You'll find some risk management options that the majority of users never configure. Probably the most practical one is the maximum deviation setting in the trade execution window. This controls the amount of slippage is acceptable on market orders. Without this configured and you're accepting whatever price comes through.

Everyone knows about stop losses, but trailing stops is overlooked. Right-click an open trade, select Trailing Stop, and define the pip amount. The stop follows with price moves in your favour. It won't suit every approach, but on trending pairs it takes away the need to micromanage the trade.

These settings take a minute to configure and they take some of the guesswork out of trade management.

Expert Advisors — before you trust a robot with your money

Automated trading through Expert Advisors have obvious appeal: define your rules and let the machine execute. In reality, the majority of Expert Advisors lose money over any decent time period. Those marketed using flawless equity curves are usually over-optimised — they look great on historical data and break down the moment market conditions change.

That doesn't mean all EAs are a waste of time. Some traders build their own EAs for one particular setup: entering at a specific time, calculating lot sizes, or exiting positions at fixed levels. These utility-type EAs are more reliable because they handle mechanical tasks where you don't need discretion.

Before running any EA with real money, run them on a demo account for no less than several weeks in different conditions. Forward testing is more informative than historical results ever will.

MT4 on Mac and mobile: what actually works

MT4 is a Windows application at heart. If you're on macOS has always been a workaround. The traditional approach was Wine or PlayOnMac, which was functional but introduced visual bugs and occasional crashes. A few brokers now offer macOS versions built on compatibility layers, which is an improvement but remain wrappers at the end of the day.

On mobile, on both Apple and Android devices, are genuinely useful for watching positions and making quick adjustments. Serious charting work on a mobile device doesn't really work, but closing a trade on the go has saved plenty of traders.

Look into whether your broker has a proper macOS version or just Wine under the hood — it makes a real difference day to day.