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 haven't moved. The reason is not complicated: MT4 works, and people trust what works. More than a decade's worth of custom indicators, Expert Advisors, and community scripts only work with MT4. Switching to MT5 means porting that entire library, and few people don't see the point.
After testing MT4 and MT5 side by side, and the differences are less dramatic than the marketing suggests. MT5 has a few extras like more timeframes and a built-in economic calendar, but the core charting feels very similar. For most retail strategies, MT4 still holds its own.
MT4 setup: what the manual doesn't tell you
Downloading and installing MT4 is the easy part. Where people waste time is configuration. Out of the box, MT4 loads with four charts squeezed onto the screen. Close all of them and start fresh with the markets you care about.
Templates are worth setting up early. Build your preferred indicators on one chart, then right-click and save as template. Then you can load it onto other charts in two clicks. Minor detail, but over weeks it adds up.
One setting worth changing: go to Tools > Options > Charts and check "Show ask line." MT4 only shows the bid price by default, which can make your entries look off until you realise the ask price is hidden.
How reliable is MT4 backtesting?
MT4's built-in strategy tester gives you the ability to run Expert Advisors against historical data. But here's the thing: the quality of those results depends entirely on your tick data. Built-in history data is not real tick data, meaning it fills in missing ticks using algorithms. If you're testing something beyond a rough sanity check, you need third-party tick data.
The "modelling quality" percentage tells you more than the bottom-line PnL. Anything below 90% means the results are probably misleading. People occasionally post backtest results with 25% modelling quality and can't figure out why the EA fails in real conditions.
This is one area where MT4 genuinely outperforms most web-based platforms, but the output is only useful with quality tick data.
MT4 indicators beyond the defaults
MT4 comes with 30 standard technical indicators. Few people use more than five or six. However the real depth lives in user-built indicators coded in MQL4. There are over 2,000 options, covering everything from basic modifications to elaborate signal panels.
The install process is painless: place the .ex4 or .mq4 file into your MQL4/Indicators folder, restart MT4, and it appears in the Navigator panel. One thing to watch is quality control. Community indicators vary wildly. Some are solid tools. Some are abandoned projects and can freeze your terminal.
If you're downloading custom indicators, check how recently it was maintained and if other traders report issues. A broken indicator won't just give wrong signals — it can freeze the whole terminal.
Managing risk properly inside MT4
There are some risk management tools that a lot of people skip over. The most useful is maximum deviation in the new order panel. This controls how much slippage you'll accept on market orders. Leave it at zero and you'll get whatever price comes through.
Stop losses are obvious, but the trailing stop function is worth exploring. Click on an open trade, pick Trailing Stop, and set the pip amount. The stop follows when the trade goes into profit. Doesn't work well in choppy markets, but if you're riding trends it reduces the urge to stare at the screen.
These settings take a minute to configure and they take some of the guesswork out of trade management.
Running Expert Advisors: practical expectations
EAs attract traders for obvious reasons: define your rules and let the machine execute. The reality is, a huge percentage of them lose money over any extended time period. EAs advertised with flawless equity curves tend to be over-optimised — they look great on the specific data they were tested on and stop working once market conditions change.
This isn't to say all EAs are worthless. Certain traders build their own EAs to handle specific, narrow tasks: time-based entries, calculating lot sizes, or closing trades at fixed levels. These utility-type EAs work because they do mechanical tasks that don't require interpretation.
Before running any EA with real money, run them on a demo account for at least several weeks in different conditions. Live demo testing is more informative than any backtest.
MT4 on Mac and mobile: what actually works
MT4 is a Windows application at heart. If you're on macOS deal with friction. The traditional approach was emulation, which mostly worked but had display glitches and stability problems. A few brokers now offer native Mac apps using Crossover or similar wrappers, which are better more reading but still aren't built from scratch for Mac.
MT4 mobile, on both iPhone and Android, work well for watching your account and managing trades on the move. Serious charting work on a mobile device is pushing it, but closing a trade on the go has saved plenty of traders.
It's worth confirming if your broker provides real Mac support or a compatibility layer — the experience varies a lot between the two.