MetaTrader 4 (MT4) Guide: Everything You Need to Know

What Is MetaTrader 4?

MetaTrader 4 — universally called MT4 — is a trading platform developed by MetaQuotes Software. It launched in 2005 and became the default platform for retail forex trading worldwide. Despite being nearly 20 years old and having a successor (MT5), the vast majority of forex brokers still offer MT4, and millions of traders use it daily.

Why has it survived this long? Simplicity. MT4 does what most forex traders need without overwhelming them. It handles charting, order execution, account management, and automated trading through a clean (if somewhat dated-looking) interface. The platform supports Windows natively, with versions available for Mac, iOS, and Android.

MT4 was built specifically for forex and CFD trading. It handles currency pairs, metals, indices, and commodities, though it wasn't designed for stocks or futures in the way MT5 was. For the typical retail forex trader, that's perfectly fine — forex and CFDs cover most of what people trade.

How to Download and Install MT4

You don't download MT4 from MetaQuotes directly. Instead, you get it through your broker. Here's why: each broker has their own branded version of MT4 that's pre-configured to connect to their servers.

The process looks like this:

1. Open a trading account with a broker that supports MT4. Most do — it's nearly universal.
2. Download MT4 from your broker's website. Look for a "Platforms" or "Downloads" section.
3. Run the installer. On Windows, it's a straightforward .exe file. Installation takes about a minute.
4. Log in using the credentials your broker sent you (server name, login ID, and password).

On Mac, MT4 doesn't have a native version. Most brokers offer a wrapper or web-based version. The web terminal (accessible through any browser) works well for basic trading but lacks some desktop features like running EAs.

If you want to practice first, open a demo account. Every broker offers one, and it gives you a risk-free environment with virtual money to learn the platform.

Interface Overview

When you first open MT4, the interface has four main areas:

• Market Watch (left panel) — lists all available instruments with live bid/ask prices. Right-click any pair to open a chart or place a trade.
• Navigator (left panel, below Market Watch) — shows your accounts, indicators, Expert Advisors, and scripts. This is where you manage everything that extends MT4's functionality.
• Chart Window (center) — the main area where price charts display. You can open multiple charts in tabs or tile them side by side.
• Terminal (bottom panel) — shows your open trades, account history, alerts, and journal. The "Trade" tab here is where you monitor active positions and pending orders.

The toolbar across the top gives you quick access to timeframes, chart types, drawing tools, and common indicators. It looks busy at first, but you'll learn to ignore most of it and use the handful of buttons that matter to your trading.

One underrated feature: MT4 profiles. You can save your current layout — which charts are open, what indicators are loaded, how windows are arranged — and switch between profiles. Useful if you trade different strategies at different times.

How to Place Trades

There are several ways to open a trade in MT4:

• New Order window — press F9 or click "New Order" in the toolbar. Select your pair, set your lot size, choose market execution or a pending order, set your stop loss and take profit, and click Buy or Sell.
• One-click trading — enable it through Options or right-click on the chart. A small panel appears in the top-left corner of the chart with Buy and Sell buttons. Fast but dangerous if you're not careful with lot sizes.
• Right-click on chart — select "Trading" from the context menu for quick access to order types.

MT4 supports four pending order types: Buy Limit, Sell Limit, Buy Stop, and Sell Stop. If you need to modify an open trade (change stop loss, take profit, or close partially), right-click the trade in the Terminal panel.

One limitation worth knowing: MT4 doesn't support partial closing through the standard interface. You need to modify the lot size of your position manually, which closes the specified amount and leaves the rest open. It works, but it's not as smooth as on some newer platforms.

Chart Types and Timeframes

MT4 offers three chart types:

• Bar charts — show OHLC data as vertical bars with horizontal tick marks. The left tick is the open, the right tick is the close.
• Candlestick charts — the most popular choice. Each candle shows open, high, low, and close with a colored body. Most traders stick with these.
• Line charts — connect closing prices with a line. Clean and simple but shows less information. Good for spotting the overall trend at a glance.

For timeframes, MT4 gives you nine options: M1 (1 minute), M5, M15, M30, H1 (1 hour), H4 (4 hours), D1 (daily), W1 (weekly), and MN (monthly). That covers most trading styles, though some traders wish MT4 had more options — like 2-hour or 8-hour charts. MT5 addressed this by adding 21 timeframes.

You can customize chart colors, add grid lines, and change candle styles through the Properties window (F8). Most experienced traders go for a clean look: dark background, white/green up candles, red down candles, minimal grid.

Built-in Indicators

MT4 comes with about 30 built-in technical indicators, organized into four categories:

• Trend indicators — Moving Averages, Bollinger Bands, Ichimoku Kinko Hyo, Parabolic SAR
• Oscillators — RSI, MACD, Stochastic, CCI, Momentum
• Volume indicators — Volumes, On Balance Volume, Money Flow Index
• Bill Williams indicators — Alligator, Fractals, Awesome Oscillator

But the real power is custom indicators. MT4 has one of the largest libraries of third-party indicators anywhere. The MQL4 community has created thousands of free and paid indicators that you can install and run. Just drop the indicator file into your MT4 data folder (File → Open Data Folder → MQL4 → Indicators), restart MT4, and it appears in your Navigator.

MT4 also includes basic drawing tools: trendlines, horizontal lines, Fibonacci retracements, channels, and shapes. Nothing fancy, but they get the job done for marking up charts.

Expert Advisors (EAs)

Expert Advisors are automated trading programs that can analyze markets and execute trades without your input. They're written in MQL4, MetaQuotes' proprietary programming language, and run directly inside MT4.

EAs range from simple (a moving average crossover that buys and sells automatically) to incredibly complex (multi-strategy systems with machine learning elements). The MQL4 marketplace and third-party sites sell thousands of EAs, while plenty of free ones exist too.

To use an EA, you place its file in the Experts folder within MT4's data directory, restart the platform, then drag the EA onto a chart. You'll need to enable "Allow automated trading" in MT4's options. The EA then runs whenever the chart is open and MT4 is connected.

MT4 includes a built-in Strategy Tester that lets you backtest EAs against historical data. You can see how the strategy would have performed in the past, though backtesting results don't guarantee future performance. The tester runs at different speeds and shows visual trade entries on the chart, which helps you understand what the EA is doing.

A word of caution: the EA market is full of scams. Claims of "99% win rate" or "guaranteed profits" should be treated with extreme skepticism. If you're serious about EAs, learn enough MQL4 to understand what you're running, or at least be able to read the basic logic.

MT4 Mobile App

MetaTrader 4 has official apps for both iOS and Android. The mobile version lets you:

• Monitor open positions and account balance
• Place and modify trades (market and pending orders)
• View interactive charts with 30 indicators and 24 analytical objects
• Read financial news
• Chat with other traders through the built-in messaging system

What you can't do on mobile: run Expert Advisors or custom indicators. Those require the desktop version. If you need EAs running 24/7, many traders use a VPS (Virtual Private Server) — a remote computer that keeps MT4 running even when your personal machine is off.

The mobile app is solid for monitoring trades and making quick adjustments. It's not ideal as your primary trading platform though. Screen size limits how much chart analysis you can realistically do, and fat-finger errors on small touch screens are a real risk with larger position sizes.

MT4 vs MT5: Which Should You Use?

MetaTrader 5 launched in 2010 as a "next generation" platform, but it didn't replace MT4 the way MetaQuotes hoped. Both platforms coexist today, and the choice between them depends on what you trade and what features matter to you.

Feature	MT4	MT5
Release year	2005	2010
Timeframes	9	21
Pending order types	4	6
Built-in indicators	30	38
Economic calendar	No	Yes (built-in)
Depth of Market	No	Yes
Multi-asset support	Limited (forex/CFDs)	Full (stocks, futures, options)
Programming language	MQL4	MQL5
Hedging	Yes (default)	Yes (optional)
Strategy tester	Single-threaded	Multi-threaded
Community & EAs	Massive (20 years of content)	Growing but smaller

Choose MT4 if: you trade forex and CFDs exclusively, you want access to the largest library of custom indicators and EAs, or your broker only offers MT4. The ecosystem advantage is real — finding a solution to almost any MT4 problem takes about 30 seconds on Google.

Choose MT5 if: you trade stocks or futures alongside forex, you want more timeframes and order types, or you're building complex automated strategies that benefit from MQL5's better programming features. Read our full MT5 guide for a detailed look.

One practical note: MQL4 and MQL5 aren't compatible. You can't take an MT4 EA and run it on MT5 without rewriting it. If you've invested heavily in MT4 tools, switching to MT5 means rebuilding that collection.

Best MT4 Brokers

Almost every forex broker on the planet offers MT4. The platform is so standard that it's basically table stakes. But some brokers do MT4 better than others — faster execution, more server locations, tighter integration with their own tools.

When picking a broker for MT4, pay attention to:

• Execution speed — some brokers have faster MT4 servers than others. If you're scalping, this matters a lot.
• Available instruments — not all brokers offer the same list of tradable assets on MT4. Check that the pairs and CFDs you want are available.
• EA friendliness — some brokers restrict certain EA strategies (especially scalping EAs). If you're planning to use automated trading, verify the broker's policy.
• VPS hosting — many brokers offer free or subsidized VPS services for running MT4 24/7. Worth checking if you use EAs.
• Regulation — this matters regardless of platform. Stick with brokers regulated by reputable authorities (FCA, ASIC, CySEC, etc.).

Check our broker reviews to compare MT4 brokers side by side. We test execution speed, spreads, and platform stability as part of every review.