The first step to learning how to trade the foreign exchange market is to be familiar with the MT4 platform, just like a soldier must be familiar with his weapons before going to the battlefield. ZuluTrade, NinjaTrader, and Trading Station—among others—all have plenty to offer, but there is one trading platform that appears to be head and shoulders above the rest.
MetaTrader 4 (MT4) is used by all leading forex trading experts and is truly award-winning in stature. Considering its comprehensive nature and growing reputation, we will look at why MT4 is the perfect trading platform for almost every forex trader in this post.
Understanding MetaTrader 4
MetaTrader 4, often abbreviated as MT4, stands as a prominent online trading system and holds the distinction of being the most extensively utilized trading platform globally. Each day, millions of individuals engage in market speculation through the platform.
Originally created and owned by MetaQuotes Software, MT4 holds a legacy status in the realm of trading platforms. Its inception dates back to 2005, and it continues to maintain its widespread popularity and relevance in contemporary trading.
Trading Forex with MT4
Certainly, you have the capability to engage in forex trading on MetaTrader 4. In fact, it stands as one of the primary and most prevalent purposes for utilizing the platform. According to information provided on the MetaQuotes website, MT4 was purposefully crafted with forex traders in mind. Additionally, many brokers, including our own, highly recommend MT4 as an optimal interface for forex trading.
MT4 provides access to a comprehensive range of currency pairs, encompassing major, minor, crosses, and exotic FX pairs. Moreover, the platform extends its offerings to include currency indices, cryptocurrencies*, commodities, and a diverse array of other assets. This ensures a broad spectrum of options for traders looking to diversify their portfolios.
7 Major Benefits of Trading Forex With MT4
1. Fast and Easily Customizable
Latency can prove to be destructive in the forex market, as market conditions can change and shift in a flash. MT4 tends to outdo other trading platforms on the speed front, largely as it has been developed to initiate trades as quickly as a forex broker can process them. Speed is crucial when it comes to trading forex, so it’s refreshing to see that MT4 isn’t afraid to make it a priority. Adding to that, MT4 is impressively flexible, as through a wealth of customization options any trader can set up MT4 as desired, which can further aid fast and impactful trading.
2. Real-Time Access to Market Prices and Liquidity
MT4 allows traders to access forex quotes in real time and execute trades. The currencies and any other securities that a trader chooses to trade through a broker are listed in the “Market Watch” window. Along with the security symbol, the real-time bid/ask quote is also displayed.
Traders can also view all other details, such as spread, contract size, margin currency and margin percentage from this window. Additionally, the “Depth of Market” feature tells traders about real-time market activity. For instance, the number of buy or sell orders for a currency pair at different prices can be seen in the market depth section.
This gives an idea regarding market sentiment. If the information reveals that bid side liquidity is more than the offer side liquidity, the overall trend can be considered bullish for a currency pair. There usually are higher chances of orders being filled at the current prices when there is increased liquidity. This could be crucial for short-term trading strategies like scalping.
3. Technical and Fundamental Analysis Tools of All Levels
With a large number of in-built technical indicators and charting capabilities, MT4 offers extensive tools for price analysis. There are over 30 in-built technical indicators on this platform, including major trend and volume tools like Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD), Relative Strength Index (RSI), On-Balance Volume (OBV), Fibonacci Retracements and more.
Traders can view unlimited charts at one time, and each currency pair can be displayed in 9 different timeframes, from one-minute to monthly intervals. Additional charts can be sourced from the MQL4 community, while many traders build their own indicators too.
In-depth chart analysis, mathematical tools and drawing objects equip traders to analyse price activities of any complexity. Moreover, these charts can be customised extensively to suit each trader’s requirements. They can be saved according to different trader profiles.
Traders can forecast price movements, identify support and resistance levels, define entry and exit points and set stop-loss levels, all directly from the charts. Alerts can be set, based on the release of major economic data or financial news. Additionally, traders have the option to customise access to data relevant to a particular market.
4. Supports a Wealth of Different Languages
The forex market is global in practically every sense of the word, as it brings together not just a host of currencies, but various cultures and countries as well. For this reason, MT4 is able to keep pace as far as language support is concerned. You’ll find that the platform is able to display text in more or less every commonly spoken language. Breaking down the language barrier, MT4 makes it easy for traders of any nationality to get involved in forex trading.
5. Multiple Trading Orders for High Flexibility
There are different types of trading orders and execution modes, allowing traders to create and implement the strategy of their choice. MT4 allows two market orders and four types of pending orders. Plus, three types of trade execution modes offer traders a high degree of flexibility.
Risk management strategies are crucial to forex trading success. In MT4, there are 2 types of stop orders, take profit orders and trailing stops, to minimise downside risks. A stop-loss order automatically closes a position when the market moves in the direction opposite to the forecast. Take-profit allows traders to lock in a desired level of gains and close the position when the price touches the pre-defined level. It is very easy to place these orders. Orders can be launched directly from the chart or the “Toolbar” window. They can be easily deleted and modified as well.
Different types of orders make MT4 appealing to traders of all styles. Even traders who might not want to pursue forex trading as a full-time profession can rely on MT4 for their trades.
6. Robust Security and High Stability for Peace of Mind
MT4 is regarded as a highly secure and stable platform. Data exchange between client terminals and servers is encrypted through a 129-bit key, while the platform also supports RSA digital signatures. The IPs of traders are hidden as well. All these features enable traders to perform monetary transactions in a secure environment. They can remain assured that their trading accounts will stay protected against cyber criminals.
High-speed trade execution and stability of the platform allow traders to trade with minimal negative slippage. Traders can access MT4 from various devices, such as smartphones, tablets and desktops, which enable them to trade on the go as well. The mobile version has all the functionalities offered by the desktop version, including interactive charts, a full set of orders and technical analysis tools.
Mobile MT4 also has additional features, such as push notifications and chat functionality. All in all, the MT4 platform is ideal for the gadget-friendly, young market participants of today.
7. Automated Trading Option for Experts
Expert traders can deploy automated trading strategies through MT4 Expert Advisors (EA). Automated trading allows traders to leverage market movements without any intervention on their part, as well as without any human bias. Moreover, the MQL4 IDE (Integrated Development Environment) allows traders to create their own EAs and technical indicators. After creating an EA, the strategy can be back-tested and optimised on the system’s Strategy Tester.
Customised EAs have helped expert traders create and deploy their own strategies. MT4 also lets traders monetise their strategies, by publishing them on the MQL5 codebase or “Marketplace.” Traders can earn from their programming talents since the MQL4 language is quite simple to master.
MetaTrader 4 is a highly versatile platform. Its USPs are its high degree of flexibility and customisation options. With endless technical tools, user-friendly controls, educational resources and demo-testing abilities, MT4 remains a popular trading platform for beginners and veterans alike. To understand why it is the go-to trading platform for millions of traders, open a live trading account with Blackwell Global today.