Top 5 Platforms For Trading Forex

In recent times, forex trading has become a great method of making fast money. With brokers and trading platforms worldwide, more people are now accessing the market. Starting from being a secondary income, it has even become the primary income for individual traders who improve hard on trading techniques and strategies. Now, if you are a beginner, then you must know that you require a trading platform or broker to start your trading career. It is important to choose your broker carefully because it plays a key role in being a successful trader.

How to choose the best platform

There are a few crucial points that you need to consider while choosing the best trading platform, such as:

• Regulation: A broker must be regulated by a top-tier financial authority. If it is not, then it means that your money has no protection.

• Instruments: You must have access to several types of tradable instruments as well as currencies or deposit and withdrawal can become a problem.

• Tools: Trading and analysing tools are very important to simplify trading process. They are very useful if you are a beginner.

• Expenses: You also need to consider the initial minimum deposit, spreads, fees and commissions while choosing your broker. 

• Customer support: You should be able to contact the broker when you are facing difficulties. So, it must have high-quality customer support.

Go through reviews and feedbacks online with these points in mind to choose the best trading platform that can fulfil your requirements. Here are some of the best trading platforms in the market right now:

OANDA

About OANDA: Founded in 1956, OANDA is an American broker for forex and CFD trading. Regulated by top-tier authorities, the broker is well-known for its high-quality trade execution and transparency regarding pricing and fees. Apart from the web-based and desktop platforms, you can trade with OANDA on MT4 and mobile apps.

OANDA tradable instruments: OANDA offers a wide range of CFD products to trade including bond, stock index, and commodity CFDs with an average number of currency pairs. You can trade 71 currency pairs, 16 stock index CFDs, 31 commodity CFDs, and 6 bond CFDs on the trading platforms of OANDA.

OANDA charting and analysing tools: OANDA offers economic analysis, real-time news feeds, advanced data analytics and calendars with a wide range of research and tools. The pattern matching engines, volatility analysis, and historical trend graphs are useful when it comes to trading. You can find these both on the website and the trading platforms of OANDA.

OANDA special features, fees and commissions: OANDA does not charge a withdrawal fee and the minimum deposit is also $0. The trading fee for EURUSD is 1.2 pips. For GBPUSD, it is 1.6 pips. The broker charges $10 per month as inactivity fee after 2 months of inactivity.

OANDA design and usability: The trading platform of OANA is well-designed and user-friendly. You can also customise it and change the position and size of the tab. Apart from a two-step safe login; traders also get a clear fee report which is very helpful. You can trade on the web, desktop, or mobile app.

OANDA customer service reviews and safeness: You can contact the customer service of OANDA via live chat, chatbox, phone, and email. It is available 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. Solid history, regulations of top-tier authorities like the FCA and RFED makes it a safe place with lower risks for trading.

XTB

About XTB: XTB, a well-known forex and CFDs broker, was founded in Poland in 2002. It is under the regulations of numerous authorities, including FCA in the UK, KNF in Poland, BaFIN in Germany, CNMV in Spain, AMF in France, FSC in Belize, and CyCEC in Cyprus which makes it reliable.

XTB tradable instruments: On XTB, you can trade CFDs on 25 cryptocurrencies, 49 forex pairs, 21 commodities, 103 ERFs, 42 indices, and 1703 stocks. The broker also offers about 2100 cash equities including 150 ETFs. The total number of CFDs is 1894. Cryptocurrencies are only traded as CFD, not as actual.

XTB charting and analysing tools: XTB offers several tools for the convenience of trading, including heat mapping to view top movers by colour, and trader statistics to view trade-by-trade results and long or short win/loss ratio. Another important tool is sentiment analysis that you can use to see the long or short percentage of XTB clients.

XTB special features, fees and commissions: There is a standard and a commission-based Pro account on XTB. The minimum deposit starts from a 250 base currency. The pro account has a commission of 4 USD, 3.4 Euros, or 2.5 Pounds per side on standard 100k lots.

XTB design and usability: XTB is easy to use and it provides the user with a great experience for web, tablet, mobile, Android, and iOS smartwatches. The mobile app has simple design and it includes live chat support. Features like top movers, a news calendar with expandable charts, and market sentiment analysis are also available.

XTB customer service reviews and safeness: XTB has a high-quality customer service with an impressive average connection time of one minute. The broker is regulated in one tier-1 jurisdiction under FCA, which makes it a safe broker with low risks for CFDs and forex trading.

CMC Markets

About CMC Markets: Established in 1989, CMC Markets is the next generation trading platform that is packed with innovative trading tools and charting. Regulated under ASIC, IIROC, MAS, and FCA, it is a safe broker with low risks for forex and CFDs trading with the largest section of currency pairs in the industry.

CMC Markets tradable instruments: CMC Markets offers a wide range of roughly 10,000 tradable instruments. You can do forex spot trading, social trading/copy trading, and cryptocurrency trading as CFD. Traders cannot trade cryptocurrency as actual. Total forex currency pairs available are 180 and the number of total offered CFDs is 9848.

CMC Markets charting and analysis tools: CMC offers several charting tools with 79 technical indicators and studies. Each chart has 74 attachable chart patterns. Other tools are pattern recognition tools and social-trading tools for automated trading. Patterns adjust automatically when the chart time-scale changes. So, traders can scan the charts to identify any respective patterns.

CMC Markets special features, fees, and commissions:  Minimum deposit on CMC Markets is $0. Average spreads on the EUR/USD cost 0.7 pips on CMC Markets and typical spreads cost 0.81 pips. To open a VIP account, clients need to spend $3K commission. CMC Markets also offers liquidity rebates when active traders surpass $25 million trading volume per month.

CMC Markets design and usability: The trading platform of CMC Markets is nicely designed for the convenience of traders. The mobile app also comes with multiple research tools, pre-defined watch lists, and powerful charts. You can also do market research easily with the economic calendar and get notifications for upcoming events.

CMC Markets customer service reviews and safeness: The customer service of CMC Markets is helpful and efficient. The average connection time is 1 minute only. The broker is a safe platform for forex and CFD traders due to its regulations under the four tier-1 jurisdictions and two tier-2 jurisdictions.

Forex.com

About Forex.com: Established in 1999, Forex.com is one of the best brokerage firms that are regulated in multiple countries. The parent company of this broker is GAIN Capital. Forex.com offers trading platforms suitable for both beginners as well as professional traders. It has several types of accounts but it provides the average spreads for all types of accounts.

Forex.com tradable instruments: US clients can trade 83 forex pairs and unleveraged gold and silver. Non-US clients can access all forex pairs, commodities, stock CFDs, and indexes. Forex.com offers more than 4500 CFD instruments including web trading on its flagship platforms. You can trade cryptocurrencies as CFD but not as actual.

Forex.com charting and analysing tools: Forex.com offers a large selection of charting with drawing tools and technical indicators. Technical analysis tools include Autochartist for automated technical analysis and scanning the market for trade ideas and emerging patterns. Other tools include TradingView and MetaTrader suite.

Forex.com special features, fees, and commissions: Average spreads for Forex.com MetaTrader users are 1.3 pips on the EUR/USD. For high volume traders having a minimum balance of $10,000, the typical spreads start from 1.2 pips on the EUR/USD. The initial minimum deposit is $50. The broker offers an active trader and VIP discounts.

Forex.com design and usability: Forex.com trading platforms are suitable for both day trading and occasional long-term trading. You can download the advanced trading platform or use web trader that is easy to use due to its simple design. Just with the right-click, you can trade directly from charts.

Forex.com customer service reviews and safeness: You can contact Forex.com via online chat and phone support. It is available from 10 am (ET) Sunday to 5 pm (ET) Friday. You can also send messages via email. The broker is under the regulations of high-tier regulators like IIROC, JFSA, FCA, and CFTC. So, it is safe to trade with Forex.com.

IG Broker

About IG Broker: Founded in 1974, IG Group is currently the top forex and CFD provider in the world. Regulated in six tier-1 jurisdictions, we can consider it a safe broker with low risks. The broker provides traders with a wide range of tradable products, brilliant research and trading tools, competitive rates, and industry-leading education.

IG Broker tradable instruments: IG Group offers more than 17000 tradable instruments. The total number of offered CFDs is17535. You can also trade 93 forex pairs in total. Apart from this, users have access to forex spot trading, social trading/copy trading, and cryptocurrency trading as CFD.

IG Broker charting and analysing tools: IG Group trading platform has default charts with advanced functionality like the ability to add alerts on specific indicators with a wide selection of 28 studies. Other tools include the Flagship platform, ProRealTime charts, and IG’s L2 Dealer Platform with Forex Direct and Direct Market Access.

IG Broker special features, fees, and commissions: Minimum spreads for mini and standard size contracts on the EUR/USD on IG Broker are 0.6 pips and the average spreads are 0.73 pips. Using Forex Direct requires a minimum of 1000 pounds. IG also adds a commission for each trade a trader makes.

IG Broker design and usability: The design of the trading platforms of IG Broker is professional. The advanced tools like economic calendars, watch lists, sentiment readings and alerts are very useful. The platforms are available on the web as well as mobile devices, which makes it easy for traders to use the platforms.

IG Broker customer service reviews and safeness: IG offers customer support through a toll-free phone number from Saturday 8 am to Friday 10 pm. You can also contact them through live chat that is available for 24 hours. The broker is one of the safest platforms due to its top-tier regulators like ASIC, JFSA, MAS, FINMA, FCA, and CFTC.

As you can see, each platform has some unique features and characteristics. You need to pay attention to factors like minimum initial deposit, fees and commissions, and usability of the trading platforms. Some brokers offer advanced tools and features for a cost and others are a lot affordable. If you are a beginner, then you should start with a basic one that requires less investment with lower fees. You can go for advanced tools and features, after becoming more efficient and confident in your trading. We hope this list helps you to choose the best platform for you.