Tips For Choosing the Best Forex Trading Platform

Before starting to analyse the factors that will determine which trading platform is best for you, it should be noted that when we talk about platforms, we are not referring to the broker.

Often, you will find articles that refer to broker and platform interchangeably that represent the same reality, and that is not exactly the case.

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It is true that, as a general rule, the software will be provided by the broker. Although no less true is that the same platform can be valid to trade Forex with different brokers.

In short: the software used has to be accepted by the broker, but they are not the same. It is the work tool, while the broker is our intermediary to execute the orders that derive from our analytical work on the platform.

The Trading Platform Is Much More Important Than It Seems

Often having a trading platform or another is a secondary factor for anyone who approaches the world of trading in general, or Forex in particular.

“The one that gives me the broker is fine” is a classic when it comes to saving us a decision that, everything said, can be complex, especially when we are starting and our knowledge and experience with trading platforms is limited.

But nothing is further from reality: the software and how well we perform with it are key factors in our operations. All you have to do is understand the software as responsible for translating everything that may be happening in the market to our computer screen.

If that translation does not allow you to have a complete, simple and quick understanding of the reality of the market, your operational decisions will necessarily be conditioned.

What’s more: in addition to analysing the market and making decisions about it, the trading platform is the one that will allow us to interact with the market; that is: enter the purchase and sale orders, stop losses, execute the planned strategies while the operation is in full swing, etc.

As you will surely have understood, leaving the decision of the software to a simple “the one that my broker provides” is a risk that should be avoided.

Tips For Choosing The Best Trading Platform

Once you are clear that it is much more important than it seems, here are a few tips so you can assess which is the best one for your day today:

The trading platform is the one that will allow you to capture your trading knowledge on the real market. It has to be complete in functionalities and easy to use at the same time.

For example, if you regularly work with Heiken Ashi and one program does not have them, it is obvious that you should look for another one.

The same happens with a multitude of options that not all platforms have available: personalised strategies, automatic trading, the possibility of backtesting, etc.

It seriously values the choice of a multi-broker platform instead of a proprietary one. Proprietary ones are those that only serve to operate with a specific broker, and in the world of trading, the fewer definitive ties you establish, the better.

If you have to dedicate a certain time to learn how certain software works, better do it in one that you can take with you to the broker that you consider appropriate.

In this sense, platforms such as Metatrader, Tradestation or Ninja Trader stand out, the most popular (and also free) being the first.

Evaluate that the software is valid for the equipment with which you usually plan to trade. If you have a Mac, for example, software should be available for the OS operating system because if not, you will have to resort to other tools to be able to use the one on your system.

It is more and more frequent that some platforms offer a flash or java version of it, so simply with an internet browser, we can make use of them, something very important if you are very interested in mobility and do not want to stick to operating from an only team.

Of course, in the latter case, the customisation options may be much more limited.

Before you “marry” a trading platform, you should test it regularly. It is not enough to spend 2 or 3 hours with it because those first hours will probably be complex in itself due to a simple learning curve and adaptation to the software.

Learn how it works for about 5 hours, and then spend at least ten additional hours operating with it in simulation. If, after all this process, you do not feel comfortable with it, you can be almost sure that this one is not for you.

It will be very important to understand that the perfect platform may not exist. Therefore, if you do what I advised you in the previous point, it would be good for you to write a small report of each discarded platform in which you express what you like and dislike about the platform you have just tried.

More than anything because it is possible that the 3 or 4 that you try later are even worse than the first, and you must rescue them for your day-to-day operations.

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Once you have chosen the one with which you will operate, delve into its functionalities.

You will be surprised to see how a good knowledge of some of the functions that the software make available to us can end up making important differences in your daily operations.

Making the most of our trading platform is part of the success factors that separate a great trader from a normal one.

Do not start trading in real with a platform until you have completely mastered its use, especially everything that has to do with operations management.

It is very good that you perfectly master the tracing of supports, resistances and Fibonaccis, but the really critical thing is that you know how to place orders with stop loss, that you know how to trade a trade, that you know how to move your profit during the course of the operation so as not to waste a good movement, that you know how to follow the operation with a dynamic stop so as not to squander all the accumulated profit at a certain moment, etc.

That is to say, that you perfectly master everything related to real operations.