MetaTrader 4 (MT4)

What is MetaTrader 4?

MetaTrader 4 (MT4) is a trading platform developed by MetaQuotes Software and released in 2005. Despite its age, it remains one of the most widely used platforms in retail forex trading, offered by brokers around the world alongside newer alternatives.

MT4 gives traders a desktop, web, and mobile interface for viewing live price charts, placing and managing orders, and running automated strategies. It supports multiple chart timeframes, a library of built-in technical indicators, and the ability to add custom indicators and scripts written in its proprietary programming language, MQL4.

Why MT4 became the industry standard

Three features explain MT4’s long-running popularity:

• Expert Advisors (EAs). Traders can code, buy, or download automated strategies — Expert Advisors — that open and manage trades according to predefined rules, without manual intervention.
• A large third-party ecosystem. Years of adoption produced a huge library of custom indicators, EAs, and community support, which is harder to replicate on newer platforms.
• Familiarity. Many traders learned to trade on MT4, and many brokers still support it purely because their clients expect it.

MT4 vs. newer platforms

MT4 is forex-focused by design: its order types, timeframes, and reporting are all built around currency-pair trading. Its successor, MetaTrader 5, and rival platforms like cTrader add extra order types, more timeframes, and broader multi-asset support (stocks, futures, more instrument classes). Some brokers are gradually phasing out MT4 in favor of MT5, though many still run both side by side because of MT4’s entrenched user base.

Why it matters for traders

Which platform a broker supports affects the tools available to you: charting depth, the order types you can place, whether you can automate a strategy, and whether a VPS (see Virtual Private Server) is needed to keep an EA running 24 hours a day. When comparing brokers, checking which platform version(s) they support — and whether MT4 accounts have any feature restrictions versus MT5 — is a practical part of due diligence, not just a preference question.

Quick recap

• MT4 is a long-established, forex-focused trading platform from MetaQuotes, launched in 2005.
• Its biggest strength is Expert Advisor automation via the MQL4 language and a mature third-party ecosystem.
• Its successor, MT5, and platforms like cTrader offer more timeframes, order types, and multi-asset coverage.
• Confirm which platform(s) a broker actually supports before opening an account built around a specific tool or EA.