What keeps MT4 relevant after two decades
MetaQuotes stopped issuing new MT4 licences a while back, nudging brokers toward MT5. Still, most retail forex traders stayed put. The reason is not complicated: MT4 works, and people trust what works. More than a decade's worth of custom indicators, Expert Advisors, and community scripts only work with MT4. Moving to MT5 means rewriting that entire library, and most traders would rather keep trading than recoding.
After testing both platforms side by side, and the gap is smaller than you'd expect. MT5 adds a few extras such as more timeframes and a built-in economic calendar, but the charting feels nearly identical. Unless you need MT5-specific features, MT4 still holds its own.
Getting MT4 configured properly the first time
Installation takes a few minutes. The part that trips people up is getting everything configured correctly. Out of the box, MT4 opens with four charts tiled across the screen. Clear the lot and open just the markets you care about.
Chart templates save time. Build your usual indicators once, then save it as a template. From there you can apply it to any new chart without redoing the work. Small thing, but over time it makes a difference.
A quick tweak that helps: open Tools > Options > Charts and enable "Show ask line." By default MT4 displays the bid price by default, which can make buy entries seem misaligned by the spread amount.
Backtesting on MT4: what the results actually mean
MT4's built-in strategy tester gives you the ability to run Expert Advisors against historical data. But here's the thing: the reliability of those results depends entirely on your tick data. The default history data is interpolated, meaning gaps between real data points are estimated with made-up prices. For anything beyond a rough sanity check, you need proper historical data.
That quality percentage in the results is more important than the headline profit number. Below 90% suggests the results shouldn't be taken seriously. People occasionally share screenshots with 25% modelling quality and ask why their live results don't match.
The strategy tester is one of MT4's stronger features, but the output is only useful with quality tick data.
MT4 indicators beyond the defaults
MT4 ships with 30 built-in technical indicators. Most traders never touch them all. That said, the real depth comes from custom indicators written in MQL4. There are a massive library, ranging from basic modifications to full trading dashboards.
Installing them is straightforward: place the .ex4 or .mq4 file into your MQL4/Indicators folder, restart MT4, and the indicator shows up in the Navigator panel. One thing to watch is quality. Publicly shared indicators range from excellent to broken. A few are genuinely useful. Many haven't been updated since 2015 and will crash your terminal.
When adding third-party indicators, check how recently it was maintained and whether people in the forums report issues. A poorly written indicator doesn't only show wrong data — it can freeze the whole terminal.
The MT4 risk controls you're probably not using
You'll find a few native risk management features that the majority of users don't bother with. First worth mentioning is the maximum deviation setting in the order window. This controls the amount of slippage is acceptable on market orders. If you don't set it and you're accepting whatever price comes through.
Stop losses are obvious, but trailing stops is overlooked. Click on an open trade, pick Trailing Stop, and define the pip amount. It moves when reference price moves in your favour. Not perfect for every strategy, but on trending pairs it takes away the urge to sit and watch.
None of this is complicated to set up and they take some of the guesswork out of trade management.
Running Expert Advisors: practical expectations
EAs have obvious appeal: program your strategy and stop staring at charts. The reality is, the majority of Expert Advisors lose money over any decent time period. EAs advertised with perfect backtest curves are usually curve-fitted — they performed well on historical data and stop working once the market does something different.
This isn't to say all EAs are worthless. A few people build their own EAs for specific, narrow tasks: opening trades at session opens, managing position sizing, or exiting positions at set levels. These smaller, focused scripts work because they execute mechanical tasks without needing discretion.
Before running any EA with real money, run them on a demo account for no less than a few months. Live demo testing is more informative than any backtest.
MT4 beyond the desktop
The platform was designed for Windows. If you're on macOS deal with compromises. The traditional approach was Wine or PlayOnMac, which did the job but introduced visual bugs and stability problems. Some brokers now offer Mac-specific builds built on Crossover or similar wrappers, which are better but still aren't true native apps.
On mobile, available for both iOS and Android, work well for watching positions and tweaking stops. Serious charting work on a mobile device isn't realistic, but managing exits from your phone is worth having.
Look into whether your broker has a native Mac build or just a wrapper — it makes a real difference day to day.