MT4 after twenty years: an honest take on the platform
MT4 in 2026: why it refuses to die
MetaQuotes stopped issuing new MT4 licences some time ago, nudging brokers toward MT5. But most retail forex traders kept using MT4. The reason is simple: MT4 works, and people trust what works. Thousands of custom indicators, Expert Advisors, and community scripts only work with MT4. Switching to MT5 means porting that entire library, and most traders would rather keep trading than recoding.
I've tested both platforms side by side, and the gap is smaller than you'd expect. MT5 adds a few extras such as more timeframes and a built-in economic calendar, but chart functionality feels nearly identical. Unless you need MT5-specific features, there's no compelling reason to switch.
Getting MT4 configured properly the first time
Downloading and installing MT4 is the easy part. What actually causes problems is configuration. Out of the box, MT4 shows four charts squeezed onto one window. Shut them all and start fresh with the instruments you follow.
Save yourself repeating the same setup by using templates. Build your go-to indicators once, then save it as a template. From mt4 brokers there you can load it onto other charts without redoing the work. Sounds trivial, but over months it saves hours.
One setting worth changing: open Tools > Options > Charts and enable "Show ask line." The default view is the bid price by default, which can make your entries look off until you realise the ask price is hidden.
MT4 strategy tester: honest expectations
MT4's built-in strategy tester allows you to run Expert Advisors against historical data. Worth noting though: the reliability of those results hinges on your tick data. The default history data is not real tick data, meaning it fills in missing ticks mathematically. If you're testing something more precise than a quick look, download third-party tick data.
The "modelling quality" percentage is more important than the profit figure. Below 90% indicates the results are probably misleading. Traders sometimes show off backtests with 25% modelling quality and wonder why the EA fails in real conditions.
This is one area where MT4 genuinely outperforms most web-based platforms, but only if you feed it decent data.
MT4 indicators beyond the defaults
MT4 comes with 30 standard technical indicators. Most traders never touch them all. But the real depth is in user-built indicators coded in MQL4. You can find a massive library, spanning tweaked versions of standard tools to elaborate signal panels.
The install process is painless: copy the .ex4 or .mq4 file into your MQL4/Indicators folder, reboot MT4, and it appears in the Navigator panel. One thing to watch is quality. Free indicators are hit-and-miss. Some are well coded and maintained. Others are abandoned projects and can freeze your terminal.
If you're downloading custom indicators, check when it was last updated and whether users report issues. A broken indicator won't just give wrong signals — it can freeze the whole terminal.
The MT4 risk controls you're probably not using
MT4 has a few native risk management tools that a lot of people don't bother with. First worth mentioning is the maximum deviation setting in the new order panel. It sets the amount of slippage you'll accept on market orders. If you don't set it and you'll get whatever price the broker gives you.
Stop losses go without saying, but trailing stops is overlooked. Click on an open trade, select Trailing Stop, and define a distance. It follows automatically as price moves your way. Doesn't work well in choppy markets, but on trending pairs it takes away the temptation to micromanage the trade.
None of this is complicated to set up and the difference in discipline is noticeable over time.
EAs on MT4: what to realistically expect
EAs sounds appealing: program your strategy and stop staring at charts. In practice, most EAs underperform over any decent time period. EAs advertised with incredible historical results tend to be over-optimised — they look great on historical data and break down once the market does something different.
None of this means all EAs are a waste of time. Some traders build custom EAs for well-defined entry rules: opening trades at session opens, automating position size calculations, or taking profit at predetermined levels. These utility-type EAs tend to work because they handle mechanical tasks where you don't need interpretation.
Before running any EA with real money, run them on a demo account for a minimum of two to three months. Forward testing is more informative than backtesting alone.
MT4 beyond the desktop
MT4 is a Windows application at heart. Mac users face friction. Previously was Wine or PlayOnMac, which was functional but came with display glitches and the odd crash. A few brokers now offer native Mac apps using Wine under the hood, which work more smoothly but still aren't true native apps.
On mobile, on both iOS and Android, work well for watching your account and tweaking stops. Serious charting work on a phone screen is pushing it, but closing a trade on the go has saved plenty of traders.
Look into whether your broker has a proper macOS version or just Wine under the hood — the experience varies a lot between the two.