Why traders still pick MT4 over newer platforms
MetaQuotes stopped check this out issuing new MT4 licences a while back, nudging brokers toward MT5. Still, most retail forex traders kept using MT4. The reason is simple: MT4 has twenty years of muscle memory behind it. More than a decade's worth of custom indicators, Expert Advisors, and community scripts run on MT4. Moving to MT5 means rebuilding that entire library, and the majority of users don't see the point.
After testing both platforms side by side, and the differences are less dramatic than the marketing suggests. MT5 has a few extras such as more timeframes and a built-in economic calendar, but the charting feels nearly identical. 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. Where people waste time is getting everything configured correctly. By default, 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. Set up your preferred indicators on one chart, then right-click and save as template. After that you can load it onto other charts in two clicks. Minor detail, but over months it adds up.
A quick tweak that helps: go to Tools > Options > Charts and check "Show ask line." By default MT4 displays 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 gives you the ability to run Expert Advisors against historical data. But here's the thing: the quality of those results comes down to your tick data. The default history data from MetaQuotes is not real tick data, meaning it fills in missing ticks mathematically. For anything beyond a rough sanity check, grab real tick data from a provider like Dukascopy.
Modelling quality is more important than the bottom-line PnL. Below 90% means the results shouldn't be taken seriously. Traders sometimes post backtest results with 25% modelling quality and wonder why their live results don't match.
Backtesting is where MT4 earns its reputation, but the output is only useful with quality tick data.
Custom indicators on MT4: worth the effort?
MT4 ships with 30 built-in technical indicators. Few people use more than five or six. That said, the platform's actual strength lives in custom indicators written in MQL4. The MQL5 marketplace alone has a massive library, spanning basic modifications to full trading dashboards.
Adding a custom indicator is simple: drop the .ex4 or .mq4 file into the MQL4/Indicators folder, restart MT4, and it appears in the Navigator panel. The risk is quality. Community indicators are hit-and-miss. Some are genuinely useful. Others haven't been updated since 2015 and can freeze your terminal.
If you're downloading custom indicators, look at when it was last updated and if people in the forums mention bugs. A poorly written indicator won't just give wrong signals — it can slow down the whole terminal.
Risk management settings most MT4 traders ignore
MT4 has some risk management features that a lot of people skip over. First worth mentioning is the maximum deviation setting in the trade execution window. It sets how much slippage you'll accept on market orders. If you don't set it and you'll get whatever price the broker gives you.
Everyone knows about stop losses, but trailing stops are underused. Right-click an open trade, pick Trailing Stop, and define a distance. Your stop loss moves when price moves into profit. It won't suit every approach, but on trending pairs it removes the temptation to stare at the screen.
You can configure all of this in under five minutes and they take some of the guesswork out of trade management.
Expert Advisors — before you trust a robot with your money
Expert Advisors on MT4 have obvious appeal: define your rules and let the machine execute. In reality, most EAs fail to deliver over any extended time period. EAs sold with flawless equity curves tend to be fitted to past data — they look great on the specific data they were tested on and break down the moment market conditions change.
That doesn't mean all EAs are worthless. Certain traders build custom EAs for well-defined entry rules: time-based entries, calculating lot sizes, or exiting positions at set levels. These smaller, focused scripts are more reliable because they do repetitive actions without needing discretion.
Before running any EA with real money, test on demo first for at least a few months. Running it forward in real time is more informative than historical results ever will.
MT4 beyond the desktop
The platform was designed for Windows. Mac users has always been compromises. The traditional approach was emulation, which was functional but came with rendering issues and stability problems. A few brokers now offer macOS versions using Wine under the hood, which work more smoothly but still aren't true native apps.
MT4 mobile, available for both iOS and Android, work well for watching your account and managing trades on the move. Doing proper analysis on a 5-inch screen isn't realistic, but managing exits from your phone has saved plenty of traders.
It's worth confirming if your broker provides real Mac support or a compatibility layer — the difference in stability is noticeable.