MetaTrader 4 (MT4) Indicators and Add-Ons: A Powerful Toolkit for Market Traders

MetaTrader 4 Indicators

MT4 is great for charting, but charts without indicators aren't particularly useful. Fortunately, MT4 comes with access to thousands of default and customisable indicators when you download MetaTrader 4 (MT4).

The most popular indicators built into the MetaTrader 4 platform are:

Moving Averages

You can identify moving averages in the MetaTrader 4 forex trading platform and use them for a variety of traded assets because they look at average price movements over a specific period. They’re known as lagging indicators because they use past data to identify future support or resistance levels

Relative Strength Index (RSI)

You can judge the potential momentum of a price increase/decrease using RSI. This indicator measures the speed and magnitude of a price change. The result indicates whether the security is over or undervalued.

Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD)

Our guide to MACD provides an in-depth look at this technical indicator and concepts integral to it, such as exponential moving averages. A simple definition of MACD is that it indicates potential entry and exit points based on average price movements over a specific timeframe.

Custom MetaTrader 4 Indicators

In addition to these standard technical indicators, forex MT4 traders have come up with their own indicators and solutions. These indicators are available via a public library inside MetaTrader 4. Some of the most popular custom MT4 indicators are:

• Order history indicator – overlay previous trades onto charts to easily view your past trades’ profits or losses.

• Pivot points indicator – paste pivot points onto charts and set up alerts so you can see potential upward and downward movements.

• High-low indicator – use this indicator to find historical price highs and lows for any timeframe.

• Renko indicator – add Renko blocks to charts so you can see price movements within small periods of time (i.e. movements within the block).

• Chart group indicator – link multiple charts on MT4 so you can simultaneously execute one action across multiple markets/assets.

• Freehand drawing indicator – draw lines manually so you can find potential patterns on MT4 charts.

MetaTrader 4 Add-Ons

While MT4’s user-friendly design makes it accessible for novice traders, its true potential is unlocked with third-party add-ons that cater to more advanced trading needs.  

With a few clicks, you can customise the MT4 platform to meet your specific needs using these popular add-ons:

Trading Automation

You can enable one-click or automatic trades with MetaTrader 4. What’s great about using MetaTrader 4 software through TMGM is that you can develop your own trading strategies and test them. Once you’ve done that, you can execute these strategies via automated trading bots in the MetaTrader 4 (MT4) platform.

Advanced Order Management

You use MetaTrader 4 add-ons, such as T Manager Plus, to execute advanced orders. As a standard, MT4 allows you to make market orders and pending orders, as well as stop loss and take profit orders.

With advanced order management MT4 add-ons, you can analyse the market and execute appropriate orders automatically.

Platform Customisation

You can customise the layout and indicators you use inside the MetaTrader 4 platform. For example, you can customise the colour of candlesticks and indicators on MetaTrader4 charts to reflect your personal trading style.

You can also change the design and size of chart elements. Then, if you want to get more technical and hands-on, you can create your own indicators using the MetaQuotes Language 4 (MQL4) and MetaEditor add-ons.

Market Analysis Tools

Analytics add-ons allow you to unlock the full potential of the MetaTrader 4 trading platform, providing deep insights that can elevate your trading strategies. For example, the Correlation Matrix is a great tool for finding correlation coefficients between currency pairs.

Similarly, you can add Autochartist to MT4. This scans the market for potential trading options based on signals and patterns.

Sentiment Indicators

In addition to the TMGM Market Buzz sentiment tool, you can add extra sentiment indicators to MT4. The MT4 Sentiment Trader add-on gives you an overview of the long and short positions for each currency pair and displays the results as percentages.

Choosing the Right Indicators and Add-Ons

The number of options you get with MetaTrader 4 can be overwhelming. That’s why we recommend starting with the basics. Download the relevant MT4 software for your device and create an account.

After that, place a few simple buy/sell orders and get used to looking at the charts. Once you’ve done that, start adding indicators to your charts.

You can use our Trading Academy to learn more about indicators, as well as different trading strategies for forex, shares, precious metals, and other financial instruments. Once you’re comfortable with the basics, you can consider also using MetaTrader 4 add-ons.

Some suggested indicators to start with are as follows:

• Moving Average (MA)

• Exponential Moving Average (EMA)

• Stochastic Oscillator

• Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD)

• Relative Strength Index (RSI)

After mastering these indicators, start experimenting  with the following:

• Bollinger Bands – a momentum indicator that helps you establish volatility by analysing where prices are high and low in relation to each other.

• Standard Deviation – this indicator allows you to look at prices in relation to an average. A high standard deviation means prices are moving a lot, and it’s potentially riskier. A low standard deviation means prices aren’t moving much, and risk is potentially lower.

• Average Directional Index (ADX)  allows you to use +DI and -DI directional indicators to judge the strength of a trend.

• Fibonacci Retracement – you can look at two extremes on a chart and divide the vertical distance between them using Fibonacci ratios to identify support lines and resistance levels.

• Ichimoku Cloud – this collection of indicators is made up of five lines that show support and resistance levels over different time periods.

Finally, when you’re confident using standard trading indicators, you can consider using custom ones within the MT4 database. The important thing to remember is that you should only make decisions based on things you understand.

If you don’t know what Bollinger Bands are designed to indicate, it’s best to avoid using them until you’ve learned their purpose and nuances. Knowledge is power in trading, so the more informed you are, the less likely you are to make mistakes.

What’s more, you should use indicators that fit your style of trading. Some people like to make low-risk decisions based on moving averages. Others prefer to take bigger risks using RSI indicators. It’s also often a good idea to use multiple indicators to confirm trends and manage expectations.

The point here is that the indicators you use should align with your overall strategy. That’s why MT4 is such a powerful tool. The fact it offers thousands of indicators means you can find the right ones to fit your trading style.

Benefits of Using MT4

With the right knowledge and discipline, you’ve got every chance of making successful trades and getting maximum benefit from the MetaTrader 4 platform. There are also risks involved in trading, and you can learn about them here. As long as you accept this, there are plenty of reasons to use MT4. [DT6] 

Before we wrap up this overview of how to use MT4, here are some of its main benefits:

1. Customisation

You can customise the interface to suit your level of experience and preferences. For example, you can add or remove tools and indicators to create a simple/more advanced set-up.

2. Charts and Indicators

You can view charts and add dozens of default indicators. You can also extract custom indicators from a huge public database.

3. Risk Management

You can deploy risk-management tools by default. Two of the most effective risk-management tools you should use when you’re trading MetaTrader 4 securities are take-profit and stop-loss. Take-profit orders automatically close trades when you reach a predefined profit. Stop-loss orders automatically close trades when your loss reaches a certain amount.

4. Features and Add-Ons

You can add extra features to MT4. Third-party add-ons give you the ability to set up automatic trades, analyse charts in more advanced ways, customise the interface, and get alerts sent directly to the MT4 platform.

5. Track and Export Data

You can keep track of your trading history and export data easily with MT4 add-ons such as Excel RTD. This allows you to have a better overview of your results and gives you the ability to perform your own leaking plugging analysis, i.e. finding places where you’re leaking (aka losing) money. Exporting data is also useful for tax reporting purposes.

Conclusion

The power of MetaTrader 4 comes from its combination of inbuilt features and customisation options. Novice traders can download MT4 and use its default settings to start trading securities safely via any device. Similarly, advanced traders can customise the MetaTrader 4 software by installing third-party add-ons and indicators. We encourage you to explore all of the features at your disposal when you create a live trading account at TMGM and install MT4.