➤ Best currency pairs trading platforms 2019

➤ What is the Best Trading Platform?

The trading platform is the fundamental work tool of any investor that operates in financial markets through the internet. It is a software designed to analyze the market, receive the prices of financial instruments available to invest and open, control and close positions according to the decisions made by the trader.

Choose the platform that best suits your profile is essential to succeed in your operation. Therefore, in this article we will analyze what are the main trading platforms available today so you can select the one that best fits your needs.

Most traders use some of the platforms provided by their online broker for free, others choose to use a payment platform that offers some more advanced features they need for their operations. Each platform is a world, and although the objective is the same, I advance you that there are those that offer simply the basic characteristics that any trader needs, focusing on simplicity and maximum ease of use for beginners, while others are much more complete and complex, with a broader learning process that is more thought for experienced traders and with greater knowledge.

Let's see the main options we have:

- MetaTrader

MetaTrader is currently the most used and most popular trading platform worldwide. Its use has been extended because many online brokers have acquired the license of this investment software and offer it free of charge to their clients.

It is a platform developed by the company MetaQuotes Software Corp and is specially designed to invest in the currency market and also to operate with CFD's (contracts for difference) on indices, stocks, raw materials, energy, ...

MetaTrader is a powerful "all in one" tool since it has practically everything necessary to analyze the market and execute our trading operations. Available in a multitude of languages ​​(included in Spanish) it is a fairly easy to use and versatile tool. It is suitable for both beginners and professional traders. It stands out for its powerful graphics and for offering a wide range of indicators to perform technical analysis and make our trading decisions.

Another of its strengths is the possibility of using automatic trading systems (known as EAs or Expert Advisors) that allow opening and closing positions automatically based on a series of preconfigured variables, executing any strategy without the need for human intervention.

Currently, the most used version is MetaTrader 4 (MT4) although there is already a new version, MetaTrader 5 (MT5). Although MT5 incorporates certain improvements on the characteristics of MT4, the indicators or EAs developed for MT4 can not be used in MT5 therefore MT4 still maintains a higher usage quota.

- cTrader

cTrader is a trading platform developed by the company Spotware Systems Ltd. It allows direct access to the market (DMA) and is designed to work with NDD (Non Dealing Desk) brokers with ECN / STP execution.

This platform is quite complete, it is available in 14 languages ​​and has a powerful graphics system with 14 time frames to adapt to any type of strategy. It also offers a good number of indicators for technical analysis and the execution of orders is practically instantaneous with a minimum latency.

It is usually used more by experienced traders or by those who usually manage several trading accounts simultaneously since it allows easy switching between accounts.

cTrader also has specific versions such as a webtrader or for mobile devices such as cTrader Mobile Web, cTrader for Android or cTrader for iOS.

- ProRealTime

ProRealTime is a fully online trading platform specialized in market analysis. It has been developed by the IT-Finance company and uses Java technology.

It offers a high quality graphics system, more than 100 indicators of technical analysis, the possibility of using custom indicators and a complete set of tools for advanced technical analysis.

With the ProRealTrend tool, the trend lines are automatically drawn in the charts and updated every five minutes. You can use automatic trading systems (ProOrder tool), access historical quotes to make a reliable backtesting of your trading strategies.

There are operators who use ProRealTime exclusively as a tool to analyze the market and make their trading decisions that are then executed in the platform of their online broker, although ProRealTime also offers the possibility of executing operations even directly from the graphics.

ProRealTime software is free but access to data in real time is paid. There is a complete version of the program and totally free but with the data updated at the end of the day (not in real time) so it is not valid for most traders. The version with real-time data is paid. It can be contracted with a monthly subscription or by prepayment of 6 months or 1 year. The price varies a lot depending on the markets you choose to receive the data (for example, shares of Spain, US stocks, futures, international indexes, Forex currency pairs, ...).

As in the previous cases ProRealTime is also available in versions for smartphones and tablets with Windows, Android or iOS systems.

- Visual Chart

Like ProRealTime, the Visual Chart trading platform is especially indicated for market analysis.

Visual Chart offers an advanced graphics system, an extensive catalog of tools to draw in graphics, all kinds of representations (Linear, Bars, Japanese Candles, Histogram, Fill Histogram, Point and Figure, Renko, Three Line Break) and more than 200 customizable analysis indicators.

You can use Visual Chart also to operate with automatic trading systems (requires programming knowledge) and has more than 20 years of historical data to backtest your strategies.

Visual Chart is a bit more complex to use than ProRealTime and the less user-friendly interface. It is designed for traders with enough experience. It is a monthly subscription payment platform whose cost varies according to the markets selected to operate.

- NinjaTrader

NinjaTrader is a trading platform that is usually used by futures traders, but also allows trading in stocks, Forex or CFDs. It allows you to analyze the market (with less benefits in this sense than ProRealTime or Visual Chart), develop your own automatic trading systems and submit them to backtesting or execute your operations manually.

NinjaTrader has a free version to operate with limited basic features and also valid for analysis and backtesting. It also offers a more complete paid version, with all the features, which can be contracted with a "lifetime" license or by monthly rent.

- MetaStock

MetaStock is another trading platform, less common than the previous ones, and more used by professional investors, especially by daytraders. It is a payment platform whose license (monthly or annual subscription) is more expensive than the previous ones. It offers technical analysis tools, allows trading in stocks, bonds, futures, commodities, Forex, indexes, ...

MetaStock offers exclusive tools like its MetaStock Explorer that scans the market or its forecaster with more than 69 automatic event recognizers.

 - Sirix WebTrader

Sirix is ​​a 100% web-based trading platform that is becoming increasingly popular and has been developed by the company Leverate, Inc.

It has the advantage that you can operate from any computer without having to download or install anything. Being a web platform you only need an internet connection and a web browser to access it and therefore it is a good option if you use several computers or want the flexibility to be able to trade from anywhere.

The latest versions of Sirix Webtrader are based on HTML5 and incorporate new features that make it a fairly complete platform and at the same time easy to handle so it seems a good option especially for beginners. Its interface is friendly and has a good system of graphics in real time and the possibility of using more than 30 of the main indicators of technical analysis. It offers other features such as «Trading Cubes» (designed to easily execute transactions with a single click) or the «Trend» tool that informs you about current market trends.

One of the main differences of this platform with respect to others is that it is also intended for «Social Trading» giving you the possibility to follow other traders in real time and be able to copy their operations automatically taking advantage of their experience and winning strategies to obtain benefits.

Sirix is ​​also available in versions for mobile devices: Sirix Mobile and Sirix Tablet to be able to operate from anywhere at any time with your smartphone or tablet.

Platforms of each online broker

As we have seen, there are mainly a group of platforms, developed by specialized companies, that many brokers offer free to their clients (such as MetaTrader, Sirix Webtrader or cTrader) and another group of more specific platforms that traders can hire (ProRealTime, Visual Chart , NinjaTrader or MetaStock). The older we can find another group that are those platforms designed and developed by a certain online broker to offer exclusively to their customers.

Some examples:

- L2 of IG Markets

In addition to other platforms offered, the IG Markets broker has developed the L2 trading platform, specialized for DMA trading and designed for advanced traders who want to operate directly in the market. It is available only in English, uses Microsoft .NET 2.0 technology and gives access to multiple sources of liquidity with an intelligent sending of orders getting the best price available among all sources automatically. Wide range of available orders: pegged, fill or kill, execute and eliminate, good for auction, ... Stair trading, possibility to automate your operations using algorithms created in Excel.

- Social Trading Platforms

There are other brokers specialized in social trading, such as eToro or Tradeo, who have developed their own trading platforms to allow you to locate the best traders in any country, to follow them, share impressions with them and copy their operations taking advantage of their experience and strategies in your own benefit. These platforms are more like a kind of social investment network.

- Plus500

Plus500 is a broker of CFDs on currencies, commodities, indices, ... It has developed its own trading platform with a simple and very intuitive interface. It allows learning much faster than other platforms and in a short time you will get control of the options it allows. It is available in a multitude of languages ​​(including Spanish) and has many explanatory help boxes that will help you understand how it works.

If you are looking for a simple investment software to manage without complications this can be a good option. It also has versions for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Android, Windows Phone and a Webtrader that can be used in any computer with Windows, MAC or Linux.

- XTB xStation 5

xStation 5 is a trading platform developed by the XTB broker. It is characterized by being fast, powerful and quite versatile, so it can be used by both experienced traders and beginners. It has an easy to use interface and offers various tools and functions to analyze the market (including a good number of technical analysis tools) and everything necessary to perform our daily operations as traders.

Among the most important features offered by this platform we can mention:

• Trading calculator which instantly determines the potential profit or loss of an operation.
• Advanced technical analysis tools.
• Module of analysis of actions.
• Chat for traders, trading news, market sentiment tools, higher ups and downs, ...
• Trading from the chart.
• Closing block orders.
• Very complete trading statistics to analyze our performance as traders.
• xStation 5 is available both for desktops or as a trading app for mobile devices with Android or iOS systems. This app of the platform xStation 5 is one of the most complete that we have tested to date and incorporates almost all functions offered by the desktop version.

What is the best trading platform?

As you have seen, each platform has its characteristics, its advantages and disadvantages. The best platform for you may not be for another trader with a profile different from yours.

You must choose the one that suits your needs according to several factors: your level of knowledge and experience, the instruments in which you want to invest, the place and device from which you are going to operate, the type of analysis you perform, if you are going to work with automatic trading systems.

To summarize, if you are a beginner trader you can evaluate the trading platforms such as MetaTrader, Sirix WebTrader or platforms belonging to a broker such as xStation 5, Plus500 or social trading brokers such as eToro. If you are a more experienced trader, MetaTrader can still be a good option or you can go to more specific platforms such as cTrader, ProRealTime, Visual Chart, NinjaTrader, MetaStock or L2.