MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 are still both live on retail forex today, sixteen years after MetaQuotes released the successor. MT4 launched in 2005 and became the default retail forex terminal because brokers license it to clients and traders could write their own scripts and robots on it. MetaQuotes shipped MetaTrader 5 in 2010, but adoption was slow — by 2013 most brokers still ran MT4, and many still offer both terminals side by side. That is why the MT4-vs-MT5 question is not about an old platform dying; it is about which terminal your broker gives you, which tools your strategy actually uses, and what you lose or gain if you move.

The comparison below sticks to what MetaQuotes itself documents on its official platform pages. One caveat before the numbers: your broker's server configuration decides what actually reaches your account. A platform may support unlimited symbols in theory, but you will only ever see the instruments your broker lists on its server. Feature counts describe the platform, not your trading conditions.

Order types and execution

On paper the difference is modest but real. MetaTrader 4 supports two market order types, four pending order types, and two stop orders plus a trailing stop. MetaTrader 5 keeps the same market and stop orders but adds two more pending orders — the stop-limit variants — for six pending types in total. If you use buy stop-limit or sell stop-limit entries, that alone forces MT5; otherwise the order set is close enough that most discretionary traders will not notice.

Execution is similar. MT4 offers three execution modes; MT5 offers four — Instant, Request, Market and Exchange execution — the fourth existing mainly for exchange-traded instruments. MetaQuotes' own comparison table also lists partial order filling policies: MT5 handles Fill or Kill, Immediate or Cancel and Return policies explicitly, which matters more for institutional-style order handling than for a typical retail market order.

Charts and analysis

This is where MT5 pulls ahead on paper. MT4 gives you 9 timeframes, 23 analytical objects and 30 built-in technical indicators. MT5 gives 21 timeframes, 44 graphical objects and 38 built-in indicators, and lets you open up to 100 charts at once. MT5 also supports market depth with Time & Sales exchange data. If you run many timeframes simultaneously or want the built-in economic calendar next to your charts, MT5 is the stronger analysis environment.

The catch is the ecosystem. Thousands of free and paid indicators and robots exist for both platforms, and the MT4 Market remains the largest store of trading applications — MetaQuotes' own MT4 page advertises 1,700+ robots and 2,100+ indicators. A custom indicator you rely on in MT4 does not automatically exist in MT5: MQL4 and MQL5 are different languages, and code does not port without rewriting.

Position accounting: netting vs hedging

This is the structural difference most likely to affect how you trade. MT4 accounts are hedging accounts — you can hold a buy and a sell on the same instrument simultaneously, and multiple positions on one instrument stack as separate entries. MT5 supports both accounting systems: the netting system (one consolidated position per instrument, standard on exchanges) and the hedging option. Which one applies depends on how your broker opens your MT5 account, so this is a question to ask before depositing, not after. A trader moving an MT4 hedging strategy onto an MT5 netting account will get merged positions and completely different margin behaviour.

Market coverage and symbol limits

MetaQuotes positions MT4 as "the best forex trading platform" and MT5 as a multi-asset platform covering forex, futures, options, stocks and bonds. The official comparison table lists 1,024 symbols for MT4 and unlimited symbols for MT5. In practice the difference shows up at brokers that offer exchange instruments alongside forex; a pure forex broker on MT5 will not suddenly give you stocks. What the limit means for you: on MT4 a broker's full instrument list is capped at 1,024 symbols, which rarely binds for forex but can bind for multi-asset offerings.

Strategy testing and automation

For anyone running Expert Advisors, this is the biggest practical gap. MetaQuotes' comparison table marks the MT5 Strategy Tester as multi-threaded, multi-currency and able to use real ticks; the MT4 tester is single-threaded. MT4 backtests one symbol at a time on one thread, so multi-currency strategies are approximated rather than simulated, and historical tick quality depends on what the broker's server recorded. MT5's tester also lets you test Market products in visual mode before purchase. If you develop or heavily evaluate EAs, MT5 is the more capable testing environment — assuming your broker supplies real tick history.

MT5-only conveniences

MetaQuotes' table adds several smaller MT5-only features: a built-in economic calendar, embedded MQL5.community chat, in-platform funds transfer between accounts, and an email system that supports attachments. None of these are decisive alone, but they reduce the number of external tools you need open alongside the terminal.

How to choose

• If your broker only offers MT4, the decision is made for you — platform availability is a broker-level choice, not a trader-level one.

• If you trade discretionary forex with standard order types, either terminal does the job; the differences that matter are broker conditions (spreads, execution, regulation), not the terminal version.

• If you need stop-limit orders, many concurrent timeframes and charts, the economic calendar in-platform, or serious multi-currency EA backtesting, MT5 fits.

• If you rely on a specific MT4 indicator or EA ecosystem and hedging-style position stacking, staying on MT4 is a legitimate choice — MT5 code will not simply copy across.

• Before opening an account, ask the broker which accounting mode its MT5 accounts use (netting or hedging), and whether it supports both terminals.

One thing the platform choice does not change: trading costs, spreads, swap rates and execution quality come from the broker, not from MetaTrader's version number. A newer terminal does not mean cheaper trading, and a 2026-dated platform feature list says nothing about how your broker fills orders. Evaluate the broker first; the terminal is the tool you do it with.