MetaTrader 4 is the world’s most widely
used forex trading platform, with thousands of individuals and corporations all
over the world using it to speculate on foreign currencies. If you’re in the
market for a new platform, then you’ll probably want to know what all of the
fuss is about. After all, if everyone else is using it, then shouldn’t you be
using it too?
One of the major reasons for such
widespread use is language and communication. MT4 is available in all of the
most widely spoken languages, so it’s the go-to platform for people everywhere,
rather than being tied down to just one or two locations. There are also
built-in communications tools so that traders can talk to others without ever
leaving the application. Many other platforms have copied this approach in an attempt
to offer social trading,
because increasingly there’s a community element to forex, mainly because the
market is so liquid. There’s no point being competitive with your best trader
friend, because the market is too large to make a difference.
Security is clearly going to be a major
concern for anyone transacting money through applications, which is why the
developers at MetaQuotes, the company behind MT4, have ensured that their
platform is one of the most secure there is, incorporating all manner of
encryption techniques and IP masking. If this is one of your biggest concerns,
then MT4 should certainly be near the top of your list.
Technical analysis is one of the major
schools of forex trading, and because it looks for patterns and signals, it can
theoretically be done with computer algorithms. As a result, expert advisors
(also knowns as forex robots) are scripts that can be run to trade
automatically. Not all platforms allow this, but MT4 is the world’s biggest
provider of this functionality. There’s a huge community of both EA developers
and day traders surrounding it, and if you think you’d like to get involved,
then it really isn’t worth looking past MT4.
There are all manner of other little
reasons that make MT4 the choice for most traders, and the only way you’re
going to be able to find out if it will make you a better trader is by trying
it out for yourself. Oanda
offer a free demo, so that’s a good place to start out if you’re not sure.