A trading platform is software that connects a trader and the forex market by providing basic features such as live price, execute orders, and account management. The other features ranged widely depend on the creator and the purpose; some of them are built solely for certain market, the other cover forex, futures, and CFD markets. Usually, forex trading platforms are given free by the brokers when you use their services. It can be comes in two forms: online platform or a software that you must download and install to your computer. These days, these brokers software has quite complete features; at the very least they are all support basic charting which is the bread and butter of forex market analysis. Due to various circumtances, you can't always use the one from your broker; for instance: if you utilize Expert Advisor (EA) or forex robot, you must have it run under Meta Trader 4 (MT4), a popular trading platform.
So, what do you need from these forex trading platforms? These are some things that a platform should have:
1. Easy access to your account information as well as orders summary. The important thing is it should display real time value of your account based on your current open position. Example: if you close your position at the current price, your account will get profit/loss by 20 pips.
2. Easy access to the currency pair that you want. It should give you real time valid updates on the currency movement and quick live chart for analysis purpose.
3. Easy to execute orders. When get the right entry/exit price, you won't have time to click various menu or buttons across the platform interface just to execute an order. The means to execute order has to be accessible by various ways.
4. Quick and accurate to execute order. Some forex trading platforms can't fulfill these requirements on a steady basis. Usually, the problem is the software won't execute the order that you have given; it will display the 'waiting' status while the market price keep moving and make you lose potential profits. This can be due to connection issues which can also be experienced by a credible broker, but there is also other probability: your account is in a scam brokerage. These brokers are designing their forex trading platforms so it will make it hard for you to have a winning trade or proper risk management. Sometimes it will not execute your stop loss order with various excuses afterwards. If you have experienced this again and again, just withdraw your account and find another broker.
Aside from scam brokerage, there are still many credible forex trading platforms that owned by honest forex brokers; just go with a recommended broker and you will be fine. The interface of the platforms might different for each broker, but as long as it is fulfill the four requirements that I've mentioned above, it should serve you well.
As a trader, Matthew John has tested various trading platforms.
Read his finding about a broker that provide the world leading trading
platform for free at AvaFX Review - read the truth about the owner of these trading platforms at online forex broker.
