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Best MetaTrader 4 (MT4) Brokers in South Africa

MetaTrader 4 is a platform for trading Forex, Cryptocurrencies, CFDs, indices, commodities, and futures. Specific brokers avail the terminal to their customers. According to Metaquotes, Metatrader 4 works with about 750 brokers and banks and provides acess to the platform to millions of traders around the globe. The platform goes beyond bare-bone features and offers a whole lot of bells and whistles. Specifically, it is endowed with top analytical and trading technologies. This means that you can implement any trading strategy regardless of the complexity. Today, we will take a look at the Best MetaTrader 4 Brokers in South Africa that work and support this trading platform.

Why Traders Endear MetaTrader 4

MT4 is designed with a simple and user-friendly interface ideal for both beginner and experienced traders. Beginner traders can practice on a fully functional demo account. Moreover, Advanced traders have access to an array of graphical tools and built-in indicators for advanced technical analysis and charting capabilities. Additionally,  the terminal offers colossal educational tutorials and resources such as  Expert Advisors (EA) and copy trading. What’s more, MetaTrader enables advanced traders to develop custom indicators and automated trading strategies using the MQL4 programming language.

MetaTrader 4 (MT4) Brokers in South Africa

Exness

Trading platforms: MT4 and MT5

Regulation: FSCA, IFSC, FCA, CySEC

Spreads: as low as 0.3 pips

Min. deposit: 170 ZAR/10$


Exness, a broker regulated by the South African financial regulator FSCA, provides access to two trading platforms - MT4 and MT5. The company charges very competitive spreads that start from as little as 0.3 pips on major currency pairs. Exness offers to SA traders also a base account currency in ZAR and very high leverage ranging up to 1:2000. The broker features around 160 trading instruments, including 9 FX pairs with ZAR.

Trading Forex and CFDs entail risk. Your capital is at risk.

XM.com

Trading platforms: MT4 and MT5

Regulation: FSC, ASIC, CySEC

Spreads: as low as 0.6 pips

Min. deposit: 70 ZAR/5$

XM.com offers to its traders the MetaTrader 4 as well as MT5. SA traders can open here a trading account in ZAR and trade over 1000 trading instruments. XM.com spreads are starting from 1.0 pips on major currency pairs and South African traders can trade them with up to 1:1000 leverage. The broker also offers in SA an exclusive 347 ZAR (or 30 USD) no-deposit bonus (T&Cs apply).


Trading Forex and CFDs entail risk. Your capital is at risk.

AvaTrade

Trading platforms: MT4 and MT5

Regulation: FSCA, ASIC

Spreads: as low as 0.9 pips

Min. deposit: 100$

AvaTrade, a broker regulated by the Sout African FSCA, offers two popular trading platforms - MT4 and MT5. AvaTrade has a local office located in Johannesburg SA and supports speculation on over 700 trading assets with up to 1:400 leverage. AvaTrade spreads starts from 0.9 pips and a real trading account can be grabbed from 100 USD.



Trading Forex and CFDs entail risk. Your capital is at risk.


Trading platforms: MT4, Regulation: FSCA, CySEC, FCA, FSA

Spreads: as low as 1.6 pips, Min. deposit: 100 $

Tickmill, a broker regulated by the FSCA, features the MT4 as the trading platform. The company supports speculation on nearly 100 trading instruments, most of which are forex pairs. Tickmill's spreads on majors start on the classic account from 1.6 pips and SA traders can trade them with up 1:1000 leverage.

Your capital is at risk.


Trading platforms: MT4 and MT5, Regulation: ASIC, FCA, IIROC, FSA

Spreads: as low as 0.5 pips, Min. deposit: 100 $

Forex.com is a popular broker worldwide and it allows its traders to either trade on the MT4 or MT5 trading platforms. Their spreads on majors start from 0.5 pips and they have an above industry average trade execution time of 0.05s (average execution time).

Your capital is at risk.


MT4 Platform features

Top of the Class Analytics Feature

Analytical functions put MetaTrader4 on top of the competition. Essentially, the platform comes with 30 in-built technical indicators and 23 analytical objects. Besides these tools, the platform provides you with an in-built Market and CodeBase.

The terminal also provides nine time frames, which enable traders to examine trade quotes in detail and view price changes in real-time. Providing a plethora of analytical tools at your disposal allows you to track price movement in a timely manner and react accordingly.

Copy Trading and Trading signals

Are you still running the nitty-gritty details of trading? Lacking time to trade effectively? MetaTrader 4 has a copy trading feature that allows rookie traders to copy trades from profitable traders automatically. All you have to do is subscribe to a signal provider. The terminal will replicate these trades in your account. 


Essentially, MT4 provides access to thousands of free and paid signals with varying profit and risk levels. The signals are available for a fee or free.

Integrated Market

The MetaTrader 4 comes with an inbuilt Market that offers the latest technical indicators and Expert Advisors. You do not have to leave the platform to purchase indicators and trading robots. MT4 provides a colossal number of trading robots in a more secure and transparent environment. To be precise, it offers over 2100 technical indicators and 1700 trading robots. In general, it provides the most extensive selection of trading products in the world, including free and commercial products.

Mobile Trading

Mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets have become indispensable gadgets in daily life. The same case applies to trading. Smartphones enable you to trade from anywhere, anytime on the day away from your PC.

You can access MetaTrader 4 platform on your Android or Apple device. Here is the interesting bit. Mobile versions have full functionality. In other words, it fully supports trading and market analysis using graphical objects and technical indicators.

Additionally, mobile platforms support automated trading using trading robots, better known as expert advisors (EAs). EAs analyze and execute on your behalf. With trading robots, you just take a backseat and let the EAs make money for you. 

But that is not all. MT4 has a CodeBase that contains codes of free EAs, scripts, and technical indicators. This means you can download the robots from CodeBase for free. Alternatively, you can download or rent the robots from an online store known as Market. The terminals also connect traders with professional Metatrader freelance developers who offer customized EAs.

Hassle-free Algorithmic Trading

MT4 platform is an ideal environment for developing, testing, and optimizing automated trading programs. The MQL4 integrated programming language comes in handy for developing EA and trading strategies. Expert advisors (EA) do all the work for you, including analysis and trading. This frees you from routine market analysis. You can post the application in the free code library. However, if you need some extra bucks, Meta 4 traders allow you to sell the applications in the Market. Also, you can access free trading robots from the library.

Execution Modes and Order Types on MT4

Trades Execution Modes

The clients terminal supports three order executions modes:

  • Execution by Market - The client specifies the order volume. The order is executed at the next market 
  • Execution by request - The broker receives the price in advance and executes the order when the instruments hit the set price. The client requests the execution price from the broker before the trade operation.
  • Instant execution - The client specifies both the volume and the price, and the order is filled instantaneously at the desired price. However, the broker can reject the order if the price is no longer available. 

A market order is executed at the prevailing market price. On the other hand, a pending order is a commitment to buy or sell an instrument at a certain price in the future date. Pending orders include stop, limit, and stop-loss orders.


Order Types

An order is an instruction requesting the broker to execute a trade on your behalf. Mt4 offers different order types to enable traders to jump into the trade at the most suitable time. By doing so, they reap the maximum profit. The order type depends on the executing conditions.

  • 4 Pending orders 
  • 2 stop orders 
  • 2 market orders Trailing stop
  • 3 execution modes

Trading Platforms and tools

MetaTrader terminal is available on desktop, mobile, and web platforms in over 30 languages, including English, Russian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Japanese. You can perform advanced trading operations and analyze financial markets, copy trades, and use trading robots on any platform. However, unlike desktop and web platforms, mobile devices allow you to trade on the go.

Financial News And Alerts From Around The World

Some traders base their analysis on market events and the latest financial news. In simple terms, this is referred to as fundamental analysis.  The information helps them predict the likely market movement and prepare for unexpected price changes. Consequently, they can adjust their strategy and actions accordingly. 

MetaTrader4 sends alerts notifying the traders about the latest market events and news from financial institutions, geopolitical development, and interest rate decisions. In fact, you receive Feeds from major news agencies such as Reuters, FXStreet, Bloomberg, and IB Times.

Compatibility 

MetaTrader is available for Windows operating systems. For Macs, you will need a special program installer known as  PlayOnMac. Luckily, the program is available for free. Similarly, you will need a windows program installer known as Wine to install MT4 on Linux. For smart devices such as tablets and smartphones, you need Android 4.0 and above or iOs 7.0 or higher versions.


How safe is MetaTrader 4?

Trading involves massive sums of money. For this reason, most traders are concerned about the safety of their money and personal data. Here is the good news. MetaTrader 4 traders boast of high-security standards. It secures clients’ trading accounts using RSA  digital signature and data encryption.This means that you can trade on any operating system and browser safely. Additionally, the information between the client terminal and client platform occurs over secure servers. What’s more, the platform also conceals your IP address.

Summing all that MT4 platform offers

Advantages

  • The platform is available free of charge  
  • Access to a demo account 
  • Easy and user-friendly interface 
  • Supports copy trading of seasoned traders
  • Provides numerous advanced indicators to automate trades 
  • Supports one-click trading - a highly beloved option for scalpers 
  • Multiple language options enabling non-English traders to use with ease 
  • Allows customization and hence provides personalized experienced
  • A wide variety of charting tool and indicator for easy analysis 
  • Compatible with Android, iOS, and Windows operating systems
  • Support backtesting

Disadvantages

  • The speed is not high enough for high-frequency traders
  • MetaQuotes is no longer providing Metatrader 4 to brokers and the platform is to be gradually replaced by the updated MT5 platform.
  • Susceptible to bugs

Conclusion

In its 12 years of operation, MetaTrader 4 has enabled traders to access quotes in real-time, analyze the market and execute orders seamlessly. Besides top-notch analytical tools, it provides copy-trading. This feature enables rookie traders to benefit from the expertise of seasoned traders without burning their fingers. MetaTrader 4 has a global presence and is highly preferred by forex and CFD traders. Recently, MetaQuotes is popularizing MT5. It is, therefore, likely that they will start phasing out new technical updates on MT4. That said, you will still enjoy unhindered access to the platform.