MT4 Tutorial – How to Use MetaTrader 4
MetaTrader 4, MT4 tutorial will guide You through the process of better understanding this great trading platform. Knowing your platform will make your trading easier and will help to improve your trading skills. Trading is about constantly improving your skills, one of them is through knowing how your platform functions. You can download free MetaTrader 4 platform on almost all broker’s websites offering MT4 trading accounts.
MetaTrader 4 Platform overview
MetaTrader 4 platform (MT4) was specifically built for forex traders, whereas MetaTrader 5 (MT5) was designed to provide traders with access to CFDs, stocks, and futures. Both provide pioneering automated trading systems with expert advisors. However, they each serve a very different function and, contrary to popular belief, MT5 is not an upgrade of MT4.
If you’re new to trading or are simply interested in trading forex, MetaTrader 4 platform is an obvious choice. This is a reliable trading platform that provides traders with lots of useful features and thousands of custom indicators. One of its strongest selling points is its stability. In addition to this, it is also supplied with a powerful set of mobile apps. These applications are available for nearly any type of operating system, including iOS, Android, and Windows. Needless to say, these mobile platforms are also very stable and powerful.
MT4 Tutorial download and installation
The installation process starts with opening a demo or real account with a broker. Once your forex account is open, you should receive Login, Password, and Server details via email from your broker, the email should contain links to download the MetaTrader 4 installer too. Also, the platform is available for download on broker’s websites that support this trading platform. You can download MetaTrader 4 for your laptop or PC at the XM.com website. Once installation is complete log into a demo or live trading account with Login, Password, and Server details received. The platform is up and running, and price changes in the broker’s price feeds can be displayed and analyzed within the Metatrader 4 platform.
Main functions of MetaTrader 4
– Trade Execution
– Display live Forex charts that show price changes tick by tick
– Provision of analytical charting tools including all the major indicators, allowing technical analysis by the user of both live and historical Forex charts
– Provision of news and alerts that can be customized by the trader
– Display of currently open trades and closed historical trades
– Automated trading by expert advisors (EAs)
– Tool for the creation of customized indicators and “expert advisors”
– Backtesting trading strategies with historical data
Main window:
MetaTrader 4 Tutorial for beginners:
Main Menu
File:
– The File section allows you to:
• Open up new charts
• Reopen deleted charts
• Select a profile
• Save pictures of charts or print them
• Open Data Folder
• Opening up a demo account
• Logging in to your live account for the first time
• Exit the platform
View:
– The View Section allows you to:
• Activate your toolbars
• Set your language preferences
• Open or close your Market-Watch, Data-Window, Navigator, Terminal & Strategy Tester
• Switch between full-screen view and normal View (F11 – toggle button)
Anything that you can’t see can be accessed from the view section
Insert:
– The Insert Section allows you to:
• Add Indicators to a chart
• Add Lines, Channels, Fibs, Shapes, etc to a chart
Anything that you can add to a chart will be available in this section.
Charts:
– The Charts section allows you to:
• Set the chart type (Bar, Candle, Line)
• Set the timeframe by selecting the ‘Periodicity’
• Loading templates
• Refreshing the chart ( if not receiving any data)
• Activate the Grid, Volumes, Auto Scroll & Chart Shift
• Zoom in & out
• Set the Chart Properties This is a similar window that pops up when you right-click on the chart itself.
Tools:
– The Tools section allows you to:
• Open the New Order window
• Open the History Centre
• Add or delete the Global Variables
• Use the MetaQuotes language editor (MetaEditor)
This is a very powerful feature that allows you to create your own indicators or load someone else’s.
• Set the options for your software
Window:
– The Window Section allows you to:
• Open a new chart (New Window)
• Set the way the charts are displayed
Help:
– The Help section allows you to:
• Give you access to the MQL community (Forums)
• Open The ‘User Guide’ for MT4 and MT5 through the ‘Help Topics’
• Access MQL5 Website, Web Trader, Articles, Market, etc.
• Access the android application
• Give info about the software in the ‘About’ tab
Toolbars
The toolbar section includes:
– Standard toolbar:
The New Chart button allows you to:
•Open a New Chart
•Have your instruments arranged in a specific order
The Profiles Button allows you to:
•Create a profile
•Switch between your profiles
Profiles allow you to save a grouping of charts. So You can create a group of Forex charts for one profile and another profile for Indices. The reason for this is that they will normally use different strategies.
The Following 5 buttons are Shortcut Buttons:
•Opens & closes the Market Watch Window
•Opens & Closes the Data Window
•Opens & Closes the Navigator Window
•Opens & Closes the Terminal Window
•Opens & Closes the Strategy Tester
When the Shortcut Button is activated it will have an indentation like the Navigator & Terminal
The ‘New Order’ button allows you to:
•Enter a Buy or Sell position for a new Trade
•Open New Trade Window
The Following 3 buttons are Shortcut Buttons:
•The ‘MetaEditor’ button opens the MetaEditor. It will open up a completely separate window
•The ‘Register a Virtual server’
•The ‘Register account as a source of trade signals’
MT4 Tutorial MetaEditor window:
The ‘Expert Advisor’ Button toggles the ON/OFF feature for the Expert Advisors. Expert Advisors (EAs) are programs in the terminal that have been developed in MetaQuotes Language 4 (MQL 4) and used for the automation of analytical and trading processes.
– Charts toolbar:
The ‘Bar Chart’, ‘Candle Chart’ & ‘Line Chart’ Buttons allow you to set the type of chart you want to use. The active option will be displayed as an indentation again.
The Zoom feature Shortcut:
+ Will Zoom-in to a chart
– Will Zoom-out of a chart
The ‘Auto Scroll’ Button will move the chart to the latest Tick as soon as a new Tick(Price) becomes available.
The ‘Chart Shift’ button will shift the chart backward so that we can see any indicators that produce future anticipation ahead of the price like the ICHIMOKU.
The ‘Indicator’ button allows you to choose an indicator to be added to the Chart
The ‘Period’ Button allows you to choose the timeframe for the chart
The ‘Template’ button allows you to load a template on a chart These 3 buttons are also Shortcut Buttons
– Line Studies Toolbar:
The Line Studies Toolbar will allow you to add any Support or Resistance lines as well as Trend Lines, Fibs, Channels & Symbols These are also shortcutted features and an indentation shows the current selection.
– Periodicity Toolbar:
The Periodicity Toolbar is yet another shortcut feature to select the Timeframe for the chart you working with. The selected Timeframe will be displayed with an indentation.
Terminal
MT4 Tutorial Terminal overview:
The Terminal Window displays your account information like Open Trades, Closed Trades, and any info needed to analyze your trading:
– The ‘Trade’ tab will display your account balance as well as any Open Trades. The available Margin and Profits or Losses.
– The ‘Exposure‘ will display the summary information about the state of assets by all open positions.
– The ‘Account History’ tab will display the exact same information as your ‘Trade’ tab, so from here, you can analyze any trade that has finished.
– The ‘News’ tab will display a list of income news.
– The ‘Alerts’ tab will allow you to set up alerts for trades.
– The ‘Mailbox’ tab will display any messages sent from the brokers. There are some interesting subjects that get handled now and then, so it is worth a look.
– ‘Market‘ will display a store of MQL4 applications at MQL5.community. Here they can download for free or buy trading robots, indicators, and other applications for the trading terminal.
– ‘Articles’ tab will display articles about MT4, indicators, expert advisors, and strategies at MQL5.community.
– ‘Code base‘ will allow you to access the code base published at MQL4.community right from the client terminal. Selecting a necessary MQL4 application at this tab, you can download it and attach it to the chart right away.
– The ‘Experts’ tab will show you if any of the EA’s loaded on a chart initialized. So you can spot-check for problems here.
– The ‘Journal’ tab will do most of your problem solving on your ExpertAdvisor as this will tell you each move and order that the ExpertAdvisor sends out to the server.
Market Watch
The Market Watch Window displays all the tradable instruments available by the specific broker. It shows information such as the symbols & their Bid & Ask prices. The arrows to the left of the symbols indicate whether the new tick/price went up or down in value. When right-clicking on the Market Watch Window, you can select the ‘Show all’ header to show every tradable instrument in the window. You will also be able to open a new chart window and enter a new order from here.
Through the Navigator Window, you can select your accounts, Indicators, Expert Advisors (EA), Custom Indicators & Scripts. The Scripts section is very similar to the Expert Advisors Section. It also runs automated scripting, but the big difference is that a script will only perform one function like close a trade.
Status Bar
The Status Bar will display info like the type of profile being used, the current candle the cursor is on will display time, open, high, low & close, and the connection you have to the trade server. You can click on the profile wording and choose a new profile as a dropdown box will appear, thus acting as another shortcut. You can troubleshoot connection problems by having a look at your connection status. A deactivated Demo will display ‘Invalid Account’. ‘No Connection’ will be displayed if there is no internet connection.
How to Use MetaTrader 4 Tutorial
Chart
MT4 Tutorial Chart overview:
The Chart Window plots the real-time prices of an instrument on a graph and provides a snapshot of market movements over a particular period of time. As you trade, you’ll discover that the chart window is essential for monitoring your trades, performing technical analysis, and running expert advisors, custom indicators, scripts, and other autotrading files. You can open more than one chart at a time (up to 99 can be displayed). When the Charts Bar is active, you can switch between them by clicking the instrument tab at the bottom of the window.
To access chart window properties right-click in the chart window for the drop-down menu:
Chart drop-down menu will allow You to access:
•Depth Of Market to quickly manage stop levels (Stop Loss and Take Profit) and pending orders of open positions.
•Indicators List to see indicators attached to the chart, remove and access indicators properties.
•Objects List to see all objects added to a chart, edit and remove objects.
•Experts Advisor to see Expert Advisors attached to the chart, remove and access EAs properties.
•Timeframes shortcut to change the timeframe
•Template shortcut to change chart template
•Refresh to update chart window
•Auto Arrange to set the height of all indicators windows as default.
•Grid to activate or deactivate grid on chart.
•Volumes to display the current trading volume for the selected instrument.
•Zoom In and Zoom Out shortcuts
•Save As Picture…, Print Preview, and Print… to save, preview and print the chart.
•Properties… to access chart window properties.
Chart properties will allow you to change the colors of everything displayed on a chart like a bar up, bar down, background, etc…
Technical Indicators
Many traders use technical indicators to forecast where the market may be going. In MetaTrader, you can select up to 30 different technical indicators to appear in the chart or create and download custom indicators. You can add as many indicators to the charts as you would like, but it is advisable to use no more than five at a time. You can add indicators through Navigator or Main Menu Insert option.
When you add an indicator to the chart, a settings window for that indicator appears. You can specify settings for the indicator over several tabs. The ones that you see depend on the indicator you selected.
•The Parameters tab is where you can enter specific data on how the indicator appears in the chart.
•The Levels tab is where you can add level lines to the indicator.
•On the Visualisation tab, you can select in which time frames the indicator can be used.
MT4 Tutorial Custom Technical Indicators installation:
Download indicator (.ex4 and .mq4 format) and place files in the MetaTrader “Indicators” Data Folder found in the Main Menu File section:
“Indicators” folder is located in the “MQL4” folder.
Restart MetaTrader Platform.
Traders set up charts in the way that works best for their trading style also to help and improve technical analysis. We changed colors, removed the grid, changed the bar view to candlesticks, and added Moving Average to achieve a better view of the same chart:
Check out
Top 10 Standard indicators
for MetaTrader 4
or
Check out
Best Free MT4 Custom Indicators
How to Place Orders
Placing Trade orders in MetaTrader 4 is an easy task. There are a few different options. To place orders you can right-click in Market Watch on the selected asset and click on New Order (F9) as on the image below. Another way to open a trade order is to click on the New Order button found in the Toolbar, or simply press F9.
Trade Window allows opening a trade
Here you can:
•Choose your Currency or Index
•Set your Position Size by the Volume
•Set a Stop or Target
•Add a comment to your trade
•Set your Type of Entry
Trade Order Types
There are two main types of trade orders in MetaTrader 4. Market Order places an order at the current price while a pending order will be triggered at a given price level. Types of Trade orders described at Meta Quotes’ official website:
