Essential Features of Forex Platforms

When you’re searching for the ideal Forex trading platform, several crucial features should be at the top of your list when making your decision on where to spend your money and make your trades. We’ll give you a head start on what to look for, where to look, and outline which aspects we think are most important in becoming a successful trader. 

Trade 24 hours a day through the 5-day working week

Global currency markets do not close like stock markets and other financial trading institutions. You can trade 24 hours a day during the standard 5-day working week, Monday to Friday. With the Sydney market being the first to open globally on a Monday morning (10am Sydney time) and the New York market being the last to close on a Friday evening (4pm New York time), there is always a market open for you to trade around the world. 

Pick a platform that keeps things simple

Simple doesn’t always mean basic. Simple also means straightforward and uncomplicated. When you’re analysing trading markets, you want the most clarity possible.

Above these factors, the main reason why we suggest picking a platform with an easy-to-use and simple interface is that this type of app infrastructure is usually low-latency, which delivers extremely quick trade execution – usually in less than 50 milliseconds – which protects your investment by buying or selling your currency before the market moves significantly. The last thing you want is the market to react to a change before your trade has been processed.

You shouldn’t mistrust a simple interface either, as often these platforms are far from basic. You can customize the dashboard to show your key trading areas, allowing you to focus only on the information that’s important to you and your forex trades. An uncluttered interface makes it clear what your open orders are, how your forex trades are charting, and sometimes also offers a risk summary of your current trades, provided by the platform interface.

Regulation gives you confidence in your investment

When a forex platform is regulated by well-respected financial entities across the globe, this can give you confidence that your trades are secure and protected. Whilst it is important to say that protection and oversight offered by a platform does vary from entity to entity, if you’re trading GBP (British pounds) on a platform that has FCA regulation in the UK, you have that security in knowing there is regulatory oversight on your investment. Finding a platform that is regulated by an authority in the currency you want to trade most often is a sensible approach for beginner traders. You can take a look at one such regulated example with our Exness review.

You should also be checking the breadth of currencies available on the forex market offered on the platform. Great platforms offer depth to their currency pairs, allowing you to take more risk if you are an experienced trader, as well as providing the stable major pairs that every platform offers.

Check that the offered currency pairs match your forex strategy

Major pairs offered by the best platforms include trading with USD (US dollars) into other major currencies such as pounds (GBP), yen (JPY), and euros (EUR), as well as often Australian dollars (AUD) and Swiss francs (CHF). Minor pairs offered by top platforms usually trade globally respected currencies, outside of USD, with other stable markets, such as GBP into AUD. 

Experienced traders should be looking at the depth in exotic pairs available on the platform. These are usually trades that explore emerging markets paired with a strong currency, so these trades can be much more volatile and insecure, but can offer great rewards too. One such example would be trading euros with Swedish krona (SEK).

A trading journal keeps you informed

The large majority of platforms have apps that replicate their desktop experience, meaning you can always check in on the forex markets and your trades wherever you are. However, that doesn’t always mean you want to lug around a pen and notebook with you everywhere to keep track of all your trades! The solution to this is to use a platform that offers a built-in trading journal.

With a platform that automatically records each trade you make, including the entry and exit points, you can often annotate these trades with your strategy and reasons for making the trade. Then, within the trading journal itself, you can chart patterns across every trade you make, as well as being able to review and improve your decision-making objectively before confirming your next transaction.

This becomes your first, personal in-built risk management control, so choosing a platform that digitizes your journal means that you can always trade in confidence, no matter whether you’re at your desk or on your commute. 

Risk management controls protect your investment

Other risk management controls are offered by the top platforms, including AI-powered alerts and trading suggestions. Platforms that use MetaTrader 4 or MetaTrader 5 to power their forex trading take advantage of its built-in features, such as automated trading set on your own choice of parameters, and tailored to your own forex trading strategy.

Choosing a platform that offers AI-powered alerts means you can always be safe in the knowledge that your ideal margins will be brought to your attention rapidly and that balance monitoring is running in the background to give you the best chance of trading success.

In terms of protecting your investment, you should always investigate your shortlist of platforms and ensure that a stop-loss order is in place there. This allows you to close a losing position at an agreed price, preventing any further capital loss, as well as a take-profit order that does the opposite, and closes at a pre-set price level that locks in your gains. When you use a broker that has these features built in, it reduces emotion-led decision-making, which can backfire spectacularly, and instead ensures that your investment is as secure as possible.

Always do your research before investing

New forex trading platforms continue to emerge all the time, so it’s important that you do your research before getting started. Great resources are out there, which you should take advantage of, to get up to speed quickly and make an informed decision. Investopedia has great information on the most commonly traded forex pairs and gives some informed strategy options for first-time traders as well. Forex trading is difficult because global currency markets move at an incredibly quick pace, so making sure you know the pros and cons before you get started will give you the best chance at success.