Having access to multiple trading monitors is every traders dream. When you think of traders, you think of Axel on Billions, with 2 huge monitors, or a wall street veteran with 4 monitors stacked on the desk. In reality, even just having 2 monitors is overkill for most forex traders and comes with a range of problems. With 2 monitors, MetaTrader
won’t allow charts to be dragged to a second screen, rendering having 2 screens pointless. Or is it?
In this article we are going to look at how to undock your MT4 charts in just a few steps…
Step By Step Guide To Undocking Charts:
- Download a floating charts EA. (Floating Charts
is the most popular) - Install the EA in your MT4 source files, in the MQL4 folder.
- Run the EA on your charts.
- You’ll now have floating charts that can be dragged on both monitors.
It’s that simple! Let’s cover this in more detail though…
How To Get Floating Charts On MetaTrader
Getting your charts undocked and floating between both monitors is actually a lot more simple than it seems! The benefit of using a slightly older trading platform like MT4 is the fact that traders have made a huge amount of scripts, EA’s and add ons over the last few years. So, how do we detach the charts…
1. Download a script or EA to undock the charts.
There are a huge amount of scripts out there to help undock charts. They can be found either online, or in the MQL4 store. One of the most popular tools in the industry is called Floating Charts, however, this is a paid tool and there are some free tools in the MQL4 code base – so I’d definitely try some free tools first!
2. Install the script on your MetaTrader files.
Regardless of which script you choose to use to undock charts, we need to install this on MT4. To do this, the easiest way is to open the MT4 program. Once open, go to File, then open Data Folder. Once in here, you’ll need to navigate to MQ4L, then place the script in the script folder, or the EA in the EA folder. Once done, reload your MT4 program.
3. Run the script on the charts.
Drag your script or EA onto the charts, then you should have access to floating charts immediately!
If you have struggled with this, there is a video with another method shown below that may be easier to follow…
The Benefits Of Undocking MT4 Charts
As shown in this image from Investopedia, many fund traders and institutional traders like to have multiple monitors to assist with trading the markets. For retail traders like you and I, it’s not actually needed. Although not needed many traders still like to have multiple monitors just to see more of a picture of the markets without having to flick through multiple tabs.
Undocking your MT4 charts is crucial if you’re looking to have more than 1 monitor. As the MT4 program was built many years ago, it only has inbuilt functionality for 1 monitor, which may hold some traders back. High frequency traders and intraday traders especially need to see charts instantly and always keep an eye on them, so having multiple monitors maybe incredibly useful.
The Alternatives To Using Floating Charts On MT4
If you just want to see charts on multiple screens, there are other alternative trading platforms that will allow you to do this without having to bring in any third party add ons. The most popular of these is TradingView.
TradingView allows paid users to use charts across multiple screens with ease and it’s my charting tool of choice. They offer a free package too but sadly the functionality is not included in the free package. cTrader is another potential alternative to MT4 that allows charts to be freely moved across multiple monitors.
Undocking Charts In MT5
If you’re one of the traders using MetaTrader 5, instead of it’s predecessor, you’ll have the docked feature built in! To undock a chart on MT5, you’ll just need to right click on a chart and hit ‘Docked’. It’s really that simple!
To Conclude – Undock MT4 Charts In 5 Minutes
In this article we have learned how to spread your MetaTrader charts across multiple monitors and undock them in just 3 simple steps!
If you have any questions or need further help, please do let me know in the comments below.
