MetaTrader 4 is software, and the company that builds it says plainly that it is not a broker. MetaQuotes Software Corp states on its own fraud notice that it "is a software development company which licenses its trading platforms as a standalone solution to brokerage companies" and that it "is not a registered broker, dealer, financial advisor, or investment advisor in any jurisdiction, including the United States." That single sentence decides what a crypto demo account on MT4 actually is: a broker's server, reached through MetaQuotes' software, quoting that broker's prices.

This matters more than it sounds. Search results for MT4 crypto demos routinely lead people to believe they are opening something with MetaQuotes. They are not. There is no standalone MT4 with its own prices, and there is no MetaQuotes account to fund. Every quote, every spread, every overnight charge and every instrument list you see in the terminal belongs to whichever brokerage company licensed that server. If the broker is unlicensed, badly run, or disappears, MetaQuotes has said in writing that it accepts no liability, and the terminal will still show you a clean chart right up to the moment it stops connecting.

The demo runs on a broker's server

When you install MT4 and open a demo, the terminal connects to a named server that a broker pays MetaQuotes to run. The symbol names, the contract size for BTC/USD, the digits quoted, the leverage offered, the swap table and whether crypto CFDs appear at all are all set by that broker. Two traders running MT4 demos at two different brokers can be looking at materially different markets with the same software on screen.

So the useful question is never "is the MT4 demo realistic." It is "realistic compared to what," and the only answer worth having is: compared to live trading at the same broker, on the same server, with the same account type. A demo at broker A tells you nothing about costs at broker B. That is why the verification steps later in this guide matter more than any amount of screen time.

Pick the broker first. The terminal follows.

MT4 against MT5, and the version floor you need

MetaQuotes released MT4 on 1 July 2005 and MT5 in 2010. They are separate platforms, not sequential versions, and code does not port between them: MT4 uses MQL4, MT5 uses MQL5. The differences that affect a crypto demo are concrete rather than cosmetic.

That last row is not a footnote. MetaQuotes announced that from 1 December 2024 the minimum supported versions are MT4 build 1420 and MT5 build 4410, and that older desktop terminals will not be able to connect to broker servers. If you installed MT4 from a link that is several years old, check the build number in Help, About before you conclude anything about your connection.

For a crypto CFD demo, MT5 is the better default in 2026 if your broker offers it, mainly because of Depth of Market and the faster tester. MT4 still wins on one thing: the volume of existing MQL4 expert advisors and indicators, which is why many brokers keep their legacy MT4 servers running.

Prop trading firms are a separate consideration. Most evaluations now run on MT5, cTrader or proprietary platforms rather than MT4, so if your destination is a funded account, check which platform the evaluation uses before you spend months learning a terminal you will not be tested on.

A worked position sizing example, with the arithmetic shown

Position sizing is where demo traders make the error that costs them the most money later, and it is worth doing slowly once. Assume a $10,000 demo balance and a rule of risking 2% per trade.

• Risk budget: $10,000 × 2% = $200.
• Entry at $62,100, stop at $61,000. Distance to stop: $1,100 per unit.
• Units affordable: $200 ÷ $1,100 = 0.1818 BTC. Round down to 0.18.
• Actual risk at 0.18 units: 0.18 × $1,100 = $198, which is inside the $200 budget.
• Target at $64,500. Profit per unit: $64,500 − $62,100 = $2,400.
• Account profit: 0.18 × $2,400 = $432.

The number that trips people up is the $2,400. That is profit per unit, not profit on the account. Writings on this topic frequently print both figures in the same sentence as though they are interchangeable, and readers carry the bigger number into their expectations. Your reward to risk ratio here is $432 against $198, roughly 2.2 to 1, and the trade only makes sense if your win rate and costs support that ratio over many attempts.

One caveat specific to crypto CFDs on MT4: contract size is set by the broker. Some brokers define one lot of BTC/USD as 1 BTC, others as 0.01 BTC or something else entirely, and the pip value follows. Confirm the contract size in the symbol specification window before you trust any lot size you calculate on paper.

Three fields in the symbol specification that change the maths

Right click any symbol in Market Watch and open Specification. Three rows there override everything a generic MT4 guide tells you, and they are different at almost every broker.

• Contract size. One lot of BTC/USD is 1 BTC at some brokers and a fraction of a coin at others. Position sizing done with the wrong contract size is wrong by that factor.
• Tick size and tick value. These convert a price move into money. Crypto symbols are often quoted to two digits rather than the four or five forex traders expect, so a one dollar move is not one pip.
• Swap long and swap short. Shown as points, not currency. Multiply by tick value and by your position size to get the nightly charge, then compare it against the size of the move you are trying to catch.

Two more rows are worth a look. Stops level is the minimum distance a stop loss or pending order must sit from the current price, and freeze level is how close to an open position you may modify or close it. Both are set by the broker, both can invalidate a plan that looks fine on a chart, and neither appears in most platform tutorials.

Write these five values down for every symbol you intend to trade.

What a demo cannot reproduce

• Slippage and depth. A demo generally fills you at the displayed price. Real orders in fast crypto moves fill against available depth, and the difference compounds over hundreds of trades.
• The cost of holding. Swap and financing charges on crypto CFDs can be large relative to the move you are trying to capture, and demo balances often hide how quickly they erode a swing position.
• Pressure. The single largest difference is that nothing in a demo account has consequences, and no amount of pretending fixes that.
• Broker conduct. How a broker handles stop loss gaps, negative balances, margin calls and withdrawal requests only shows up when real money is involved.
• Counterparty risk. A CFD is a contract with your broker. Its solvency is part of the trade, and a demo models none of it.

Fake terminals and copycat sites

MetaQuotes publishes a fraud notice that reads like a checklist of exactly the traps a first-time MT4 user falls into. It warns of fraudulent websites reproducing MetaQuotes trademarks, domains that imitate "MetaTrader", "MT4", "MT5", "MQL5" or "MetaQuotes", instant messaging groups on WhatsApp, Telegram, WeChat and Discord promising easy income, and trading platforms built to imitate the MT4 interface. It names the pig butchering pattern explicitly.

The official domains listed by MetaQuotes are metaquotes.net, metaquotes.com, metatrader.com, metatrader4.com, metatrader5.com, mql5.com, mql4.com, finteza.com and tradays.com. Downloading from anything outside that list, or outside your broker's own verified site, is the risk. MetaQuotes also advises users to check the broker details shown in the About section of the terminal and confirm they match the broker they believe they are dealing with, and it states that it may not maintain complete and up to date information on each broker's regulatory status in every jurisdiction. Suspicious sites can be reported to support@metaquotes.net.

That last point deserves emphasis. Seeing a broker listed inside the MT4 terminal is not evidence that the broker is licensed anywhere. MetaQuotes has told you so.

Treat the terminal directory as advertising, not as a register.

Checking the broker before you leave the demo

MetaQuotes points users to the public warning lists maintained by the UK Financial Conduct Authority and the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission as part of their own due diligence. Do that, then go one step further and look the broker up on its regulator's register rather than trusting a logo on its website.

• FCA: search the Financial Services Register at register.fca.org.uk for the exact legal name, and search the FCA warning list separately, since being unauthorised and being a clone of an authorised firm are two different listings.
• NFA: search NFA BASIC at nfa.futures.org and open the Regulatory Actions tab.
• ASIC: search ASIC Connect at connectonline.asic.gov.au for the Australian Financial Services Licence number.
• CySEC: use the CySEC register and its investor warning list.

On every register, confirm four things: the legal name matches your account agreement exactly, the status is authorised rather than pending or withdrawn, the permitted activities include retail foreign exchange or contracts for difference, and there is no current warning or disciplinary record. If the broker is incorporated offshore in a jurisdiction with no forex licensing regime, understand that registration in the company registry there is not a licence, a point the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Financial Services Authority has repeated in its own public notices.

When a demo is the wrong tool

• You have spent months adjusting indicator parameters until the backtest looks good. That is curve fitting, and more demo time will make it worse.
• You routinely use the maximum leverage the broker allows on demo. Under FCA and ESMA derived rules retail leverage on crypto CFDs is far lower, so the habit will not transfer.
• You keep no journal. A demo without entries, exits, reasons and screenshots produces no evidence either way.
• You are using demo profits as proof of skill. The only thing a demo proves is that you can operate the terminal.

What to do next

First, open Help, About in your terminal and write down the build number and the server name, then check that the build is at least 1420 on MT4 or 4410 on MT5. Second, take the legal entity name from your account agreement, not from the marketing site, and search for it on the register of the regulator the broker claims. Third, when you do go live, fund the smallest amount the broker accepts, trade the minimum size, and request a partial withdrawal in the first month, because withdrawal friction is the one broker behaviour you can test cheaply and the one that predicts the most serious problems.

Nothing here tells you whether MetaTrader is the right platform for you. It tells you which decisions the platform makes for you and which ones your broker makes, so you know where to look.

Risk note

Crypto CFDs are leveraged derivatives. Losses can exceed your deposit depending on the broker and the account type, and leverage limits vary by regulator. Prices and liquidity in crypto markets can move faster than a stop loss can execute. This article describes software mechanics and verification steps; it is not investment advice, and a demo result is not evidence about live performance.