Every MT4 and MT5 account comes with two passwords, and the difference between them matters a great deal. One can place trades and move money. The other can only look. If you are checking someone else's account — a signal seller, an EA vendor, a money manager — the second one, the investor password, is the only one you should ever be handed.
What it is
MetaTrader gives each account two passwords:
- The master (or main) password — full control. Whoever has it can log in, place and close trades, and change the account's settings. It is the trader's own password.
- The investor (read-only) password — view only. It opens the same account in the terminal, shows every open position, the full trade history and the balance, but every trading function is disabled. You can watch; you cannot touch.
Both open the same account. Only one can do anything to it.
What it can and can't do
Logged in with the investor password, you can:
- See open trades, pending orders and the account balance.
- Read the complete closed-trade history.
- Watch the equity move in real time.
You cannot:
- Open or close a trade.
- Change or cancel an order.
- Withdraw or move funds.
- Change the account settings or either password.
It is a window, not a door.
How to set or find it
In MT4, open Tools → Options → Server, or right-click the account under Navigator → Accounts and choose to change the password; the dialog lets you set the investor password separately from the master one. MT5 follows a similar path. Your broker usually sets an investor password when the account is opened, and you can view or change it in the terminal or the broker's client area. If you have never set one, assume it is not active and set it before you share anything.
Why people use it
The investor password exists for exactly this: letting someone see an account without being able to trade it. It is used for verification (proving your results to a prospective investor), monitoring (a service or partner watching the account), and due diligence (checking a manager or seller before you commit). If a signal seller or money manager offers you a live investor login rather than a screenshot, that is a good sign — you are seeing the account itself, not a picture of it.
A worked example
A money manager asks you to invest £10,000 and, to prove the record, offers login details so you can watch the account. If they send the investor password, you log in, see the live positions and the full history, and can never trade the account by accident or otherwise. That is exactly right. If instead they ask you for a master password, or hand one over, something is off: no honest arrangement needs you to hold trading control of their account, and none needs them to hold it of yours. The password on offer tells you how the relationship is really set up.
Safety, and why a live feed is stronger
- Never share the master password. There is no legitimate reason to. Anyone asking for it to "verify" or "monitor" your account is asking for control of it. The investor password does everything a viewer honestly needs.
- Change it if in doubt. Because it cannot trade, a leaked investor password is low-risk, but you can change it any time in the terminal.
- A one-off login is only a snapshot. It shows the account at the moment you look. The password can be changed the day after you check, and the account you were shown may not be the one that keeps running. A permanent read-only feed — a service connected with the investor login and updating continuously — is stronger, because it keeps reading and you see the account as it is, not as it was on the day of the demo.
The Karnek note
Karnek connects to your account with read-only access — the investor-password level, nothing more — so it can show your live performance and never place a trade, move money or change a setting. It keeps reading rather than taking a single snapshot, so the figures stay current instead of being true only on the day someone logged in. Sharing a master password with any monitoring service, Karnek included, is never necessary.
Written and reviewed by the Karnek Research team. Last updated August 2026.
Educational content only - not financial advice. Past performance does not predict future results. Trading carries significant risk.