MetaTrader Basics

Rent a car from almost any company and you will find roughly the same dashboard: steering wheel, pedals, indicator stalks in familiar places. Learn it once and you can drive any of them. MetaTrader is that standard dashboard for forex trading, offered by hundreds of brokers. But remember, a familiar dashboard tells you nothing about whether the rental company is honest.

MT4 vs MT5

MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5) are trading platforms made by a software company called MetaQuotes. Brokers license them and give them to clients for free, on desktop, web and mobile.

Feature	MT4	MT5
Age	Older, released in 2005	Newer, released in 2010
Main focus	Forex	Forex, plus stocks and futures at some brokers
Chart timeframes	9	21
Pending order types	4	6
Built-in economic calendar	No	Yes

The two are not compatible: indicators and automated programs written for MT4 do not run on MT5 without being rewritten. For a beginner, either is fine. Use whichever your broker offers.

Important: MetaTrader is just software. A broker offering MT4 or MT5 is not a sign that the broker is regulated or trustworthy. Do the checks from the Choosing a Broker lesson first.

The layout

When you open MetaTrader, you will see four main areas:

• Market Watch: a list of symbols with their live bid and ask prices. Right-click and choose "Show All" if a symbol is missing.
• Navigator: your accounts, plus built-in indicators, Expert Advisors and scripts.
• Chart window: your candlestick charts, with a toolbar for timeframes and drawing tools.
• Toolbox (called Terminal in MT4): the panel at the bottom. The Trade tab shows open positions along with your balance, equity, margin, free margin and margin level. History shows closed trades. Journal logs what the platform did.

Placing an order

1. Press F9, or click New Order in the toolbar.
2. Choose the Symbol, for example EURUSD.
3. Set the Volume in lots. 0.01 is a micro lot (1,000 units).
4. Enter your Stop Loss and Take Profit prices.
5. Choose the type:
   • Market Execution fills now at the current price.
   • Pending Order waits for a level: Buy Limit, Sell Limit, Buy Stop or Sell Stop (MT5 adds Buy Stop Limit and Sell Stop Limit).
6. Click Buy by Market or Sell by Market (or Place for a pending order).

MetaTrader also has a one-click trading feature that skips the order window. Keep it switched off while you are learning. One stray click should never open a trade.

Worked example: a planned trade on a demo account

Your demo account is $1,500, and you risk 1% per trade, which is $15.

EUR/USD is quoted at 1.0848 / 1.0850. Your plan is to buy, with a stop loss at 1.0820 and a take profit at 1.0910.

• You buy at the ask, 1.0850, so the stop is 30 pips away and the target is 60 pips away.
• To risk $15 over 30 pips, you need $0.50 per pip.
• On EUR/USD, $0.50 per pip is 5,000 units, or 0.05 lots.

In the New Order window:

Field	Value
Symbol	EURUSD
Volume	0.05
Stop Loss	1.0820
Take Profit	1.0910
Type	Market Execution

Click Buy by Market. Then check the Trade tab: your position should appear with the stop and target filled in, and dashed lines will show both levels on the chart.

• If the target is hit: 60 pips × $0.50 = +$30
• If the stop is hit: 30 pips × $0.50 = −$15

You can drag those lines on the chart to adjust them. Moving a stop closer to lock in profit is fine. Dragging it further away to "give the trade room" is how small losses become big ones.

Stop loss and take profit tips

• Set them when you open the trade, not "in a minute." Markets do not wait for you.
• Use prices from your plan, based on chart levels, not round numbers picked at random.
• Trailing stops move your stop automatically as price moves in your favour. In MetaTrader they run inside your platform, so they only work while your terminal is open and connected.

A serious caution about Expert Advisors

An Expert Advisor (EA) is a program that trades automatically on your MetaTrader account. You can find thousands online, many sold with bold claims. Be very careful:

• Perfect backtests mean little. A backtest runs a strategy on past prices. It is easy to tweak an EA until it fits the past beautifully and then fails on the future.
• Many EAs use martingale or grid methods, adding bigger and bigger positions after losses. They post smooth, steady gains for months, then one strong move wipes out the account.
• "Guaranteed monthly returns" is a red flag, whoever says it.
• EAs need the platform running around the clock, often on a rented server, and the AutoTrading (MT4) or Algo Trading (MT5) button switched on.
• Never hand over your account password to someone offering to "run the EA for you."

If you want to explore one, test it on a demo account for months, understand exactly how it manages risk, and only then consider the smallest possible live size.

Risk note: Automation does not remove risk. It can repeat a bad idea faster than any human. If you do not understand how a program decides its trade size and stop loss, do not let it trade your money.

Key takeaways

• MT4 and MT5 are free platforms offered by many brokers; MT5 is newer with more features, and they are not compatible.
• The platform tells you nothing about whether a broker is trustworthy.
• Learn the four areas: Market Watch, Navigator, Chart and Toolbox (Terminal in MT4).
• Use F9 to open an order, and set the volume, stop loss and take profit before you click.
• Treat Expert Advisors with great caution, and test anything automated on demo first.

Up next: What Are Trading Signals?, the first lesson of Signals Explained.