How to open and close a trade in Metatrader 4

How to open and close a trade in Metatrader 4

The MT4 platform is designed to make it easy for traders to trade. This means that placing trades on MT4 is a straightforward process. It usually involves two or three button clicks. It can also involve only one click If you so choose.

How do I place orders on Metatrader 4

When you first install MT4, you will usually see standard charts opened such as that of EURUSD. At the upper left corner of the chart, you will see the buy and sell buttons, and you will see the size of the trade between those two buttons at the top. Usually after the first installation, when you click on either one of the “buy” or “sell” buttons, the platform will ask if you want to enable one-click trading. This would mean that you will enter a trade right away

after clicking the buy or sell button without adding other details, if you confirm this feature. If you do not confirm it, then a dialogue box will open once you click either of those two buttons. You can also enable this feature from the options of the platform.

If you do not choose to enable one-click trading, the following dialogue box will appear when you click “buy” or “sell”.

The dialogue box will show you the following items:

  • The volume, which is the size of the trade.
  • The stop loss price level
  • The take profit price level
  • The comment section, which you can use to write which strategy you used to enter this trade, or something else that can help you assess your performance later.
  • The type of the order, which can be either instant execution or pending order (the trade will be entered if and when the market reaches a specific price level).
  • A check box for enabling maximum deviation from quoted price. This helps you avoid high slippage and prevent order execution if the quoted price changes significantly. You can enter the maximum deviation in pips.

Once you set all the details you can click on “buy” or “sell” and the platform should execute the order and give you a confirmation.

Another way to place an order on Metatrader 4 is to click the “new order” button at the top. This will open the same dialogue window, with the same options. You can also right-click anywhere on the chart, and you will see the “new order” option at the top. If you want a shortcut, you can use F9 on the keyboard.

Placing pending orders

As for pending orders, there are two ways to place them. The first is to right click on the chart, and then choose the first option at the top, which can be “sell stop”, or “sell limit” or “buy stop” or “buy limit”. The second is to click on “new trade” at the top, which will show the same dialogue box. You can then choose “pending order” as the type of the order instead of “market execution”

How do you cancel a trade on Metatrader 4?

You have the opportunity to cancel a pending order on Metatrader 4, not an open one. Once an order is open, you can only close it or keep it open.

If you have a pending order on Metatrader 4, you can right-click on it, and then choose delete order. Often you will get a confirmation dialogue box. You can click on delete order then and you will receive confirmation that the order has been deleted.

You can also delete a pending order from the list of orders (terminal), which can be accessed by clicking on the button in the upper bar (as shown in the picture), or clicking (CTRL+t). Pending orders will usually be placed under the current open orders. You can delete any of the pending orders by clicking on the X button next to it. You will get the same dialogue box and confirmation.

As for open orders, you cannot delete them. You can only close them at current market price, regardless of whether you are making a profit or losing. You can also wait for the market to go in your favor, but there is no guarantee that it will.

How to set up stop loss and take profit on Metatrader 4

There are two ways to set up stop loss and take profit orders on Metatrader 4. The first method is to right click on the order line (or right click on the order in the orders list) and then choose “modify”. You will see a dialogue box, which will allow you to set the stop loss and target profit levels. You can choose those levels either based on price levels or based on the distance from the entry point. After you set the desired levels you simply click on modify and it should be all set.

The second, and easier, approach is to simply click on the order line and drag the mouse up or down. When you reach the desired level drop the order and you will see the stop loss or target profit level set. You may need to confirm each order afterward.

How do I set a sell stop on Metatrader 4

A “sell stop” is a pending order on Metatrader 4, which means that you set it and it opens a trade if and when the price reaches a certain point. A sell stop order means you place the order under the current price and wait for the market to go down until it reaches your order level. Once it does it opens a sell trade automatically.

To set a sell stop order on Metatrader 4, you simply right click on the chart. At the top of the list that appears you will see the name of one of the pending orders available on Metatrader, which are: sell stop, sell limit, buy stop, and buy limit. Click on the one that you see (even if it is not a sell stop), and an options window will appear.

Once you click on the “buy limit” option, as in the example above, you will see the following dialogue box.

You can choose the volume (the size of the trade), and then you can change the type of the order from “buy limit” to “sell stop”. You can also set a stop loss, a take profit, and an expiration date for the order. Once you are done you simply click on “place” and you are all set.

How do I change the lot size in Metatrader 4

Metatrader 4 enables you to change the size of your trade easily. You can do this before entering a trade when you are setting the trade parameters.

You can change the lot size from the “new order” options, or from the quotes displayed at the upper left corner of the chart (the lot size is the adjustable number between the ask and the bid prices.

You can also change the lot size from the options after you click on “new order”. The lot size can be seen in the volume of the trade. In the example below, the volume is 0.05 lots, which is 5 micro lots.

Final words

Opening and closing orders and setting stop loss and take profit levels on Metatrader 4 is an easy process. The hard part is conducting rigorous analysis and making the right decisions. Moreover, without proper risk management even the best strategies will fail, so make sure you include a stop loss order at all times.

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