How does MT4 still remain popular in Japan and beyond?

MetaTrader 4 is synonymous with Forex trading in Japan. The platform has been around for decades and maintained its relevance with constant updates, making it the go-to platform for retail currency traders. It also allows trading to other assets such as commodities, indices, and even cryptos. However, there are other reasons as well why MT4 remains wildly popular in Japan and the rest of the world. One such reason is MT4’s support for custom indicators and algorithmic trading. Let’s analyze how MT4 managed to stay relevant for such a long time and why it is so popular across the world.

Decades of experience and market presence

Released in 2005, MT4 has built its reputation over nearly two decades with its constant updates, advanced features, and fast trade execution. The platform is also free and many reputable brokers in Japan offer it for no fees. Traders can open a demo account, download MT4, and start trading and developing strategies. The platform has robust security features as it is constantly updated, ensuring hackers have a hard time finding vulnerabilities.

Despite the introduction of MetaTrader 5, MT4 still remains a beloved trading platform for both brokers and traders in Japan and beyond.

Market share

Many sources indicate that MT4 is widely popular among retail Forex and CFDs traders with around 85% of trades executed using this platform. Even if it was 50% or even 30%, MT4 would still be a major player in retail currency and CFD trading. The platform has huge followers around the world and many retail traders still use MT4 despite the existence of MT5 which is slightly more advanced.

Mobile trading app

MT4 is available for mobile devices on both Android and iOS. The Mobile MT4 app is similar to its pc counterpart but limited in features. However, the app still offers many built-in indicators and chart analysis tools to help traders speculate on financial markets on the go.

User-friendly interface

MT4 is truly easy to use. It does not require a powerful computer and its lightweight design is appealing to both beginners and pros. It has a simple but practical layout, one-click trading, and fast trade execution which is critical for day traders. The platform is very reliable, it rarely lags, and never crashes, making itself a trustworthy ally in financial trading. The platform runs smoothly on even low-powered devices and slower internet speeds, which made it super popular among retail FX traders. Nowadays, internet speed is high and many traders have powerful computers in Japan but in 2005 the internet was not as fast and MT4 was among the few trading platforms that provided reliability and efficiency.

Customization, custom indicators, and EAs

MT4 allows users to customize their interface. It even allows users to change the color scheme of the platform, which was a revolutionary feature when the platform came out. Traders can adjust charts, show or hide navigators and market watches, and make asset charts fullscreen. This makes it easier to focus on the trading process and remove unnecessary information from the screen.

MT4 supports both custom indicators and Expert Advisors (EAs). EAs are automated trading systems that can fully automate trading processes without trader intervention. EAs made MT4 very popular as there are thousands of EAs and custom indicators online for free. The official MT4 store for indicators and EAs is also available and popular among Japanese traders.

Broker adoption and community

One reason why MT4 is popular in Japan and beyond is that many reputable brokers adopted MT4 and still provide it to their traders for free. Since most brokers offered MT4, traders also started to adopt the platform and it quickly rose to popularity due its advanced features.

MT4 has a large community, meaning there are a plethora of resources available to learn how to use it. There are coding guides for MQL5 to develop EAs, indicators, and scripts and there are thousands of free indicators available, which enable traders to test various robots and develop their own strategies. MT4 also has backtesting features for EAs, making it a simple process to test EA on historical data. Everything is accessible within one platform and traders do not need to go anywhere to launch and backtest EAs.