Options Settings Window on Tools Menu on MT4 Software
The options button is used for a variety of many different tasks on the MT4. The options button is listed within the tools menu in the MetaTrader 4 as shown below. The Shortcut keys for this - Ctrl+O.
MT4 Options Settings
These are shown below: the list of various buttons are displayed as tabs as displayed on the image below. As a trader to edit anything on this window just click on any of these button keys and then change the settings.
Server
The server settings for MT4 are shown below. A trader can edit from this tab, but most of the times it is not necessary as these options are automatically preset to the brokers’ server settings by the broker and there is no need to re-adjust them. However, just for tutorial purposes, the Server will explain the server of your commodities trading broker and if it is a Demo or a Real Server. The account login & password will also be displayed below and as a trader you can change the password from this window for demo commodities trading accounts, however be careful if you are changing passwords make sure to remember them.
Other options are, enable proxy server, this is not required, Keep personal data at startup, this is checked by default, that way the software will automatically remember your sign in and password so that you don't have to type them every time you sign in to your platform. Enable DDE server isn't required, Enable news is checked and you as a trader can use receive real time news data reports to your MT4 on the News options, located in Terminal window, (Shortcut Key Ctrl+T).
Commodity Trading Chart
following are marked on the Charts Options
Show Trade Levels - These lines will show levels where orders were placed, it will also show levels where pending commodity orders are placed. This will also show the Take Profit Commodity Trading Order & Stop Loss Commodity Order areas. These trade levels lines appear as red broken lines marking these trade areas.
If there's no open trade, no level will be illustrated: if many trades have been placed, multiple lines will be displayed for these levels.
Use Alt key to drag trade areas is not a very suitable option to use, because if you place many orders you may change the wrong order, therefore it's best to leave this as it's and not change it (Probability of this one losing you money is there so leave as it is)
Show OHCL - Show Opening, High, Closing & Low Commodity Trading Prices for every candle stick
Show Ask Line - Show the Bid Commodity Trading Price, (no need for this)
Show period separators - a separator will draw a line where the daily chart starts and ends, for example if you trade with 5 minutes, 15 minute or 1 Hour charts the period separator will draw a vertical line when the commodities trading market closes for each trading day. (4 H separator is Weekly, for Daily and Weekly separator is Monthly).
Color Print - To print in color & not black white which is set by default, use this option and then next time you print it'll be a colored print & not black & white.
Save deleted charts to reopen - Save all charts that are deleted and these can be accessed later at any time within.
Max bars in History, Max bars in Chart - To save computer resources RAM, Processor Speed and Hard disk Space, these bars stored are limited to a specific number that is optimum, it is best to use the default number selected.
Objects
These are:
Show properties after creation - immediately show indicator/line tool settings after it is added on trading chart to facilitate editing of their property settings.
Choose Object after creation - an indicator/line tool can be selected by double-clicking on it once it's plotted, to facilitate editing of its properties.
Select object by single mouse click - select an indicator/line tool using single mouse click not double clicking, double clicking will show properties window of indicator/line tool
Magnet Sensitivity - immediately draw a line tool to the nearest low or high that's within 10 pixels of the point selected. This allows for lines drawn to more or less be placed on the levels that they are intended without much editing by aligning these lines to the nearest high or low of commodity price.
Trade
These are the default used by the platform to determine what instrument you buy and what amount you buy.
Quote by Default - Automatically set to the open chart which you've open
Size by default - Automatically use the last lot size, or set every trade to be default 1 lot or 2 lots or 1 micro lot or 2 micro lots by select the default button key & then selecting the number of lots from the drop don list next to this option.
Deviation - Set the allowed number of pips that can move away when executing an order for examples 2 pips, or zero pips if you want to specify to place trades at the exact level where you click.
One Click trading - Place trades buy or sell with one click. (don't use this option as it is prone to mistakes & no time to correct, this option can lose you money.)
Expert Advisors
Expert Advisors window is shown below:
following options are used:
Enable Expert Advisors - Allow for Expert Advisor to be placed on trading chart for automated execution purposes
Disable experts when accounts have been changed - login to a different account deactivates Expert Advisors
Disable Experts when profile has been change - When you change profiles the Expert-Advisors setting for allowing trading in the new profile is deactivated until you allow & manually place an Expert-Advisor on this new opened chart.
Allow Live Trading - Give Permission to Expert Advisor to open trades on the live commodity market.
(Ask Manual Confirmation - no needs for this if you're using Expert-Advisors, leave this as it is displayed without checking it.)
Allow DLL imports - Dynamic Link Libraries, which are external, unless this is required this should be left unchecked. (External means that these libraries are referenced from a source external & outside your PC computer, so you should try to be careful with this one)
Confirm DLL functions calls - Exercise manual permission for each & every function call, either allow it or disallow it depending on your trade parameters.
Allow External Experts imports - This is used to allow your EA to reference some data from another EA that is in another place, away from your computer PC, (External means these Expert Advisor Commodity Trading Bots are referenced from external sources outside your PC computer, so be careful with this option)
Notifications
To receive notification to your mobile phone from your MT4 platform, use the notifications option shown below. Not that you require to have a registration ID, from Metaquotes to start receiving these notifications sent to your mobile phone via text messages.
Check the option, Enable Push Notifications, put your ID, press test & you should get a test notification text message. You require to first register for this ID, to do so, use the following panel on your MetaTrader 4 and follow the instruction you will get from this Notification window.
Email Settings
Most traders might not really require this, but if you're one of the ones that require, the settings can be placed below.
Lets use this company, that owns this web site, www.tradeforextrading.com, click and check the button labeled "Enable" the respective mail settings are shown below and the SMTP setting is "SMTP: Port 465", Select and put these as shown below. Click test & check your inbox to confirm you receive the message.
Events
Events in MT4 are notifications, either sound notification, an email or SMS alert. The notifications can be set for different events such as timeout, connect, disconnect, news, Expert Advisor, EA confirmation, commodity price level alert and requote alert.
Various types of alerts actions that can be set for any event can be chosen by double clicking on event action, pressing the dropdown arrow & then selecting the alert action that you want from the drop-down list illustrated and shown below.
MQL5 Commodities Trading Expert-Advisor Bots Community
The MQL5 community is a forum where traders can find others and Exchange Expert Advisors & Commodity Trading Signals with each other. Commodity traders have to register to this community and can then access services from their platform directly. To get details on how to access and register in this community, login to your MT4 software & navigate to window shown below and follow the instructions.
MQL5 Trading Signals
The trading signal settings are provided by MQL5, MQL5 is the owner of MetaTrader Software. The Signals service allows traders to adjust the following:
Signal - First Subscribe to a signal
Agree to Terms - Agree to terms of using the signal service
Enable Real time signal subscription - allow realtime transmission of signals to your platform.
Use Trusted Execution Token( TET ) - Trusted execution token means you do not have to open your MetaTrader 4 on your PC Desktop computer to have signals executed, Trusted Execution Token will allow signals to be executed even if your MetaTrader 4 isn't started on your PC Desktop computer.
Copy Stop Loss Commodity Order & Take-Profit Commodity Order Areas - Copy these levels from the signal provider automatically.
Use no more than - Option for commodity money management, set an amount of 10% for aggressive traders and 5% for non-aggressive traders, that way you limit your risk capital in your account.
Stop if equity is less than - Set a percentage to calculate this level for example if your equity is $10,000 then use 70%, that is $7,000 & set this amount: if the signal makes a loss up to this point the signal execution is stopped.
Deviation/Slippage - you can set a value like 2 so as to give some flexibility in case of slippage of a few pips here and there when executing trades with your broker, especially if your commodity broker is one of those who re-quotes you. (Get an STP Broker with No-Requotes Policy to guarantee execution of your trades & avoid these slippages).
