Setting Up Multiple MT4 Platforms on Your Windows Computer
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009While MetaTrader 4 (MT4) allows you to set up multiple accounts and switch between them, it doesn’t have the ability to access those accounts at the same time. One way to work around this limitation is to install multiple copies of MT4 on your computer and then run each copy simultaneously while logged into your different accounts. Fortunately, with a little forethought, this is pretty easy to do. Here is how I set up multiple MT4s on my own computer.
1. Decide how you want to organize multiple installations in your file system. I trade with multiple brokers and each seems to have a customized version of mt4, so I want to give each broker it’s own folder. Some brokers have multiple platforms, or at least offer trading software goodies that only interact with their systems, so I want to create a subfolder with the name of the software–in this case, mt4 (okay, that’s actually the software acronym combined with the major version number). For me, I like to clearly define software that works with live accounts versus those that works with demo accounts, so I create subfolders live and demo. And finally, I want to distinguish what purpose or type of trading each instance of MT4 will be carrying out on its account, so I want to finally place the software copies into folders named development, daily_trades, short_trades, etc. In this example I’ll install Interbank FX’s version of MT4 into
C:\Program Files\Interbank FX\mt4\demo\development
2. Download and run the broker’s MT4 installer. I won’t go into detail here since I assume you know where to get the software and know to double click on the software to run it. After the installer starts, I mostly click Next until I get prompted for the Installation folder.
3. Specify the installation folder for this particular copy of MT4. The installer will likely show a default installation directory like C:\Program Files\Interbank FX Trader 4 (or something with your own broker’s name). I highlight the text in the field and then replace it with the complete path to the installation directory above. You could also click the Browse button, but since the folders don’t yet exist, you’ll need to add a subfolder, double click on it, add the next subfolder, and repeat until you have the complete path. After following either method, click Next to go to the next prompt.
Installation Folder Prompt
4. Modify the Program Group. Rename the program group to be the bottom most folder in your installation path (in this example, development). Continue with the installation process until you get to final page where you are asked if you want to launch the application.
Program Group Prompt
5. Uncheck the Launch software check box. My example says Launch Interbank FX Trader, but whatever it says, uncheck the box and click Finish. We’ll launch later.
Launch Application Prompt
6. Rename or delete the shortcut added to your desktop. At this point you should have a shortcut on your desktop and a set of shortcuts in your Windows Start menu to launch this newly installed MT4. If you would like to launch MT4 from the shortcut on your desktop, you can rename that shortcut to something that will distinguish it from other shortcuts that will appear after future installations. In this case, renaming it to something like Interbank FX MT4 — DEMO — Development might do the trick. Personally, I just delete the shortcuts on my desktop as I prefer to launch applications from the Start menu.
7. Customize your Windows Start menu. Basically, we are going to create the same folder hierarchy in our start menu as we did for our installation. To do this, right-click the Windows Start button and select Open All Users. An Explorer window should pop up. If the window only has one pane, press the Folders button at the top to see the file system hierarchy. Go into the Programs folder. In this folder, you should see the folder created by this installer that contains shortcuts to this new MT4 installation (in this case, Interbank FX Trader 4). Rename this folder to be the name of the bottom most folder you specified to install this software (in this example, development). After renaming it, create your folder hierarchy just as you specified for the installation directory, but you can omit creating the bottom most folder. Once the folder hierarchy is created, move the folder containing the shortcuts (here, development) down to where it belongs in the hierarchy.
Final Program Hierarchy
8. Launch your new instance of MT4. Left-click the Windows Start button and navigate through your applications until you find the short cuts to your new instance of MT4. Choose the program’s icon (in my case, Interbank FX Trader) and make sure the app comes up. As this is a new instance, it should prompt you to add an account to log into.
Launching Application from the Start Button
Congratulations, you have a new instance of MT4 on your computer.