30 MetaTrader4 Shortcuts and Tips

MT4 and the MT5 are the most common trading platforms. In today’s blog, I’ll explain some useful shortcuts and I’m going to teach you an easier way to launch the MT4 features using your keyboard.

These shortcuts will allow you to make defined actions more quickly, so you’ll minimise the steps and optimise your trading experience, which means you’ll have more time to spend trading.

Before we get started if you are new to MT4 and you want to learn more, here it’s a video for beginners where I compared the MT4 with the cTrader platform:

Function Keys for MT4:

You can simply press the F1 key to open the help guide for the MT4.

F2 – will provide you “the history centre”, so you’ll be able to download the previous data of a particular trading entity if you want to do some backtesting or to run it through an expert advisor.

F8 – open the chart properties, so you’ll be able to change the colours or the appearance of the grid and period separators.

F9 – open a new order ticket.

F11 – enables and disables the full-screen mode.

 F12 – will allow you to scroll and move the chart ahead by one candlestick or bar chart. It’s great for backtesting, so simply press the F12 key and you’ll see displayed a new bar.

Shift + F12 – will move the chart back one candle at a time.

Shortcuts for chancing chart types:

MT4 allows you to toggle between chart types, so a quick way is to press “ALT” + 1, 2, 3 as shortcuts.

ALT+1 – provides a chart displayed as a bar.

ALT + 2 – display a candlestick chart.

ALT + 3 – display a line chart.

Shortcuts to open/close the MT4 features:

CTRL + A – will revert all the indicator windows to a default height setting.

CTRL + E –  will disable or enable the expert advisor.

CTRL + G – will enable you to remove or add the grid.

CTRL + H – will enable you to show or hide the open-high-low-close chart.

CTRL + I – open the “Indicators list” window for easy management.

CTRL + P –  will allow you to print the chart.

CTRL + S – it’s a shortcut to easily save the chart for future analysis.

CTRL + W – will close the chart window.

CTRL + Z ( or ALT + Backspace)– this key will save you a lot of time if you accidentally delete something. This shortcut undoes the last line you delete.

CTRL + D – Open or close “the data window”, which is very useful for visualizing certain values for any trade.

CTRL + M – Open or close “the market watch window”, which allows traders to choose between two views.

CTRL + N – Open or close “the Navgator window”.

CTRL + T – it’s a shortcut which open or close “the Terminal window”.

MT4 tips for moving through the chart:

• The left arrow ( ← )  : move the chart to the Left
• The right arrow (→) : scroll the chart to the Right
• The up arrow ( ↑ ) : scroll much faster to the Left
• The down arrow ( ↓ ) : scroll even faster to the Right

If you want to scroll even faster, you can use the “Page up” and “Page down” as your hotkeys.

For zooming, you can press SHIFT plus the + key to zoom chart, otherwise, simply type “–” to zoom the chart out.

If you change the chart scale to do some analysis and you want it back to the original position, just press “5” on the keyboard and will restore it.

In conclusion, these hotkeys will make your experience with MT4 platform more enjoyable and for sure will help you to become an efficient trader. Once you familiarize yourself with these shortcuts, your time in front of the screens will be diminished which means you’ll get more things done. Save this article and next time try some of these MT4 hotkeys and seize every opportunity.

As always if you liked this blog, leave a comment below. Until next time happy trading and good luck! I hope to see you in the Trading Room.