Broker to Trading

These UK regulated brokers can be compared in terms of which trading platforms are available, before opening an online trading account. The trading platform is the trading software through which the trader will trade markets.

What kind of trading platform the trader may want can depend on the type of trading the trader uses. For example a clear simplified web trader platform may be useful for those who wish only to use discretionary trading (where the trader makes the own trading decisions), while MT4 and MT5 may be useful for those who may also wish to automate their trading.

But what does a trader really want from a trading platform ? It is the case that once the trader becomes familiar with a platform they may wish to stick with it. Some platforms are broker specific, but many are third party platforms which can be found at different brokers. In terms of regulation, all these brokers are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the United Kingdom. They may also have branches elsewhere and be regulated in different countries.

This said the trading platform is how the trader interacts with the broker, and seeing it as the core attribute in broker choice is a way of focusing on what the trader will be doing at the broker, namely trading. Given this, the type of trading becomes significant, to a greater or lesser extent depending on the experience level of the trader. A user friendly web trader can be used by all traders from beginner to more advanced and from small to larger account sizes. The trader can analyse markets based on fundamental data, for example by examining an economic calendar and noting the effect or possible effect of data, and what this data is. This potentially can develop into news trading, which though can be considered a more advanced strategy as it deals with a market which can experience sharp changes in volatility.

The trader can use technical analysis by applying technical indicators to the charting provided on the platform. Technical analysis is used extensively and there are different ways of applying different indicators. This application of an indicator is in essence applying rules to trading, which provides a rationale for entering, managing and exiting a trade. What the trader may find is that applying a rule can become problematic, as the market evidences a complexity which seems to make the rule invalid, but may find that eventually the market conforms to expected behaviour implicit in the rule.

This can lead the trader into using automated trading strategies, which are available on MT4, MT5, cTrader and TradingView (considering the brokers in the comparison table). However the trader may find that they wish to automate their trading by letting other traders trade on their behalf, known as copy trading. As a step towards this, or simply as a means of enhancing their own trading experience, the trader may wish to simply take into account the views of other traders when making trading decisions, known as social trading. These methods are available on some platforms, which can include MT4, MT5 and cTrader.

Thus a platform provides potential to the trader, creating branches on a path the trader may take, but which enables the trader to enhance their trading experience and knowledge of a complex market. These branches may converge, for example using a human friendly platform to develop strategies which are then automated on a platform which can run trading robots. However traders may simply want to stick with one platform and thus choose that path at some stage in the discovery process, as they find what it is they want out of trading.