MT4 in 2026: why it refuses to die
MetaQuotes stopped issuing new MT4 licences years ago, nudging brokers toward MT5. Yet most retail forex traders stayed put. The reason is simple: MT4 does one thing well. A huge library of custom indicators, Expert Advisors, and community scripts were built for MT4. Switching to MT5 means rewriting that entire library, and the majority of users would rather keep trading than recoding.
I've tested both platforms side by side, and the gap is less dramatic than the marketing suggests. MT5 has a few extras including more timeframes and a built-in economic calendar, but the core charting is about the same. For most retail strategies, MT4 still holds its own.
Getting MT4 configured properly the first time
The install process is quick. The part that trips people up is getting everything configured correctly. On first launch, MT4 opens with four charts crammed into one window. Close all of them and open just the markets you care about.
Chart templates save time. Configure your preferred indicators on one chart, then right-click and save as template. From there 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 read this and check "Show ask line." By default MT4 displays the bid price on the chart, which can make entries appear wrong until you realise the ask price is hidden.
Backtesting on MT4: what the results actually mean
MT4 comes with a backtester that gives you the ability to run Expert Advisors against historical data. That said: the quality of those results depends entirely on your tick data. Standard history data from MetaQuotes is not real tick data, meaning the tester fills gaps with made-up prices. If you're testing something more precise than a quick look, grab proper historical data.
That quality percentage in the results matters more than the bottom-line PnL. Anything below 90% suggests the results aren't trustworthy. I've seen people share screenshots with 25% modelling quality and can't figure out why their live results don't match.
The strategy tester is one of MT4's stronger features, but only if you feed it decent data.
MT4 indicators beyond the defaults
MT4 comes with 30 default technical indicators. Few people use more than five or six. That said, the platform's actual strength is in community-made indicators coded in MQL4. You can find over 2,000 options, covering everything from basic modifications to elaborate signal panels.
Installing them is straightforward: place the .ex4 or .mq4 file into the MQL4/Indicators folder, refresh MT4, and it appears in the Navigator panel. The risk is reliability. Publicly shared indicators are hit-and-miss. Some are solid tools. Others stopped working years ago and may crash your terminal.
If you're downloading custom indicators, verify when it was last updated and whether people in the forums mention bugs. A broken indicator won't just give wrong signals — it can freeze the whole terminal.
Managing risk properly inside MT4
You'll find a few native risk management features that most traders don't bother with. The most useful is maximum deviation in the trade execution window. It sets how much slippage you'll accept on market orders. If you don't set it and you're accepting whatever price comes through.
Everyone knows about stop losses, but the trailing stop function are underused. Right-click an open trade, pick Trailing Stop, and enter your preferred distance. It moves with the trade goes in your favour. It won't suit every approach, but if you're riding trends it takes away the need to micromanage the trade.
These settings take a minute to configure and they take some of the guesswork out of trade management.
Running Expert Advisors: practical expectations
EAs have obvious appeal: define your rules and let the machine execute. In practice, a huge percentage of them lose money over any meaningful time period. The ones sold with perfect backtest curves tend to be over-optimised — they worked on past prices and break down the moment market conditions change.
None of this means all EAs are worthless. Some traders build personal EAs for well-defined entry rules: opening trades at session opens, calculating lot sizes, or exiting positions at fixed levels. That kind of automation work because they do mechanical tasks where you don't need discretion.
If you're evaluating EAs, run them on a demo account for a minimum of a few months. Forward testing tells you more than historical results ever will.
Using MT4 outside Windows
MT4 was built for Windows. If you're on macOS has always been friction. Previously was Wine or PlayOnMac, which did the job but came with display glitches and occasional crashes. A few brokers now offer native Mac apps wrapped around compatibility layers, which is an improvement but still aren't built from scratch for Mac.
The mobile apps, available for both iPhone and Android, are surprisingly capable for watching open trades and managing trades on the move. Full analysis on a 5-inch screen is pushing it, but closing a trade from your phone is genuinely handy.
It's worth confirming if your broker provides a proper macOS version or just Wine under the hood — it makes a real difference day to day.