The forex market is a huge global entity, and one that sees a staggering $6.6 trillion traded worldwide every single day.
This betrays the huge popularity of the market, as it has continued to gain traction amongst novice and part-time traders across the globe.
Interestingly, it’s the MetaTrader 4 (MT4) app that remains the single most prominent driver of online trading activity in the UK, with this having become a standard bearer for excellence and stability since its inception more than 15 years ago.
But how has the MT4 platform evolved to achieve this reputation, and what are the core advantages that it offers to traders?
A Brief Look at the History of the MetaTrader 4
The MT4 is the brainchild of MetaQuotes, which is a Russian software development company that’s focused on developing programs and platforms for the retail investment sector.
The MT4 was launched for real in 2005, with the platform designed specifically for trading currencies within the retail forex market.
Interestingly, the platform benefitted from being one of the first of its type in the fledgling forex market, enabling it to capture a huge target audience and drive large trading volumes through a secure and stable space.
We’ll touch a little more on the unique features of the MT4 and the advantages that it offers to traders below, but there’s no doubt that its status as the first to market has helped it to build a sense of familiarity among an entire generation of forex investors.
What are the Core Benefits of the MT4?
One of the main advantages of the MT4 is its ability to offer real-time access to market prices and liquidity, making it possible to capitalise on the frequent price movements that define the forex market on a daily basis.
Alternatively, you can also use the more advanced MT5 platform.
You can trade your preferred currency pairings through the platform’s “market watch” window, while also viewing each asset’s security symbol and the real-time bid/ask spread to help drive informed decision making.
Traders can also use this window to view a diverse number of important details in real-time, such as the spread, contract side and margin percentage of potential trades. With the ability to customise charts and visuals too, you can process this information as quickly as possible and optimise your profit from individual trades.
The MT4 is also renowned for offering a broad range of in-built technical indicators, which support the platform’s customisable charting capabilities to provide outstanding levels of price analysis.
At the most recent count, there are around 50 technical indicators available through the MT4, including major trend and volume tools such as Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) and the Relative Strength Index (RSI).
What’s more, the MT4 lets you view unlimited charts simultaneously, while each currency pair can be seen in real-time in nine different timeframes.
Through the MT4, you can also process multiple trading orders, creating the capacity for flexible and high volume trading in real-time.
More specifically, there are various different types of trading orders and execution modes, making it incredibly easy to implement your own unique investment strategy.
So, although the MT5 (which was launched in 2010) offers a larger selection of market and pending orders, there’s more than enough choice to suit forex traders who use the MT4.
