MetaTrader 4: still the workhorse of retail trading

Installation and first login

Download the terminal from your broker's official platform page, install it, then use File then Login to Trade Account. You need three values: the account number, the password, and the exact server name shown in your client area.

A wrong server is the single most common reason a correct password appears to fail. Server names are case and suffix sensitive.

Working with charts and orders

MT4 offers nine timeframes, thirty built-in indicators and a straightforward order ticket with market and four pending order types. Templates and profiles let you reproduce a full workspace on any machine in seconds.

• Use templates to save indicator sets per instrument type
• Use profiles to switch entire chart layouts
• One-click trading is fast but removes the confirmation step — enable it deliberately

Expert advisors and custom indicators

The MQL4 ecosystem is the largest in retail trading. Expert advisors go in the Experts folder and indicators in the Indicators folder inside the data directory, which you reach with File then Open Data Folder.

Backtest any automated strategy with the strategy tester before deploying it, and remember MT4's tester is single threaded, so long optimisations are slow compared with MT5.

Common errors and fixes

"Invalid account", "no connection" and "trade context busy" cover most support tickets.

• Invalid account: wrong server or trailing whitespace in the login field
• No connection: firewall blocking the terminal, or a demo account that has expired
• Trade is disabled: market closed for that instrument, or the account is read-only via the investor password
• Not enough money: requested volume exceeds free margin — check the margin calculator first