Best Forex Trading Platforms

The global exchange market underpins every international transaction made worldwide, and navigating your way around the foreign exchange market can be tricky. Forex trading generates an estimated $5.3 trillion daily, which makes it more significant than other financial markets. That is why it’s essential to use the right tools for the job when it comes to Forex trading platforms. Choosing the ‘right’ one can be overwhelming to anyone new to trading. For this reason, third-party trading platforms have been created to provide you, the user, with invaluable software solutions, connecting you directly to brokers with which to exchange. The software also provides options for stocks, shares and bonds, specialising in retail investment options.

Most importantly, the hard work is done for you using algorithm trading, allowing you to test, develop and apply technical indicators and Expert Advisors using trading robots. Once the analytics are taken care of, you are free to view interactive charts, tools and other financial calculators to see what your return is likely to be before you trade actual money. The MetaTrader5 platform (MT5) is the most widely used trading platform, and the consensus is that it’s also the best trading platform on the market. Its predecessor, Metatrader4, was the first major platform created for this purpose (in 2005) and remains popular due to its user-friendly interface and functionality.

Here are the 5 best Forex trading platforms:

Metatrader 4

Created by MetaQuotes Visit website

Description

The Metatrader 4 platform is the first, and most reliable Forex trading platform available online, offering security and convenience to users worldwide. It is compatible with Windows, Mac OS and Linux, offering one-click trading directly from your browser as well as from any device, including Android and iOS smartphones and tablets. It allows you to analyse currency quotes before executing your exchanges and gives you the option to implement various trading strategies. You can view price dynamics in detail using any combination of its 30 built-in technical indicators and 24 graphic objects, giving you full control over technical analysis and allowing you to view entry and exit points and identify market trends. Timing can be everything with online trading, and you can use this software to ensure you predict just the right moment to exchange. Metatrader4 meets the highest security standards, offering encrypted data exchange between the platform servers and the client terminal. It also supports the use of RSA digital signatures, offering you peace of mind that your accounts are protected and fully secure at all times.

  • Secure
  • Convenient
  • Inbuilt graphs, tools and calculators
  • Exchange with the most popular brokers

Metatrader 5

Created by MetaQuotes Visit website

Description

Metatrader 5 allows you to trade on thousands of markets and receives almost 7 million unique visitors every month. It is the best application for trading currencies, stocks and futures and, like MT4, is available to download on any browser or mobile device. It offers superior tools for comprehensive price analysis, copy trading and trading robots for algorithmic trading applications. Its multi-asset platform also supports the ‘hedging method’ allowing you to open multiple positions of the same financial instrument, in the same or opposite directions. This is a useful feature which is widely used in Forex trading. Offering a diverse range of order types and execution modes, including Instant, Request, Market and Exchange execution, this platform gives the user a maximum chance of success by allowing them the option to use their own unique combination of trading strategies.

  • Most widely used
  • Multi-asset platform
  • Four order execution modes
  • Powerful & Flexible

Ninjatrader

Created by NinjaTrader Visit website

Description

Ninjatrader is an award winning platform which offers unlimited simulator trading, allowing new users to prepare for real markets, totally risk free. You can begin to trade on this platform with as little as $400. Ninjatrader offers a free trading platform with all brokerage accounts, there are no platform fees and you can trade futures for less with deep discount commission. As a beginner you can chart and simulate and as you become more advanced you can begin trading for real, using any combination of the thousands of integrated apps or compatible add-ons available from third party vendors. You can even use their developer tools to build your own rich and integrated trading apps, giving you greater control over your financial success.

  • Build & Develop your own apps
  • No platform fees
  • Includes 1000’s integrated apps/add ons
  • $400 minimum trading deposit

cTrader

Created by Spotware Visit website

Description

cTrader has a thriving online community and chat room, enabling you to share tips, information, discuss best practices with other users, or post any questions you might have. You can view their ‘latest algorithms’ and ‘resources’ page, and even download tools directly from their website before you even sign up, allowing a real ‘try before you buy’ insight into their platform. There’s also an alphabetised list of API references for your perusal and the platform won last year’s ‘Best Multi-Asset Trading Platform’ Award at the Global Forex Awards. They have also been nominated for excellence in four different categories at this year’s awards, including ‘Best Mobile App’ and ‘Best White Label Provider’.

  • Award Winning
  • Online Forum & Chat
  • API downloads
  • Resources Page

eToro

Created by eToro Visit website

Description

eToro is probably the best trading platform for complete beginners. Their most popular function is their trademarked version of copy trading, know as ‘CopyTrader’, which allows you to view and replicate the actions of top traders on the platform. This essentially takes out all the hard work for a beginner, allowing them to learn from watching the practice of others whilst at the same time, profiting from their experience. It eliminates the need for any complex calculations or difficult decision on the users’ part, giving them exactly the same chances of success as the top percentile of earners on the platform. eToro also boasts an online academy which includes a Trading School, including hundreds of podcasts that deal with specifics within the market. Signing up for a free demo account entitles you to access an education course that includes content you could be charged thousands of dollars for elsewhere, so this platform is ideal both for those who really want to engage in an informative process, and for those who want to piggy-back upon the success of others and have the hard work done for them.

  • Copytrading
  • eLearning courses
  • Podcast
  • Earnings reports calendar