MT4 after twenty years: an honest take on the platform
Why traders still pick MT4 over newer platforms
MetaQuotes stopped issuing new MT4 licences a while back, pushing brokers toward MT5. But most retail forex traders stayed put. The reason is not complicated: MT4 has twenty years of muscle memory behind it. A huge library 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 gap is smaller than you'd expect. MT5 has a few extras such as more timeframes and a built-in economic calendar, but chart functionality feels very similar. If you're weighing up the two, MT4 still holds its own.
MT4 setup: what the manual doesn't tell you
Installation takes a few minutes. The part that trips people up is getting everything configured correctly. On first launch, MT4 opens with four charts squeezed onto a single workspace. Close all of them and start fresh with the instruments you follow.
Save yourself repeating the same setup by using templates. Set up your usual indicators once, then save it as a template. From there you can load it onto other charts without redoing the work. Small thing, but over months it adds up.
A quick tweak that helps: open Tools > Options > Charts and enable "Show ask line." The default view is the bid price by default, which can make your entries look off until you realise the ask price is hidden.
How reliable is MT4 backtesting?
The strategy tester in MT4 lets you run Expert Advisors against historical data. Worth noting though: the quality of those results depends entirely on your tick data. The default history data is interpolated, meaning it fills in missing ticks with made-up prices. For anything that needs accuracy, you need proper historical data.
Modelling quality matters more than the bottom-line PnL. Anything below 90% indicates the results shouldn't be taken seriously. I've seen people share screenshots with 25% modelling quality and wonder why their live results don't match.
The strategy tester is one of MT4's stronger features, but only if you feed it decent data.
MT4 indicators beyond the defaults
MT4 ships with 30 default technical indicators. Few people use more than five or six. However where MT4 gets interesting comes from custom indicators built with MQL4. There are a massive library, covering everything from basic modifications to complex multi-timeframe dashboards.
Installing them is straightforward: copy the .ex4 or .mq4 file into your MQL4/Indicators folder, refresh MT4, and it appears in the Navigator panel. The catch is reliability. Publicly shared indicators vary wildly. Some are well coded and maintained. Some are abandoned projects and can freeze your terminal.
If you're downloading custom indicators, look at how recently it was maintained and if users have flagged problems. A poorly written indicator doesn't only show wrong data — it can slow down your entire platform.
Managing risk properly inside MT4
MT4 has several built-in risk management options that a lot of people don't bother with. The most useful is the maximum deviation setting in the order window. This controls how much slippage you'll accept on market orders. Leave it at zero and you'll get whatever price comes through.
Stop losses are obvious, but MT4's trailing stop feature are overlooked. Right-click an open trade, choose Trailing Stop, and define a distance. It adjusts when the trade goes into profit. It won't suit every approach, but for trend-following it reduces the need to stare at the screen.
You can configure all of this in under five minutes and they remove a lot of the emotional decision-making.
Running Expert Advisors: practical expectations
EAs sounds appealing: set rules, let the code trade, walk away. In reality, the majority of Expert Advisors underperform over any meaningful time period. Those advertised with incredible historical results are often fitted to past data — they performed well on past prices get more information and break down when conditions shift.
None of this means all EAs are useless. Certain traders code personal EAs to handle one particular setup: entering at a specific time, automating position size calculations, or exiting positions at set levels. These smaller, focused scripts work because they handle defined operations without needing discretion.
If you're evaluating EAs, test on demo first for at least two to three months. Forward testing tells you more than any backtest.
Using MT4 outside Windows
The platform was designed for Windows. Mac users deal with compromises. Previously was Wine or PlayOnMac, which mostly worked but came with visual bugs and occasional crashes. Certain brokers now offer native Mac apps wrapped around Crossover or similar wrappers, which work more smoothly but still aren't built from scratch for Mac.
MT4 mobile, on both iPhone and Android, work well for monitoring your account and tweaking stops. Serious charting work on a 5-inch screen isn't realistic, but closing a trade on the go has saved plenty of traders.
Check whether your broker offers a proper macOS version or just Wine under the hood — the experience varies a lot between the two.