Parabolic SAR Settings for MT4: Raising the Maximum Moved 2 Flips Out of 1,182

Parabolic SAR is one of the few MetaTrader indicators whose settings dialog is genuinely confusing, because both fields are called things that sound like speed and neither is explained. This guide covers where the indicator lives in MT4, what each number actually does to the dots on your screen, and which values held up when I tested eight combinations across 16,926 real EURUSD 5-minute bars from June 3 to August 26, 2026.

Where is Parabolic SAR in MT4?

It ships with the platform, so nothing needs downloading or installing — unlike the custom indicators covered in my MT4 first chart setup guide.

• Open the chart you want it on.
• Insert → Indicators → Trend → Parabolic SAR.
• The dialog has exactly two inputs on the Parameters tab: Step and Maximum. Defaults are 0.02 and 0.2.
• Click OK. Dots appear below price in an uptrend and above it in a downtrend.

In MT5 the path is the same idea through the Navigator panel — the walkthrough is in my guide to adding indicators in MT5.

What do Step and Maximum actually do?

Both feed one internal number: the acceleration factor, or AF. The dot moves toward price by AF × the distance between price’s best extreme so far and the dot’s current level.

• Step is the starting value of AF, and also how much AF increases each time price makes a new extreme in the direction of the trend. Default 0.02.
• Maximum is the ceiling AF is not allowed to pass. Default 0.2.

Here is the part nobody says out loud: with Step at 0.02, AF has to make ten consecutive new extremes to reach 0.2, and it has to make twenty-five to reach 0.5. On a 5-minute chart, trends almost never last that long — the median run between flips in my data was 13 bars, and the longest in three months was 67. So the Maximum field is a ceiling the indicator rarely gets near, which is exactly what the measurements show.

Which Parabolic SAR settings tested best?

All eight combinations run on the same bars, same entry rule — take the flip, hold two hours, measure the pip move before spread — and the same overlap rule used in my main Parabolic SAR test.

Why does the Maximum field barely matter?

Compare the three rows that share a Step of 0.02 and change only the ceiling:

Two flips. Going from the default ceiling to two and a half times the default ceiling changed the indicator’s behaviour on 16,926 bars by two events. Every forum thread telling you to raise the Maximum for a more aggressive SAR is describing something that, on an intraday forex chart, does not happen: AF simply never climbs that high before the trend ends.

Lowering it does work, because 0.1 is reachable — five consecutive new extremes rather than ten — so the cap actually binds and the dot stops chasing price so hard. That single change, and nothing else, moved the result from -0.04 to +0.41 pips per trade. It is the only edit to the Maximum field worth making.

Why is slowing it down the worst thing you can do?

The standard advice for a noisy chart is to slow the indicator: drop Step to 0.01 or lower so the dot trails further away and you get shaken out less. Both slow rows are worse than the default, and the slowest is worst of all at -1.56 pips.

The mechanism is the same one I found in my moving average settings test and my Stochastic settings guide: making an indicator slower does not remove noise, it removes timeliness. At 0.005 / 0.05 SAR flips once every 38 bars — over three hours — so the flip arrives after the move is largely done. You get fewer false signals and you also get fewer true ones, and the true ones you keep are late. Win rate falls from 43.9% to 40.3% and the average loss triples.

Speeding it up has the opposite failure. At 0.05 / 0.5 the indicator flips 1,920 times — every 8.8 bars, or roughly three quarters of an hour. Its win rate is the highest in the table at 45.1%, and it still finishes negative, because 550 signals in three months means 550 spreads. On a pair costing about a pip per round turn, as measured in my spread and swap breakdown, the fastest setting hands over more in costs than the slowest one loses in pips. Win rate is not the number to optimise.

What settings should I actually use?

One caution before you change anything. A 0.45-pip improvement measured over 481 signals is a real difference in the data, but it is not a strategy — the underlying signal is barely above break-even at its best, and my full SAR test shows the indicator’s own stop-and-reverse exit rule turns even that into a four-figure loss. Settings are the last five percent. Choosing the right exit was worth over a pip and a half per trade.

What I would actually do with this

• Change the Maximum to 0.1 and leave Step at 0.02. The single best combination in the test, and a two-second edit.
• Ignore anyone telling you to raise the Maximum. Above 0.2 the field is close to inert on intraday charts.
• Do not slow the Step down. Every slower variant tested worse, and the slowest was worst.
• Do not chase the win rate. The 45.1% row still lost money because it traded 550 times.
• Fix your exit before your settings. That is where the pips are, by a wide margin.

Frequently asked questions

What are the default Parabolic SAR settings in MT4?

Step 0.02 and Maximum 0.2, as Wilder published them in 1978. On 16,926 EURUSD 5-minute bars that default produced 1,182 flips and -0.04 pips per two-hour trade — essentially flat before spread, and negative after it.

What is the best Parabolic SAR setting for 5-minute charts?

0.02 / 0.1 in this test: +0.41 pips per trade against the default’s -0.04, over 481 signals. The gain comes entirely from lowering the Maximum, which stops the dot accelerating into price during the late part of a run.

Should I increase the Step for scalping?

It raised the win rate — 45.1% at 0.05 / 0.5, the highest in the table — and still finished at -0.10 pips because it generated 550 signals. More trades at a higher win rate is not automatically better once each round turn costs a spread.

Does changing the Maximum do anything at all?

Only downward. Cutting it from 0.2 to 0.1 removed 78 flips and flipped the result positive. Raising it from 0.2 to 0.5 changed two flips out of 1,182, because the acceleration factor almost never reaches 0.2 on a 5-minute trend in the first place.

How do Parabolic SAR settings compare to Supertrend settings?

Supertrend’s ATR period and multiplier both bite hard, so both fields are worth tuning; SAR effectively has one live control. The two indicators agree 78.7% of the time regardless, which is covered in my Parabolic SAR against Supertrend comparison and my Supertrend guide for MT4.

What data was this run on?

16,926 EURUSD 5-minute bars, June 3 to August 26, 2026 — the same set behind my Ichimoku settings guide, my Bollinger Bands settings guide and my ADX trend filter test.