ADX Settings for MT4: The DI Cross Lost on EURUSD M5 at Every Period, and the Default 14 Paid on Gold

ADX is one of the built-in MetaTrader 4 indicators, so there is nothing to download. What people get stuck on is the next step: which period to use, which chart to put it on, and what to do with the three lines once they are there. This guide answers those with numbers, not opinions.

If you have not installed the platform yet, start with my guide on downloading MetaTrader 4 on a PC and the first chart setup. For MT5, the menus are nearly the same and my ADX on MT5 guide covers them.

How do I add ADX to a chart in MT4?

1. Open the chart you want, for example EURUSD M30.
2. Go to Insert → Indicators → Trend → Average Directional Movement Index. You can also drag it from the Navigator window, under Indicators → Trend.
3. On the Parameters tab, set the Period. The default is 14. Leave Apply to on Close.
4. On the Levels tab, click Add and type 25. This draws the line most ADX rules refer to.
5. Click OK. ADX opens in its own window under the price chart, with three lines: the solid ADX line and the two dashed direction lines, +DI and -DI.

The solid line tells you how strong the move is, not which way it goes. The direction comes from +DI and -DI: when +DI is on top, buyers have been stronger over the period; when -DI is on top, sellers have. The moment they swap places is the DI crossover, the signal tested below.

How was each setting tested?

The EURUSD data is 16,926 five-minute bars from June 3 to August 26, 2026. I rebuilt them into M15, M30 and H1 bars — all standard MT4 timeframes — so every chart covers exactly the same period. The gold data is 13,736 five-minute XAUUSD bars from June 16 to August 26.

• Entry: +DI closes above -DI — buy; below — sell.
• Exit: the first cross back the other way.
• Filter: none, or only take the cross when ADX is above 25.
• Cost: 1 pip per EURUSD trade, $0.30 per ounce on gold, the same costs as my spread test and my gold vs EURUSD test.

Every result was also split at July 15 to check both halves. The full test of the signal with 80 setups is in my DI crossover test.

What is the best ADX period for MT4?

On the 5-minute chart, there isn’t one. Here is every period, no filter and with ADX above 25:

Without a filter, all five periods sit between -1.24 and -1.36 pips per trade. A longer period gives fewer signals, but each one loses about the same. This is the same thing my optimized vs default settings test found for other indicators: on noisy data, tuning the period mostly changes how often you trade.

The ADX above 25 column is more interesting for another reason. A longer period makes ADX smoother and slower, so it spends less time above 25 at the moment of a cross — period 28 left only 29 trades in almost three months. If you use a long period, lower the level.

Which timeframe works best for ADX on MT4?

Net pips per trade after a 1-pip cost; number of trades in brackets.

Moving up from M5 helped, and two setups got close to break-even with a real sample behind them:

• M30, period 14, no filter: 229 trades, -0.17 pips per trade, +0.83 before costs. -0.03 in the first half, -0.31 in the second.
• M15, period 7, ADX above 25: 326 trades, -0.18 pips per trade, +0.82 before costs. -0.23 and -0.14 by half.

Both were positive before the spread and slightly negative after it. On an account with a cost well under a pip, they are the two to forward test. The one positive number in the table, +0.70 on M30 with ADX above 25, came from 27 trades and swung from +4.65 in the first half to -4.22 in the second — too few to mean anything.

H1 was worse than M30, not better. With the whole test only 1,410 hourly bars long, a handful of large losing trades decided the result, and ADX above 25 left almost nothing to trade. The same M30 sweet spot showed up for Supertrend in my Supertrend MT5 vs MT4 test.

Does the DI crossover work on gold?

This is where the same indicator, with the same default settings, behaved differently:

Dollars per ounce per trade. On a 0.01 lot, $1 per ounce is $1.

The default period 14 made money on gold with and without the filter, and in both halves each time. The second half was much weaker than the first, so I would treat it as “the signal has an edge on gold that is shrinking”, not as a finished system.

Why gold and not EURUSD? Gold moves further once it starts moving, so a trend follower’s winners are larger compared to the cost. In my gold vs EURUSD test, the spread was 7% of a median gold bar against 75% of a EURUSD bar, and the slow trend rule made money on gold while losing on EURUSD. The ADX filter also behaves differently: on gold, ADX above 25 at the cross picked the better trades; on EURUSD M5 it picked worse ones. My best MT4 settings for gold test has other indicators on the same gold bars.

What ADX settings would I use on MT4?

• Keep the default period 14. No period fixed the signal on M5, and 14 was the one that worked on gold and on M30.
• Do not trade the DI cross on EURUSD M5. Every period lost more than a pip per trade after the spread.
• If you trade EURUSD, use M30 or M15. Period 14 on M30 or period 7 with ADX above 25 on M15 came within 0.2 pips of break-even, and were positive before costs.
• On gold, the default 14 with a level at 25 was the best result in this test — +$1.15 per trade after costs, positive in both halves.
• Add the 25 level, but check it on your market. It helped on gold and M15, and hurt on EURUSD M5.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best ADX setting for MT4?

The default period 14. On EURUSD 5-minute bars, periods 7 to 28 all lost between 1.24 and 1.36 pips per trade with the DI cross, so changing the period did not help. Period 14 was the setting that paid on gold in both halves of the data and came closest to break-even on EURUSD M30.

Where is ADX in MetaTrader 4?

Insert → Indicators → Trend → Average Directional Movement Index, or in the Navigator window under Indicators → Trend. It opens in a separate window below the chart.

What timeframe is best for ADX?

On EURUSD, M30 with period 14 did best among setups with a real sample: -0.17 pips per trade after a 1-pip cost over 229 trades. M5 lost 1.31 and H1 lost 2.15 with the same setting.

Does ADX work for gold trading on MT4?

The DI crossover did: period 14 made $0.35 per ounce per trade after a $0.30 cost over 1,100 trades on XAUUSD M5, and $1.15 with ADX above 25 over 215 trades. Both were positive in both halves of the data.

What do the three lines on ADX mean?

The solid line is ADX itself and measures trend strength only. The two dashed lines are +DI and -DI and show direction: whichever is on top is the side that has been stronger over the period.