Trades, trades, trades. No matter if you’re a rookie day trader or someone hoping to bet big on societal trends, or maybe you’ve just recently read The Big Short and are now interested in what you can short yourself, many people have both made and lost fortunes on the stock market, which could be considered a more elegant form of risking your worth or an incredible means for a savvy individual to amass a fortune depending on who you ask.
Thankfully, trading is reliable and can be a worthwhile use of your time, and providing you inform yourself correctly, getting started can be easier than you think. It’s important to choose a trading platform that will help you grow and diversify your options as a trader, learning as you go with clarity and care.
But what should you look for in a trading platform, and can you reliably compare them to the point where distinguishing between the alternatives is easy? In this guide, we hope to help you make those decisions with further confidence:
Latency
Latency is important to consider when choosing a platform. This can be defined by how long it takes for a data packet to reach a certain point and then return. Trade-related latency will be how long it takes for your click to then register and then turn into a buy or sell at the exchange via the platform itself. To a large extent, this will be dictated by how reliable your internet connection is, and the speed of it. But latency in the platform is also important, which is why many of them are lightweight and easy to use. This could mean the difference between purchasing or selling at a certain amount right before a shift, or it could simply signify how easily and reliably you connect to the service.
Of course, it can be hard to test just how well your latency is connected yourself, which is why many platforms will show you the latency or ping you have when connected through a simple in-UI statistic. This, in itself, can provide you the insight you need. Additionally, reading reviews and stastistics to support this may help you come to a decision, depending on where you’re based in the world and what markets you hope to trade with.
UI Ease Of Use
When it comes to trading, even those who are experienced can become confused in their calculations or have too many things to keep track of at once. This is where a trading platform with a fresh, clean and accessible UI is essential, because when you’re trading with time as a fundamental concern, the last thing you need is to wrestle with software.
Lots of people like pocket option for their clean and user-friendly website and their excellent contribution to the brokerage field. Now something being popular doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to be good, yet in the world of trading popularity often signifies success, and it also means a standard that you can trust. To that end, being able to choose between some of the most popular and new options available can help you continually set the standard for how you choose to curate your trades in the best possible sense.
Support
It’s also important to rely on trading support should you need it. A worthwhile trading platform should have immediate and accessible support through many different serviced options, from secure web chat to phone lines and email. If you’re having trouble working with the technicalities of the platform, or you’re struggling to understand what automatic limits have been placed on your account, speaking to a representative can be the most worthwhile choice to make.
That being said, support is not a singular consideration. As such, it can be nice to speak to a community of users that are also familiar with the platform you’re using and are willing to help you provided you ask politely. Reddit is often a fantastic place for this.
Support should be secure, dedicated, personal, and reliable. It’s important to read the support terms when choosing a platform, because not all of them will be as attentive as the industry standard. To that end, you’re sure to be better off.
Variety
Variety in the trades you can pull off, the markets you can access, and the potential means in which to leverage your trades or commit to your margin can be an essential set of practical possibilities to consider. Some platforms will slowly dripfeed you your possibile trading potential depending on how much you have invested and how long you’ve been using the platform.
Yet variety in trading needn’t only be defined in this way. Sometimes, practice trades with virtual currency simulating the market can help you practice and better define your terms, allowing newbie traders to contribute in a safe environment without worrying about financial loss. To that end, variety can be helpful.
Security
Of course, any trading platform that is verified and has access to the markets will be, in large part, regulated as well as can be. Yet platforms that vet their own security, provide an encrypted service, allow you to place two factor authentication on your account via the use of a scanned authenticator app compatibility, these are the platforms you should be rooting for.
Trading can be stressful enough without having to worry about the integrity of your payment measures or account. Additionally, careful vetting of new traders and the ability to autodetect suspicious behavior will moderate the more concerning aspects of any platform vulnerability, and to that end, you can trade with security and comfort.
With this advice, we hope you can take multiple perspectives when assessing just which trading platform is right for you, and which one you should recommend to others. Be sure to conduct your research before going ahead, because that’s always the best practice regarding any financial matter. We wish you all the best in your trading efforts.
