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, steering brokers toward MT5. Still, most retail forex traders kept using MT4. The reason is simple: MT4 works, and people trust what works. More than a decade's worth of custom indicators, Expert Advisors, and community scripts were built for MT4. Migrating to MT5 means rebuilding that entire library, and most traders don't see the point.
I've tested MT4 and MT5 side by side, and the gap is marginal for most strategies. MT5 adds a few extras like more timeframes and a built-in economic calendar, but chart functionality is nearly identical. 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 getting everything configured correctly. On first launch, MT4 opens with four charts tiled across a single workspace. Clear the lot and open just the markets you care about.
Chart templates save time. Set up your go-to indicators once, then right-click and save as template. From there you can apply it to any new chart in two clicks. Sounds trivial, but over time it saves hours.
Something most people miss: go to Tools > Options > Charts and tick "Show ask line." The default view is the bid price on the chart, 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 gives you the ability to run Expert Advisors against historical data. Worth noting though: the reliability of those results hinges on your tick data. Standard history data from MetaQuotes is interpolated, meaning gaps between real data points are estimated using algorithms. For anything beyond a rough sanity check, you need third-party tick data.
The "modelling quality" percentage is more important than the bottom-line PnL. Anything below 90% means the results shouldn't be taken seriously. Traders sometimes share screenshots with 25% modelling quality and ask why the full details their live results don't match.
The strategy tester is one of MT4's stronger features, but only if you feed it decent data.
Custom indicators on MT4: worth the effort?
MT4 ships with 30 standard technical indicators. Few people use more than five or six. But where MT4 gets interesting comes from community-made indicators written in MQL4. The MQL5 marketplace alone has thousands available, spanning basic modifications to complex multi-timeframe dashboards.
Installing them is straightforward: place the .ex4 or .mq4 file into your MQL4/Indicators folder, restart MT4, and it appears in the Navigator panel. One thing to watch is quality control. Community indicators are hit-and-miss. Some are genuinely useful. Others are abandoned projects and may crash your terminal.
If you're downloading custom indicators, verify how recently it was maintained and if users report issues. A broken indicator doesn't only show wrong data — it can slow down the whole terminal.
The MT4 risk controls you're probably not using
There are several built-in risk management tools that most traders 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 you're accepting whatever price comes through.
Stop losses go without saying, but the trailing stop function are underused. Click on an open trade, pick Trailing Stop, and define your preferred distance. Your stop loss follows when the trade goes in your favour. Doesn't work well in choppy markets, but on trending pairs it removes the temptation to stare at the screen.
None of this is complicated to set up and they take some of the guesswork out of trade management.
EAs on MT4: what to realistically expect
EAs sounds appealing: set rules, let the code trade, walk away. The reality is, a huge percentage of them lose money over any meaningful time period. The ones marketed using perfect backtest curves are often fitted to past data — they performed well on historical data and fall apart the moment market conditions change.
That doesn't mean all EAs are a waste of time. Certain traders develop their own EAs to handle one particular setup: entering at a specific time, automating position size calculations, or taking profit at fixed levels. That kind of automation tend to work because they execute mechanical tasks where you don't need interpretation.
When looking at Expert Advisors, run them on a demo account for a minimum of two to three months. Forward testing is more informative than any backtest.
MT4 on Mac and mobile: what actually works
MT4 was built for Windows. Running it on Mac deal with a workaround. The old method was running it through Wine, which was functional but had display glitches and the odd crash. A few brokers now offer Mac-specific builds using compatibility layers, which is an improvement but remain wrappers at the end of the day.
The mobile apps, on both Apple and Android devices, work well for monitoring positions and managing trades on the move. Serious charting work on a phone screen doesn't really work, but adjusting a stop loss while away from your desk has saved plenty of traders.
Look into whether your broker has real Mac support or a compatibility layer — the difference in stability is noticeable.