Forex Trading With MetaTrader 4

Forex trading with MetaTrader 4 (MT4) software is popular among UK traders due to the reliability and powerful tools on offer. The platform supports a variety of forex trading strategies, with its vast library of indicators and Expert Advisors (EAs). This guide will provide some tips on how to start forex trading with MetaTrader 4, plus a tutorial on charts, signals and more.

Start Forex Trading With MetaTrader 4

Find A Forex Broker

To start trading, you need to find a good online broker that offers forex trading with MetaTrader 4. The broker is the intermediary between you and the interbank market, where you can trade through their platform and they earn a commission for facilitating trades.

There’s a wide range of brokers offering the MT4 platform and other tools. You can take a look at some of our best forex trading broker reviews here.

We highly recommend that you try before you buy with a demo MT4 account. The simulator within MT4 allows traders to trial the platform without risking real capital.

Install & Set Up

Once you’ve registered for an account, your broker will provide you with details on the MT4 download process for Windows or Mac PCs.

Alternatively, you can trade forex directly through an internet browser, with the MetaTrader 4 WebTrader, or the MT4 mobile app.

Exploring The Platform

Once you have registered and logged in, you can start browsing the user-friendly terminal which provides everything you need on one screen.

Forex Trading With MetaTrader 4

The left-hand Market Watch window indicates all the currency pairs available, which can be hidden if preferred. Above the main chart window, you can find a selection of technical studies and drawing tools.

Along the bottom of the terminal, your forex orders will be displayed in detail, showing the order size, price and profit of each entry. Across the top, you will find additional features, such as the economic calendar and news, signals and the MetaTrader Market.

Orders

In MT4, you can set either an instant order or a pending order by clicking on the ‘New Order’ in the standard toolbar at the top. A dialogue box will appear, where you can select a currency pair from the drop-down list and select other parameters such as order type and position size.

Volume is expressed in standard lot sizes. A standard lot is worth 100,000 units, so if you want to buy 1,000 units of EUR/USD, for example, you would enter 0.01 in the volume field.

Forex Trading With MetaTrader 4 Orders

You can then set your stop loss (SL) and take profit (TP) levels, which help you manage your risk and prevent your FX trades reaching margin call. SL and TP essentially define the price levels for when a position should be closed, to either minimise losses or to lock in your profits.

You can always modify your order later, which we will cover below.

If you want to enter a forex trade via a pending order, follow the same steps but select ‘Pending Order’ in the Type drop-down. You will then be presented with 4 pending order options:

• Buy Limit – Taking a long position at a lower level than market price
• Sell Limit – Taking a short position at a higher level than market price
• Buy Stop – Taking a long position at a higher level than market price
• Sell Stop – Taking a short position at a lower level than market price

Forex Trading With MT4 Pending Order Types

Once you’ve selected the type of order, enter the price you wish to enter the market, your position size and SL and TP fields. You can also set an expiry date on a pending order.

To modify a trade, simply right click on your order and select ‘Modify or Delete’ to open up the dialogue box again. Then adjust your SL and TP to the desired levels and click ‘Modify’, which will confirm your order.

To close an open trade, right-click on the trade and select ‘Close Order’. Once you close, your balance will adjust and will be reflected in the profit field in your order window.

Forex Trading With MetaTrader 4 EAs

Expert Advisors (EAs) are forex trading robots which are programmed to automatically place trades once a certain criterion has been met. Automated forex trading is ideal if you don’t have time to manually monitor trades yourself, but be aware that not all EA programmes are trustworthy and reliable.

You can find a vast portfolio of thousands of forex robots for automated trading in the Market section of the MetaTrader 4 platform. Simply select one to install onto your PC and look for the trading robot in your navigator panel in the MT4 Terminal.

Forex Trading Robots With MT4

Forex Trading With MetaTrader 4 Indicators

When forex trading, you can enhance your strategies on MT4 using the 30 pre-included indicators and 24 graphical objects for technical analysis.

One of the best features of MetaTrader 4 is the customisable charts, which allow you to add multiple indicators and objects in various colours. To access these, click on ‘Insert’ in the top toolbar and choose from the selection in the drop-down.

Forex Trading Using MT4 Indicators

Once you’ve selected the one you want to use, a dialogue box will appear where you can set the parameters of the indicator. Trading forex with indicators like the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) and Bollinger Bands, is also popular among traders.

Moving Average Convergence Divergence identifies moving averages which are indicating a new trend, consisting of two converging lines and a histogram to indicate the difference. Bollinger bands indicate the market’s volatility by measuring the variation of prices over time, creating a band with a simple moving average (SMA) in the middle.

You can see how these two studies can be overlaid onto the standard candlestick chart below.

Forex Trading With MetaTrader 4 MACD Indicators

If you want to start trading forex with divergence on MT4, you can access a number of useful guides online, including the Jim Brown downloadable PDF.

MetaTrader also offers thousands of custom forex indicators within the MetaTrader Market and CodeBase.

Additional Features

News & Education

To assist your fundamental analysis, the pre-included economic calendar collates real-time data from public news sources. The calendar can also be filtered by date, event importance and countries.

Forex Trading With MetaTrader 4 Economic Calendar

From the top menu, you can also access information for forex trading strategies, tips and education, including published articles and a MetaTrader 4 community forum.

Forex Trading With MetaTrader 4 Market

The Market page not only contains thousands of indicators and EAs, but also utilities, which includes risk management, analysers and even forex trading games.

Copy Trading & Signals

MetaTrader 4 also offers FX trading signals, which allows traders to automatically copy another provider’s trades. Copy trading can boost efficiency if you have limited time, but it can also be a great strategy-learning tool for beginners.

To choose a provider, click on Signals in the top menu bar and browse the available options. Clicking on one will take you through to the provider’s performance stats.

Forex Copy Trading Signals With MetaTrader 4

Note that not all providers are reliable and you do have to pay a monthly fee to subscribe. It’s worth spending time researching a few forex providers before choosing.

Final Word On Forex Trading With MetaTrader 4

Forex platforms like MetaTrader 4 are a top choice among traders, offering a powerful interface with customisable charts, indicators and education tools. For beginners still learning how to trade forex in MT4, there’s also a forex demo account and a community forum. To start trading forex with MT4 today, head to your chosen broker to register.

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