MT4 Setup - Get to Know Your MT4 Forex Platform
If you want to learn how to setup the MT4 platform this forex tutorial guide explains the step by step guide on how to setup MT4 for beginners with examples.
The following image below shows the main MT4 platform inter-face. As a beginner trying to learn how to execute orders in the online forex market, the main tool for trading the market is the MT4 platform software. This is the trading software that you will connect to your forex broker with & execute forex trading transactions & monitor your trading account balance.
The MetaTrader 4 platform for trading forex is provided for free through the various Forex broker websites. This MetaTrader 4 software looks like the examples below:
Learn MetaTrader 4 Platform - Forex MT4 Setup - MT4 Guide for Beginner Traders
Main Areas of this MT4 software as displayed above are:
- Navigation Menus
- Toolbars
- Chart Window
- Navigator
- Market Watch
- Terminal
- Connection Bars
For this MetaTrader 4 Setup tutorial we shall look at a brief introduction for each of these:
1. MT4 Navigation Menus MT4 Setup - MT4 Guide for Beginner Traders
The MetaTrader 4 navigation menus are:
- File
- View
- Insert
- Charts
- Tools
- Window
- Help
These MT4 menus are the main navigation menus which can be used to navigate the MT4 platform software. As a forex beginner you can start by just clicking any of these MT4 platform navigation menus to familiarize yourself with the various buttons that are arranged as sub menus within these navigation menus.
These MT4 platform navigation menus will be discussed in details in the next MT4 setup tutorials about navigation menus.
2. MT4 Tool Bars MT4 Setup - MT4 Guide for Beginner Traders
The MetaTrader 4 tool bars are used to manipulate trading charts, either by placing indicators, line studies, change time frames and load a template from a list of saved templates on the MetaTrader 4 platform.
These MT4 tool bars will be discussed on other MT4 setup tutorials which will outline each button on this tool bar and how to add and customize these MT4 tool bars.
3. MT4 Chart Window MT4 Setup - MT4 Guide for Beginner Traders
MT4 Chart Panel is the main area where forex currency charts are displayed & trader can interpret the trend direction of a currency whether up or down, place forex indicators for technical analysis & even place trading orders from these forex charts.
4. MT4 Navigator MT4 Setup - MT4 Guide for Beginner Traders
MT4 Navigator will contain information about forex trading accounts, whether practice account or real account, this window will also have a list of all the MetaTrader 4 indicators as well as Expert-Advisors & scripts.
A trader can choose which trading account to sign in by expanding the Accounts menu, select an technical indicator by expanding the indicator menu or select an Expert Advisor by expanding the Expert-Advisor menu.
4. MT4 Market Watch MT4 Setup - MT4 Guide for Beginner Traders
MT4 Market watch is used to show streaming quotes for forex currency pairs. This can list as many quotes provided by your Forex broker or a few chosen by a trader. To save inter net bandwidth, right-click inside the market watch window & choose 'Hide All', so as to hide the currencies that you are not transacting and save on inter-net bandwidth.
6. MT4 Terminal MT4 Setup - MT4 Guide for Beginner Traders
This is window that is like the bank account trade area for your forex currency transactions, on this window you can view your balance, profit and losses statement, equity, margin used also retrieve a copy of all your forex trades transactions history.
This will also list all open trades & calculate all the profit and loss in real time as a currencies move upward or down.
7. MT4 Connection Bar MT4 Setup - MT4 Guide for Beginner Traders
Red bars are for no connectivity, green bars show that there is connection to the servers & trade orders can be set. These MT4 connection bars should always be green when one logged into their demo account or real account.
These main areas form the MT4 Platform Setup tutorial and will be the main areas to be covered in detail in the next learn MT4 platform tutorials. For now it is best to download MT4 software and familiarize yourself with the MT4forex trading software interface.
Why MT4 Forex Software is Required for Placing Trade Transactions with Brokers
MetaTrader 4 software is the software which is used to access the currency market and interpret these currencies using technical analysis. There are various reasons why a trader requires to use a good forex platform. A good forex 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 order when trading online a trader needs to use a trading software that will connect to the trading servers of their forex broker & allow them to open & close orders. Good forex softwares will connect with ease to the brokers' servers & allow traders to place orders at any time from desktop computer.
To analyze forex charts & currencies using technical analysis
To place buy or sell order a trader needs to first analyze the direction of a currency pair. This is why all good forex softwares provide technical tools such as price charts, technical indicators & various different timeframes from which one-can interpret price moves using the chart timeframes of their choice.
MetaTrader 4 Forex Trading Platform Setup - MetaTrader 4 Guide for Beginner Traders
From the above MetaTrader 4 software inter-face, summary of all information required by a trader is provided on this MetaTrader 4 interface
- Connection - connectivity to the broker servers
- Charts - price charts that display prices
- Tool bars - toolbars to add tools & technical analysis technical indicators
- Market Watch - for displaying available financial instruments
- Data window - provides trading account data & other indicator data
- Exchange rates - shows current market price of a currency pair
- Menu bar - Shows all menu items in MetaTrader 4 platform
MetaTrader 4 Forex Trading Platform Setup - MetaTrader 4 Guide for Beginner Traders
