Broker to Trading

Forex can be traded such that the trader makes their own trading decisions. This is known as discretionary trading, as the trader can use their own discretion when making a trade. However the trader may well be using rules to make the trade and may find that they wish to have a computer program execute these rules on behalf of the trader. This is known as automated trading. A Forex trader may wish to trade either or both approaches.

Web Traders can be suited to trading using discretionary trading methods, as they can be designed with clarity in mind. The reason this is helpful is that when making a trade, the human trader has both advantages and disadvantages over a computer. One advantage is the ability to use discretion, but disadvantages include mistakes and errors from the way human interact with the world. A clear, intuitive web trader may help alleviate these problems (as well as potentially being useful to the beginner trader).

However machines need instructions written in a language they can execute, and will then proceed to do so tirelessly and without human errors in perception or recognition. The problem is that by doing so, they cannot exercise discretion and this can result in drawdown or losses accumulating in the account. Because a strategy worked in the past does not mean it will work in the future (this applies to human as well as machine traders, but humans can at least exercise trading discretion as market or other conditions change). MT4, MT5 and cTrader are platforms which support automated trading (but can also be used for discretionary trading).

The comparison table above contains brokers based on their offering of trading platforms. As MT4 is a widely used platform which can support both automated and non-automated trading it is a criteria for including the broker. However traders may wish to use a platform which makes their trading (vs robot) trading as straightforward as possible. Thus there are brokers in the table which offer these kinds of web trading platform. The table is designed to give a selection of well know Forex brokers which provide between a range of platforms offering different features, but principally the capacity to trade as a human and/or with robots, depending on the platform.