MT4 after twenty years: an honest take on the platform
What keeps MT4 relevant after two decades
MetaQuotes stopped issuing new MT4 licences some time ago, pushing brokers toward MT5. But most retail forex traders stayed put. The reason is not complicated: 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 rewriting that entire library, and the majority of users can't justify the effort.
I've tested MT4 and MT5 side by side, and the differences are marginal for most strategies. MT5 adds a few extras including more timeframes and a built-in economic calendar, but the core charting feels nearly identical. For most retail strategies, there's no compelling reason to switch.
Setting up MT4 without the usual headaches
Installation takes a few minutes. What actually causes problems is configuration. On first launch, MT4 loads with four charts tiled across the screen. Shut them all and start fresh with the markets you care about.
Chart templates save time. Configure your preferred indicators once, then save it as a template. From there you can load it onto other charts without redoing the work. Sounds trivial, but over time it saves hours.
A quick tweak that helps: go to Tools > Options > Charts and tick "Show ask line." The default view is the bid price on the chart, which makes your entries look off until you realise the ask price is hidden.
Backtesting on MT4: what the results actually mean
MT4's built-in strategy tester lets you run Expert Advisors against historical data. That said: the reliability of those results comes down to your tick data. Standard history data is not real tick visit data, meaning the tester fills gaps with made-up prices. For anything beyond a rough sanity check, grab real tick data from a provider like Dukascopy.
The "modelling quality" percentage is more important than the profit figure. Anything below 90% suggests the results aren't trustworthy. People occasionally show off backtests with 25% modelling quality and can't figure out why live trading looks different.
The strategy tester is one of MT4's stronger features, but the output is only useful with quality tick data.
Custom indicators on MT4: worth the effort?
MT4 ships with 30 default technical indicators. The average trader uses maybe a handful. But the real depth is in user-built indicators coded in MQL4. The MQL5 marketplace alone has a massive library, covering everything from simple moving average variations to complex multi-timeframe dashboards.
Installing them is straightforward: drop the .ex4 or .mq4 file into the MQL4/Indicators folder, restart MT4, and you'll find it in the Navigator panel. The catch is quality. Publicly shared indicators range from excellent to broken. Some are well coded and maintained. Some haven't been updated since 2015 and may crash your terminal.
When adding third-party indicators, look at when it was last updated and if other traders report issues. Bad code doesn't only show wrong data — it can slow down MT4.
Risk management settings most MT4 traders ignore
You'll find several built-in risk management tools that a lot of people skip over. Probably the most practical one is the maximum deviation setting in the new order panel. This defines the amount of slippage you'll accept on market orders. Leave it at zero and the broker can fill you at whatever price is available.
Stop losses are obvious, but the trailing stop function is overlooked. Click on an open trade, pick Trailing Stop, and define a distance. It moves when the trade goes your way. Not perfect for every strategy, but for trend-following it takes away the need to micromanage the trade.
None of this is complicated to set up and they remove a lot of the emotional decision-making.
Running Expert Advisors: practical expectations
Expert Advisors on MT4 sounds appealing: program your strategy and stop staring at charts. In reality, most EAs lose money over any meaningful time period. Those advertised with incredible historical results are usually over-optimised — they look great on historical data and stop working once conditions shift.
This isn't to say all EAs are useless. Certain traders build personal EAs for one particular setup: opening trades at session opens, calculating lot sizes, or taking profit at fixed levels. These smaller, focused scripts work because they do repetitive actions where you don't need judgment.
When looking at Expert Advisors, test on demo first for no less than several weeks in different conditions. Forward testing is more informative than backtesting alone.
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 mostly worked but had display glitches and the odd crash. Some brokers now offer macOS versions built on Crossover or similar wrappers, which are better but still aren't true native apps.
MT4 mobile, available for both Apple and Android devices, are genuinely useful for monitoring open trades and making quick adjustments. Doing proper analysis on a phone screen is pushing it, but managing exits while away from your desk is genuinely handy.
It's worth confirming if your broker provides a native Mac build or just a wrapper — it makes a real difference day to day.