Developed in 2005 by MetaQuotes Software Corp., Metatrader is an electronic trading platform that allows the trader to view complete price charts and detect opportunities to buy and sell instruments with agility and effectiveness.

Traders use it to view real-time currency prices, open or adjust orders, and get technical and fundamental analyses.

The tool is very versatile, and can be accessed by the user on the computer or on mobile devices, such as smartphones. 

Logging into your account

With  MetaTrader 4 installed on your computer, the first step is logging in. When logging into the account, you must select the appropriate server. You will receive the server and login details in an email when your account is created.

In the File Tab, you will be able to login to a trading account as well as open a new chart.

Introduction to MetaTrader 4

Introduction to MetaTrader 4

Balance

To check your account balance and open positions, open your Terminal window (Ctrl + T) and select the “Trade” tab. 

 

Market Watch

The “Market Watch” window can be activated by the Ctrl+M key combination, or by using the View-> Market Watch menu sequence. You can access all charts from this tab.

Introduction to MetaTrader 4

If you are unable to see all the desired instruments on the list, simply press Ctrl + U, and a window with all pairs available will appear. Some pairs are highlighted and some are not. You can select which instruments will be visible by clicking Hide or Show.

If you right-click on the desired instrument, the window below will appear. 

These are the options you are most likely to use:

  • Chart Window – enables the chart of an instrument to be displayed; 
  • Tick Chart – shows the tick chart for the selected instrument; 
  • Hide – hides the specified symbol from the list in the “Market Watch” window; 
  • Hide All – hides all symbols from the list in the “Market Watch” window (if you have open positions or charts, the symbols will not be hidden); 
  • Show All – displays all available symbols in the “Market Watch” window; 
  • Symbols – opens the window where you can hide/show the selected instruments.

Charts

If you click on Chart Window, a chart in the default template will appear.

To configure the chart, just click on F8 and the window below will appear:

Chart Periods 

Chart periods can be amended in your toolbar. Alternatively, you can find this function by right clicking on the chart > Periodicity

 

Template

If you want to keep visual settings of a chart, including the indicators you want to use, you can save and apply these specific settings on another chart by using the Template function.

Go to Template > Save Template. Apply the saved template for new charts.

Indicators

In the indicators section, you can select your favorite indicator to use for your technical analysis, and apply it to a chart. You can access it from the main toolbar. When you select a specific indicator, you can adjust its parameters according to your preferences. 

Objects

Do the following to include objects in the chart:

 

Trading with MT4

To open a new position, right click on a chart and select Trading, or simply press the F9 button.

In MetaTrader 4, there are two ways of making deals: “Market Execution” and “Pending Order”. Market execution sends a request to fill your order immediately at the next available price. Once you have decided to buy or sell at the current price, press the Buy or Sell buttons to open a long or short position. 

Before you enter the market you can change the following details in the “Order” window: 

  • Symbol - a currency pair
  • Volume - number of lots
  • Stop Loss - close your position at this loss level 
  • Take Profit - close your position at this profit level
  • Comment – Appear in your report

A Pending Order will open your trade when the price triggers predefined levels. You can enter this order by choosing the “Pending Order” option in the Type box. 

Another way to open orders quickly is with the Trade Panel. Just click on the icon in the upper left corner of the graph, or simply press the Alt + T command. The Trade Panel will appear.

Modify Order 

You can place Stop Loss and Take Profit at the time of making a deal by filling in the “Stop Loss” and “Take Profit” fields in the “Order” window. To delete Stop Loss or Take profit orders, specify its level as equal to zero.

Close position

To close the trade, double click (Ctrl + T) on the position you are willing to partially close in your Terminal Window.

The following window will pop up. Choose the “Market Execution” type and in the Volume section, you can select what position size you want to close. You can see what position size you are about to close in the yellow box. 

 

Account Statement 

To generate a report with the history of executed orders, select the “Account History” tab, click the right button and select the option to “Save as Detailed Report”.

 

Shortcuts

  • To auto-scroll your chart, select the Auto Scroll option from the Charts menu on the tool bar.
  • Page Up — scroll a whole screen to the left; 
  • Page Down — scroll a whole screen to the left; 
  • Home — move the chart to the start point (first bar); 
  • End — move the chart to the endpoint (last, i.e. most current) bar; 
  • “–” — zoom out (there are 6 levels of zoom available); 
  • “+” — zoom in; 
  • Esc — close any dialog window; 
  • F1 — open the online help “Userguide”; 
  • F2 — open the “History Center” window; 
  • F3 — open the “Global Variables” window; 
  • F4 — open MetaEditor; 
  • F5 — switch to the next profile; 
  • F6 — call the “Tester” dialog window for testing the expert attached to the chart window; 
  • F7 — call the properties dialog window of the expert attached to their chart window, to change its settings; 
  • F8 — call the chart setup dialog window, allowing basic chart parameters, colors, etc to be changed; 
  • F9 — call the “New Order” window, allowing the entry of market, limit, stop orders;
  • F10 — open the “Popup prices” window; 
  • F11 — enable/disable full-screen mode; 
  • F12 — scroll the chart one bar to the left; 
  • Alt+1 — display the chart as OHLC bars; 
  • Alt+2 — display the chart as OHLC candlesticks; 
  • Alt+3 — display the chart as a line (closing prices only); 
  • Alt+W — call the chart management window; 
  • Alt+F4 — exit the program; 
  • Ctrl+A — arrange all indicator window heights by default; 
  • Ctrl+B — call the “Objects List” dialog window; 
  • Ctrl+H — show/hide the OHLC line; 
  • Ctrl+I — call the “Indicators List” dialog window; 
  • Ctrl+L — show/hide volume data on the main chart; 
  • Ctrl+M — open/close the “Market Watch” window; 
  • Ctrl+N — open/close the “Navigator” window; 
  • Ctrl+O — open the “Setup” window; 
  • Ctrl+P — Print the chart; 
  • Ctrl+T — open/close the “Terminal” window; 

For more information, you can also access the link below:  https://www.metatrader4.com/en/trading-platform




This material is for general information purposes only and is not intended as (and should not be considered to be) financial, investment or other advice on which reliance should be placed. INFINOX is not authorized to provide investment advice. No opinion given in the material constitutes a recommendation by INFINOX or the author that any particular investment, security, transaction or investment strategy is suitable for any specific person.