MetaTrader 4 is the creation of the MetaQuotes software Corporation that was established in the year 2000 on 27th November. This was the start of a great journey that would see the creation of the most notable trading platform in the world when it came to trading the forex market.
Most of the retail brokerage firms around the world have the MetaTrader 4 platform as part of their trading platforms. Even the firms who have their own proprietary trading platforms have the MetaTrader as an option because they know that it is the most efficient and it is also well known by most traders.
MetaTrader 4 for Mac
Most of the platforms allure comes from its compatibility with different operating systems available in the technology space.
It is available as MetaTrader 4 for PC and MetaTrader 4 for mac, and both of these versions have the same capabilities, and thus it makes it easier for any user to switch from the PC version to the Mac version and still have the same user experience in the long run.
About MetaTrader
The MetaTrader 4 was not the first trading platform from MetaQuotes Software Corporation; the first trading platform was called The Metaquotes Trading Platform that was released immediately after the company was established. It was not until July 1st, 2005 that the MetaTrader 4 was released.
This marked the turn of the trading revolution that we have come to appreciate today as avid users of the MetaTrader 4 platforms.
This platform is revolutionary in its own right; the trader has the power to customize the platform according to their own liking.
They have the liberty to add on to it indicators, scripts, and expert advisors all which are developed using the mql4 coding language. This has made the platform one of the most exciting to use for the many years it has been on offer.
The MetaTrader 4 platform led to the growth of automated trading among the retail traders and all these was because the creators of MetaTrader 4 realized that it was just about time, and most traders would be growing into using automated trading strategies as they have refined their manual trading strategies.
The MetaTrader 4 has become an extension of the forex, CFD, commodities, and index trader all over the world; it is uncommon for forex traders to talk and the MetaTrader 4 platform misses a mention in that talk.
It has been ingrained in traders that the MetaTrader 4 platforms are the platform of choice and the platform that was meant for the avid forex trader.
The fact that the platform can be integrated with other third-party services to allow the trader to have a complete review and report of their trading platform makes it a more alluring platform than the rest of the market.
MetaTrader 4: Features
The MetaTrader 4 platform has several features that make it very efficient and more so very appealing to its users. The platform has three different charting modes; one can use either the candlestick charting capability, the bar chart capability, and lastly there is the line chart capability.
These three come preinstalled into the chart, and since they are the most common ones it is easy to incorporate them into your trading, but this does not mean that traders cannot add onto these charting functions, through the expert advisor a trader can install a charting function like the Renko charts and use them in their trading in relation to their strategies.
The MetaTrader 4 platform has time feature, this feature can be used to alternate between time frames from the 1 minute chart all the way to the 1 month chart, if the trader has candlesticks as representations of price on their charts and the time frame is at the one hour then the candlestick represents price action within an hour, and when another candlestick opens it marks the beginning of another hour.
MetaTrader 4: Indicators
MetaTrader 4 for mac also has the indicators tab denoted a marking that looks like the letter "f"; this tab has many sorts of indicators, all the indicators in the platform, are categorized into groups of oscillators, volumes, trends, momentum and custom indicators.
All indicators that do not come preinstalled in the platform that the trader installs them himself or herself are grouped under the custom indicators section.
The platform has a terminal window where the trader can track their open trades, exposure in a trade; the account history is also listed there, news, alerts, the mailbox, signals and many more features.
The platform also has a navigator window that has the following features listed on it; the accounts belonging to the trader, indicators available, expert advisors, and scripts.
There are different charting tools available for the trader’s technical analysis. These include horizontal lines, trend lines, ellipses, triangles, and rectangles. There are Fibonacci tracing tools in their entirety.
The platform also comes with a strategy tester where traders can input their expert advisors and do a back test to prove if the automated trading strategy works in hindsight. These tools help the trader refine the strategy until it gets to a proper winning percentage.
MetaTrader 4: Order Types
There are various order types that come preinstalled into the MetaTrader 4 platform; these order types are common on many platforms, but there are platforms that have some and lack others, but MetaTrader 4 has all the order types available that are key to the normal trading activities.
There is the market order for trades entered the market; the buy stop order to buy above price, there is the sell stop order to sell below price, the buy limit order to buy price and the limit sell order to sell at the current price level. The platform also allows hedging and stop loss order placement for trade monitoring purposes.
