How to Use MT4

The simplest way to open a trade in MetaTrader 4 is to use the ‘Order’ window and then place an instant order on the market. Select the currency pair of your choice by clicking on the ‘Window’ tab at the top of the MT4 platform, and then select ‘New Window’. You can then click ‘New Order’ on the MT4 toolbar or press F9 to open an ‘Order’ window.

The screenshot below displays an ‘Order’ window for the EUR/USD currency pair. From this, you should be able to see how easy it is to buy and sell with MetaTrader 4. To trade at the market bid/offer, you would need to enter your desired trade size (in lots) in the ‘Volume’ box and then click ‘Sell or Buy’, with ‘Market Execution’ selected as the order type.It is the ‘Market Execution’ setting that allows an instant order within MetaTrader 4.

How to place a trade with MetaTrader 4 is only part of the information that a trader needs, of course. Once you’ve opened a trade, there will eventually come a point when you want to close the trade. So how do I exit a trade in MetaTrader 4? Select the ‘Trade’ tab from the ‘Terminal’ window (press CTRL+T to summon or dismiss the ‘Terminal’ window). You will see any open trades you have displayed in the ‘Trade’ section of the ‘Terminal’ window. Right-click on the order you wish to close and select ‘Close Order’.

This opens an ‘Order’ window. Click the yellow ‘Close’ button to close your trade. So if you have two positions or more open in MetaTrader 4, and are wondering how to close one, this manual method is the way to do it, as you are specifying which individual trade you wish to exit. This manual method is not the only answer for how to exit a trade in MetaTrader 4 though. You can also close using a stop or limit order.

As you can see from the ‘Order’ window (shown in the screenshot still below), there are fields provided for you to enter a stop loss level and a take profit level. If you click on either the up or down arrow in the ‘Stop Loss’ field, the box will automatically populate with the current market price (the platform uses the bid price). On the tick chart on the left you can see how your proposed stop level relates to the current bid and offer prices.

To place a limit order to close a position, you simply enter a target price level in the ‘Take Profit’ field shown in the ‘Order’ window (as demonstrated above). You can also use a limit order to open a position. To do this, you need to change the ‘Type’ field from ‘Market Execution’ to ‘Pending Order’. You can then choose ‘Buy Limit’ or ‘Sell Limit’ from the ‘Pending Order Type’ dropdown menu as required.

In MetaTrader 4, the volume of a trade refers to the size of the trade in terms of the number of lots. As we discussed above, when you open a trade, you need to specify a value in the ‘Volume’ field of the ‘Order’ window. Once you have opened a trade in a certain market, you can add to the volume (or the position size) by opening a further position in the same direction on the same market (obviously at a new price), or you can reduce the volume by part-closing your position

Just as described above, if there is a particular currency pair that you want to trade, but cannot see in ‘Market Watch’, you can use the shortcut ‘CTRL+U’ to open the ‘Symbols’ window and look through the navigation tree for any currency pairs that you would like to add. To add a pair, simply click on the symbol and click ‘Show’. Alternatively, to display all instruments available for trading, right-click in the ‘Market Watch’ window and select ‘Show All’.

To check the balance of your trading account, open the ‘Terminal’ window (CTRL+T to open and close) and select the ‘Trade’ tab. You will be able to see your ‘Balance’ displayed along with ‘Equity’ and your amount of ‘Free Margin’.

MT4 comes bundled with a large number of core trading indicators. You can see these listed in the ‘Indicators’ folder in the ‘Navigator’ window. You can expand the number of indicators available in your trading platform by installing custom indicators.

Find the MT4 file that you have downloaded and copy it to your clipboard. Then, in MT4, go to ‘File’ and select ‘Open Data Folder’. From the resulting window, open the ‘MQL4’ folder and then the ‘Indicators’ folder. Paste your copied indicator into this folder. Then, restart MT4. The new custom indicator should now appear in your list of indicators in the ‘Navigator’.

To turn an indicator off, use the shortcut ‘CTRL+I’ to display your list of indicators. Select the indicator you want to turn off by clicking on it and then click on the ‘Delete’ button.

You can zoom in and out on a chart using the + and – keys.

You can use the cursor keys to scroll left and right on a chart in MT4. The ‘Page Up’ and ‘Page Down’ keys will fast scroll to the left and right, respectively.

You can monitor your running profit for your open trades by looking in the ‘Trade’ tab in the ‘Terminal’ window (CTRL+T to open and close the Terminal window). Profit is displayed in your deposit currency by default, but it is easy to switch this to display as pips instead. To do so, right-click in the ‘Trade’ window and select ‘Profit’. Then choose ‘Points’ instead of ‘Deposit’ currency. 10 points are equal to one pip with fractional pricing.

If you have MT4 open for a long time, sometimes, you may see gaps start to appear in chart data. You may be able to rectify this with a simple refresh – right-click on the chart and select ‘Refresh’ from the menu. Sometimes, you may have to go further and do a full manual reset of the chart data.

We hope you enjoyed this guide on how to use MetaTrader 4. Of course, the best way to get these tips and techniques to really sink in is to go ahead and try them out for yourself using MetaTrader 4. If you’re wondering how to play around with MetaTrader 4 without risking any money, the best way is with a demo trading account.

Every demo trade is completely risk-free, making it a perfect way to experiment with trading on the platform and to understand how MetaTrader 4 works. Once you have built up your confidence up through demo trades, and are ready to trade for real, you will need a live trading account and for that Aurum markets is there for you. so what are you waiting for start trading with us today.