Different types of MT4 programmers

Here you will learn how to distinguish between the different types of MT4 programmers who are usually dedicated to developing MT4 EAs and other programs for Metatrader 4.

Q: I want to hire a programmer to develop my MT4 Expert Advisor but I find a lot of related programmers: MT4 programmers, MQL4 programmers, MetaTrader programmers, Expert Advisors programmers, Forex programmers, and so on. So which of these programmers do I need to hire?

A: Certainly there are many ways to label the programmers related to the development of Expert Advisors, Indicators and other tools for MT4 and MT5. Such a number of classifications can confuse those who, like you, seek to hire these programming services. As you mentioned, it can be found several labels for similar jobs (e.g.; MT4 programmers, MQL4 programmers, MetaTrader programmers and MQL programmers) but there are also many people looking in the web for: EA programmers, Forex programmers and FX programmers. Also for more specific names like: Indicators programmers, Script programmers, MT4 EA programmers or Forex EA programmers. And even more elaborated labels like: MT4 coders or MT4 developers.

All of the above are related to programming services for MetaTrader 4 or MetaTrader 5 but there are small differences among their approaches that can be helpful when looking for this kind of skills. Below we explain the definition of some of the main concepts to help distinguish among them.

MT4 programmers: MT4 stands for MetaTrader 4 so the denomination refers to those developers specializing in MetaTrader 4 programs. The same explains ‘MT5 programmers’ definition but in this case referring to MetaTrader 5. Notice that both MT4 and MT5 belong to the same MetaTrader family but they are different platforms. ‘MetaTrader programmers’ is a similar label but without specifying the type of MetaTrader (4 or 5).

MQL4 programmers: it is a concept very similar to ‘MT4 programmers‘ but it refers to the programming language instead of the platform. MQL4 stands for ‘MetaQuotes Language 4’ and it’s the programming language used to develop programs for MT4 platform. In a nutshell: MT4 refers to MetaTrader 4 platform and MQL4 to the code understood by MT4 platform. This is also valid for ‘MQL5 programmers’ label but referring to MetaTrader 5. Note that both MQL4 and MQL5 are related but they are different programming languages and work for different platforms. ‘MQL programmers’ is a similar name but it does not specify the type of programming language (4 or 5).

EA programmers: EA stands for Expert Advisors commonly called trading robots. Expert Advisors or EAs are programs developed for both MT4 and MT5. Basically, they are designed to trade automatically based on rules defined by the trader. Considering this, ‘EA programmers’ emphasizes the skill of developing Expert Advisors more than any other. In summary, looking for ‘EA programmers’ or ‘Expert Advisor programmers’ means to look for a specific profile oriented to the development of Expert Advisors or trading robots. ‘MT4 Indicator programmers’ or ‘MT4 Script programmers’ are similar definitions but they refer to other highly demanded MT4 programs: Indicators and Scripts.