Meta trader on a Mac

dav300

Forum Newbie
There seems to be some questions about running MT4/5 on a Mac so I thought I would start this thread. There are only a few options that you have out there to run MT4/5 on your Mac. There are 3 that I know of and all have pros and cons.

1 - Wine or some version of it (such as play on mac). The good thing about this is it is free. However it is not for casual computer users. Wine is not a stable program so if you expect to load it and forget it, that most likely will not happen. If you are an intermediate or advanced computer user then you will have a good chance to make it work but there can be new difficulties encountered with different builds of MT4 and what works today might not work tomorrow without some troubleshooting.

2- VPS - you get everything you need with just a monthly fee. All you need is a browser or Microsoft remote desktop for Mac and you will have no problem connecting to the VPS. A lot depends on the VPS provider but there are many of them out there that make it pretty easy to use and have great customer support. The downside to this is the ongoing monthly fee. If you are going to run a EA all the time you might have one anyway, if not the monthly fee will add up quickly. Also there is a lag you have to deal with that gets old since you are working on a remote server.

3 - Run windows on your Mac (VM Fusion or Boot Camp). In my opinion this is the most stable way to go and compared to Wine I find it easier. The big downside is the cost. You have to buy VM Fusion or Boot camp and you have to have a license and installation disk for Windows. Once you get it up and running it operates just like a windows PC would.

I personally run VM Fusion and have a VPS. I have tried multiple times to make Wine work but just find it to be too unstable for myself. I considered the cost of getting VM Fusion up and running to be a cost the trading business. For myself the stability and ease of use for VM Fusion lets me focus on the trading activity, not making sure MT4/5 work.

I am by no means an expert on any of this but I have been running my Meta Trader terminals like this for many years now.

Just my input on the matter, if anyone else has experiance with other ways to use MT4 with a Mac or are proficient with Wine please post.
 
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dav300

Forum Newbie
thanks alot for this one.
do you use VM Fusion on El Capitan?
and which Windows Version?

I have not upgraded to El Capitan yet but VM ware always has fusion ready to go when the new OS is out. I checked thier web site and VM fusion 8 is built for the it. I used XP for years and then switched to 8.1 when XP was no longer supported. You will most likely only use it for MT4 so I would go with the cheapest Windows you can get that is still supported.
 

jason piazza

Casual Member
I have upgraded and I do not have any issues with it... with that being said I would love to find a mac version of MT4 as running vm can run a little slow at times depending on your resources with your mac and how many charts you had open. I did reduce the amount of candles battle station looks at from the 500 dale has to 200. But all in all it does run smooth and I have no issues to report.
 

stevko

TFG Forum Junkie
Is any AntiVirus needed to protect the Windows Island? (I always used mac and never had to think about it)
 

dav300

Forum Newbie
Is any AntiVirus needed to protect the Windows Island? (I always used mac and never had to think about it)

I don't use one myself but I do run time machine every month and keep about 6 months worth of backups. I have had to restore 1 time (in about 6 years) because of a virus. You could run one if you wanted. In the US most internet providers offer antivirus for free. They don't know if it is on a virtual or the root OS. I don't know if the same is true for wherever you reside.
 

RF1508

Regular Member
I always work on my mac.
Tried "Wine" and "play on mac" but it just drains your memory.
Parallels works like a charm. It runs in the background with windows 10.
No problems whatsoever with MT4 and none with a custom build platform from my broker.
 

stevko

TFG Forum Junkie
thnks to everybody. This has been of great help to start.

I found this cheap and perfect solution inspired by your advices:
- Install Parallels Desktop on El Capitan (€ 79,-)
- Install (drag!) and register Windows 7 inside Parallels (€ 12,- / came as iso-file via email )
- Upgrade to Windows 10 (free until juli 2016)

Install MT4 and Battle Station (works perfectly indeed :))

I was interested to use ig.com as a demo-account. This for some reason only works with the MT4 setup.file which is offered on their help&support/trading platforms section.
Inside that ig-MT4 installation opening a demo of another broker was possible.

Free setup to learn MT4:
PlayOnMac on El Capitan works for MT4 - but uses Wine, and therefore installing Battle Station seems NOT to work (yet).
 

stevko

TFG Forum Junkie
Go Markets offer a MT4 for Mac - but they use Wine as well, therefor installing Battle Station NOT possible.
But their support is excellent and in the end i could use my parallels desktop / MT4 setup and didnt need to startup a new MT4 installation with all the templates.
 

stevko

TFG Forum Junkie
Thanks guys - just to be sure: Manual Entry/stop with New trade panel works for you?

I got a windows 10 version which had been upgraded for free from windows 7. before this date last year until when it was free. Did you purchase your windows 10, or also upgrated?
 

stevko

TFG Forum Junkie
Manual entry works flawlessly too with the New Trade panel
thanks so much! that really helped me. i tried to reinstall my windows version, it seems to be corrupt or something. downloaded a new windows 7 with serial and will start all over again. guess i stay with win7 in case it works.
 

stevko

TFG Forum Junkie
Short update concerning issue with huge risk warnings using Manual Entry/Stop of the new panel.
After reinstalling everything (Parallels Desktop, Windows 10, all tools) more than once i found out that i had to switch my MacOs system language into English BEFORE installing Windows into Parallels. Now the panel works perfect.
 
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