Find The Best Forex Trading Platform

With all the choices available, which online trading platform should you choose? We are going to take a look at the available options for the best Forex trading platform in 2021. We will look at what actually makes a good trading platform, how to choose the right one for your trading style and offer an online trading platform comparison.

Finding the Best Online Trading Platform

What is the best online trading platform for beginners? Forex (FX) trading is performed online via an electronic trading platform. Naturally, many traders are curious about what is the best online Forex trading platform for beginners in the UK or elsewhere.

In fact, 'which Forex trading platform is the best?' is one of the main questions that a trader asks when beginning their trading journey. While traders want to find an online trading platform that is free, they also want to find a legit online trading platform. This is especially true in current times, as there is a lot of competition out there in terms of Forex trading softwares, as well as chances to get scammed.

It's challenging to say which online trading platform is best, but we can say that the Forex trading software industry is heavily dominated by MetaQuotes Corp - the company behind MetaTrader 4 (MT4). This is the most popular Forex software used by traders in the retail Forex market. Whilst MetaTrader 4 is the dominant choice for many professional traders, there are other options that have developed in recent years.

The first ones in our online trading platform comparison are from MetaQuotes Corp.

MetaQuotes Platforms

If you are looking for the best and cheapest online trading platform, this software may your choice. When it comes to trading FX online, most brokers will supply you with various trading platforms, yet MetaTrader platforms are the most common, and they are free. This free trading platform software was developed nearly ten years ago. There are two primary choices of the trading platform currently offered by MetaQuotes Corp - MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5.

MetaTrader 4

MetaTrader 4 is a platform, which was specifically designed for FX trading. As retail Forex is a relatively new industry, it did not have reliable third party Forex trading software available until MetaTrader 4 appeared. This is a reliable trading platform that provides traders with lots of useful features. These include:

• 1-click trading

• Lots of available Expert Advisors

• Over 50 indicators

• Pending orders

• Limit orders

• Multi charting

• Nine different time-frames

Advantages of MetaTrader 4

These are just a few of the benefits of MetaTrader 4. One of its strongest selling points is its stability, which is one reason some traders consider it one of the best trading platforms in the UK and elsewhere. You can really count on this platform. In addition to this, it is also supplied with a powerful set of mobile apps. These applications are available for nearly any type of operating system, including Android, and Windows. Needless to say, these mobile platforms are also very stable and powerful.

MetaTrader 4 has copious trading features that you can use throughout your whole trading journey. Additionally, it is easy to learn and use, making it one of the best online trading platforms for beginners and professional traders.

Disadvantages of MetaTrader 4

Occasionally you may find that some brokers offer wider spreads on the MT4 platform in comparison with the smaller spreads they may offer through their main trading platform (assuming that the broker in question offers several trading platforms to trade on). Additionally, some professional traders argue that the platform is slower in comparison with other trading platforms.

MetaTrader 5

Quite similar to MetaTrader 4, this is one of the best forex trading platforms currently available. In general, MetaTrader 5 is slightly faster, supports more types of orders, comes with a larger amount of indicators and has some additional features. Whilst it is a better platform, there aren't any huge, revolutionary differences that can make MetaTrader 4 redundant. What is good about MetaTrader 5 for both traders and brokers is that it can handle a larger amount of trading instruments compared to MetaTrader 4.

Advantages of MetaTrader 5

While MetaTrader 5 is similar to MetaTrader 4, there are some distinct advantages that are simply not found in other forex trading platforms. For example, MetaTrader 5 has:

• 21 timeframes the trader can view. This includes 11 types of 'minute' charts (such as M1, M2, M3, etc), seven types of 'hourly' charts (such as H1, H2, H3, etc) as well as daily, weekly and monthly charts. Most platforms, such as MetaTrader 4 only come with nine timeframes.
• Six types of pending orders including buy-stop, sell-stop, buy-limit, sell-limit, buy-stop-limit and sell-stop-limit orders. MetaTrader 4 and other platforms typically offer only the first four types of pending orders.
• The ability to switch between 'hedging' mode and 'netting' mode. Hedging mode allows the ability to take trades in opposing positions and has revolutionised the trading options for Forex traders.
• The Depth of Market (DOM) function, which allows Forex traders to view the bids and offers at different prices of a financial instrument.

Best CFD Trading Platform

CFD trading platforms let you trade hundreds of financial instruments without ever owning the underlying asset. Instead, you are looking to predict an asset's price direction – commodities, stocks, forex or something else– will fall or rise.

Some key points to consider when choosing the best online CFD trading platform are the available markets, payments, commissions, and regulation. Some of these are determined by your broker, not your platform, so it is equally important to find a broker with agreeable terms.

MetaQuotes Corp software is one of the best online CFD trading platforms available because both MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 offer charts and broker integration for one-click trading, as well as many other features such as:

• Free indicators and charting tools
• Real-time market data
• Expert advisors for customised indicators and automated trading strategies
• Mobile trading

Admirals offers trading on both MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5), as well as MetaTrader WebTrader which allows trading directly from your browser. One of the main differences between MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 is the range of markets available to trade.

Best Commodity Trading Platform

If you wish to trade oil, gold, silver, natural gas, wheat and the like, you'll need one of the best online commodity trading platforms. As well as offering access to the commodities markets you wish to trade, the platform and broker you choose must also offer attractive fees and commissions, as well as a sufficient range of trading indicators and tools.

MetaQuotes Corp software is also one of the best online commodity trading platforms available. With their MetaTrader 4 or MetaTrader 5 trading platform and a live trading account with Admirals, traders get access to the markets, tools, data, low fees and low spreads that can help them achieve success using an online commodity trading platform.

With Admirals, you have access via CFDs to sixteen of the largest commodities traded in the commodity market, plus 10 CFDs on commodity futures. Here are the commodity CFDs currently available:

Agricultural Commodities

• Arabica Coffee
• Cocoa
• Cotton
• Orange Juice
• Robusta Coffee
• Sugar Raw
• Sugar White

Energy Commodities

• Brent Crude Oil
• WTI Crude Oil
• Natural Gas

Metal Commodities

• Gold
• Copper
• Palladium
• Platinum
• Silver
• XAUAUD

Additionally, when trading commodity CFDs via a live account with Admirals, traders enjoy the following benefits:

• Negative balance protection policy, meaning that if your account balance drops below 0, Admirals will reset it at 0, rather than let you descend into deep trading debt
• Access to the world's most popular trading platforms, MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5

Having the right platform and a trusted broker are hugely important aspects of trading commodities. Admirals is an award-winning broker that offers the ability to trade on commodities via CFDs, not to mention other markets like Forex, Stocks and ETFs and much more.

Other Trading Platforms

cTrader

In recent years, Spotware has developed 'cTrader' as a competing trading platform for Forex traders. While this Forex platform does offer advanced charting and trading features, similar to the MetaTrader platform there are some differences:

• As MetaTrader is one of the best-known platforms for auto-trading it has a large online community that share new strategies and indicators. It also makes it much easier to find support on the internet for the MetaTrader platforms, whereas support may be limited for cTrader's auto-trading capabilities.
• cTrader does not allow the customisation of indicators and has limitations to using third party programmes whereas MetaTrader is fully customisable.
• MetaTrader comes packed with additional features such as an economic calendar, real time market news and 'signal trading' functionality whereas cTrader does not have any of these features.

As this platform is available in a web browser, there hasn't been a strong emphasis placed on the development of mobile apps until recent times. At the moment, cTrader is supplied for Android and iOS devices only. Whilst this probably does cover the majority of traders, it does hinder those using a Windows phone. MetaTrader 4 and 5 are certainly the best online Forex trading platforms for Forex mobile trading.

NinjaTrader

The NinjaTrader trading platform has been around since 2004 and is a Forex platform designed for active forex, futures and stock traders. While the platform offers advanced charting, automated strategy development and trade simulation, those who wish to execute trades from their platform must purchase a lifetime licence or lease the platform on a quarterly or annual basis.

This factor may disqualify this Forex trading platform from some traders' lists of the best online forex trading platforms for beginners.

One of the main reasons MetaTrader platforms are so popular and commonly used is the fact they are free to the trader via their broker. 

Furthermore, NinjaTrader acts primarily as a trading platform and is not a market data provider. This means in order to receive end-of-day or real-time market data, users need to connect their platform to one of the market data providers NinjaTrader operates with, such as Google Finance or Kinetick.

eSignal

The eSignal trading platform is a Forex platform geared towards advanced traders who enjoy fully customisable features. While the platform offers all the standard features expected of a modern trading platform, users can create their own trading strategies or market screeners through the coding language.

The platform offers advanced drawing tools such as time and price squares and Gann boxes, as well as the ability to view up to 500 symbols at one time. However, to access streaming and real-time data feeds, traders need to connect their platform with one of eSignal's supported brokers. This means users will have to lease the platform from eSignal for a monthly or annual fee. This factor may exclude this Forex trading platform from some traders' list of the best online trading platform for beginners in the UK.

ProRealTime

The ProRealTime trading platform is a technical analysis Forex platform software developed in France by IT-Finance. The platform is unique as it is a web-based software that is backed up on the company's cloud network. The platform itself offers a wide range of advanced charting and analytical tools, as well as the ability to create customised market scanners and trading strategies using their ProRealCode language.

However, users must pay a software licence to use the platform. On top of this, there are additional fees to access real-time market data.

Conclusion - What Is the Best Forex Trading Platform?

The advantage of online trading platforms is that people can trade the same securities from any location in the world. The exceptions here are countries where there are restrictions limiting access to online trading, or trading in general. 

As you can see, there is a lot to consider when choosing the best Forex trading platform for advanced traders and beginners - but MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 tend to receive the most positive reviews and frequently top the list for best trading platform in the UK and elsewhere. They are time tested and have been proven to work over and over again.

You will be pleased to know that you can download MetaTrader 5 for FREE by clicking the banner below!

About Admirals

Admirals is a multi-award winning, globally regulated Forex and CFD broker, offering trading on over 8,000 financial instruments via the world's most popular trading platforms: MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5. Start trading today!

This material does not contain and should not be construed as containing investment advice, investment recommendations, an offer of, or recommendation for, any transactions in financial instruments. Please note that such trading analysis is not a reliable indicator for any current or future performance, as circumstances may change over time. Before making any investment decisions, you should seek advice from independent financial advisors to ensure you understand the risks.