Forex for Beginners - Setting up Trading Practice Account and MetaTrader 4
Setting up Demo Practice Account and MT4 Software
To start Forex trading a beginner trader will need to set up a practice forex account which they can practice trading currencies with before opening a real account. A practice trading account commonly referred to as a practice trade account is a forex account provided by a currency broker so that a beginner trader can learn to execute forex trades risk free and at the same time learn the trading platform of the broker.
Platform - learn Forex for Beginners
Before you learn the forex MT4 platform, you will need to download and install the MetaTrader 4 software on your computer.
After downloading MetaTrader 4 platform, you will need to log into your forex practice account that you registered with your forex broker. Register a forex practice account. Once you log into your forex demo account the MT4 platform will look like the screen shot example below.
Explanation
Tool Bars - MT4 toolbars are used to setup the forex tools within the MT4 software
Market watch - Show currency quotes, quotes of currency pairs
Data Window Panel - Shows Trading Account Data
Charts panel - Shows forex currency charts
Charts Tabs - Shows open currency charts in tabs
Terminal - Shows Summary of account balance & open trades
Connection - Shows if the platform software is connected to the broker or not
Exchange Rates - Shows forex chart prices in the form of a graph and also the current price of a currency pair.
Now that as a beginner trader you know what each window of the forex platform represents, let’s look at the charts tool-bar that's mostly used when trading with MT4 platform.
On the charts Navigation Menu there are various Tabs
Menu Bar
File - Open an account, Log into account
View - choose tool-bars to view
Insert - Insert forex tools such as trend lines & other forex chart indicators
Chart - Change Chart settings
Tools - Change MetaTrader 4 software settings
Window - View a chart window for any currency pair or for a different chart time-frame
Help - Topics which explain the documentation of MT4 software
Tool-Bars
Tool Bars are used for quick access to MT4 tools. Each tool bar has a name that represents the types of tools for that tool-bar. As a trader you will have to explore by clicking these buttons to learn what each forex tool is used for. Generally, hovering the mouse pointer over a button will name what the button does.
You can also learn how to customize each toolbar on the forex platform from the learn Forex for Beginners
