What keeps MT4 relevant after two decades
MetaQuotes stopped issuing new MT4 licences years ago, nudging brokers toward MT5. But most retail forex traders kept using MT4. The reason is not complicated: MT4 works, and people trust what works. Thousands of custom indicators, Expert Advisors, and community scripts were built for MT4. Moving 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 gap is smaller than you'd expect. MT5 has a few extras including more timeframes and a built-in economic calendar, but the core charting feels very similar. For most retail strategies, there's no compelling reason to switch.
MT4 setup: what the manual doesn't tell you
Installation takes a few minutes. Where people waste time is configuration. On first launch, MT4 opens with four charts tiled across a single workspace. Shut them all and open just the pairs you care about.
Chart templates save time. Build your more articles usual indicators on one chart, then right-click and save as template. From there you can apply it to any new chart in two clicks. Sounds trivial, 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 buy entries seem misaligned 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. But here's the thing: the quality of those results comes down to your tick data. Built-in history data from MetaQuotes is not real tick data, meaning the tester fills gaps using algorithms. If you're testing something beyond a rough sanity check, download real tick data from a provider like Dukascopy.
Modelling quality matters more than the headline profit number. If it's under 90% means the results shouldn't be taken seriously. People occasionally show off backtests with 25% modelling quality and wonder why live trading looks different.
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 default technical indicators. Few people use more than five or six. That said, the platform's actual strength lives in user-built indicators built with MQL4. There are thousands available, covering everything from tweaked versions of standard tools to full trading dashboards.
The install process is painless: place the .ex4 or .mq4 file into your MQL4/Indicators folder, restart MT4, and it appears in the Navigator panel. The risk is reliability. Community indicators vary wildly. Some are well coded and maintained. Others stopped working years ago and may crash your terminal.
Before installing anything, verify when it was last updated and if users mention bugs. Bad code won't just give wrong signals — it can freeze your entire platform.
Risk management settings most MT4 traders ignore
You'll find several built-in risk management features that most traders don't bother with. The most useful is maximum deviation in the new order panel. It sets how much 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 are underused. Right-click an open trade, pick Trailing Stop, and set a distance. Your stop loss follows automatically as price moves your way. It won't suit every approach, but if you're riding trends it takes away the temptation to micromanage the trade.
None of this is complicated to set up and they remove a lot of the emotional decision-making.
Expert Advisors — before you trust a robot with your money
Automated trading through Expert Advisors attract traders for obvious reasons: set rules, let the code trade, walk away. The reality is, most EAs lose money over any meaningful time period. The ones advertised with perfect backtest curves are usually over-optimised — they worked on historical data and stop working once market conditions change.
This isn't to say all EAs are a waste of time. Certain traders build their own EAs for specific, narrow tasks: opening trades at session opens, managing position sizing, or closing trades at fixed levels. These utility-type EAs are more reliable because they handle repetitive actions where you don't need discretion.
When looking at Expert Advisors, run them on a demo account for at least a few months. Live demo testing tells you more than backtesting alone.
MT4 on Mac and mobile: what actually works
MT4 was built for Windows. Running it on Mac face a workaround. The old method was emulation, which did the job but introduced display glitches and the odd crash. Some brokers now offer Mac-specific builds built on Crossover or similar wrappers, which work more smoothly but still aren't built from scratch for Mac.
On mobile, on both iOS and Android, are surprisingly capable for monitoring open trades and making quick adjustments. Doing proper analysis on a 5-inch screen isn't realistic, but closing a trade from your phone is worth having.
Look into whether your broker has a proper macOS version or just Wine under the hood — it makes a real difference day to day.