There are several trading platforms in the forex industry today. Now of all these platforms, the most popular trading platform is the MT4 trading platform. Now there are many reasons why this platform is superior to all of the others. Here is all you need to know about the MT4 platform and why traders prefer it over any other platform.
What Is the MT4 Platform
The trading platform known as MetaTrader 4 (MT4) was created by MetaQuotes in the year 2005. MetaTrader 4, which is most generally associated with forex trading, can actually be used to trade CFDs on a variety of markets, including forex, indices, cryptocurrencies, and commodities. This is despite the fact that forex trading is its most popular application.
The fact that MT4 may be configured to suit the specific requirements of each trader has contributed significantly to its widespread popularity. You may also use it to automate your trading by utilizing algorithms that make and execute deals on your behalf based on a list of parameters that you have established.
Opening A New Position
In order to trade properly on the MT4, it is important to know how to open a position properly. Opening a position on the MT4 comes with a lot of different features which you may use to help you open a position that is better suited to your trading strategy. Here are what you need to know when opening a position on the MT4:
How to Open A New Position
Opening a new position on the MT4 is pretty simple. All you have to do is look at your top menu and you will see a sign called ‘new order’. When you click on that sign, it will take you to a new window that will allow you to either place a sell position or a buy position. There is a lot more that you can do in order to further customize this position which we will explain below.
Pending Orders
A pending order is where you tell the broker to buy or sell a certain position at a certain price in the future. You do this when that price has not yet been reached by the market but you don’t have enough time to stay on the market to wait for that price to be touched. Therefore, in order to save your time, you can open a pending order which is a buy limit or a sell limit so that the market will automatically execute the order at the price that you set when it has been touched.
Stop Loss
If you don’t have enough time to be on the market at all times, you can open a stop loss on your executed trade. Now what this does is that it prevents you from having more loss than you can safely handle. The way this happens is that you set a fixed price on a position that has already been executed where if the price reaches that price that you set, the deal will close by itself in a loss. This will prevent the deal from incurring more losses than you can handle.
Top MT4 Technical Analysis Tools
Forex trading is a huge billion-dollar industry. And in this huge industry, there are countless trading indicators that have been developed for better and more successful trading opportunities. Now although there are many indicators in the market, there are only a few indicators that can actually work and give you good profits. The good thing about the MT4 platform is that it provides you with all the good indicators for free so you no longer have to worry about getting scammed by third-party indicators which don’t do a good job. Here are the top MT4 technical analysis tools and indicators that will help you become a better trader:
Bollinger Bands
John Bollinger is credited for developing a sort of price envelope known as the Bollinger Bands. Envelopes are used to draw Bollinger Bands, and they are done so by plotting them at a level one standard deviation above and below a price’s simple moving average. The width of the bands is calculated based on the standard deviation, which allows them to adapt to the swings in volatility that occur in the underlying price.
Bollinger bands are a useful tool for determining if prices are currently at a high or low relative level. They are applied in combination with a moving average and come in the form of a pair that includes an upper and a lower band. In addition, the two bands are designed to work together and are not meant to be worn alone.
Make use of the pair in order to validate the indications provided by the other indicators. When the bands are squeezed together during a time of low volatility, the probability of a sudden and significant price movement in either direction is increased. This might be the beginning of a new trend.
Be cautious of a seeming movement in the other direction that suddenly stops and reverses itself before the real trend may begin. When the bands begin to move apart by an amount that is abnormally big, volatility rises, and it is possible that any ongoing trend is coming to an end.
Ichimoku Kinko Hyo
An important function of the Ichimoku Kinko Hyo, a type of technical indicator, is to determine momentum in addition to upcoming regions of support and resistance. The all-in-one technical indicator is made up of five lines that are referred to as the chikou span, the senkou span A, the senkou span B, the tenkan-sen, and the kijun-sen.
The Ichimoku Kinko Hyo indicator was initially established by a Japanese newspaper writer in order to consolidate multiple technical tactics into a single indicator that could be simply executed and read. This was the original intention behind the development of the indicator.
Ichimoku literally translates to “one glance” in Japanese, which means that in order for traders to identify momentum, support, and resistance, they only need to take a single look at the chart. Ichimoku may appear to be quite complicated to new traders who have never seen it before; however, the appearance of complexity is rapidly removed once it is understood what the various lines indicate and why they are utilized.
Moving Averages
The moving average is a straightforward method of performing technical analysis. Calculating a stock’s moving average is often done in order to assess the direction in which the stock’s trend is moving or to locate the stock’s support and resistance levels. Because it takes into account previous prices, it may be considered an indicator that follows trends.
The lag in the moving average is proportional to the length of the time period used to calculate it. As a result, a moving average of 200 days will have a far larger degree of lag than a moving average of 20 days due to the fact that it includes prices over the previous 200 days.
Moving averages are an entirely adjustable indicator, which means that an investor is allowed to pick whatever time frame they choose when generating an average for the moving averages they use in their trading. When calculating moving averages, investors can select several time periods with different lengths to use, depending on the trading objectives they wish to achieve. Moving averages with shorter time horizons are more common in day trading, whereas moving averages with longer time horizons are utilized more frequently by long-term investors.
Relative Strength Index
Welles Wilder came up with the idea for the Relative Strength Index (RSI), which is a momentum oscillator that gauges the rate of change as well as the speed of price movements. The RSI varies between 0 and 100 on a regular basis. The RSI is deemed to be in an overbought condition when it is over 70 and in an oversold condition when it is below 30. Searching for divergences and failure swings might result in the generation of signals.
The Relative Strength Index (RSI) may also be used to determine the overall trend. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) frequently generates chart patterns that may not always appear on the underlying price chart, such as trend lines and double tops and bottoms. Additionally, check the RSI for areas of support or resistance.
The RSI has a tendency to stay in the range of 40 to 90 when the market is in an uptrend or a bull market, with the zone of 40-50 serving as support. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) has a tendency to stay within the range of 10 to 60 when the market is in a downturn or bear market, with the zone of 50-60 functioning as resistance. These ranges will change based on the power of the underlying trend of the market or asset being analyzed.
Average True Range
The average true range (ATR) is an indicator that was first developed for use in technical analysis by a market specialist by the name of J. Welles Wilder Jr. The true range indicator is determined by taking whichever of the following three calculations yields the greatest result: the current high subtracted by the current low; the absolute value of current high subtracted from the previous close; and the absolute value of the current low subtracted from the previous close.
After that, the ATR is calculated by taking a moving average of the real ranges over a period of time, often 14 days. The Average True Range (ATR) is a helpful tool that may be used in a trading strategy, and market technicians can use it to enter and exit trades.
It was developed so that traders may more correctly evaluate the daily volatility of an asset by employing a few basic formulas. This was the motivation behind its creation. The indicator does not suggest the direction in which prices will move; rather, its primary purpose is to restrict upward or downward price movements and assess the volatility generated by gaps. Calculating the ATR requires simply previous pricing data and is not overly complicated to perform.
Parabolic SAR
Welles Wilder was the one who first devised the technical indicator known as the Parabolic SAR, which is used to determine the path that an asset is taking. Another name for the indication is a stop and reverse system, which is sometimes shortened as SAR for convenience. It has as its primary objective the detection of possible price reversals in the movement of assets that are traded. It also has the capability of serving as a point of entry and departure for the area.
The Parabolic SAR is more successful in markets that are trending. Traders should first determine the direction of the trend using the parabolic SAR, as recommended by Wilder, and then use other indicators to gauge the strength of the trend. When the Parabolic SAR indicator is visually shown on a chart, it appears as a succession of dots rather than a single point.
If the parabolic SAR is shown to be trading at a price that is higher than the current price, this is viewed as a bearish indication. It is considered to be a negative indicator when it is positioned above the price at which it is currently trading. The signals are utilized to determine where to place profit objectives and stop loss triggers.
Top Features of the MT4 Platform
Now there’s obviously a reason why MT4 is the top choice trading platform for traders globally. One of the many reasons this is so is because M T4 has many more features than any other trading platform other than MT5. Now here are the few top features of the MT4 platform that makes it superior to any other trading platform:
Price Alerts
One of the greatest things about the MT4 platform is the fact that you can actually set up a price alert feature. Let’s be real. We’ve all been in a situation where we are unable to be on the market charts at all times. With the help of the price alert feature, we no longer have to be on our charts all the time.
The way this works is that MT4 will send us alerts and notifications whenever a good trade appears or whenever one of our buy or sell limits has decided to open because the trade had been executed. This is great because now you don’t have to open your meta trader 4 app or web platform at all times period whenever a good trade appears, they will let you know so you don’t have to worry about it.
Trade History
For analysis purposes, some traders actually like to go back and see their trading history and what trades they’ve done in the past week or month, etc. Most platforms don’t offer you this service but the great thing is with the help of empty four you can actually go back and see your trading history. You can actually see your trading history for as far back as you want and you can even set a custom.
This is great for tax purposes and if for any other reason you may need to see your trading history and what you have been trading in the past few months. This is also great if you have someone else who is trading for you so you can go back and see what trades they’ve been placing to know if they’ve been a good trader or if they’ve been putting you in many losses.
Download Reports
Now if you’d like to download the history of your trading report you can actually go back to the same place where you can check your trading history and under it, you will get an option called ‘save as report’. Now if you click this option, it will save as a file on your computer. This way you don’t need the internet to view your trading history and you can view it whenever you like. This is very useful when you are a very busy person and you don’t have the time to view something at that very moment. You can view it whenever you’re free and on your own time.
Multiple Accounts
Trading numerous accounts at the same time from a single platform is made possible by MT4. Although it might not appear to be much of a problem to some, this issue is quite significant for the majority of traders. Different transactions take place in each of my two live accounts, even though they are both with the same broker. One of them is a standard account, which is used for trading on a day-to-day basis, and the other is a mini-account, which I use to test out new trading techniques, various indicators, and alternative set-ups.
You have no choice but to test them out on a real account unless you’re just messing about to pass the time. On the other hand, if there was no way to trade on many accounts from a single platform, that would be extremely unpleasant. In order to use the second account, the platform will need to be exited and then restarted before you can log in with it. However, at that time, which may take a few minutes or longer depending on how long the procedure takes, the chance to trade may have passed.
Automated Trading
These days, much of the trading that takes place in the financial markets is done by automated systems. A significant number of traders now make use of trading robots and expert advisors (EAs) in order to either execute their trades or get trading tips.
Because MT4 is equipped with a user-friendly MQL programming language, it is simple for both traders and software developers to create and deploy their very own automated trading systems. In fact, one of the two reasons that MT4 has become so popular is due to the ease with which it is possible to design and deploy automated applications. You also have the option of purchasing a program and putting it into action on the site, as well as directly purchasing software and trading robots.
You may also do a back test on the program you are purchasing or building by applying it to old charts on the MT4 platform and get results. This way, you won’t have to expose yourself to potential losses by testing the automated program in real-time markets; instead, you may examine historical data to determine whether or not it would have been successful under such conditions.
Social Trading
There are a number of brokers operating in today’s market that provide social trading, but not a single one can compare to the MQL4 community. Since the MQL4 community is comprised of traders from all of the brokers, it functions as the ideal marketplace for signal distribution.
If you are utilizing the MT4 platform, you have the ability to participate in the MQL4 community regardless of the broker with whom you have an account. You may choose which trader to follow after comparing their performance by going to the MQL4 website or opening the area of the signals at the bottom of the platform and making your selection there. You are able to sell your own signals, which is an extra service that the MQL4 community provides for its users.
If you are a successful trader, you have the ability to register as a signal seller, and when you decide to offer the service, other people who are part of the community will pay the monthly registration cost that you are required to pay. After that, they will be able to replicate your transactions on the MT4 trading platform using their own accounts.
Forex signals are a great way to get profitable trades, even if you don’t know how to analyze chart patterns yet. Expert analysts will provide you with appropriate risk management strategies, so you don’t make the top forex mistakes like every trader. Don’t trade all the time. Trade only at the best trade set up with Forex GDP.