Choosing a Forex trading platform is the first step towards trading success. This is crucial considering how the platform will be your main ‘tool’ in placing trades and in some cases, you will be using it to ‘decide’ on your trades. This is why when choosing a platform, it’s important that you first consider several factors, paying close attention to what the site can offer. For new Forex traders, following are some tips on how to make that choice:

 

How Much Does It Cost?

There are two types of platforms today: free and paid. If you’re new, opting for the free platform to start you up is always a good idea. However, a paid platform typically comes with more features to help you with your trade. If you aim to really learn in the market, it’s usually better to get a paid platform with a reasonable price.

 

Software Used

What software is being used to run the platform? This can be anything from Windows to Mach – or perhaps the platform is HTML based. Make sure that your device is compatible with whatever software you use.

 

Analysis Tools

There are several types of analysis tools in the market today: technical and fundamental are some of the most common and typically the most important. Charting, indicators, and currency pairs are some of the elements that you should look for. Fundamental analysis tools refer to news feeds, providing you extrinsic information regarding the status of your currency pairs.

 

Downtime

Although there’s no such thing as a perfect platform, downtimes must be scheduled, allowing you to easily anticipate any problems that might occur. This is important considering how time is money in the Forex market and that trades are very volatile. You’ll have be to available at all times placing the important trades and you can’t do that if your platform is down all the time.

 

Security

Of course, don’t forget about the level of security provided by the platform. Make sure to check what kind of protection they use to find out if your account is completely safe. After all – you’ll be entering sensitive information in the platform, therefore making it crucial that your private data remains private. Also note that security doesn’t just refer to privacy. Ideally, there should be no data loss whatsoever when using the system.

 

Support

Lastly, take a good look at their support system. Is it available 24 hours a day at all times? Do they respond quickly? Strong support is a good indicator of a strong platform.

 

Of course, those are just few of the factors to consider when choosing a Forex platform. Understand that you’re not bound to stay in just one platform for long. As you increase your knowledge on the subject, you’ll find yourself shopping for better platforms.

Forex is perhaps the most volatile market today, up one second and sliding down the next. Although this might translate to excessive risks, the upside is that you also have the chance to earn well by using tried and tested methods for Forex use.

As a beginner, it’s understandable that you are having doubts about how to proceed. In this article, you’ll find out some of the most common aspects of Forex trading.

Currency Pairs

Currency pairs refer to the two different currencies ‘matched’ together in the market. Pairs may vary and as a trader, what you’ll watch out for are the changes in the pairs with respect to each other’s values. Today, there are several major currencies interchangeably paired with each other. What you have to watch out for are the following:

• Japan
• Canada
• Germany
• France
• Spain
• Italy
• United States
• Switzerland
• United Kingdom
• Australia
• New Zealand

How It Works

So how does this currency pair work and how do you earn money through Forex? The currency pairs basically denote how you’re buying one currency and selling off another. For example, you’ve got the EUR and USD pair with a quote of 1.5000. This basically means that for every 1 EURO, you’ll need 1.5 US dollars.

So what happens is that the proceeds from one currency are used to purchase a different currency. The difference between the two therefore translates to your income or revenue.

Remember that the above is the simplest explanation for what is going on in the Forex market. Since you’ll be dealing with different currencies of various countries, it makes sense that all of these will pass through the official banks of said countries. Every time you sell currencies, you’ll be paying an interest rate on them but buying currencies also means that you’ll be earning an interest rate.

Movement of the Market

Forex is dubbed volatile for a good reason – the price of currency pairs may change from day to day or even from one hour to the next. There are so many factors to consider as these currencies move up and down the market. According to statistics, the changes in currencies may be less than 1 percent in a day – but that 1 percent can be the difference between a loss and a gain.

This is why Forex traders rely on so many tools to help them make the right decisions, buy the right currencies, and sell notes before they hit a spiral. Tools include chart analysis, fundamental analysis, and various other items often provided in Forex platforms.

Of course, that’s just a small part of how the Forex market works. The fact is that if you want to be successful in Forex, you’ll have to constantly update and learn new information about the market.