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Richard Berry
- Updated
MT4 brokers provide MetaQuotes’ MetaTrader4 (MT4) platform so you can speculate on financial markets. MT4 brokers have risen in popularity as the platform is considerably cheaper for a broker than developing propriety technology.
Good Money Guide’s experts have tested and ranked the best MT4 brokers in the UK, regulated by the FCA.
Use our comparison of our best-rated MT4 brokers to compare how many markets you can trade, minimum deposits, and what types of accounts are available.
| MT4 Broker | MT4 Markets | Minimum Deposit | GMG Rating | More Info | Risk Warning |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | 84+ | £100 | See Platform | 70% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider | |
 | 91 | £250 | See Platform | 70% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs and spread bets with this provider. | |
 | 1,200 | £1 | See Platform | 75.3% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider | |
 | 200+ | £1 | See Platform | 70% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider | |
 | 2,100 | £1 | See Platform | 73% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider | |
 | 3,981 | £10 | See Platform | 66.95% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider | |
 | 578 | £100 | See Platform | 71% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs and spread bets with this provider |
✅ Methodology: Our trading experts chose the best MT4 brokers based on:
- 30,000+ votes and reviews in the annual Good Money Guide Awards
- Our team’s own experiences testing MT4 brokers with real money
- An in-depth comparison of their stand-out features compared to alternative MT4 brokers
- Good Money Guide’s exclusive interviews with the MT4 broker CEOs and senior management
City Index: Best MT4 Broker For Trading Signals And Analytics
- MT4 markets available: 84+
- Minimum deposit: £100
- MT4 account types: CFDs & spread betting
- Equity overnight financing: 2.5% +/- SONIA
- Pricing: Shares 0.08%, FTSE 1, GBPUSD 0.9
70% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider
Trade on Metatrader 4 with City Index and benefit from tight spreads, fast trade executions and unique trading tools. Download and explore automated trading strategies with Expert Advisors from FX Blue. Choose from nine different EAs to complement your trading style, including Sentiment Trader.
City Index Expert Review: A Huge Range Of Added Value For Traders
Name: City Index
Description: City Index is one of the oldest spread betting and CFD brokers based in the UK. They were founded in 1983 and offer trading in over 13,500 financial markets, to around 126,000 active clients. City Index is currently owned by StoneX, a US brokerage listed on the NASDAQ valued at $1.75bn.
70% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider
Is City Index a good broker?
City Index offers some of the best trading tools and analysis to help traders perform better. Their unique post-trade analytics and voice brokerage service make it an excellent choice for large and frequent traders.
They are one of the oldest and most established trading platforms offering CFDs and financial spread betting, with a huge range of markets to trade, post execution analytical tools and trading signals.
Pricing: Always competitive.
Market Access: Excellent coverage, especially for small-cap stock and exotic currency pairs.
Platform & Apps: Some excellent added value trading signals and portfolio analytics (even though the desktop version can be a bit fiddly).
Customer Service: Lots of experienced dealers to help with any issues.
Research & Analysis: City Index excel here, lots of education, signals and analysis.
Some of the best trader tools around
I opened my first City Index account way back in 2008, when they were one of only a handful of spread betting firms catering to high net worth traders in the City of London. Back then when I was a derivatives broker at MF Global, City Index used to hedge their CFD business through us so I could see they always had a fairly sophisticated client base. But over the years, as traders and investors have become more educated and akin to taking more risk, City Index now takes on more and more private clients.
If you’re thinking about trading with City Index, but haven’t quite made up your mind yet, I’ve tested all their trading platform’s features, visited their offices and interviewed their senior management for my review to hopefully provide enough information for you to decide if they are the right broker for you.I’ve always liked City Index, it’s been a stalwart of the London CFD broker scene since it was founded by Chris Hales and Jonathan Sparke in 1983 as a way for institutions to hedge their exposure through spread betting and CFDs. But soon became popular with more retail traders. Always advertising on billboards in the City, always having a colourful client base, always being bought and sold at the whim of billionaires and bigger boys. But in recent years, it had gone off a bit from its glory days. Back in the good ol’ days, you could open an account and put on a million-dollar trade over the phone with no ID, no deposit, and no idea. Well, you could if you happened to be on a yacht with Michael Spencer (the then City Index owner and City grandee), who was convinced he knew which way the Euro was headed and goaded one of his guests into putting the trade on, as the story goes away.
But those days are long gone and incumbent brokers have to fight hard to differentiate themselves against the fintechs nipping at their heels, as well as provide more trader tools to lure new customers back to traditional markets away from the wild west of Crypto.
City Index seems to have matured nicely though, it’s grown out of its lumbering adolescence under the ownership of Gain Capital and is now owned by US Behemoth StoneX (previously INTL FCStone). Since then, the platform has had a few upgrades and long-term investment products will hopefully be added shortly.
City Index Awards
In our latest awards City Index won “best trading app” in 2024 and “best trader tools” 2023. City Index has in previous years won “best trading platform”, “best trading app” & “best forex broker” in 2022.
Giles Watts, Senior VP of UK & EU at City Index said after winning best trader tools in 2023: “We are delighted to have been recognized for the added value we provide our clients. Delivering actionable post trade insights direct to the platform, is just one of the reasons our clients stay with us over the long term.”
Trading Platform
The City Index platform used to have a slightly off-the-rack feel about it, instead, the business relied on word of mouth and friendly referrals from HNW clients who would use experienced dealers to work large orders over the phone. Whilst voice brokerage still forms part of City Index’s offering, they are, as with everyone else, doing the majority of their business online and working hard to make their platform stand out.
Pricing & Spreads
City Index has always been competitive with it’s pricing. As City Index is an OTC broker they charge customers by widening the spread rather than adding commission after you trade. They are one of the cheapest around for trading UK stocks with the bid/offer being widened by only 0.08% (20% less than the industry standard of 0.1%) and for US stocks they only charge 1.8 cents per share (industry standard is 2 cents per share). Overnight financing rates are also inline with what you would expect 2.5% over/under SONIA rates.
Stocks, Forex, Indices and Commodities
You can buy over 13,500 stocks on City Index as a CFD or financial spread bet, however, you can’t trade equity options or invest in physical shares.
Obviously, they have access to more than the usual forex, index and commodity markets and add value with some nice thematic-themed indices (like ESG), and a good pool of sectors to speculate on. You can also trade options (CFD or spread bets thereof) on a good range of indices and commodities like Natural Gas or EU stocks. Plus, you can trade on synthetic markets. Everyone loves a bit of volatility speculation in choppy markets.
Spread Betting
Spread betting is City Index’s forte, and it’s the product that a lot of their high-net-worth customers use for trading stocks. As one of the original spread betting brokers City Index offers access to one of the widest selections of UK, US and European shares (as well as the major indices). The key advantage of spread betting of course is that profits are free of capital gains tax.
CFD Trading
Unlike spread betting CFD profits are subject to capital gains tax, so are less popular among UK traders. Historically, City Index would offer CFDs to more professional traders and spread betting to smaller clients. CFDs and spread betting are similarly priced with City Index, with the commission being included in the spread, which is slightly wider than the underlying market bid/offer. The main reason why both products are on offer is that spread betting is only available to UK residents, whereas City Index can offer CFD trading to its global client base.
Trading App
I actually prefer the City Index app to the desktop version of the trading platform. Sometimes I can find the desktop version to be a bit clunky, but the app is really slick, and clearly in our mobile-first world, where all the recent development has been focused. And why not, the desktop trading platform is brilliant for research, trading signals and post-trade analytics, but at the point of execution the app is a quick and simple stripped-down version with all the salient features front and centre.
MT4 (MetaQuotes)
You can trade on MT4 and MT5 with City Index, but functionality and market access is not as good as their main proprietary trading platform or some of their MT4 competitors. You can only trade around 84 markets on MT4 through City Index, but if you just want to trade the major markets, City Index is a good broker for MT4 based on their regulation, service and pricing.
Performance Analytics
Another acquisition from parent StoneX is Chasing Returns, now integrated into the platform as Performance Analytics. Which really drills down into where you are trading well and where you are losing money. Performance Analytics can break down your wins and losses and tell you what markets you trade best, what time of day you are most profitable, if you make money trading in quick succession or, if you do better if you take a break between trades. It’ll even tell you if your first trade of the day is often a winner or loser, or if you are a better bull or bear and also if you are as good at trading volatility as you pretend to enjoy doing, but letting you know if you trade better in calm or erratic markets.
Economic Calendar
One thing, though that does let them down is City Index’s economic calendar, it’s terrible. In fact, most brokers, even IG just have a bog standard list of upcoming earnings and economic announcements. But I think you need more from a trading platform these days, especially as when logged into the desktop platform the format is all off. One broker that has absolutely nailed their economic calendar is ThinkMarkets. With TM when you’re logged in you get a really good visualisation of previous data, volatility and most importantly what impact it had on relevant institutions like EURUSD. It’s a great way to see how markets have moved against previous numbers. Honestly, City Index should embed this too as it’s available from Trading Central who they have a deal with anyway.
Extended Hours Trading
You can trade CFDs premarket and after the market closes on a range of US equities in the pre and post-market sessions which bookend regular share trading in New York that takes place between 9.30 a.m. and 4.00 p.m. Eastern time.
The list of 73 stocks available to trade in the pre and post-markets includes leading US shares such as Apple, Microsoft and Nvidia. Widely traded names such as the Ark Innovation ETF, Coinbase, Robinhood and Gamestop.
As well as established blue chips like Bank of America, Boeing, Procter and Gamble, and Walmart, alongside a selection of index-tracking and thematic ETFs.
Pros
- Excellent trading tools
- Post-trade analytics
- Publically listed (part of StoneX)
Cons
- Trading only, no investment account
- Limited options markets
- No direct market access
-
Pricing
(5)
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Market Access
(5)
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Online Platform
(4.5)
-
Customer Service
(5)
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Research & Analysis
(4.5)
Overall
4.8FOREX.com: Best For MT4 Currency Trading
👍Featured👍
- Markets available: 5,000
- Minimum deposit: £1
- Equity overnight financing: 2.5% +/- SONIA
- Pricing: Shares 0.08%, FTSE 1, GBPUSD 0.9
75% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.
FOREX.com Review: Best Forex Broker 2025
Name: FOREX.com
Description: FOREX.com is one of the largest forex brokers operating globally and owned by NASDAQ listed institutional broker StoneX. Forex.com offers traders access to 5,500+ assets including 80+ currency pairs, thousands of stocks, popular commodities, indices and cryptocurrencies (pro accounts only in the UK). Pricing is competitive especially for those on their RAW spread account or active trader program.
75% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.
Is FOREX.com a good trading platform?
FOREX.com won “Best Forex Broker” in the 2025 Good Money Guide Awards.
24-Hour FOREX.com Test
I took FOREX.com out for a 24-hour test drive, trade with real money and try some of their key features on the streets of the City of London. Here’s what happened…
“For FX sake”, I thought to myself when I decided to write a review about a forex broker that offers access to the forex market for forex traders because on the surface, that’s what forex trading platforms do, so I didn’t really think I’d have much to say. I’m not normally a fan of forex trading becuase, a. I’ve never had much success at it and b. I find the nuances of intra-day technical analysis too complicated.
I’m a sort of old-fashioned trader, I like to look at the market and think it’s either overvalued or undervalued and in my mind anyway, that is easier to do when looking at a company’s share price, an index or even a commodity. But for some reason, with forex trading, I’ve never really got the hang of it.
Having said that I have dealt currency for about 20 years now, but more as a broker rather than as a trader. And I know that the currency markets are not only hard to understand, they come with all sorts of complexities. For instance, I used to do some prime brokerage for institutions that would hedge their currency exposure when buying aeroplanes. So we would do deals like buying 50m EURSEK, then roll it forward for delivery in 2 months’ time. A massive headache when trying to market it up. Or dealing in GBPEUR, or was it EURGBP? I remember once, marking up (or down) a forward the wrong way. It would have been a €20k error, but fortunately, the dealer didn’t know what they were doing, so we styled it out. At one point, forex trading for me was a big income generator, but also the type of business I hated most. It was so bad at one point that the broker next to me refused to pick up the phone if he knew it was a big FX trade coming through. He’d get all red and sweaty and pretend to be busy filling another customer.
I was, in fact, so frustrated with how opaque pricing was in currency trading, that I decided to start up my own currency brokerage specialising in high-value currency transfers £250k upwards) and undercutting everyone. It was called Berry FX, you can still see the demo on Youtube. Basically, personal service with the best rates anywhere ever. But alas, I am a better marketer than a salesman, so I now just let other currency brokers compete for clients by trying to offer the best exchange rates.
But you don’t really care about that. You want to know what I think of Forex.com.
24 Hour Test:
I thought I’d try something a little different with this review and have a bit of fun with it. So I took forex.com out for a 24-hour test drive around the City of London, putting some real trades on whilst going about my business to see if I could make any money.
I started out at the Bank of England with £10k on account at 11:30. Lunch was a few minutes walk from the tube station, so I took the opportunity to put some trades on using Forex.com’s trading Signals. I’ve used these for years; back in 2018, they were known as GetGo; it was a stand-alone forex trading app. When I reviewed it back in 2018, I said back that it was the future of forex trading signals but are they still?
There are a couple of things that make these signals better than the rest.
They tell you the success rate
The signal is linked to an order ticket
When I was walking down King William Street to L’Antipasto to meet my contacts at Forex.com for lunch, I put a few traders on. First, I looked at the trades that had a historic success rate of over 50% and followed them. Then I looked at trading signals that had a success rate of less than 50% and traded against them. It’s a pretty simple strategy that generally works (not always, though). Used the classic stop/limit risk/reward ratio to of aiming for twice the potential loss as a potential win. Again, simple forex trading strategies. The market is not hard to call, but if you get a trade right, it often pays to let it run for longer, but if it’s wrong, close it sooner.
Trading Central:
Then after lunch, on the way to my next meeting, I took a few moments on London Bridge, in the glorious sunshine with Tower Bridge in the background, to take a look at some of the other signals on forex.com, Trading Central. Now, Trading Central has been providing technical analysis to brokers for decades and provides a constant stream of manually and automatically updated trading ideas throughout the day to give traders an indication of where the markets may go.
It’s not as fluid as their trading signals, as you have to put the trades in manually, but still gives you a bit of stimulus. This is great for someone like me because I generally have an idea of what I want to do from eyeballing a chart (I did, after all, run a technical analysis division for five years), but it’s nice to get confirmation of your thoughts one way or another.
Execution:
When you are actually trading there are some great other features on the app like:
Swipe to trade: a bit like Tinder (so I hear – I’ve been married for 12 years).
Chart on tickets: with a quick tap, you can bring up a chart when on the order ticket (to double-check)
Working orders on charts: when looking at a chart, you can see your working orders and positions
Position potential: as well as seeing what margin is required when placing a trade you can also see and set your stops and limits as a potential monetary amount instead of pips.
Post-Trade Analytics:
Once you’ve done a bit of trading, you can review your trading history and see where you do well and where you can improve. This is a great feature as it can break down how well you trade by time of day, markets or volatility. You can also set up “Play Maker” if you have a trading strategy and want to stick to it. Obviously, you can’t get that sort of data in a 24-hour test drive, so I’ll have to revisit that another time.
Demo Account:
Forex.com have a pretty good demo account, in fact, it’s hard to tell the difference between the demo and live trading platform. You get the same functionality and as trades are OTC, the same prices.
However, when I opened a demo account to test them, I already had a real account. So after I got my demo account login details, I clicked through to the “webtrader” portal (and this is quite funny or alarming, depending on how you look at it), my live account details were auto-filled in by Google Chrome.
Now, had I not been checking my email, to ensure that they had sent me through my credentials (as Interactive Brokers didn’t for some reason when I tested their demo account), I may not have noticed that I was logging into a live account. It could have been disastrous if I’d started ttrading away thinking it was paper money. Even more so as you get £10k in demo funds and I’d deposited £10k in my live account when I took forex.com on a 24-hour trading signal test drive around The City.
It reminded me of when a trader thought that he was trading on a demo account and put $1bn worth of orders through and then sued his broker because they voided his €10m profits. But, that’s unlikely, to happen to me because even on demo accounts I don’t get thank lucky. And almost certainly won’t happen to you because why would you open a demo account after already having a live one unless you were reviewing it?
TradingView & MetaQuotes
I had a good play about with TradingView, as it’s now the go-to destination for traders. TradingView is a sort of social network for traders where you can view charts (they are excellent) and post trading ideas (a pinch of salt). As TradingView has grown, they have also become an execution venue too, so you can link your Forex.com trading account and deal straight from the charts. This shouldn’t be too much of a stretch for most traders as the charts on the Forex.com app and web-based platform are provided by TradingView (who incidentally are one of the largest financial-based websites in the world now).
You can also trade on MT4, if you are into that sort of thing…
Am I a Forexpert?
I did make money on day one, mainly thanks to putting on a GBPUSD trade that covered most of the losses from some of the other trades. When I used their trading ignals five years ago, I also made money. Day two wasn’t so good, on my way to an investor show, I gave back a few pennies but still ended up on top. But I have to admit my traders were calculated guesses rather than heavily researched positions. I don’t like holding positions overnight, as day trading reduces not only your margin requirements but also increases the amount of sleep you get because you don’t wake up with cold sweats in the middle of the night worrying about Asian interest rates.
Overall would I recommend forex.com? Well, yes, if you are going to trade Forex and don’t know where to start, it’s a massive brand with global reach and owned by a listed brokerage with an institutional pedigree. As far as box-ticking is concerned, they tick the lot. Or should I say pip the lots…
Pros
- Trading Signals
- Post Trade Analytics
- Forex Specialists
Cons
- Limited Market Range
- No DMA
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Pricing
(5)
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Market Access
(4.5)
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Online Platform
(5)
-
Customer Service
(5)
-
Research & Analysis
(5)
Overall
4.9Pepperstone: Best Overall MT4 Broker
🏆Award Winner🏆
- Customer rating: 4.6/5 (86 reviews)
- MT4 markets available: 1,200
- Minimum deposit: £1
- MT4 account types: CFDs, spread betting
- Equity overnight financing: 2.5% +/- SONIA
- Pricing: Shares 0.1%, FTSE 1, GBPUSD 0.9
75.3% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider
Pepperstone won “best MT4 broker” in our 2024 and 2023 awards. They offer a very comprehensive package of MT4 tools and strategies, discount pricing and expert customer support from their London office.
With Pepperstone’s MT4 account you get 85 pre-installed indicators and 28 additional Smart Trader Tools where you can build and run your EAs using MetaQuotes Language 4 (MQL4) and identify statistically significant market movements with Autochartist.
75.6% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.
Pepperstone Expert Review: Automated Global Trading
Is Pepperstone a good broker?
Pepperstone is a great trading platform for traders who want low costs, wide market access and wide range of trading platforms, including one of the best MT4/MT5 packages available to retail traders worldwide.
Pricing: Razor tight pricing (on their Razor account).
Market Access: Mainly FX, but lots more stocks are being added.
Platform & Apps: Pepperstone’s MT4 and cTrader packages are top-notch.
Customer Service: Local offices around the world and personal account managers for large active traders
Research & Analysis: Lots of education and technical and algo indicator documentation.
Pros
- Tight pricing
- Wide range of MT4 markets
- Pre-built MT4 indicator packages
Cons
- Limited market access
- Only third-party platforms
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Pricing
(5)
-
Market Access
(3.5)
-
Online Platform
(4)
-
Customer Service
(4)
-
Research & Analysis
(4)
Overall
4.1CMC Markets: Wide Range Of MT4 Markets
- MT4 markets available: 200+
- Minimum deposit: £1
- MT4 account types: CFDs, spread betting
- Equity overnight financing: 2.9% +/- SONIA
- Pricing: Shares 0.1%, FTSE 1, GBPUSD 0.59
74% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider
CMC Markets gives you competitive spreads on 175+ FX pairs, plus indices and commodities with no restrictions on scalping and no restrictions on minimum stop-loss or take-profit distances, or stop-loss and take-profit limits. Additional premium MT4 indicators and EAs, included at no cost on a London-located server.
CMC Markets Expert Review: Great Tech For Active Traders
Is CMC Markets a good broker?
Yes, CMC Markets has always offered, and still does one of the best trading platforms for high-frequency and active traders. It’s a good choice for those who want to trade on tight spreads, with a platform built on exceptional tech.
Pros
- Excellent trading platform
- Good liquidity
- Unique sentiment tools
Cons
- Trading only, no investing account
- Limited smaller cap stocks
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Pricing
(5)
-
Market Access
(4)
-
Online Platform
(5)
-
Customer Service
(4)
-
Research & Analysis
(5)
Overall
4.6IG: Good MT4 Broker For Larger Traders
- MT4 markets available: 91
- Minimum deposit: £250
- MT4 Account types: CFDs, spread betting, DMA, investing
- Equity overnight financing: 2.5% +/- SONIA
- Pricing: Shares 0.1%, FTSE 1, GBPUSD 0.6
70% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs and spread bets with this provider.
IG’s MT4 package gives instant access to 18 free add-ons and indicators. Trade in sizes as small as 0.01 lots as a CFD or spread bet and get minimum spreads from just 0.6 pips on a host of forex pairs.
IG Expert Review: The original and still one of the best brokers
Is IG a good trading platform?
Yes, IG provides an excellent all-round trading and investing brokerage service. IG pioneered online trading and financial spread betting for private clients and remains not only one of the largest online trading platforms, but also one of the best. IG stands out through deep liquidity, high market range and excellent added value such as trading tools and analysis.
Pros
- Vast range of markets
- Excellent liquidity & DMA equities
- Listed on the London Stock Exchange
Cons
- Customer service can be slow
- No DMA futures trading
- Still charges inactivity fee
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Pricing
(4.5)
-
Market Access
(5)
-
Online Platform
(5)
-
Customer Service
(4)
-
Research & Analysis
(5)
Overall
4.7XTB: Good Platform For Multi-Asset MT4 Trading
- Markets available: 2,100
- Minimum deposit: £1
- Account types: CFDs
- Equity overnight financing: -0.02341% / -0.00159% DAILY
- Pricing: Shares 0.3%, FTSE 1.7, GBPUSD 1.4
81% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider
XTB Review: A Great All Round Trading & Investing Platform
Is XTB a good broker?
XTB, are a decent all-round trading platform and a good choice for most small-to-medium sized CFD traders. They are publically listed in Poland and offer, competitive spreads on a fairly wide range of markets.
The key things to focus on when considering trading with XTB are:
- They have their own proprietary trading platform. When I interviewed Omar Arnaout, the XTB CEO Omar Arnout, he said “I’m really proud of our platform and honestly believe it’s one of the best in the market.” Rightly so.
- They really push client education, XTB won “Best Trading Platform Education” in our 2023 awards (although they didn’t show up to collect the trophy, they never do). You can read their Q&A on forex education here.
- Customer service is paramount. Omar said that “first and foremost is the customer service”. I really agree with this as I think it’s important to have a few different trading accounts (diversify, diversify, diversify) and you’ll trade more with the broker that treats you best.
Pros
- Publically listed
- Mulitple platform choices
- Innovative order types
Cons
- Not UK based
- No DMA
-
Pricing
(4)
-
Market Access
(4)
-
Online Platform
(4)
-
Customer Service
(4)
-
Research & Analysis
(4)
Overall
4Best MT4 Broker For Beginners
CMC Markets is the best MT4 broker for beginners as they are well established, publicly listed on the LSE, and offer over 200 markets to trade. They are also backed up by an exceptional in-house trading platform which beginners may find more user-friendly and easier to use than MT4.
This comparison table shows which MT4 brokers offer beginner-friendly features:
| Beginner Features: |  | |  |  |  |  | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trading Signals | ✔️ | ❌ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ❌ |
| Webinars | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Seminars | ✔️ | ✔️ | ❌ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Leverage Control | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Low-Risk Products | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Investment Account | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ❌ | ❌ |
MT4 Brokers For Advanced & Professional Traders
Pepperstone is the best MT4 broker for experienced traders. They offer by far the most markets of all the MT4 brokers we feature (around 1,200), including UK, US and Australian shares. They also provide free technical indicators and automated trading strategies in their Smart Trader Tools package, a suite of expert advisor tools that help with trade execution and management.
The below comparison table shows which MT4 brokers provide advanced trader tools and access for sophisticated MT4 users.
| Advanced Features: | | | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voice Brokerage | ✔️ | ✔️ | ❌ | ✔️ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Corporate Accounts | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Level-2 | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Algo Trading | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ❌ |
| Prime Brokerage | ❌ | ✔️ | ❌ | ✔️ | ❌ | ❌ |
Market Access & Added Value
MT4 is available from thousands of brokers and used by millions of traders every year. With so many brokers utilising the same platform, they must work hard to differentiate themselves and win business.
You can compare which UK MT4 broker is most suited to your trading in this matrix of account types and market access.
| MT4 Offering | | | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Market Access | 84 | 200 | 1,200 | 91 | 578 | 2,100 |
| Minimum Deposit | £100 | £1 | £1 | £250 | £100 | £1 |
| CFD Trading | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Spread Betting | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Futures | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✔️ | ❌ |
So, what makes one MT4 broker better than another? The key questions you need to ask yourself when choosing an MT4 broker are:
- Where is the broker regulated? – In the UK this is the FCA
- How many markets do they offer on MT4? – Some brokers only offer 10 or so FX pairs which is not enough
- What types of trading account do they have? Spot FX, CFDs or financial spread betting
- What are trading costs? Some brokers include commission in the spread, while others add it post-trade
- Is there any added value on offer? Larger brokers offer free indicator packages, faster execution plus news and analysis
What Do You Need To Trade On MT4 & MT5?
FX and CFD traders who use either MT4 or MT5 can enable one-click trading in their charts. That puts bid and ask prices for a given instrument in the top left-hand corner of the chart.
To execute a market order in a predetermined size you set, simply click the bid or ask button as required. Be aware though there are no second chances with one-click dealing enabled. Click on the bid or the ask price and you have dealt in your preselected order size.
How Does Trading From Charts Work On MT4?
MT4 brokers who offer a ‘souped-up’ version of the Meta trader platforms give their customers access to add-ins such as Tick Chart Trader which allows you to place orders directly from a tick chart with has an order ticket within it.
The Tick charts themselves can be configured in a variety of formats and the add-in also supports hot-keys for trading such as B for Buy, S for sell and so on.
If you have access to the Mini Terminal which usually comes in the same package of add-ons as one click trading you can make use of smart lines which allows you to draw intelligent lines on chart.
Those lines can act as stop losses or take profits for full or partial orders and it’s also possible to use a time based line to close open positions at at specific point in the trading day.
✅ We Only Recommend FCA-Regulated MT4 Brokers
All online MT4 brokers that operate in the UK must be regulated by the FCA. The FCA is the Financial Conduct Authority and is responsible for ensuring that UK MT4 brokers are properly capitalised, treat customers fairly and have sufficient compliance systems.
Any broker recommended here is regulated by the FCA and is where your funds are protected by the FSCS (Financial Services Compensation Scheme).
MT4 Broker FAQs
Yes. One of the strongest and most popular features is the ability to trade automatically on MT4. The automatic trading feature has been active since 2006 and tens of thousands of traders have used the function. The automated trading is two-sided so you can either follow other traders via copy trading or upload your own code to the marketplace and sell it to potential followers in the MT4 marketplace where traders can buy robots & indicators. In the market place you’ll also find the complete array of MT4 signals and can search by filters to find a Forex trading signal.
EA stands for Expert Advisor. Automated Expert Advisors allow you to take positions automatically, based on pre-set trading parameters. You can program Expert Advisors to follow a very specific set of instructions, allowing your positions to be automatically opened and closed without you needing to be present. or you can buy them ready made.
No, Interactive Brokers does not offer MT4 instead they have their own suite of in house trading platforms and API connectivity, which they offer to their clients.
For MT4 and Expert Advisors you should be looking for execution speeds of sub 25-30 milliseconds. MT4 brokers are responsible for the price feeds and the infrastructure behind the scenes that actually execute the trades, so always choose a well-established broker with the free VPS.
Yes, Pepperstone will give clients a free VPS for trading on MT4, based on your traded volume.
A Virtual Private Server (VPS) allows you to use Expert Advisors (EAs) 24/7. The VPS means you no longer need your home computer continuously running for your EAs to execute trades, ensuring uninterrupted trading day and night. If the VPS provided is in close physical proximity to your brokers MT4 servers, then you will also benefit from much faster execution times, allowing you to catch that price before it changes.
Yes, you can but this feature must be enabled by your broker, and cannot be changed direct on the MT4 platform. Note that changing leverage levels on an account will affect existing open positions as well as new positions opened post the changes.
Yes, you can have two MT4 installs from the same broker although you will have to download the platform multiple times and specify a different destination folder for each version of the platform.
City Index, Pepperstone, CMC Markets and IG offer micro-lots for MT4 trading.
With MT4 you can choose to either trade in standard lots or micro-lots, which allows you to trade in smaller increments and limit your overall exposure.
The MT4 app was banned from Apple’s app store in September 2022 because of the volume of scam reports Apple received. This was due to the app being used in social media trading scams.
Richard Berry
This article contains affiliate links which may earn us some form of income if you go on to open an account. However, if you would rather visit the MT4 brokers via a non-affiliate link, you can view their MetaQuotes trading pages directly here:
