what to look for in a trading platform
traders and investors should consider whether the features offered meet their trading needs when choosing a trading platform day traders and other short term traders may require features like level 2 quotes and access to market information such as price levels order size and volume to assist them in timing their orders traders may also need technical analysis tools such as live charts with a range of technical indicators options traders may need tools that are specifically designed to help them research analyze and test their trading strategies fees are also important to consider when choosing a trading platform for example traders who employ scalping as a trading strategy will gravitate towards platforms with low fees lower fees are generally always preferable but there may be trade offs to consider for example low fees may not be advantageous if they translate to fewer or less powerful features some trading platforms aren t connected to a specific intermediary or broker while others are only available when you work with a particular intermediary or broker as a result investors should consider carefully the reputation of the intermediary or broker before committing to a specific trading platform to execute trades and manage their accounts be sure a provider stands solidly behind all that a platform offers trading platforms may have specific requirements that must be met before you can open an account and or trade for example day trading platforms may require that traders have at least 25 000 in equity in their accounts and be approved for margin trading options platforms may require that traders be approved to trade various types of options before they can use the trading platform charles schwab officially acquired td ameritrade for about 22 billion in 2020 the acquisition resulted in client assets valued at over 6 trillion and approximately 28 million brokerage accounts 2popular trading platformsthere are hundreds if not thousands of different trading platforms including these four popular options the most popular platform for many foreign exchange forex market participants is metatrader which is a trading platform that interfaces with many different brokers its mql scripting language has become a popular tool for those looking to automate their trading in currencies 8