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MT4 vs MT5 for Signal Copying: Which Should You Use?

MT4 or MT5 for copying Telegram/Discord signals? Compare execution, instruments, hedging, partial closes, and which works best with a signal copier and prop firms.

2026-05-20 6 min readBy TradeJournal Team

If you're setting up a signal copier, one of the first decisions is MT4 or MT5. Both work with TradeJournal Pro — but they behave differently in ways that matter for copying. Here's a practical comparison.

Quick verdict

  • Choose MT4 if your broker/prop firm is MT4-only, or you want the largest ecosystem of brokers and the simplest setup.
  • Choose MT5 if you want more instruments (stocks, futures), faster backtesting, native partial-close handling, and economic-calendar integration.

For pure forex signal copying, either is fine. The copier abstracts most differences away.

Instruments

  • MT4 — forex and CFDs, period. Great if you only trade FX and metals.
  • MT5 — forex, metals, indices, stocks, futures, and crypto CFDs depending on broker.

Execution & order handling

  • MT5 uses a netting or hedging model (broker-dependent); MT4 is always hedging. Many prop firms run hedging on both.
  • Partial closes are native on MT5. On MT4 they're handled by the EA. TradeJournal Pro supports multi-TP partial closes on both.

Prop firms

Most funded programs offer both. Pick the platform your specific challenge uses. Either way, prop-firm mode (stealth delays, hidden SL/TP, drawdown guards) works identically.

Speed

MT5 is a more modern, multithreaded platform, but for signal copying the bottleneck is signal delivery and broker fill speed — not the platform. TradeJournal Pro places orders in well under a second on both.

What about cloud execution?

If you do not want to keep either platform open on a PC/VPS, the Cloud line uses a supported provider-hosted MT4 or MT5 connection. Confirm broker compatibility and test the full lifecycle on demo first.

Bottom line

There's no wrong answer for FX signal copying. Match your broker/prop firm, and let the copier handle the platform-specific details.

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Not financial advice. Trading carries risk.

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