MT4: How to open a trade

Reading time: 2 minute(s)

Placing a trade on MT4 trading platform is really simple, intuitive and fast. MT4 offers you several ways of placing a trade, which are explained in this lesson.

*Since the recording of these videos, negative balance protection has come into force from 02.10.17. This means that whilst trading losses cannot exceed funds in your account, your capital is still at risk.

In this lesson, you’ll learn:

  • How to open a trade from the Market Watch window
  • How to open a trade right from the chart
  • What one-click trading is and how to activate this feature

Placing a trade on MT4 trading platform is really simple, intuitive and fast. MT4 offers you several ways of placing a trade, which are explained below:

New order window

The first way to place a trade is by finding the market of interest in the Market Watch window. Once you’ve found the market you want to open a position on, double-click on the market’s name and an order window will appear.

When the order window opens, choose the volume of transaction in lots (remember: 1 lot is equivalent to 100,000 units of the base currency, so proportionally 0.1 lot is 10,000 and 0.01 is 1,000 units of the base currency), and whether to apply a Stop Loss or Take Profit level.

You can then place your trade in two ways: instantly, or as a pending order. You also have the option to write a comment on your trade, to keep trading notes or a diary on each of your positions.

Once you’ve selected your volume, you need to decide the direction of your trade. If you expect that the market will go up then ‘go long’ and click ‘buy by market’ button. If you expect that the market will go down then ‘go short’ and click ‘sell by market’ button.

 

Once you’ve done this, your trade will be placed and that’s it. From now your orders are visible in the ‘Trade’ tab in the Terminal window.

One-click trading

You can do it even faster by using the one-click trading option. To activate it click menu Tools -> Options

Select the ‘Trade’ tab and check the ‘One Click Trading’ option.

 

 

Once one-click trading has been activated, you’ve analysed a certain market and would like to place a trade, you’re able to do so from the top left-hand corner of the chart - where the buy and sell buttons are available, with the option of modifying the volume as well.

Trading from the chart

Another way to open a position is to right-click on the chart window and select ‘Trading’ and then ‘New order’ and the order window will appear.

 

Closing positions

To close an open position click the ‘x’ in the Trade tab in the Terminal window.

 

Or right-click the line order on the chart and select ‘close’.

 

If you’d like to close only a part of position, click the right-click on the open order and select ‘Modify’. Then, in the Type field select instant execution and choose what part of the position you want to close.

As you can see opening and closing your trades is very intuitive on MT4 and it literally takes one click.

Xtb logo

Join over 935 000 XTB Group Clients from around the world

The financial instruments we offer, especially CFDs, can be highly risky. Fractional Shares (FS) is an acquired from XTB fiduciary right to fractional parts of stocks and ETFs. FS are not a separate financial instrument. The limited corporate rights are associated with FS.
This page was not created for investors residing in Brazil. This brokerage is not authorized by the Comissão de Valores Mobiliários (CVM) or the Brazilian Central Bank (BCB). The content of this page should not be characterized as an investment offer in Brazil or for investors residing in that country.
Losses can exceed deposits

We use cookies

By clicking “Accept All”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts.

This group contains cookies that are necessary for our websites to work. They take part in functionalities like language preferences, traffic distribution or keeping user session. They cannot be disabled.

Cookie name
Description
SERVERID
userBranchSymbol cc 2 March 2024
test_cookie cc 25 January 2024
adobe_unique_id cc 1 March 2025
__hssc cc 8 September 2022
SESSID cc 2 March 2024
__cf_bm cc 8 September 2022
intercom-id-iojaybix cc 26 November 2024
intercom-session-iojaybix cc 8 March 2024

We use tools that let us analyze the usage of our page. Such data lets us improve the user experience of our web service.

Cookie name
Description
_gid cc 9 September 2022
_gat_UA-98728395-1 cc 8 September 2022
_gat_UA-121192761-1 cc 8 September 2022
_gcl_au cc 30 May 2024
_ga_CBPL72L2EC cc 1 March 2026
_ga cc 1 March 2026
__hstc cc 7 March 2023
__hssrc

This group of cookies is used to show you ads of topics that you are interested in. It also lets us monitor our marketing activities, it helps to measure the performance of our ads.

Cookie name
Description
MUID cc 26 March 2025
_omappvp cc 11 February 2035
_omappvs cc 1 March 2024
_uetsid cc 2 March 2024
_uetvid cc 26 March 2025
_fbp cc 30 May 2024
fr cc 7 December 2022
_ttp cc 26 March 2025
_tt_enable_cookie cc 26 March 2025
_ttp cc 26 March 2025
hubspotutk cc 7 March 2023

Cookies from this group store your preferences you gave while using the site, so that they will already be here when you visit the page after some time.

Cookie name
Description

This page uses cookies. Cookies are files stored in your browser and are used by most websites to help personalise your web experience. For more information see our Privacy Policy You can manage cookies by clicking "Settings". If you agree to our use of cookies, click "Accept all".

Change region and language
Country of residence
Language