Trading is the overall set of actions taken on the Forex or CFD market, which are intended to lead to generation of the desired profits. Since Forex and CFD markets are highly dynamic, investing on them requires the traders — investors — to have knowledge and experience as well as specific skills. These can be obtained in the course of investing on trading platforms, and contrary to the appearances, one does not have to risk their own money while doing so. Brokerage firms often make test platforms available to new clients — demo versions of trading platforms that allow them to learn how such tools work. The only question is — what should be considered in order to choose the best trading platform?
Contents
A platform for beginner traders?
Choosing the first trading platform is much more difficult than choosing the subsequent one. Young investors simply do not know what they should expect from a platform provided by the broker (more information about XTB global broker). First of all, such a trader should pay attention to whether the broker allows for the platform to be used initially without the need to open an investment account and make a minimum deposit. The vast majority of licenced brokers offer young investors an opportunity to use a demo version of the trading platform, allowing them to become acquainted with its functions and prove themselves as traders, without risking their own money at the same time.
On the test account, i.e. demo account, of the trading platform, the trader experiences conditions similar to those on the actual Forex or CFD market. Thus, they can see what placing buy and sell orders or using analytical tools available on a given platform looks like. They can place test orders and verify trading strategies. If it turns out that this mode of investing suits them and the platform itself is intuitive to use and highly functional, they can sign a cooperation agreement with the broker, gain access to the fully functional trading platform and begin real investments on the Forex and CFD market using their capital.
Key tools on the trading platform
The choice of the trading platform should be made taking into account the tools it makes available to its users. It is important for the investor to have at their disposal a large pool of various investment tools so that they can effectively adopt appropriate buy and sell positions using currency pairs or other instruments, such as contracts for differences (CFD). It should be noted that analytical instruments, thanks to which one can indicate the right moment for making the investment decision, are also important.
The brokerage platform should be simple and intuitive to use so that the trader has no problems with finding the desired options within it. The speed of order placement and execution is a very important issue. The Forex and CFD market is highly dynamic, so the time of order execution for each trader is an important element of the trading platform.
The platform should provide risk mitigation functions, such as “Take Profit” or “Trailing Stop”. The “Take Profit” function is used mainly slightly above the resistance line or level or below the support line. It allows for items with a specified profit to be closed automatically, thanks to which the trader can generate income without major risk. “Trailing Stop”, on the other hand, is otherwise known as the “Stop Loss” level, tracking the exchange rate of the pair at the distance of a specific number of pips established by the user. It offers the possibility of securing the profit generated by the investor.