Trading platform (terminal)
What is the trading platform on ?
Trading platform (terminal) - is a stock exchange software product designed to work online in the financial markets.
The trading platform allows traders to receive online data on trades (current and historical quotes of the selected assets, trading volume for the instruments, possible buy and sell prices, etc.), perform technical analysis, conclude transactions in real time, work with trading orders and receive messages from the dealing center or broker.
What trading platforms are there?
Modern trading terminals are divided into several groups:
- Standard terminals
These are the usual trading platforms, the most common among which are terminals MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5. Alternatives to MT 4 and 5 are Ninja Trader, Rumus, MetaStock and other platforms. Almost all trading platforms work only on Windows, except for the terminal Rumus, which can work on Linux.
- Mobile platforms
Most of the time, it is a feature-rich version of MetaTrader. This platform can be installed on almost any mobile device with Internet access - a tablet or smartphone with Android or iOS operating systems.
In the mobile platform you can manage positions, but it is almost impossible to work with additional scripts.
- Web terminals
Web-terminal is located on the site of your broker and runs in any browser, that is, at work or at an Internet cafe you can go to the broker's website and run the terminal using the login information.
Nowadays, the functionality of web platforms is approaching the functionality of standard terminals. Particularly common is web trading platforms are used by binary options traders.
- Automatic platforms
In this trading application it is possible to conduct automatic trading, copy trades or receive signals to open positions, all depending on the terminal itself.
Binary options trading platforms have also become widespread recently. You can read more about them here.
Where to download the trading terminal?
As a rule, a trader downloads the trading terminal from the website broker or DC and use it free of charge. For the most part, this is the popular MetaTrader platform in one form or another.
Disadvantages of trading platforms
Trading platforms have their disadvantages. Each platform has its own disadvantages, but a common disadvantage for all platforms is the inability of trading experts to work when the terminal is off. However, this problem is solved by installing an Expert Advisor on a virtual server and linking it to a specific trading account.
Other disadvantages of terminals are the high consumption of RAM, freezing terminal during the work of the Expert Advisor or when installing a large number of indicators and other tools for technical analysis on the chart, foreign interface and lack of russification, poor scaling and bad charts.
There is a large variety of trading terminals, but the main function of these programs is the same - to provide traders with access to trade on the world's financial markets.