MetaTrader 4 First Chart: Six Decisions in Ten Minutes

MT4 opens with four charts you did not ask for, a grid, a green background on some builds, and a bar count that starts somewhere in the middle of last week. None of it is wrong, and none of it is set up for you. This is the ten-minute pass I do on a fresh install, in the order I do it, with the reason for each step rather than just the clicks.

Step 1: Clear the screen and open one chart

Close all four default charts. Then File → New Chart → EURUSD. One chart, one pair.

This is not tidiness for its own sake. Four charts at four timeframes invites you to justify a trade by scrolling until one of them agrees. Start with a single chart and add the second only when you can say out loud what job it does.

Step 2: Turn on the spread

Right-click Market Watch, tick Spread. Then look at your EURUSD number at the hour you plan to trade, and again late in the evening.

This is step two out of six because it is the number that decides whether anything else is worth doing. In my timeframe test, six configurations were profitable gross and only two survived a 1 pip round-trip spread. Spread is also not constant: it widens at the rollover hour and around releases, which is exactly when a beginner’s stop is most likely to be sitting nearby.

Step 3: Pick the timeframe — the decision that matters

This is where the ten minutes earn their keep. The toolbar offers M1 through MN, and the choice is usually made by temperament rather than evidence. Here is the evidence, one rule run across six timeframes on identical data.

M15 or M30 for a first chart, then. Not M1 or M5, where the same logic lost money and the spread is a larger share of every move — and not H1 either on this evidence, though 38 trades is too small a sample to lean on and I would not quote that row as a conclusion.

The wider point is that the gap between the best and worst row here is bigger than the gap between almost any two indicators I have tested. You are choosing your results at this step, before a single indicator is on the screen.

Step 4: Make the chart readable

Right-click the chart → Properties. Two tabs, and only a handful of things worth changing:

• Colors: pick any scheme where up and down candles are obviously different at a glance. Black background with white bars is standard for a reason — it is the easiest to look at for hours.
• Common tab: switch to Candlesticks, turn the Grid off, and turn Show Ask line on. The ask line is the honest one: it shows you the price you would actually pay to buy, which is the price minus your spread illusion.
• Chart shift (the toolbar button, not Properties) pushes the last candle left so there is room to draw. Keep it on.
• Auto scroll on, so the chart follows live price instead of stranding you in history.

Step 5: Add one indicator

Insert → Indicators → Trend → Moving Average. In the dialog, set Period to 200, MA method Exponential, Apply to Close. Then add a second at Period 50 in a different colour.

Why this pair and not a faster one: across eight crossover pairs tested on the same 16,926 bars, seven lost money and the EMA 50/200 was the only one that made money, at +2.31 pips per trade. Fast pairs traded far more often and lost more. Two of the four fields in that dialog do almost nothing — the period and the Apply to field are the two that matter, and Apply to should stay on Close.

Then stop adding. Stacking a second momentum tool on top of the first does not give you a second opinion: across 1,997 signals, Stochastic and RSI agreed on the same bar only 149 times, so most of the time you are looking at one tool talking and another one silent.

Step 6: Save it as a template

Charts → Template → Save Template. Name it something plain like base. Save it again as default and every new chart you open arrives already set up.

This is the step people skip, and it is the reason their second chart never looks like their first. Ten minutes once, then never again.

What deliberately is not in this list

• One-click trading. Leave it off while you are learning. It removes the confirmation dialog that catches a mistyped lot size.
• A second indicator “for confirmation.” See step five.
• Chart history settings. MT4 downloads bars as you scroll. A short history on day one is normal.
• Alerts, news, signals tabs. All useful eventually, none of them part of a working first chart.

If you have not installed the platform yet, start with my MT4 download and install walkthrough — it covers where to get the right build and where the data folder lives, which is the other thing nobody tells you.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best timeframe for a beginner on MT4?

M15 or M30 on this evidence. Both were positive after spread when the same rule was run across six timeframes; M5 lost money in every configuration tested, and the H1 sample was too thin to trust either way. Lower timeframes also make the spread a bigger share of every move you are trying to catch.

How many indicators should be on one chart?

One or two, doing different jobs. Two tools measuring the same thing produce agreement that means nothing — in a direct comparison, two oscillators run on identical data overlapped on only 149 bars out of nearly 2,000 signals. A trend tool plus a spread awareness is a complete starting setup.

Why does my MT4 chart look different from the tutorial?

Almost always the chart type or the colour scheme, both under right-click → Properties. The other common one is Bars instead of Candlesticks, which makes identical price action unrecognisable. Nothing about your data or your broker is wrong.

Should I turn on the Ask line in MT4?

Yes. By default MT4 draws the bid only, so the price you would actually pay to buy is invisible and your spread stays out of sight. Turning the ask line on makes the cost of entry visible on the chart, which changes how tight a stop feels.

What is a template in MT4 and do I need one?

A template stores a chart’s indicators, colours and settings so you can apply the whole layout to any new chart in two clicks. Save yours as default and every chart you open from then on inherits it. It is the fastest ten minutes you will spend in the platform.