5 Best MetaTrader 4 (MT4) Brokers to Trade CFDs 2023

Summary

MT4 has been in the forex market since 2005. In this article, you will learn what makes brokers for MT4 legit and safe and how to open an account with an MT4 broker. Brokers with MT4 obtain licences from different regulatory authorities, depending upon the location of their offices. These brokers allow users to invest and trade a suite of financial instruments on their state-of-the-art trading platforms, all the while offering the best trading and non-trading fees in the region.

This guide includes information regarding the MT4 desktop platform, MT4 app, trading instruments on MT4 brokers, deposit methods, spread and leverage, fees, the safety of MT4 platforms, and many other things related to the best MT4 brokers which will ultimately help you in choosing an MT4 broker that works for you.

What is MetaTrader 4 (MT4) Trading Platform/App?

The MetaTrader4 platform was the first major trading platform developed by MetaQuotes Software in the early 2000s, and was designed specifically for retail trading. It was free for the smaller retail traders and quickly gained popularity among the trading community. MT4, since then, has become a popular platform for exchanging forex and other monetary instruments like CFDs of stocks, indices, commodities, and cryptos.

It has an easy-to-use interface, perfect for laptops and cell phones alike. The platform also provides up-to-date data on any news that might influence the trading markets.

How to use the MT4 platform?

The MT4 platform’s interface is very easy and straightforward, including the accompanying elements:

• File:  Unites setting orders and empowers users to deal with their profiles.
• View: Permits users to oversee windows, toolbars, and programming dialects.
• Insert: Opens a bunch of indicators, lines, and different instruments to apply on any given chart.
• Charts: Contains setting and control orders for charts and indicators.
• Tools: Enables traders to make a new order, control the settings, and so on and so forth.
• Window: Controls Chart windows.

MT4 Orders Types

There are two types of orders supported by the MT4 trading platform. One is a market order, where an asset is bought and sold at the market rate. The other one is a pending order; here, traders can choose the buying/selling prices by defining stop/limit levels. The platform offers two types of request/order execution: instant and market.

Pros and Cons of Trading on MT4

What are MT4 CFD Brokers?

Contract for Difference (CFD) is an agreement between two parties, a buyer and a seller, to exchange the difference between the initial value of the underlying asset when the contract is opened and the value of the same asset at the closing of the contract.

MT4 CFD brokers serve as intermediaries between traders and the financial market. Clients get access to financial markets through trading platforms provided by CFD brokers. Trading terminals are equipped with trading instruments and technical analysis tools that assist in trading. They also offer varied services, trading instruments, and trading conditions. Capital.com is one of the best MT4 CFD brokers in the world, providing competitive CFD trading conditions to its clients. It offers CFD trading in currencies, commodities, indices, stocks, and cryptocurrencies. The commission for trading is very low and clients can trade with up to 10x leverage.

Factors to Consider when Choosing an MT4 broker

Every MT4 CFD Broker has different features and offers different services, which makes it really difficult to choose between them. It doesn’t help that the MT4 brokers’ list is very long as lots of brokers offer the MT4 trading platform to their clients. To compare the different MT4 brokers and decide which one is best for the trader themselves, the trader must take into account the following factors:

Regulation

MT4 trading brokers will always be authorised and regulated by regulatory bodies around the globe (if they operate internationally) because each region has its own set of rules and requirements. It is compulsory for authorised MT4 brokers to adhere to these regulations while offering their services to the residents of the respective countries. Below you will find examples of such regulatory jurisdictions:

• Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)
• Financial Services Agency (FSA)
• Cyprus Security Exchange Commission (CYSEC)
• Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)

Capital.com is an example of a trustworthy MT4 broker, that is, one of the top MT4 brokers out there. It is regulated and authorised by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC). Moreover, it retains a cross-border licence from the CySEC to offer its services in member states of the European Economic Area and outside of it.

Trading Instruments

A trading instrument is a kind of asset that a trader can buy or sell. These assets can be anything from shares in a business, to precious metals like gold and commodities like crude oil. Instruments aren’t exclusive to physical assets either – they include indices and CFDs, which are more virtual and speculative. Instruments like commodities and forex tend to be more volatile, with the highest risk and reward ratio of any instrument. Capital.com, for example, offers 6,100+ instruments from a wide range of asset classes like stocks, indices, commodities, ETFs, forex, and cryptocurrencies.

Trading Platform

Apart from the MT4 trading platform, top MT4 brokers will also have their own platforms, which may be desktop-based and/or mobile-based. All with the intention to make the process of placing a trade easy for you. Some brokers with MT4 may also have web versions of their trading platforms so that it is possible for you to access your trading activity without going through all the trouble of freeing up storage.

Spreads

It is common knowledge that a spread refers to the difference between the bid (sell) and ask (buy) price in any quote. For example, the EUR/USD quote is 1.1785/1.1786. There are two types of spreads: a fixed one that does not move per market conditions, and a variable one, which fluctuates according to market volatility.

Market makers decide for themselves how much they want to charge traders. EUR/USD is the most liquid forex pair and generally commands the lowest price difference between the bid and ask prices. Capital.com quotes the EUR/USD pair with 0.6 pips spread. The forex markups are quite competitive compared to other market makers. Competitive spreads on most MT4 platforms are usually between 0.4 pips to 0.6 pips, and raw spreads of 0.0 pips generally come with a commission cost.

Leverage

The terms ‘Leverage’ and ‘Margin’ are often used in the same context. Forex traders have access to leverage made accessible in their margin accounts. The maximum leverage on MT4 brokers is dependent entirely on the brokers themselves. Let’s take Capital.com as an example. A trade with an investment of $500 and a leverage of x5 has an exposure of $2,500. This means that the margin is $500 or 20%.

Execution Speed

Order execution speed is the process of filling the requested buy or sell order of the trader. The best MT4 brokers show traders on their trading platforms whether the prices are fair and accurate. It’s important to find a broker that is committed to execution quality and transparency. In other words, brokers with MT4 should be committed to treating the traders fairly when it executes the orders. So when choosing an MT4 broker, it’s important to keep in mind the execution speed the broker is offering. Capital.com, one of the best MT4 brokers out there, in terms of execution speed. Due to the levels of volatility affecting both price and volume, Capital.com seeks to provide client orders with the fastest execution speeds reasonably possible.

Trading Instruments Available on MT4 CFD Brokers

With MT4, traders may trade all kinds of CFDs. Forex pairs, indices, and commodities are only a few examples of trading options traders can have. On the MT4 trading platform, there is a wide range of products.

Forex

Forex trading is defined as the trading of currencies from different countries against each other. Each broker with MT4 has its list of forex pairs that can be traded, some offer more than others. For example, traders at Capital.com have access to over 138 pairs. Popular forex pairs include EUR/USD, AUD/USD, GBP/USD, USD/JPY, and USD/CAD.

Commodities

These assets can be traded on MT4 brokerages, just as easily offline. Commodities are goods of value with consistent quality and massive production volume by different suppliers. They can be divided into two: hard and soft commodities.

Hard ones include natural resources that are obtained through mining or other similar procedures, the most common one being oil. Soft commodities, on the other hand, constitute mainly agricultural goods such as wheat, corn, sugar, and coffee.

Indices

This is used to keep track of a country’s economy’s performance levels or even a specific market sector. The best MT4 brokers offer many indices, each made up of lots of shares. You will find FTSE, DAX, and ASX to be the most popular indices in the market.

Cryptocurrencies

While it hasn’t been long since cryptocurrencies rose to popularity, MT4 brokers have already begun providing access to industry favourites like Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ethereum to their clients.

Cryptocurrencies are essentially digital currencies that are not controlled by any one central entity but rather by a decentralised system, which automatically verifies and records the transactions in a database.

ETFs

An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a basket of securities that are purchased and sold like company stock during the opening hours of a stock exchange. An example of an index ETF is the SPDR S&P 500 (SPY). The “Spider” is the oldest surviving and most widely known ETF that tracks the S&P 500 Index.

MT4 Platforms Types

One of the key tools of trade is undoubtedly the trading platform. Among the most commonly used trading platforms in the whole entire world is the MetaTrader 4 (MT4) – initially released in 2005 –  developed by none other than MetaQuotes Software. There are two types of MT4 trading platforms available to traders:

• Desktop MT4 Trading platform
• Mobile MT4 Trading platform

Desktop MT4 Trading Platform

Nowadays, almost every broker offers the MT4 trading platform to their clients. One of the main reasons why the MT4 platform became so popular was its simplicity and the great features it offered. It is continuously being updated and has new features added to it all the time. Now, the MT4 platform provides a huge range of features.

User Friendly

The MT4 platform is very popular because of its highly user-friendly interface. All the things seem to be placed right where they should be and this is the very reason behind its success. Its charts section is right in the centre, taking up the most amount of space on the platform.

Multiple Accounts

The MT4 trading platform allows traders to trade with multiple accounts. However, you would have to close the platform and restart it each time you wanted to use another account.

One Click Trading

One Click Trading is a quick 1-step process that lets traders execute trades with a single click and no secondary confirmation from the MT4 trader. This function is implemented to simplify the trading process and to reduce the order execution time. It is perfect for more experienced traders that value speed in their operations.

Automated Trading

MT4 offers an automated trading feature via MQL4 IDE. It also allows the integration of automated software from third parties.

Mobile MT4 App

The MT4 mobile app can be downloaded from the Apple App Store on iOS devices and from the Google Play Store on Android devices. It has tons of features, but we will only be discussing a few of them below:

The Quotes Feature

The prices of financial instruments are displayed in the ‘Quotes’ section of the app. This feature allows traders to view real-time pricing information of different financial instruments. Quotes display the following price information:

• Names of financial instruments
• Ask and Bid prices
• Spreads
• Time of the last quote
• Lowest Ask price for the current day (Low)
• Highest Bid price for the current day (High)

The Charts Formatting

A chart shows price changes over time. Traders can apply various built-in indicators to a chart to analyse the market. Some key things which traders can use to easily modify the charts in MT4 are: Scrolling, Scaling, Full-Screen Mode, Symbol. Bar Chart, Candlestick, Line Charts, and Indicator.

What Payment Methods Do MT4 Brokers Accept?

Traders using MT4 can send money via wire transfer, online check, or from an existing bank account into their trading accounts. In most cases, traders can send their MT4 brokers a personal check or a bank check.

One of the fastest ways to send funds to your MT4 broker is through virtual banks. One has to sign up and create an account with the bank. Capital.com traders have more than 5 different payment methods they can use to deposit. Traders can also use electronic methods or take a more classic approach and deposit via wire transfer. Surprisingly, Capital.com is one of the few MT4 CFD Brokers that offer PayPal as a payment method. As a result, instant deposits to your account balance are possible.

The following methods are available at Capital.com: Credit card, Debit card, Paypal, Sofort, Trustly, Skrill, Wire Transfer, Neteller, WebMoney, and Union Pay.

It’s important to remember that the MT4 trading platform has nothing to do with the payment methods a broker chooses to accept.

How much do I need to Start Trading CFDs on MT4 Brokers?

Not every MT4 broker has the same minimum deposit policy. Some MT4 brokers might need you to deposit a significant amount before you can start trading, while others might have no such requirement. It should be noted that most brokers with MT4 that want very little in the way of a minimum deposit are generally referred to as “market makers”. There’s no one minimum deposit amount for all brokers as every broker has a different one.

MetaTrader 4 is the most widely used trading platform in the world, but if we talk about eToro, it does not offer its clients the MT4 platform. While on the other side, Capital.com is a CFD broker that offers the choice of multiple terminals to its users including the MT4. At the moment, Capital.com offers the minimum deposit of $20, there is an exception for deposits made via bank wire. The minimum deposit for bank wire is $250. If you need to deposit funds for trading purposes, we’ve described the method below.

How to Deposit Funds?

MetaTrader 4 is a platform solely used to trade by opening and completing transactions. Due to technical analysis reasons, there is no option for direct money deposit.

Traders must open a broker account to make deposits into MT4. Since Metaquotes allows brokers to use their platform for trading, adding funds and making withdrawals can only be made through a broker.

After making a deposit, the trader’s money will be deposited to his MetaTrader 4 account immediately, enabling him to start trading. Payments are handled by the broker, not by MT4. Just the data for currency pairings, equities, futures, and several other instruments are provided by MT4.

Deposit Funds

The most common ways to deposit money into your MT4 account are through PayPal, Mastercard/Visa, Bitcoin, Wire-transfer, Skrill, and Neteller. The best MT4 brokers, like capital.com, allow traders/clients to deposit funds in their accounts using some of these payment methods. Below we’ve outlined the deposit funding procedure on capital.com.

On the dashboard, you will find an option to fund your account. You simply have to choose the amount you wish to deposit, the payment method, and lastly the payment information. After your transaction has been successfully completed, the funds will appear in your account.

Fees and Commission on MT4 Brokers

Access to the MT4 trading platform is often free, however, MT4 brokers may charge a commission sometimes. The amount may be seen in the “charges” box and may change based on your MT4 broker. When utilising wire transfers to withdraw money from the platform, traders can potentially incur fees. Many of the best MT4 brokers charge both fees and commission. The fees fall under two broad categories: trading and non-trading fees.

Trading Fees

Trading Fees are defined as potential costs and expenditures associated with investing in Fund Assets, including but not limited to transaction fees and commissions, which are further explained below.

Commission

Traders in Europe have it a bit different because their commission is usually based on the volume of the trade. It is worth bearing in mind that both buying and selling come with different commission rates. Furthermore, it is not uncommon for MT4 brokers to have a minimum charge that must be met before a trade can be placed.

On the other hand, the US brokers charge a flat fee per trade as a commission. However, it can also vary depending on the traded number of shares. Mostly, the brokers with MT4 charge a fee per share. So for example, if you buy $500 worth of shares at $0.01/share you will have to pay them a commission of $5 (500*0.01). Whereas, purchasing stocks priced at $100 will only charge about $1as commission.

Finally, the amount you pay in commission is also dependent on the type of asset you wish to trade. Stocks and Commodities might have different commission rates than indices for example. However, if the cost of this charge is too high for you there are plenty of zero-commission brokers out there, which can help reduce the costs of trading for you.

Spreads

You will recall that a spread is the difference between the bid and ask price of a security or asset. Spreads aren’t seen as something MT4 brokerages charge for executing orders but rather a product of market forces – meaning they are variable.

Some brokers, such as stockbrokers, do not alter spreads in accordance with market dynamics and refrain from charging additional brokerage costs. While some do include brokerage costs in these spreads when quoting them, most notably CFD brokers. Therefore, the cost gets higher due to a wider than necessary spread. Fortunately, to lessen the burden on traders, these types of brokers usually do not charge any commission.

Swap Fees

Trading a CFD instrument might also cost swap fees. It can be positive or negative depending on the nature of interest in the contract. If the trader makes interest from the contract, it is a positive swap. Whereas, when a trader pays interest on a contract, it is a negative swap.

Non-Trading Fees

Traders might also incur non-trading fees when trading on MT4 trading platforms. Here are some of the common non-trading fees charged by the best MT4 brokers.

Inactivity Fee

This is incurred by those investors that haven’t engaged in any buying or selling activities on their live accounts, for a period of time determined by the MT4 trading brokerages themselves. This can be easily avoided if you familiarise yourself with the broker’s inactivity fee policies, and make sure to place at least one trade before time runs out.

Currency Conversion Fee

When a transaction is made with a currency other than the base currency of an account, a currency conversion fee is charged.

Download/Setup/Subscription Fees

MT4 brokers might sometimes charge their clients a one-time fee for downloading their platforms. Other costs that you could come across include setup and subscription fees.

Deposit and Withdrawal Fees

When making a deposit or withdrawal, the brokerage or entity the trader is using, reserves the right to charge a small fee for every transaction made. One thing should be noted, not all brokers charge these fees.

How is MT4 different from MT5?

Traders have most likely heard of the MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 platforms, but they may not understand the difference. It is not possible to know all of the trading platforms as there are thousands of options available in the market. However, MT4 and MT5 platforms have maintained their status and reputation among all platforms with respect to their highly advanced features. Let us see how both platforms differ from each other.

MT4

MT4 is a multi-functional and user-friendly trading platform that allows users to customise the interface to their needs. Below are some of the features of the MT4 platform.

Technical Indicators

MT4 offers 30 built-in technical indicators.

Timeframes

MT4 only offers 9 timeframes. These include 4 timeframes of minutes (M1, M5, M15, M30), 2 timeframes on hourly basis (H1, H4), and one daily (D1), weekly (W1), & monthly timeframe (MN).

Order Types

MT4 Trading platform offers four types of orders. These include buy stop, buy limit, sell stop, and sell limit.

Built-in Economic Calendar

There is no built-in Economic Calendar in MT4.

MT5

MetaTrader 5 is a web-based trading platform. It is specifically designed to help financial traders automate trading. Traders can use trading robots, fundamental analysis, and signals available on the platform. Web trading, algorithmic trading, mobile trading, and professional and qualified analysis are important features.

Technical Indicators

To assist traders in gaining insight into the market, MT5 offers them 38 built-in technical indicators.

Timeframe

The MT5 platform features  21 timeframes in total: minute (M1, M2, M3, M4, M5, M6, M10, M12, M15, M20, M30), hourly (H1, H2, H3, H4, H6, H8, H12), daily (D1), weekly (W1), and Monthly (MN).

Order Type

There are six types of pending orders available on MT5 and they include buy stop, buy limit, sell stop, sell limit, buy stop limit and sell stop limit.

Built-in Economic Calendar

MT5 offers a built-in Economic Calendar with latest and useful information regarding macroeconomic events.

Are MT4 Brokers Regulated?

The best MT4 brokers are always authorised and regulated by regulatory bodies around the globe. Each region has its own set of rules and requirements that brokers must adhere to before offering their services to the country’s residents. Capital.com, one of the best MT4 CFD brokers out there, is regulated by ASIC, FSA, CYSEC and FCA.

The following are some regulatory bodies explained briefly.

Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)

ASIC is the regulatory body for all brokers in Australia. The functions of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission include not only the regulation of the financial service sector but also enforcing laws that protect investors and consumers at the same time. The official website of ASIC offers services and support to both consumers and businesses.

Financial Services Agency (FSA)

The Financial Services Agency was set up in July 2000. This regulatory body is a government agency which has been established to ensure the smooth functioning of the financial system of Japan. The financial regulator does not only oversee the securities, banking, and exchange sector but many other sectors as well.

Cyprus Security Exchange Commission (CYSEC)

Cyprus, being an EU member state, has made sure that its financial regulations are in agreement with the European MiFID financial harmonisation law. For any trading broker to begin offering their financial services and products in the country of Cyprus, a valid licence must be obtained from the nation’s regulatory body: the CYSEC.

Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)

Nearly all individuals and corporations offering, selling, or even simply promoting financial services or products in the UK have to be authorised and regulated by the FCA.

FCA was set up in 2013 and since then it has been a regulatory body for more than 50,000 entities. There are some requirements that trading platforms looking to offer their services in the UK must meet before they can be granted authorization by the FCA. The FCA then continues to supervise the operations of these firms for as long as they operate within UK borders, all in an effort to ensure that standards and rules are met with due diligence.

Furthermore, in case any broker under their jurisdiction files for bankruptcy and shuts down, the FCA provides compensation to all the investors involved. Therefore, it is important to ensure that the best MT4 broker a UK-based trader chooses, is regulated by the FCA.

Are MT4 Brokers Safe?

Yes! Most brokers with MT4 trading are safe, given that they have adequate regulation, compensation, and other policies in place – among other things – to protect client funds.

Negative Balance Protection

Negative balance protection is another security measure adopted by many brokers to ensure that clients are never in debt to the firm. Under this scheme, the broker empties the client’s account once the trader starts losing more funds than he had initially deposited. MT4 CFD brokers will only store funds in top banks to minimise the risk of losing them. All funds are safely stored in these banks. The best MT4 brokers like Capital.com offer negative balance protection by keeping client accounts segregated in banks, to ensure the safety of their clients’ funds. These bank accounts are used at the time of insolvency.

Compensation Policy

In the event that the broker goes bankrupt, clients are reimbursed the amount they’d lost (up to a certain extent) given that the MT4 broker is regulated and has satisfactory compensation policies in place. For instance, with the FSCS and DCS, traders are entitled to a compensation of up to £85,000 and 100,000 € respectively, if the bank goes into insolvency.

What Reddit & Quora Say About MT4 Platform & App

Reddit

Reddit users have different views on the MT4 Platform & App. This particular Reddit user is satisfied with the MT4 platform. In his/her opinion, it is very easy to learn and use. The user states that it really does depend on “what you need from your platform”.

This other Reddit user is of the opinion that MT4 has a wider range of indicators but TradingView is easier for beginners.

In response to being asked about his opinion on the different trading platforms, this particular Reddit user pressed that “MT4 has more sophisticated indicators” compared to other platforms.

Quora

Francesco De Luca, an IT Security Specialist who also happens to be a Quora user, is in love with the MT4 platform. He is very satisfied with it and in his post, he describes some of the best features MT4 offers to its traders like automated trading, one click dealing, custom indicators and many more.

Ritesh Kumar, another Quora user and a forex trader, believes that there’s a possibility of the platform causing personal computers to malfunction or freeze, if ever the number of transactions increase and the load gets too heavy. But he goes on to explain that this disadvantage is mostly covered because of the MT4 tools now available on smartphones.

This particular Quora user seems to be very satisfied with the MT4 trading platform. He states that the MT4 platform has been successfully running for over a decade now because of its simplicity and flexibility. He also mentions that what he likes the most about MT4 is that it gives a lot of opportunities to traders to customise it according to their experience level.

Bottom Line

Firstly, the best MT4 brokers provide access to a suite of assets of different types. The world’s top-performing forex pairs, shares, indices, cryptocurrencies, indices, and commodities are all listed on their platform – ready for traders to pick the one they like and begin trading with it.

Secondly, MT4 brokers provide many methods to deposit a fund. They offer state-of-the-art platforms equipped with the latest features and the fastest execution speeds. They also charge the most competitive trading and non-trading fees in the industry.

Thirdly, MT4 brokers are regulated by all sorts of reputable institutions which not only removes any fear of getting exploited but also promises traders the very best compensation plan in an event of the broker’s bankruptcy. Furthermore, schemes like negative protection balance spare clients from any additional anxiety.

Additionally, the availability of leverage trading can help traders have more margin to trade with.  It also does away with any hindrance, the lack of funds could’ve caused when trading in these volatile markets.