MT4 in 2026: why it refuses to die
MetaQuotes stopped issuing new MT4 licences years ago, steering brokers toward MT5. Yet most retail forex traders kept using MT4. The reason is not complicated: MT4 does one thing well. A huge library of custom indicators, Expert Advisors, and community scripts only work with 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 gap is smaller than you'd expect. MT5 has a few extras including more timeframes and a built-in economic calendar, but the charting feels about the same. For most retail strategies, 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 getting everything configured correctly. Out of the box, MT4 loads with four charts squeezed onto one window. Close all of them and start fresh with the markets you actually trade.
Chart templates save time. Set up your usual indicators once, then save it as a template. Then you can load it onto other charts instantly. Small thing, but over months it saves hours.
One setting worth changing: go to Tools > Options > Charts and enable "Show ask line." By default MT4 displays the bid price on the chart, which can make buy entries seem misaligned by the spread amount.
MT4 strategy tester: honest expectations
MT4's built-in strategy tester allows you to run Expert Advisors against historical data. But here's the thing: the quality of those results hinges on your tick data. Standard history data from MetaQuotes is interpolated, meaning gaps between real data points are estimated mathematically. If you're testing something that needs accuracy, download real tick data from a provider like Dukascopy.
That quality percentage in the results is more important than the headline profit number. Below 90% indicates the results shouldn't be taken seriously. Traders sometimes show off backtests with 25% modelling quality and ask why their live results don't match.
Backtesting is where MT4 earns its reputation, but it's only as good as the data you give it.
Custom indicators on MT4: worth the effort?
MT4 ships with 30 default technical indicators. Most traders never touch them all. That said, where MT4 gets interesting is in custom indicators written in MQL4. There are a massive library, spanning simple moving average variations to complex multi-timeframe dashboards.
The install process is painless: copy the .ex4 or .mq4 file into your MQL4/Indicators folder, reboot MT4, and you'll find it in the Navigator panel. One thing to watch is quality. Publicly shared indicators are hit-and-miss. A few are solid tools. Many are abandoned projects and can freeze your terminal.
If you're downloading custom indicators, look at the last update date and whether users have flagged problems. Bad code won't just give wrong signals — it can slow down the whole terminal.
Risk management settings most MT4 traders ignore
You'll find a few native risk management tools that the majority of users don't bother with. First worth mentioning is the maximum deviation setting in the order window. This controls how much check it out slippage you're willing to tolerate on market orders. If you don't set it and you'll get whatever price comes through.
Everyone knows about stop losses, but the trailing stop function are underused. Right-click an open trade, select Trailing Stop, and enter a distance. It adjusts automatically as the trade goes into profit. Doesn't work well in choppy markets, but for trend-following it reduces the urge to stare at the screen.
You can configure all of this in under five minutes and the difference in discipline is noticeable over time.
EAs on MT4: what to realistically expect
Automated trading through Expert Advisors attract traders for obvious reasons: set rules, let the code trade, walk away. In practice, most EAs lose money over any decent time period. EAs marketed using flawless equity curves are usually curve-fitted — they worked on past prices and fall apart once market conditions change.
This isn't to say all EAs are useless. Certain traders build custom EAs to handle specific, narrow tasks: entering at a specific time, calculating lot sizes, or taking profit at fixed levels. These utility-type EAs are more reliable because they do repetitive actions where you don't need judgment.
If you're evaluating EAs, test on demo first for no less than several weeks in different conditions. Running it forward in real time is more informative than any backtest.
Using MT4 outside Windows
MT4 was built for Windows. Running it on Mac deal with compromises. The traditional approach was running it through Wine, which was functional but came with display glitches and the odd crash. Certain brokers now offer native Mac apps using compatibility layers, which work more smoothly but still aren't true native apps.
The mobile apps, on both iOS and Android, are surprisingly capable for keeping an eye on your account and tweaking stops. Full analysis on a mobile device doesn't really work, but adjusting a stop loss on the go is worth having.
Check whether your broker offers a native Mac build or just a wrapper — it makes a real difference day to day.