How to Trade in MetaTrader 4 Software - How to Use MetaTrader 4 Guide - MT4 Trading Platform Download
The following MetaTrader 4 Trading Platform screen shot below shows Metaquotes MetaTrader 4 Platform. As a beginner trader trying to learn how to trade the forex market - the first you will need to learn is How to Use MetaTrader 4 Platform - How to Trade in MT4 Platform - How to Trade Forex in MT4 Software Platform - How to Use MT4 Tutorial: Forex MetaTrader 4 Software Platform Download. MT4 Trading Platform is the trading platform software that you will use to connect to your online forex broker with & execute forex trade transactions & monitor your forex account balance.
The MT4 is provided for free byMT4 Forex brokers. Forex Trading Tutorial MT4 Platform - This MetaTrader 4 platform platform looks like the example below:
The Main Areas of this MT4 Platform as described above are:
- Navigation Menus
- Toolbars
- Chart Window
- Navigator
- Market Watch
- Terminal
- Connection Bars
Forex Trading Tutorial MT4 Platform - How to Use MetaTrader 4 Tutorial:
1. Navigation Menus
The navigation menus are:
- File
- View
- Insert
- Charts
- Tools
- Window
- Help
These are the main MetaTrader 4 navigation menus that can be used to navigate the MetaTrader 4 platform.
These navigation menus will be discussed in details in the next How to Use MT4 Tutorial about navigation menus.
2. Toolbars
The MetaTrader 4 tool bars are used to place forex tools on forex charts, forex traders can place indicators in MetaTrader 4 charts, place line studies in MT4 charts, change forex chart time frames and load a saved MetaTrader 4 template from a list of saved templates.
These MT4 tool bars will be discussed on other How to Use MT4 Tutorials that will outline each button on each MetaTrader 4 tool bar and explain how to add and customize these tool bars on the MT4 platform.
3. Chart Panel
This is the main MetaTrader 4 platform area where forex charts are displayed & a trader can analyze the trend direction of a forex chart whether up or down, place indicators for technical analysis and even place orders from these forex charts.
4. Navigator
Navigator panel will contain data about forex accounts, whether demo account or real account, this window will also have a list of all the MT4 trading technical indicators as well as EAs and scripts.
A trader can choose which forex account to login by expanding the Accounts menu, choose an technical indicator by expanding the indicator menu or chose an EA by expanding the EA menu.
5. Market Watch
Market watch is used to show streaming forex quotes for currency pairs. This Market Watch window can list as many forex quotes provided by your Forex broker or a few selected by a trader.
6. Terminal
This is the panel that's like the forex account transaction area for your forex trade transactions, on this window you can view your balance, profit & losses statement, equity, margin used also retrieve a copy of all your forex trade transactions history.
This will also list all open transactions and calculate all the profit and loss in real time as the currencies move up or down.
7. Connection Bar
Red bars are for no connection, green bars show that there is connectivity to the servers & forex trade orders can be set. These connectivity bars should always be green when a trader is logged into their forex demo account or live forex account.
These main areas form the MT4 interface and will be the main areas to be covered in detail in the next How to Use MT4 Tutorial. For now it is best to download MT4 platform and familiarize yourself with the MT4 platform interface.
Why Software is Required for Placing Forex Trade Transactions with Brokers
Forex platform is the software that is used to access the forex market and interpret these currencies using technical analysis indicators and tools. There are various reasons why one requires to use a good platform. A good trading software can determine if a as a trader you make a profit or not.
So why does a Forex Trading trader need a good platform:
To connect to the Trading Server:
To place a forex order one needs to use a trading software which will connect to the trading servers of their forex broker & allow them to open & close orders. Good platforms will connect with ease to the brokers' servers & allow forex traders to place forex trade orders at any time from their desktop computer.
To analyze forex charts & currencies using technical analysis indicators
To open a buy or sell order one needs to first interpret the direction of a currency pair. This is why all good softwares provide forex technical analysis tools such as forex trading price charts, indicators & various different chart time-frames from which one-can analyze price moves using the forex chart time frames of their choice.
From above MetaTrader 4 Trading Platform interface, the summary of all information required by a trader is provided on this MetaTrader 4 Trading Platform interface
- Connection - connection to the broker servers
- Charts - forex trading price graphs that display prices
- Tool-bars - tool-bars to add forex tools and forex technical analysis technical indicators
- Market Watch - for displaying available financial instruments
- Data window - provides forex account data & other technical indicator data
- Exchange rates - shows current market price of a forex currency pair
- Menu bar - Shows all menu items on the MT4 Platform
