Trading on MetaTrader 4 in 3 Easy Steps

Now that you’ve gotten a basic introduction to the MetaTrader 4 platform in our last blog post, you can familiarize yourself with these three simple steps and follow them to ensure that your trading journey begins on the right foot.

Making informed decisions is an important part of becoming a successful trader. Once you have opened a MetaTrader 4 (MT4) account, we would like to take you through the basics of how to start trading so you feel confident in choosing what instruments to trade as well as placing trades.

Step 1 - Highlighting opportunities

Knowing what and when to trade is the biggest decision traders have to make. There are so many trading strategies out there that sometimes it can cloud your judgement. Many obstacles can get in your way, so it’s important that you don’t over complicate what can already be a complex subject.

Sometimes the world of trading can confuse you with jargon. There are numerous instruments to trade that it may become difficult to decide on which one you should trade at any given time. However, there are a couple of things to remember:

  • You don’t always have to be in a trade. Sometimes not placing a trade can be wiser than placing a trade if the circumstances are not in your favor.
  • When it comes to charting, complicated does not necessarily mean successful.

Step 2 - Placing a trade

Placing a trade often gets overlooked as just something you have to do, but very few people take time to learn exactly what the best way to do it is exactly.

When you place your trade, there are a few things you should think about, rather than just jump straight in:

  • Make sure you are placing the correct trade. If you don’t, you may end up in a situation where you place a trade and then instantly phone the Client Services team because you placed the wrong one. Make sure your instrument, order type and position size are all correct before you place the trade.

Step 3 - Risk management

Risk management is the single most important part of trading. No matter where you go or what you read on trading, there will always be a section on risk management. Using the tools in place such as ‘stop loss’ and ‘take profit’ orders can be the difference between your trading account lasting for five years or five hours.

There is no escaping it – when you trade, you will lose money at one point in your trading journey. Using a ‘stop loss’ is the way you make sure that losing a trade does not end up wiping you out.

Bear in mind:

  • You don’t have to be right every time you trade to make money. Using a ‘stop loss’ will make sure that the times you are wrong your losses are limited. A limit order to take profit will make sure when you are right you make the most of the profit available.
  • Slippage can happen on your stops, which is something that is not unique to the broker you trade with – it happens with everyone. Be sure to be aware that when your stop is about to be filled, you may get slipped and there is not much we as traders can do about it.

If you keep these three general steps in mind, you’ll be better equipped to make cool-headed decisions and have a more enjoyable trading experience. To learn more about trading visit the Equiti Academy and try out strategies on a risk-free demo account.

Margined Forex and CFD trading are leveraged products and can result in losses that exceed deposits. The value of your contract can fall as well as rise, which could result in receiving back less than you originally deposited. Please ensure you understand the risks and be sure to manage your risk exposure effectively. Equiti does not provide any investment advice.

About the author

The author is an expert in the field of multi-asset trading.