MT4 in 2026: why it refuses to die
MetaQuotes stopped issuing new MT4 licences a while back, steering brokers toward MT5. But most retail forex traders kept using MT4. 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 were built for MT4. Migrating to MT5 means rebuilding that entire library, and most traders don't see the point.
After testing MT4 and MT5 side by side, and the gap is marginal for most strategies. MT5 adds a few extras including more timeframes and a built-in economic calendar, but the core charting feels very similar. For most retail strategies, there's no compelling reason to switch.
MT4 setup: what the manual doesn't tell you
The install process is quick. What actually causes problems is getting everything configured correctly. Out of the box, MT4 loads with four charts squeezed onto one window. Shut them all and open just the pairs you actually trade.
Save yourself repeating the same setup by using templates. Build your preferred indicators once, then save it as a webpage template. From there you can load it onto other charts instantly. Minor detail, but over months it adds up.
One setting worth changing: open Tools > Options > Charts and enable "Show ask line." The default view is the bid price by default, which can make buy entries seem misaligned by the spread amount.
How reliable is MT4 backtesting?
MT4's built-in strategy tester lets you run Expert Advisors against historical data. Worth noting though: the reliability of those results depends entirely on your tick data. Built-in history data from MetaQuotes is interpolated, meaning gaps between real data points are estimated with made-up prices. 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 profit figure. Below 90% indicates the results aren't trustworthy. Traders sometimes share screenshots with 25% modelling quality and can't figure out why live trading looks different.
This is one area where MT4 genuinely outperforms most web-based platforms, but it's only as good as the data you give it.
MT4 indicators beyond the defaults
MT4 ships with 30 default technical indicators. Most traders never touch them all. But where MT4 gets interesting is in user-built indicators built with MQL4. The MQL5 marketplace alone has a massive library, covering everything from tweaked versions of standard tools to elaborate signal panels.
The install process is painless: copy the .ex4 or .mq4 file into the MQL4/Indicators folder, reboot MT4, and you'll find it in the Navigator panel. The catch is quality control. Free indicators range from excellent to broken. Some are solid tools. Many haven't been updated since 2015 and can freeze your terminal.
Before installing anything, look at how recently it was maintained and if people in the forums have flagged problems. Bad code doesn't only show wrong data — it can lag MT4.
Risk management settings most MT4 traders ignore
There are a few native risk management options that a lot of people skip over. Probably the most practical one is maximum deviation in the order window. It sets the amount of slippage you're willing to tolerate on market orders. Without this configured and you're accepting whatever price is available.
Stop losses go without saying, but MT4's trailing stop feature is worth exploring. Click on an open trade, pick Trailing Stop, and set your preferred distance. The stop follows when price moves in your favour. Not perfect for every strategy, but for trend-following it removes the temptation to micromanage the trade.
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
Expert Advisors on MT4 have obvious appeal: set rules, let the code trade, walk away. In reality, the majority of Expert Advisors underperform over any decent time period. EAs sold with incredible historical results are usually fitted to past data — they worked on past prices and fall apart when conditions shift.
None of this means all EAs are useless. Some traders code their own EAs to handle well-defined entry rules: time-based entries, automating position size calculations, or closing trades at predetermined levels. That kind of automation tend to work because they handle defined operations where you don't need interpretation.
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 historical results ever will.
MT4 on Mac and mobile: what actually works
MT4 was built for Windows. Running it on Mac has always been friction. The traditional approach was Wine or PlayOnMac, which did the job but had display glitches and the odd crash. Some brokers now offer Mac-specific builds using Crossover or similar wrappers, which work more smoothly but still aren't built from scratch for Mac.
MT4 mobile, on both iOS and Android, work well for keeping an eye on positions and making quick adjustments. Serious charting work on a 5-inch screen is pushing it, but closing a trade on the go has saved plenty of traders.
Check whether your broker offers a native Mac build or just a wrapper — the experience varies a lot between the two.