MT4 in 2026: why it refuses to die
MetaQuotes stopped issuing new MT4 licences some time ago, nudging brokers toward MT5. Still, most retail forex traders stayed put. The reason is straightforward: MT4 does one thing well. A huge library of custom indicators, Expert Advisors, and community scripts run on MT4. Moving to MT5 means rewriting that entire library, and most traders would rather keep trading than recoding.
I spent time testing both platforms side by side, and the differences are smaller than you'd expect. MT5 has a few extras like more timeframes and a built-in get more information economic calendar, but the charting is nearly identical. For most retail strategies, MT4 still holds its own.
Setting up MT4 without the usual headaches
The install process is quick. What actually causes problems is the setup after install. On first launch, MT4 loads with four charts tiled across one window. Clear the lot and start fresh with the instruments you care about.
Templates are worth setting up early. Configure your go-to indicators on one chart, then right-click and save as template. From there you can load it onto other charts without redoing the work. Minor detail, but over weeks it saves hours.
One setting worth changing: open Tools > Options > Charts and tick "Show ask line." The default view is the bid price on the chart, which makes entries appear wrong by the spread amount.
How reliable is MT4 backtesting?
MT4's built-in strategy tester gives you the ability to run Expert Advisors against historical data. That said: the reliability of those results depends entirely on your tick data. The default history data is not real tick data, meaning the tester fills gaps using algorithms. For anything more precise than a quick look, grab proper historical data.
The "modelling quality" percentage matters more than the bottom-line PnL. Anything below 90% indicates the results aren't trustworthy. People occasionally show off backtests 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.
Building your own MT4 indicators
MT4 ships with 30 built-in technical indicators. The average trader uses maybe a handful. But the real depth comes from custom indicators written in MQL4. There are over 2,000 options, ranging from simple moving average variations to elaborate signal panels.
The install process is painless: copy the .ex4 or .mq4 file into your MQL4/Indicators folder, restart MT4, and it appears in the Navigator panel. The catch is reliability. Community indicators are hit-and-miss. A few are genuinely useful. Many are abandoned projects and may crash your terminal.
If you're downloading custom indicators, check the last update date and if other traders have flagged problems. A broken indicator won't just give wrong signals — it can slow down the whole terminal.
Managing risk properly inside MT4
There are several built-in risk management tools that a lot of people skip over. First worth mentioning is the maximum deviation setting in the order window. 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 trailing stops is underused. Right-click an open trade, select Trailing Stop, and set your preferred distance. It moves with price moves your way. Not perfect for every strategy, but for trend-following it takes away the urge to stare at the screen.
None of this is complicated to set up and they take some of the guesswork out of trade management.
Running Expert Advisors: practical expectations
EAs have obvious appeal: program your strategy and stop staring at charts. In reality, a huge percentage of them underperform over any decent time period. The ones marketed using perfect backtest curves tend to be over-optimised — they performed well on historical data and stop working once the market does something different.
That doesn't mean all EAs are useless. A few people develop custom EAs for well-defined entry rules: entering at a specific time, calculating lot sizes, or taking profit at predetermined levels. That kind of automation work because they handle repetitive actions that don't require interpretation.
When looking at Expert Advisors, run them on a demo account for no less than two to three months. Running it forward in real time reveals more than historical results ever will.
MT4 beyond the desktop
MT4 is a Windows application at heart. If you're on macOS face friction. Previously was Wine or PlayOnMac, which was functional but came with visual bugs and stability problems. A few brokers now offer native Mac apps built on compatibility layers, which are better but remain wrappers at the end of the day.
The mobile apps, available for both Apple and Android devices, are surprisingly capable for monitoring positions and managing trades on the move. Doing proper analysis on a phone screen isn't realistic, but closing a trade while away from your desk has saved plenty of traders.
It's worth confirming if your broker provides a proper macOS version or just Wine under the hood — the experience varies a lot between the two.