MetaTrader 4 (MT4) — Philippines

In MetaTrader 4 the work splits in two: a workspace arranged once and a short list of fields typed again for every single order.

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100+ instruments · Founded 2008

Everything a trader does in MetaTrader 4 falls on one side of a line. On one side is the workspace: the account connection, the chart layout, the indicator settings and the saved templates, arranged once and reused until they are deliberately changed. On the other side is the order ticket, where instrument, direction, volume, stops and execution type are supplied from scratch every single time. Most of the friction people report comes from expecting a per-order field to behave like a saved setting.

Measured order execution — Standard

How orders actually filled when real market orders were placed on Exness’s MT5 feed — fill time, slippage and rejects by order size:

Instrument	Order size	Avg fill	Avg slippage
EURUSDm	0.01 lot	151 ms	-0.333 pts
EURUSDm	0.1 lot	151 ms	-0.333 pts
EURUSDm	1.0 lot	146 ms	-0.333 pts
GBPUSDm	0.01 lot	141 ms	0.667 pts
GBPUSDm	0.1 lot	130 ms	0.0 pts
GBPUSDm	1.0 lot	135 ms	0.333 pts
XAUUSDm	0.01 lot	141 ms	0.0 pts
XAUUSDm	0.1 lot	151 ms	80.0 pts
XAUUSDm	1.0 lot	130 ms	-72.333 pts

Small sample (a few round-trips per size); indicative. The same pricing engine feeds every platform the broker offers.

MetaTrader 4 (MT4) at Exness

Once per account: the terminal connection, which the platform keeps pointing at the same trading account until somebody points it somewhere else.
Once per machine: installing the terminal — Windows 7 or later, a macOS build also available, roughly 1 GB of RAM and about 100 MB of free disk space.
Once, then reused: chart layout, indicator settings and saved templates, which survive a restart and apply to whatever chart is opened next.
Per order: the instrument, the direction and the volume, none of which carry over from the previous ticket.
Per order: stop loss and take profit, attached to the individual position rather than to the account or to the chart.
Per order: market execution now or a pending order waiting at a price — the ticket does not remember the last choice.
Per order: the price read on the ticket at the moment it is sent, because the previous reading has already expired.

The part that is done once

The terminal itself is fetched once, from the Personal Area, after you open an account. Everything typed afterwards belongs to the order rather than to the setup. New to it? Arrange the workspace on a free demo.

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The fields that never remember

The order window opens the same way whatever happened before it. Volume, direction, stop and target are properties of a single position, and a position that no longer exists cannot supply defaults for the next one.

This is the half of the terminal that punishes speed. Setup can be careless and still end up right, because it is corrected once and then stays corrected; a ticket field typed wrong is corrected only after the order has already gone.

The settings that outlive the trade

A saved template is a property of the installation. It comes back after a restart, after a reconnect, and on a chart for a completely different instrument — which is why it repays being done slowly once.

The account connection behaves the same way. Closing a position, logging out of the browser or finishing for the day changes nothing about which trading account the terminal is pointing at.

Arranging the once-only half

Install the terminal on the machine that will actually be used, and let its first update finish before anything else.
Connect the trading account once, then check that the account number shown in the terminal is the one you meant.
Build the chart you want to look at and save it as a template, so the arrangement survives the next restart.
Set the terminal defaults you never want to think about again, and stop there — the fields that remain belong to the ticket.

Whatever is left after these four steps is typed per order by design, and no amount of setup removes it.

Once, or every ticket

What you do	How often	Where it is stored
Connect a trading account	Once per account	On the terminal, until the account changes
Arrange a chart and save a template	Once, then reused	On the machine, not on the account
Add and configure an indicator	Once per template	In the template on the machine
Choose instrument and direction	Every ticket	Nowhere — the field starts blank
Set the volume	Every ticket	Nowhere — the last value is not carried over
Attach stop loss and take profit	Every ticket	On the position itself
Pick market or pending execution	Every ticket	On that ticket only

Anything stored on the machine is arranged once. Anything stored on the position is typed again for the next one.

Frequently asked questions

What in MT4 is set up only once?

The account connection, the chart layout, indicator settings and saved templates. All of them live on the machine and survive a restart.

What has to be entered for every order?

Instrument, direction, volume, stop loss, take profit, and whether the ticket goes at market or waits as a pending order.

Do stop loss and take profit carry over to the next trade?

No. They belong to an individual position, so a new ticket opens without them.

Does a saved template apply to other instruments?

Yes. A template is stored with the installation rather than with a symbol, so it can be applied to any chart opened afterwards.

Is the account connection lost when the terminal is closed?

No. The terminal keeps the connection it was given until a different account is connected to it.

How much machine does the terminal itself need?

Windows 7 or later, with a macOS build also available, roughly 1 GB of RAM and about 100 MB of free disk space. It is the only requirement on this page that is paid once.