MT4 in 2026: why it refuses to die
MetaQuotes stopped issuing new MT4 licences some time ago, steering brokers toward MT5. Yet most retail forex traders stayed put. The reason is straightforward: MT4 has twenty years of muscle memory behind it. More than a decade's worth of custom indicators, Expert Advisors, and community scripts only work with MT4. Switching to MT5 means rebuilding that entire library, and most traders can't justify the effort.
After testing both platforms side by side, and the gap is less dramatic than the marketing suggests. MT5 adds a few extras including more timeframes and a built-in economic calendar, but the charting feels nearly identical. If you're weighing up the two, MT4 is more than enough.
Setting up MT4 without the usual headaches
Installation takes a few minutes. The part that trips people up is the setup after install. By default, MT4 opens with four charts squeezed onto the screen. Clear the lot and open just the instruments you follow.
Chart templates save time. Set up your usual indicators on one chart, then save it as a template. Then you can apply it to any new chart in two clicks. Sounds trivial, but over time it adds up.
One setting worth changing: open Tools > Options > Charts and tick "Show ask line." By default MT4 displays 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 comes with a backtester that gives you the ability to run Expert Advisors against historical data. But here's the thing: the reliability of those results comes down to your tick data. Built-in history data is modelled, meaning gaps between real data points are estimated using algorithms. If you're testing something beyond a rough sanity check, grab proper historical data.
The "modelling quality" percentage matters more than the bottom-line PnL. Anything below 90% suggests the results aren't trustworthy. 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.
Custom indicators on MT4: worth the effort?
MT4 ships with 30 built-in technical indicators. Most traders never touch them all. However where MT4 gets interesting comes from user-built indicators written in MQL4. The MQL5 marketplace alone has a massive library, covering everything from simple moving average variations to complex multi-timeframe dashboards.
Installing them is straightforward: copy the .ex4 or .mq4 file into your MQL4/Indicators folder, restart MT4, and it appears in the Navigator panel. The catch is reliability. Free indicators are hit-and-miss. Some are genuinely useful. Others are abandoned projects and will crash your terminal.
If you're downloading custom indicators, verify when it was last updated and if users have flagged problems. A poorly written indicator doesn't only show wrong data — it can freeze the whole terminal.
Managing risk properly inside MT4
You'll find several built-in risk management tools that the majority of users never configure. Probably the most practical one is maximum deviation in the trade execution window. It sets the amount of slippage you're willing to tolerate on market orders. If you don't set it and you'll get whatever price is available.
Stop losses are obvious, but MT4's trailing stop feature is underused. Click on an open trade, select Trailing Stop, and set your preferred distance. The stop adjusts when price moves your way. Doesn't work well in choppy markets, but if you're riding trends it reduces the urge to sit and watch.
These settings take a minute to configure and they take some of the guesswork out of trade management.
Expert Advisors — before you trust a robot with your money
Automated trading through Expert Advisors have obvious appeal: define your rules and let the machine execute. In practice, the majority of Expert Advisors fail to deliver over any meaningful time period. Those sold with flawless equity curves tend to be over-optimised — they worked on past prices and fall apart once the market does something different.
That doesn't mean all EAs are worthless. A few people build personal EAs for specific, narrow tasks: entering at a specific time, calculating lot sizes, or taking profit at set levels. These smaller, focused scripts work because they do mechanical tasks where you don't need judgment.
When looking at Expert Advisors, test on demo first for at least a few months. Forward testing tells you more than historical results ever will.
Using MT4 outside Windows
The platform was designed for Windows. Mac users deal with friction. Previously was emulation, which did the job but had rendering issues and occasional crashes. A few brokers now offer native Mac apps built on Crossover or similar wrappers, which work more smoothly but remain wrappers at the end of the day.
The mobile apps, available for both iPhone and Android, work well for watching positions and making quick adjustments. Doing proper analysis on a 5-inch screen isn't realistic, but adjusting a stop loss from your phone is worth having.
It's worth confirming if blog your broker provides a native Mac build or just a wrapper — the difference in stability is noticeable.