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Written by Itsariya Doungnet
Updated 29 December 2025
Table of Contents
The Spread Indicator (MT4 and MT5) is a great tool that makes it much easier to see the spread! The spread is the difference between buy and sell. It helps you see your profits or losses after deducting all necessary costs from the broker. You need to calculate the following using the spread formula, but the spread indicator will save a lot of time. Let’s see here in this blog how to use it!
Key Takeaways
Spread Indicator (MT4 and MT5) is a great tool for scalpers and day traders.
The Spread Indicator offers many features that advanced users can set up to suit their trading style.
Spread indicators guide you when the market is highly volatile or highly liquid.
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Spread Indicator (MT4 and MT5) is a tool that helps you to see the fees you need to pay the broker more easily. You can add this indicator to the trading platforms such as MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5. After you can test it out to align with your trading strategy. This spread indicator can help you manage risk when the market becomes highly volatile through spread fluctuations.
If you are in the Forex market, you might wonder whether you earned a full profit, what costs you need to know about, and how pips work. Well, all of these are connected to each other, so let’s see how the spread works in a simple way.
When you trade on the exchange, you will see the buying price and selling price, which we call the "ask" and "bid" prices. In the ask and bid prices, there is a fee charged by the broker called the spread.
For every order, you will pay the spread. Spread is measured in pips and depends on the trading asset, your trading account type, and market conditions.
The spread indicator helps you save time by automatically calculating spreads and reducing confusion about pips, spreads, and related terms.
Once you know the spread, you will know how much net profit you will earn from your trading after accounting for the spread.
To see spreads more easily, you need to install an indicator on your trading platform first, then log in to your broker, and you can start trading. So how to add the Spread Indicator (MT4 and MT5)? Let’s see more details below.
First step, you need to install the trading platform, either MetaTrader 4 or MetaTrader 5. The trading platform options depend on your trading skills. They have pros and cons that you can consider to suit your trading strategy the most. Once you finish installing the trading platform, you can log in with your broker to get started.
You can install the spread indicator on the MQL5 website by searching for it. You will see many options available in MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5. You can drag it into the price chart and run the indicator. Installing the spread indicator takes only a few minutes, and then it will be ready to use.
Once the installation is complete, you can set up the spread indicator to suit your trading style. Also, some indicators allow you to block your trades when the spread gets too high for your balance, and you can set different spread limits for each asset you mark to trade so that you can manage your trading account.
You can’t trade with a spread indicator, but you can use it to manage your trading costs effectively. Here’s how you can adapt the spread to your trading strategy.
When the spread indicator gives you a sign that it is low and stable, then this is the time to enter a trade. When you see that the market is in an uptrend, you always need a buying confirmation pattern to enter a trade. Don’t forget to set the stop loss and then take a profit when you see the bearish candlestick pattern.
As with a buying signal, you need to check the spread indicator to see if the market now has a low, stable spread. If the market is low and stable, and the trend is down, you need to find a candlestick pattern to confirm a downtrend. Once it is confirmed, you can enter a trade, set a stop loss, and set a profit target to exit the trade.
If you are hesitant or unsure which trading platforms to use to install the spread indicator. Here’s how the spread indicator works on different platforms, such as MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5, below.
The MetaTrader 4 is a simple trading platform and great for beginners. You can install the spread indicator in MetaTrader 4, but it might not support advanced features. You will see the spread in pips on the spread chart and receive an alert, but it might have data limits and might not be able to track multiple assets.
The MetaTrader 5 is great for experienced traders because you can access more features of the spread indicator, such as viewing the spread across multiple time frames, checking the spread history, and more. This will help you get notified of more alert conditions that better suit your trading style.
Using spread indicators has advantages and disadvantages that you should consider. The spread indicator is not just a tool that displays the difference between the ask and bid prices. It also offers additional capabilities to help traders follow the steps below.
Pros
Cons
You will get an advantage on high volatility from the changes in the spread.
The spread indicator depends on the data broker provided.
It will help you manage your trading costs better.
It's not a tool to tell you to buy and sell directly.
It helps you choose account types from brokers to lower your trading costs.
You always need other indicators to combine with the spread to use.
You can see the real-time spread easily on the price chart.
The spread indicator can also help you manage trading risk. You can see from how the spread indicator is displayed whether it’s now wider or narrower. Let’s see more of how you can also use it to manage your own risk!
You should reduce the trading size when the spread gets wider.
You can set stop loss and take profit following how the spread indicator is factored.
You can combine your trading strategy with a spread to enter the trade when the spread indicator signals that it's low and stable.
Calculating spread can be confusing for beginners; that is why the Spread Indicator (MT4 and MT5) is a great option to install on your trading platforms.
You can use it to install MT4 spread indicator, which is great for beginners, or MT5 spread indicator, which is great for advanced traders who need more features.
The spread indicator is a great tool for scalpers and day traders to reduce trading costs. You can also customize the spread indicator to better suit your trading style and also the MT4 backtesting spread before using.
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Yes, with more advanced features, you can see the spread history, and this feature works better on MetaTrader 5.
Yes, you can choose to install the spread indicator on MT5 and monitor multiple assets. These are more advanced features.
The spread indicator is great for traders who are scalping or day trading and targeting a few pips of profit. You need a spread indicator to manage the big risk from the spread.
When the spread widens, it means the market has high liquidity and that risk is increasing. The spread indicator doesn't tell you to close your trades, but it does suggest reducing your high trading costs.
Once you have installed the spread indicator, you can set an alert notification to notify you when it occurs.
There are many good options out there that you can test on your trading platform. The best option is the one that suits your trading style best.
Itsariya Doungnet
SEO Content Writer
Itsariya Doungnet is an SEO content writer with expertise in both Thai and English, specializing in financial education. Itsariya blends clear communication with SEO techniques to make complex topics on investing and finance easy to understand and accessible to readers.
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