INTRODUCTION TO MT4

2INTRODUCTION TO MT4

A KEY PART OF YOUR TRADING EXPERIENCE WILL BE THE TRADING PLATFORM THAT YOU USE - EVEN EXPERIENCED TRADERS WON’T ENJOY THEIR TRADING IF THEIR PLATFORM IS NOT USER FRIENDLY. THE LAYOUT, FEATURES AND TOOLS OF YOUR PLATFORM WILL AFFECT WHAT YOU CAN OR CANNOT DO. GENERALLY, THE LESS INTIMIDATING THE LAYOUT THE BETTER.

WE’VE TAKEN THIS INTO CONSIDERATION AND HAVE MADE PROVIDING A USER-FRIENDLY AND FEATURE RICH PLATFORM A PRIORITY. THE PURPOSE OF THIS MODULE IS TO ASSIST YOU WITH GETTING STARTED WITH MT4 (META TRADER 4).

What we’ll cover:- How to place and close a trade on our platform- How to enter stop loss and take profit order- How to choose the instrument(s) you want to trade- How to make sense of the figures in the MT4 terminal- How to select and add technical indicators

LET’S GET GOING.

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5.1 GETTING STARTED WITH MT4

By now, you should have successfully downloaded and installed the MT4 software on your device (laptop, computer, tablet etc). If you have not yet done this, you can download the platform from your Login Lounge, or visit Uprise.com. Once you have downloaded the software the only requirement is a working internet connection. Regardless of whether you start with your demo account or go straight to your live account, once you have set up MT4 it starts receiving live market data.

If you are having difficulties downloading or installing the platform please call us on 011 783 7010 or email support@uprise.com and we’ll assist you. Alternatively, we can help you get set up when you come in for training.

Don’t let your new platform intimidate you. We’re about to walk through it together so that you are able to make sense of the information in front of you and the platform becomes easier to understand.

LOGGING IN Once installed, you will be prompted to log in:

• Login- Input your Demo or Live account number• Password- Input the password you chose during registration• Server- Select Live or Demo based on which you’re starting off with. - Please note: You won’t be able to trade in your Live account until you’ve been FICA verified. Please check your Login Lounge or contact us to find out more.

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5.2 GENERAL LAYOUT OF MT4

Once you’ve logged into MT4, you may feel like freaking out. Don’t. There might be a lot of information in front of you, but let’s break down what it is and how you can use it.

The platform can be divided into five major areas:

1 - Toolbar

2 - Market Watch

3 - Chart

Window(s)

4 - Navigator

5 - Terminal

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TOOLBAR The toolbar is at the top of the platform. It gives you quick and easy access to everything you need to control the entire platform. This is your ‘steering wheel’.

Some things you can do from the Toolbar:

• Create a new buy or sell order;• Change how you view a chart;• Change time periods. You can view chart data on a minute by minute - M1, five minute basis - M5, hourly - H1, weekly - W1 or monthly – MN;• Choose a technical indicator and add it to a chart;• Use different drawing tools.

MARKET WATCHYour Market Watch window is on the left-hand side of the platform below the top toolbar. It provides you a list of the currency pairs, indices, shares and commodities that are available on the platform. For each instrument that you are interested in trading Market Watch will show you:

• The symbol, e.g. EURUSD• The “bid” and “ask” prices

Some things you can do from the Market Watch window:

• Choose the instrument(s) you want to trade;• Open the historic price chart for the instrument you want to trade on; • Get information about particular instruments e.g. available lot sizes, pip value, spreads, minimum order quantity;• Add the spread column next to the ‘bid’ and ‘ask’ columns. This shows you how the spread is varying over time;• Organise instruments in order of how often you trade them so the ones you trade the most appear at the top;• View all the instruments (using ‘Show all’ feature) or hide some instruments using the ‘Hide” feature.

In order to do any of the above:

1. Right click on the instrument you are interested in.2. A drop down menu will appear with a list of options and features.3. Click on the feature you would like to use.

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NAVIGATORThe “Navigator” window is located below the Market Watch window. This allows you to explore your accounts and select different technical indicators.

TERMINALThe Terminal window is at the bottom of the screen, right below the Navigator window. It provides a summary of what is going on with your trading account at any given time, also referred to as your trading activity.

The terminal:

• Lists and allows you to view all the trades you have currently open;• Shows you the profit or loss that an open trade is making;• Can be used to close open trades;• Can be used to see your account balance; • Lets you check account or trade history;• Shows any alerts or mail that comes into your mailbox. You will still need to check your email inbox for any emails from us.

Below is a list of some important figures in the terminal and what they mean:

CHART WINDOWThe chart window is the area right at the centre of your platform screen. Its main purpose is to show you how the price of an instrument, e.g. a currency pair, has moved over time.

In addition to showing you how price has moved you can also customise the chart area by changing the size and format of the charts, drawing on the chart and adding technical indicators. As you spend more time using MT4 you will discover more features and things you can do in the chart window area.

In order to do any of the above:

1. Right click on the instrument you are interested in. 2. A drop down menu will appear, with a list of options/features.3. Click on Chart Window.

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If you need to keep an eye on a number of different currency pairs at the same time you can open multiple charts in this window which will show as tabs.

Each tab has a label with the name of the currency pair and the time frame that you are viewing. You can navigate between the charts by double-clicking on the tab of the chart you want to look at.

e.g. EURUSD_H1 means that the currency pair you are watching is the Euro/US Dollar and viewing the data in 1 Hour intervals.

5.3 HOW TO PLACE AN ORDER TRADE

If you haven’t placed your first trade you are probably now ready (and itching) to do so. There are two easy ways to open a new trade:

a) Using the toolbar

Go to toolbar => click on the “New Order” button.

OR

b) Placing order from Market Watch

Go to market watch => right-click on your preferred currency pair => select “New Trade”;

It doesn’t matter which of the two you use because the next step is the same. Once you’ve clicked ‘New Order’, an order box like the one below will appear. This is where you can specify the details of the order you’d like to place.

The details that you need to enter into the order box include:

• “Symbol” (compulsory) – the currency pair or instrument you want to trade on• “Volume” (compulsory) – the size of your trade e.g. 0.02 = 2 x mini lots• “Stop Loss” (optional) – The price at which you would like to minimise losses• “Take Profit (optional) - The price at which you would like to lock in profits• “Order Type” (compulsory) - For now only select Market Execution Although take profit and stop loss are optional we do encourage beginner traders to make use of them as it forms a crucial part of risk management.

Entering the Take Profit and Stop Loss in the order box may be tricky as you will have to calculate the Take Profit and Stop Loss price levels yourself depending on the number of pips you are willing to gain or lose. Don’t worry, you’ll soon get the hang of this.

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Final step: Once you’ve entered all the compulsory information, your final step in entering the order is clicking “Sell” or “Buy” depending on the direction of your trade.

Once an order has been successfully entered it is now an open order. You can view all your open orders in the Trade tab of the Terminal window.

In the example above, trader Joe only has one trade open. The open trade is a sell trade for 1 standard lot of brent crude oil. He has not made use of a stop loss and/or a take profit. The profit column shows that the trade is currently making a loss as the price has moved against him.

5.4 HOW TO CLOSE A TRADE

If when you want to lock in profits or get out of a losing trade you can do so in the terminal window. Go to the Trade tab of the Terminal window, select the trade in question and close the trade by clicking on the (x) symbol on the left.

Alternatively, you can also close a trade by:Going to the Terminal window => right-clicking on the trade => selecting Close Order.

If you have set up a stop loss and a take profit, the platform will automatically close your trade when it reaches either one of those levels.

5.5 USING TECHNICAL INDICATORS ON MT4

Technical indicators are tools that are used in the technical analysis of the market. Technical analysis involves the study of historical price patterns and trends with the intention of trying to predict future market movements.

If you don’t know what technical indicators are do not worry, look at modules 1-3 of our Beginner’s course or contact our trainer on learn@uprise.com

The platform features over 30 technical indicators and over 20 other analytical tools. To use a technical indicator to analyse a particular currency pair you would do the following:

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(We will use an indicator called ‘MACD’ as an example)

1. Go to the ‘Toolbar’.2. Click on ‘Insert’.3. Select the type of indicator. In this case MACD is an Oscillator.4. Then select MACD.

Once you have the selected the indicator, it will be added to the chart window right below the price data. In the example below the MACD indicator (highlighted in yellow) was added onto the chart window below the EURUSD price data.

5.6 DOING MORE ON MT4

This was an introduction to MT4 to get you started on your trading journey.MT4 is a feature rich platform that allows you to do a whole lot more than we have covered in this module.

We encourage you to spend some time on your demo account in order to learn and practise doing what has been covered in this module.

C ONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE REACHED THE END OF THE FITH MODULE.