Despite the release of MetaTrader 5, and the loads of other forex trading platforms out there, many traders still use MetaTrader 4 (MT4) for forex trading… and will likely continue to do so for some time as many brokers are slow to switch over to newer platforms. Having used MetaTrader 4 for a number of years I still continue to learn new ways to use the software. Here are some of the most beneficial MT4 tips and tricks I have found over the last several years.
With that said, there are definitely better forex trading platforms than MetaTrader. Many brokers now offer their own software, and many of these programs are much more versatile than MT4. While MT4 is an okay platform for trading, if you are with a broker that offers other platform options, you may wish to demo those platforms as well.
Since forex brokers are so different, MT4 and MT5 are two of the platforms most brokers offer, whereas other platforms are unlikely to be offered by a wide array of brokers. MT4 remains one of the most widely used trading platforms simply because it is offered by nearly all brokers. Switching to a different platform may mean having to give it up if you switch brokers.
Navigating Charts – MT4 Tips and Tricks
Here are some simple shortcuts you can use while in MT4.
-Roll your mouse wheel up or down to move forward or back in time.
–Page Up or Page Down keys will advance the entire screen forward or back in time.
-Hit End to move to the most recent price bar on your chart.
–F12 to move forward in time one bar at time while looking at historical data (useful for strategy development and learning to read the market).
-Place your cursor on the vertical scale (price) and if you click you can move up and down, compressing or expanding the price data shown (good for seeing a target or price outside the current range of the chart).
-Place your cursor on the horizontal scale (time) and if you click you can move left or right, zooming in or zooming out the chart (similar to click the + or – buttons or keys).
-Double click on the chart to revert to the original scale if you have made either of the two alterations above.
-Go directly to a specific time to date by hitting Enter and then inputting the date in the following format: DD.MM.YY (day month year) followed by HH.MM (hour minute) if you want a specific time of that day.
Measure Distances – MT4 Tips and Tricks
Ever wondering how long (pips or bars) the last wave of a trend was, or how many pips to where you want to put a stop loss or profit target? Or how many bars there are in each trend cycle?
There is a “ruler” function in MetaTrader 4 trading software which allows you to easily measure one point on a chart to another. A very handy MT4 Tip indeed.
-Click your mouse wheel to bring up the crosshairs (no mouse wheel? hit Ctrl-F to bring up the crosshairs). Then hold down the left mouse button from a particular point and drag the cursor to another point to measure the distance.
The MT4 ruler appears and provides three pieces of data along with it. The first piece of data is the number of bars between the origin and second price point. The next number tells you how many pips from the first point to the second. Since most brokers offer fractional pip pricing a reading of 61 means 6.1 pips. 125 means 12.5. The third number that appears is the price your cursor is currently at.
Here is a sample screenshot of the MT4 ruler:
MT4 Ruler Function
The chart above shows the ruler (angled black line) extending 7 bars to the right of the origin. The endpoint of the ruler is 262.6 pips from the origin, and end point of the ruler is located at 1.22151.
Drawing Tools – MT4 Tips and Tricks
Lots of trading using drawing tools like trendlines, or rectangles for marking consolidations or ranges.
-Select a trendline then hold down the Ctrl + left-click on a line to create a parallel line. Useful for drawing channels.
-Duplicate any object by selecting it and then hitting Ctrl+left-click. This is very useful and can save time, as you don’t need to go into the menus to re-create certain drawing objects (such as Fibonacci retracements). Often the duplicated object will appear right on top of the former object. Click on the object to move it and you will see there are now two.
-Double click on an object to edit its properties.
Add One Indicator to Another – MT4 Tips and Tricks
“Compounding” can be an awesome tool. Ever wanted to add a moving average to an RSI (potential trade signals)? Or Bollinger Bands to an ATR (can show when volatility is unsustainable or due for an increase)? This can be done with all sorts of indicators.
Add your first indicator to your chart in the usual fashion. For example, if you want a moving average applied to an RSI, add the RSI first.
Next, open the Navigator window (Ctrl-N).
From the Indicators drop-down list, find the indicator you want to add to the other indicator. Then drag that second indicator onto the indicator on your chart.
A Properties window automatically pops up. Click on the Parameters tab. Click the drop-down menu of Apply to and select First Indicator’s Data. This will apply the moving average (or another indicator) to the RSI (or another indicator). My youtube video, Adding One Indicator to Another Indicator in MT4, demonstrates how to do this if you run into any issues.
The chart above shows the end result of adding a moving average (30) to an RSI (14).
HotKeys – MT4 Tips and Tricks
Below are the standard Hotkeys in MetaTrader 4. To add other hotkeys for indicators, scripts, or expert advisors, go to the Navigator window (Ctrl-N) and right clicking on almost anything. A pop-up menu appears with the option to “Set hotkey”. Click this option and a list of available features you can apply hotkeys to will appear.
Here are the default hotkeys in MT4.
Left arrow — scroll left
Right arrow — scroll right
Up arrow — quickly scroll left, or scroll upwards if the chart is scaled
Down arrow — quickly scroll right, or scroll downwards if the chart is scaled
Numpad 5 — restores vertical scale to default.
Page Up — scroll a whole screen to the left
Page Down — scroll a whole screen to the right
Home — move the chart to a starting point
End — move the chart to most recent point
“–” (minus sign) – zoom out
“+” (plus sign) – zoom in
Delete — delete all selected objects
Backspace — delete most recently added object
Enter — open the box to enter a specific time or date for viewing
Esc — close any dialog window
F1 — open the user guide
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, in order 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 one bar to the left
Shift+F12 — scroll one bar to the right
Shift+F5 — switch to the previous profile
Alt+1 — display the chart as OHLC bars
Alt+2 — display the chart as OHLC candlesticks
Alt+3 — display the chart as a line
Alt+A — copy all test/optimization results onto the clipboard
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+C or Ctrl+Insert — copy to the clipboard
Ctrl+D — open/close the Data Window
Ctrl+E — enable/disable the attached expert advisor
Ctrl+F — switch to Crosshair mode
Ctrl+G — show/hide the vertical/horizontal grid
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+R — open/close the “Tester” window
Ctrl+S — save the chart prices to file extensions: “CSV”, “PRN” or “HTM”
Ctrl+T — open/close the Terminal window
Ctrl+W or Ctrl+F4 — close the chart window that’s currently in focus
Ctrl+Y— show/hide date (period) separators
Ctrl+Z or Alt+Backspace — undo object deletions in the reverse order they occurred
Ctrl+F6 — switch to the next chart window
Ctrl+F9 — open the “Terminal — Trade” window and switch the focus into it, allowing trading operations to be entered via the keyboard.
MT4 is not the best forex trading platform, but it is the most commonly used. If you have any other MT4 Tips or Tricks please share them in the comments.
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By Cory Mitchell, CMT
What a great article!. I am bookmarking it to read it over again after work. It seems like a very interesting topic to write about.
Cory, Do you use hotkeys to exit and enter trades for day trading?
There are a bunch of hotkeys for MT4 listed in the article…but they aren’t useful for placing specific order types. A lot of platforms allow you to set up hotkeys to make trading easier. As far as I know, MT4 doesn’t have that functionality…at least not in an easy to set up way. Most platforms do though, and yes hotkeys can be quite beneficial.
That said, my forex broker provides a one-click trading tool that allows me to set my entry, stop loss, and target orders on the fly, and which basically eliminates the need for hotkeys. The plugin is not supported by most other brokers, but they may have a similar feature (that plugin is discussed here: https://vantagepointtrading.com/favorite-forex-broker/).
Is there a way to highlight pairs in different colors in the Order listing? and EA perhaps?
For FXCM – Mt4 is there a plug in for one-click trading that uses pips vs price and allows pending orders as well?
As for one-click trading with FXCM (I am assuming you want to be able to enter (pending or market) and place a stop loss and target at the same time): I have never used these scripts, but you could try the Quick Buy-Custom Inputs and Quick Sell-Custom Inputs here, from FXCM: https://www.fxcmapps.com/apps/c/metatrader-4/mt4-scripts/
NinjaTrader can be used with FXCM and it has this functionality built in.
Also, I believe the FXCM Trading Station platform also has this functionality built in (but I could be wrong, as it has been a long time since I used it. Maybe someone else can confirm this).
is it possible to draw lines on candlestick chart automaticly? i mean having a line chart on your candlestick chart?
I don’t believe you can overlap a line chart on a candlestick chart, BUT, you can get the same effect by applying a 1-period simple moving average (based on close…which is what a line chart is based on). You can see that the line chart and this MA are identical by switching your chart to a line chart and the MA disappears because the price and MA become one line. So that is how you could create that effect. If that is what you are asking.
Hi, how can i have a vertical line to follow the latest candlestick on the chart and at thesame time have a small box by it which displays the latest value of indicators in the chart?
Thanks
Not sure about this. Maybe someone else can offer a suggestion or plugin for that.
Ok, thanks!
Hi;
On mt4 charts, the labels for the entry lines, SL lines and TP lines are shown on the left side of the chart. The labels are often obscured by the candlesticks or indicators. Is it possible to have the line labels showing on the right side of the chart instead? That way I can shift the chart from the right side so the labels are always visible and unobstructed. Please see the following link (copy & paste) for a visual representation of my question.
https://www.mql5.com/en/charts/5809759/eurusd-d1-fxglobe-ltd
(you might have to scroll left and right to view the full image)
Appreciate any help.
Regards,
Ian
Not sure how to do this. Searched around a bit and didn’t find a solution elsewhere either. Hopefully someone else can post a solution.
Thanks Cory. I too have done a lot of searching on this but have found nothing. It seems to me to be logical that MetaQuotes would have such an option on there platforms. I’ll keep looking and will advise if I find anything.
If you want to see the price levels on your Fibo levels.
Go to the properties on you Fibo indicator.
Then select levels.
Type in @%$ after the level you want to modify.
Example on the 61.8 level. Type in @%$ after the 61.8 and the price level will now appear on your charts.
Nice tip! 🙂
I deleted the charts & the timeframe tabs from the tool bar…. and I am not able to bring it back, even when i click on the toolbars, and then customize, it only shows the standard tab tools
Right click on something on the toolbar, then click on Timeframes (it is likely unclicked). Right click on something again, then select Charts (it too is likely unchecked). You shouldn’t need to go into Customize.
Cheers,
Cory
Hi Cory,
Your blog is a very useful source for forex traders.
I want to delete scripts from MT4 chart but unable to find a way to do so. I can’t even locate remove
scripts tool.
Please guide us on how to do it.
Thank you.
If you can see some part of the script running on your chart, you can right-click on it and select “Remove Script”
If you want to totally get rid of the script, then click on the little folder with a star over it up on the menu bar…or just hit Cntl+N open up the Navigator window. Scroll down to the Scripts section. Hit the plus sign (+) to see all the scripts you have installed on Mt4. Right-click on the one you don’t want and click Delete.
You can also just click on another script you do want, and it will replace the script that is running that you don’t want.
Hope that resolves your issue,
Cheers,
Cory
Hi Cory, I placed the ATR, but I could not insert the bollinger bands onto to it, from the navigator window.
When you drag the second indicator from the navigator onto the indicator you already have on your chart, a Properties window will pop up. Click on Parameters > Apply To> then select “first indicator’s data” from the dropdown menu. This will apply the second indicator to the first (instead of applying it to the price chart). I have update the article to make these steps a bit more clear. Hope that helps 🙂
Is there any way to permanently compress an mt4 chart – particularly interested in doing so with M1 and M5 ???
Not sure of a way to do it across all charts that are open, but for each individual chart you can Right-Click on the Chart>Properties>Common and then click on “Scale Fix.” Input numbers which are well outside the current high and low on your chart. That will keep the price compressed on your screen, but still visible. It’s not a permanent solution though. Over time you may need to the alter the scale to maintain the same affect and visibility.
Thank you, yes, I did that, but as you say, it’s not a long-term solution (past a couple of days), so I will temporarily do that each day on M5 and M1 on the chosen pairs.
In hindsight, I think I should have termed the query differently – I should have said – How do I increase the space/distance above the highest price shown and below the lowest price shown….