MT4 in 2026: why it refuses to die
MetaQuotes stopped issuing new MT4 licences a while back, pushing brokers toward MT5. Yet most retail forex traders haven't moved. The reason is not complicated: MT4 does one thing well. Thousands of custom indicators, Expert Advisors, and community scripts were built for MT4. Moving to MT5 means rebuilding that entire library, and few people would rather keep trading than recoding.
I've tested both platforms side by side, and the differences are less dramatic than the marketing suggests. MT5 adds a few extras like more timeframes and a built-in economic calendar, but the charting feels about the same. If you're weighing up the two, there's no compelling reason to switch.
MT4 setup: what the manual doesn't tell you
The install process is quick. Where people waste time is getting everything configured correctly. By default, MT4 shows four charts tiled across the screen. Shut them all and start fresh with the instruments you follow.
Templates are worth setting up early. Configure your preferred indicators on one chart, then save it as a template. From there you can apply it to any new chart without redoing the work. Sounds trivial, but over time it saves hours.
Something most people miss: go to Tools > Options > Charts and tick "Show ask line." MT4 only shows the bid price on the chart, which can make your entries look off by the spread amount.
MT4 strategy tester: honest expectations
MT4's built-in strategy tester lets you run Expert Advisors against historical data. Worth noting though: the accuracy of those results comes down to your tick data. Built-in history data from MetaQuotes is not real tick data, meaning the tester fills gaps mathematically. If you're testing something more precise than a quick look, grab proper historical data.
The "modelling quality" percentage is more important than the profit figure. Anything below 90% indicates the results shouldn't be taken seriously. People occasionally show off backtests with 25% modelling quality and can't figure out why live trading looks different.
Backtesting is where MT4 earns its reputation, but the output is only useful with quality tick data.
Building your own MT4 indicators
MT4 comes with 30 default technical indicators. Few people use more than five or six. But the real depth comes from user-built indicators coded in MQL4. The MQL5 marketplace alone has over 2,000 options, covering everything from simple moving average variations to full trading dashboards.
The install process is painless: drop the .ex4 or .mq4 file into your MQL4/Indicators folder, refresh MT4, and the indicator shows up in the Navigator panel. The catch is reliability. Community indicators vary wildly. A few are genuinely useful. Others haven't been updated since 2015 and can freeze your terminal.
When adding third-party indicators, check how recently it was maintained and whether people in the forums mention bugs. A broken indicator doesn't only show wrong data — it can lag your entire platform.
The MT4 risk controls you're probably not using
You'll find some risk management features that most traders skip over. First worth mentioning is the maximum deviation setting in the order window. It sets the amount of slippage you'll accept on market orders. Without this configured and the broker can fill you at whatever price is available.
Everyone knows about stop losses, but MT4's trailing stop feature is overlooked. Right-click an open trade, pick Trailing Stop, and set your preferred distance. The stop follows with the trade goes in your favour. Not perfect for every strategy, but for trend-following it takes away the urge to micromanage the trade.
These settings take a see this minute to configure and they take some of the guesswork out of trade management.
Running Expert Advisors: practical expectations
Automated trading through Expert Advisors sounds appealing: define your rules and let the machine execute. In practice, the majority of Expert Advisors fail to deliver over any extended time period. EAs sold with incredible historical results are often over-optimised — they performed well on historical data and stop working the moment market conditions change.
That doesn't mean all EAs are worthless. Certain traders develop their own EAs to handle well-defined entry rules: opening trades at session opens, calculating lot sizes, or closing trades at fixed levels. These utility-type EAs are more reliable because they execute repetitive actions without needing interpretation.
Before running any EA with real money, run them on a demo account for no less than a few months. Running it forward in real time tells you more than historical results ever will.
MT4 beyond the desktop
MT4 is a Windows application at heart. If you're on macOS face friction. Previously was Wine or PlayOnMac, which was functional but came with visual bugs and the odd crash. A few brokers now offer native Mac apps using Wine under the hood, which is an improvement but still aren't true native apps.
On mobile, on both iPhone and Android, are surprisingly capable for monitoring positions and making quick adjustments. Doing proper analysis on a 5-inch screen is pushing it, but managing exits on the go is genuinely handy.
Check whether your broker offers a proper macOS version or just Wine under the hood — the experience varies a lot between the two.