Trading tricks for MT4 you should know
05:19, 22 September 2021
MT4 tricks to boost your trading strategies
Metatrader 4 (MT4) is arguably the most popular online trading platform, and the easiest way to trade forex (FX) markets and contracts for difference (CFDs), and engage in spread betting. Capital.com offers trading on MT4, including automated trading using MT4 robots (MT4 EAs). Note that MT4 is not currently available to UK and Australian residents.
MT4 has an easy to use interface. Everything from opening a new chart to placing an FX trade is straightforward. The purpose of this guide is to show how to use the platform’s features with extra MT4 tips. Knowing these trading tricks and tips will help you trade faster and develop an easy trading strategy.
1. MT4 Keyboard shortcuts
Do you use keyboard shortcuts in day-to-day computing on Microsoft Windows, such as hitting CTRL+S to save your work? The same thinking can be applied to MT4, with the use of so-called ‘hot keys’. These keyboard shortcuts are keys or combinations of keys that provide an alternative way to do something that you might usually do with a mouse.
On MT4, you can open and close module windows with Ctrl+T. This clears your trading screen and allows you to quickly add other windows.
You can find the keyboard shortcuts for all these windows under ‘View’ on the main menu.
Source: capital.comWe recommend learning shortcuts for all the main commands. For example, did you know that pressing the ‘Page Up’ or ‘Page Down’ buttons allows for faster scrolling? To discover the full list of available MT4 hot keys, you can do the following:
Click F1 for Help topics
Navigate to ‘Client Terminal’
Scroll down to ‘User Interface’
Select ‘Fast Navigation’.
You will see a list as displayed below:
Source: capital.com1. One click trading on MT4
The standard way to place a trade in MT4 is by clicking the ‘New Order’ icon. One of the most useful MT4 tricks is the One Click Trading feature.
Source: capital.comPress ‘Alt + T’, or simply right click on any chart and select ‘One Click Trading’. You will see Buy and Sell buttons with current bid and ask prices, and a box for choosing the number of lots.
1. Save MT4 chart templates
Metatrader 4 is customisable. To customise a chart, right click on it and select ‘preferences’ at the bottom of the menu or press F8. Background colour, candlestick colour and many more features can all be changed.
To spare yourself the time of having to redesign every new chart, save the changes as a template. ‘Template’ can be found by right clicking on the graph. From there you navigate to ‘save’, where you can name the template whatever you like.
Source: capital.comNext time you open a chart on MT4, go to ‘Template’, select ‘Load Template’ and pick the one you saved. You can save different templates for different trading strategies. For example, one template might be for stock trading techniques, while another is for simple trading strategies.
1. Use different MT4 profiles
Profiles are like an extension of templates. A profile saves how the entire MT4 layout looks - the number of charts, whether they are set to auto scroll, and other features. Profiles can be found under the ‘File’ menu. One trick is to have a stock trading profile separate to FX trading. This way you can arrange your charts for share prices without interfering with the FX pairs that you trade.
1. MT4’s auto scroll & chart shift
Before placing a trade, check out the price history of a specific currency pair or stock.
There are two clickable icons displayed under the main menu navigation:
Source: capital.comAutoscroll: Clicking the icon with the green triangle means that the chart will return fully scrolled to the right to show the most recent price action. When you want to scroll to the left to look at past prices, click the icon again so that the button is unselected.
Chart shift: Selecting the icon with the red arrow will shift your chart to the left. Many traders prefer having this ‘indent’ to better envisage where the price could travel next.
1. Save results as a report
As good as Metatrader 4 is, with easy share trading at the touch of a button, it can be useful to step away from the platform to analyse your trading results.
You can find your trading results under the ‘Account History’ tab of the ‘Terminal’ window.
Source: capital.comFrom here you can right click on any part of your trading history. Select either ‘Save as Report’ or ‘Save as Detailed Report’ and view your trading results as an HTML file.
Source: capital.com1. Show Profit/Loss as points
Every trader will have their own preferences of how to track markets. And every experienced trader will emphasise the importance of a strong trading mindset.
One MT4 trading tip that may help reduce trading stress is to display your trading profit or loss (P/L) as points, rather than as currency. Seeing your P/L as points could help you focus on your strategy and results.
Source: capital.com1. Use a round numbers MT4 indicator
Metatrader 4 is not perfect. One feature it lacks is the display of round numbers on the chart. These round figures, such as EUR/USD at 1.30 or Apple stock at $100, are often important psychological levels that could add value to your stock trading techniques.
Fortunately, there is a way around this using MT4 indicators. Different indicators will work better on various financial instruments. Here are five examples to help you get started.
RoundLevels.ex4
RoundNr2.ex4
OGT Round Numbers v1.0.ex4
FXSSI.RoundLevels.ex4
C12_UltimateRoundNumbers.ex4
1. Rearrange MT4 tile windows
After your first few experiences with MT4 you’ll notice that you can display chart windows in different ways, such as tiled or cascaded.
Let’s say you want to rearrange the charts in your preferred order, displaying FX major pairs first, then spot gold and silver followed by stocks.
You can rearrange your charts by simply dragging the symbols along the bottom of the screen to the left and right.
Source: capital.comEdited by Jekaterina Drozdovica
FAQ:
What is MT4 trading?
Metatrader 4 (MT4) is a software that powers trading platforms online. MT4 is popular for trading stocks, forex and CFDs.
How to make trading easier on MT4?
Using all the trading tips and tricks mentioned in this article could be a good start to make trading easier on MT4.
What are the tricks for trading?
Tricks for beginner traders focus on getting to know the trading platform well, understanding the products you are trading and setting aside some regular time in your schedule for trading practice.