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 works, and people trust what works. 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 MT4 and MT5 side by side, and the differences are less dramatic than the marketing suggests. MT5 adds a few extras including more timeframes and a built-in economic calendar, but chart functionality is about the same. Unless you need MT5-specific features, MT4 still holds its own.
Setting up MT4 without the usual headaches
Downloading and installing MT4 is the easy part. The part that trips people up is the setup after install. Out of the box, MT4 loads with four charts crammed into one window. Shut them all and start fresh with the instruments you actually trade.
Chart templates save time. Configure your go-to indicators once, then save it as a template. After that you can apply it to any new chart instantly. Minor detail, but over months it saves hours.
Something most people miss: go to Tools > Options > Charts and enable "Show ask line." MT4 only shows the bid price by default, which makes entries appear wrong until you realise the ask price is hidden.
MT4 strategy tester: honest expectations
MT4's built-in strategy tester gives you the ability to run Expert Advisors against historical data. That said: the accuracy of those results hinges on your tick data. Standard history data is not real tick data, meaning the tester fills gaps using algorithms. If you're testing something more precise than a quick look, you need proper historical data.
Modelling quality matters more than the profit figure. If it's under 90% suggests the results are probably misleading. People occasionally post backtest results with 25% modelling quality and can't figure out why live trading looks different.
This is one area where MT4 genuinely outperforms most web-based platforms, but it's only as good as the data you give it.
Building your own MT4 indicators
MT4 comes with 30 standard technical indicators. Most traders never touch them all. That said, where MT4 gets interesting is in user-built indicators written in MQL4. You can find over 2,000 options, spanning simple moving average variations to elaborate signal panels.
The install process is painless: place the .ex4 or .mq4 file into your MQL4/Indicators folder, reboot MT4, and the indicator shows up in the Navigator panel. The risk is reliability. Community indicators vary wildly. Some are well coded and maintained. Some are abandoned projects and will crash your terminal.
When adding third-party indicators, verify how recently it was maintained and whether people in the forums have flagged problems. A broken indicator doesn't only show wrong data — it can slow down the whole terminal.
Risk management settings most MT4 traders ignore
MT4 has a few native risk management features that the majority of users skip over. First worth mentioning is the maximum deviation setting in the trade execution window. This defines the amount of slippage you're willing to tolerate 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 worth exploring. Right-click an open trade, pick Trailing Stop, and enter your preferred distance. It follows automatically as the trade goes in your favour. Not perfect for every strategy, but on trending pairs it reduces the urge to sit and watch.
None of this is complicated to set up and they remove a lot of the emotional decision-making.
Running Expert Advisors: practical expectations
Automated trading through Expert Advisors attract traders for obvious reasons: set rules, let the code trade, walk away. In reality, a huge percentage of them lose money over any meaningful time period. Those sold with flawless equity curves are often fitted to past data — they performed well on past prices and metatrader 4 brokers fall apart when market conditions change.
That doesn't mean all EAs are worthless. Some traders develop personal EAs for well-defined entry rules: time-based entries, calculating lot sizes, or closing trades at fixed levels. These utility-type EAs work because they do defined operations without needing interpretation.
Before running any EA with real money, test on demo first for at least two to three months. Forward testing is more informative than historical results ever will.
Using MT4 outside Windows
MT4 was built for Windows. If you're on macOS deal with compromises. The old method was Wine or PlayOnMac, which did the job but came with rendering issues and stability problems. A few brokers now offer macOS versions built on Wine under the hood, which is an improvement but still aren't true native apps.
MT4 mobile, on both iPhone and Android, are genuinely useful for monitoring open trades and managing trades on the move. Doing proper analysis on a 5-inch screen is pushing it, but adjusting a stop loss on the go is worth having.
Check whether your broker offers real Mac support or a compatibility layer — the experience varies a lot between the two.