Choosing a Trading Platform That Truly Fits Your Style

Trading platforms often put traders in a strange position when it comes to making a choice. Not all platforms are offered by all brokers. As a result, traders may have to settle for subpar service to get the software they want. On the other hand, the right platform can significantly improve performance, offsetting the potential rigidness when it comes to brokerage choice.

Of course, the ideal situation is when both match up.
A truly great broker offers a platform that genuinely suits the trader. That, however, isn’t a guarantee.

Online trading is a matter of compromise. Weighing what you’re willing to let go of to get something else. This article will deal with that exactly, and help you find the perfect platform for your situation by laying out the different common options.

Trading platform: MetaTrader 4

MetaTrader 4 or MT4 is likely the most common platform option out there. Just about every forex and CFD brokerage offers it, so it’s a great tool to learn for those who value versatility. It’s also fairly intuitive to boot, making it a great option for those just entering the markets.

It allows traders who aren’t sure of their preferences yet to keep their options open. Since you can go with almost any broker, MT4 is fairly low-committal.

It’s a solid tool as well. It has over 30 built-in indicators, nine timeframes, supports broad market access, and has hedging and backtesting. Perhaps the main draw of MetaTrader 4 and its successor, MetaTrader 5, however, is the massive community working in their custom programming languages.

MT4 has MQL 4, a custom language that lets users create indicators, graphical objects, key functions, and most importantly, EAs. This enables support for vital features like algorithm trading and backtesting. Not only that, but it vastly increases the potential of the platform, since the number of custom tools is practically limitless.

So, MT4 is definitely the safe pick. It’s widely available, has both simple and complex trading features, and is easy to use. For most traders, this will be an entirely fine option, unless they want to get really into the tech side of trading and analysis.

Trading platform:MetaTrader 5

Mentioned in the previous passage, MetaTrader 5 is MT4’s successor, carrying all of its features and improving on many. However, it is worth noting that it is a bit less user-friendly and also noticeably less widely available. As such, those who want to go for MetaTrader 5 should be certain that they’ll make use of the advantages it has over its older sibling.

It adds more order execution types, such as buy stop limit and sell stop limit. It supports netting on top of hedging, and comes with more modularity for timeframes and a higher number of indicators. However, most importantly, its EA and backtesting features are much deeper.

MQL 5 is a more advanced language than MQL 4, and supports more complex algorithms, with built-in functions to handle more events, assets, statistics, and more. As such, MT5’s EA and backtesting capabilities are significantly deeper. It can test multiple instruments simultaneously, and has more flexibility in EA logic, reacting to external signals and non-price events.

As such, MetaTrader 5 is the platform of choice for many algo traders and strategy creators who employ backtesting. However, it also often requires more specific brokerages, and sometimes accounts with higher requirements or worse trading features. As such, once again, traders should choose it over MetaTrader 4 only if they are certain they’ll make use of the enhanced elements.

Trading Central

While Trading Central is not a platform by itself, it’s still worth a mention as it’s commonly present in online brokerages. Trading Central is often an add-on that can be integrated into the other platforms a broker provides.

What Trading Central does is broaden the analytical scope of the platform it’s attached to. It has a custom economic calendar, AI insights, signals, tools like Market Buzz, and loads of indicators to help traders peer into the market.

As such, it can be quite a valuable tool for those who don’t find their platform fully analytically capable, but want to do manual analysis. So, for instance, if you are an MT4 trader and feel like you’ve exhausted your platform’s capabilities but aren’t interested in algo trading or backtesting, you may opt to add Trading Central to your MT4 to enhance its features and broaden your analytical scope.

cTrader

It’s difficult to emphasise just how much more widely available MT4 and MT5 are than other platforms we’ll mention here, including cTrader. However, that doesn’t mean it should be written off.

In many regards, cTrader beats out the MetaTraders. It runs on a more familiar programming language, its UI is more modern, and out of the box, it offers more charts, timeframes, indicators, and risk management tools. As such, traders using it may feel like it’s the clear winner.

However, the catch is that its community is much smaller. There are far fewer custom scripts, making it lose out in power when compared to MT4 and MT5, despite being stronger at a baseline. Not only that, but the limited support and often steep account requirements and conditions may force users to suffer a downgrade in trading power.

Still, cTrader may feel much more comfortable to some traders. Those, for instance, who don’t use many custom MT features and don’t enjoy the dated look and feel may find that cTrader is just what they were looking for, with slightly higher analytical power and more comfortable handling. As noted earlier, this advantage should be weighed against the difference in broker availability.

Custom Trading platforms

These can’t really be described under one umbrella. Brokers often create proprietary platforms that they tailor to their own services. If the broker is scalper-oriented, perhaps these platforms offer low latency and quick execution. If the brokerage is more long-term oriented, it may boast high-end analytical capabilities.

Whatever the case may be, these platforms often do offer a good experience for the broker that made them. The catch, of course, is that they are completely unique, and that if a trader ever switches to another broker, they will lose access to the platform. As such, they aren’t a great choice for newer traders, as they limit future flexibility significantly.

The most common route for traders is to test out a custom platform and then use it temporarily if they like it. However, this shouldn’t be the baseline of your trading skills, as it does not translate well.

Copytrading Platforms

Copytrading platforms aren’t really in competition with trading platforms, but rather an alternative or addition. The choice is fairly simple.

If you’re a new trader or one who hasn’t gained confidence yet, copytrading can be a shortcut to navigating the markets. It lets you follow proven strategies, thus making it easier to learn what works. Of course, the results are worse than learning how to trade well manually. On the other hand, if you’re a proven trader, you may consider becoming a strategy provider, thus potentially generating another revenue stream.

Final Considerations

In essence, traders should go with the platform that feels right to use. Over time, traders usually form a core of tools, and that’s the minimum they should look for in a platform. However, remaining clear-headed and frustration-free is crucial for lengthy sessions, and traders shouldn’t underestimate the value of comfort and ease of use.

Disclaimer:
This information is not considered investment advice or an investment recommendation, but instead a marketing communication.