What is the best forex trading platform for beginners? The best forex trading platform for beginners is the Metatrader 4 and I gotta admit, I am really 110% biased on this one.
And I will give you the 10 reasons why…well, actually add 1 more to make it 11.
Why Finding The Right Forex Trading Platform Is Crucial
Right, so can’t wait to get started in forex, hey?
You can’t trade forex online without a trading platform. Its like you cannot drive from A to B without a car.
Now, I was like you at one stage:
- learning everything about forex online
- and then the next stage was about finding the best forex trading platform.
I ended up opening up a $150 live trading account with a forex broker and used their in-house forex trading platform and I struggled with it.
Why? It wasn’t user friendly.
It was quite confusing to understand it. You really have to spend some time get to know how it worked.
And who has time for all that, right?
Do you wan’t to know what happened to that $150 trading account? I didn’t turn that $150 into a million dollars…
In fact I did the exact opposite. I turned it to zero. Beginners bad luck. Dunno!
It was then I stumbled onto the second one and gave it a try. It was refreshing. I fell in love it it. And as the say ” the rest is history.”
I’m talking about the MT4 Trading Platform.
Who Developed The MetaTrader 4 Trading Platform?
MetaTrader 4 is a trading platform developed by this company called MetaQuotes Software for online trading in the forex, contract for differences (CFDs) and futures markets.
It is also commonly known as MT4.
Where To Download MT4 Trading Platform
There are two ways you can download the Mt4 trading platform:
- can be downloaded from MetaQuotes website www.metatrader4.com and www.metaquotes.net
- or from forex brokers that offer MT4 trading platform
Is MT4 Trading Platform Free?
Yes.
For a demo or live trading account, you don’t need to pay any monthly subscription fees or anything. The MT4 is licensed to forex brokers and therefore the forex brokers pay MetaQuotes for the use of the trading software/platform.
How To Install MT4 In Your Computer
Installing the MT4 trading software into your computer shouldn’t take longer than 5 minutes.
Here are the steps to installing a MT4 trading platform on your computer so you can trade:
1: Go to metatrader4.com or any online forex brokers that offer mt4 trading platform and look for the MT4 download link:
2:After you click that download link, you’ll have a window popup that looks something like this which tells you to read the license agreement. You click Next button after reading:
Step 3: Another window opens giving you the option to accept the default installation folder or you can specify another one if you want. You really don’t have to do anything here,just click Next:
Step 4: Then a new window will pop up showing you the installation in progress. Click next after the installation in progress has been completed.
Step 5: Mt4 trading platform will launch open up itself and you will see a pop up window prompting you to enter some of your details like:
- name and address, phone number etc which you have to fill in.
- then select account type, what currency you want your account to be in, your leverage, the amount of virtual money you want to trade with (called deposit)
- ” I agree to subscribe to your newsletters” must be selected in order for the “next” button to apper.
- and this will open up a demo trading account for you.
Now lets get to my 11 reasons why Mt4 trading platform is the best trading platform for beginners.
1: MT4 Trading Platform Is So User Friendly
Believe me when I say that metatrader 4 trading platform is so user friendly. The company that developed this trading platform really knew the meaning of what user friendly means.
2: MT4 Charts
There are only 3 types of charts on MT4 trading platform, the line chart, the bar chart and the candlestick chart.
Now, out of these 3 charts, the ones you will use most will be the bar chart and the candlestick chart. For me, I always use the candlestick chart.
These charts can be activated from:
- the menu bar
- or the toolbar with the icons
3: MT4 Indicators
MT4 trading platform comes in with a lot of common and popular forex indicators alike RSI, MACD, Stochastic, Average True Range, CCI.
All you need to do is click the navigator icon (1) and then you have this window drop down on the left hand side (2) and there you have all the defaults indicators in the mt4 trading platform.
If you find or create a custom indicator, you can easily upload into this are as well.
4: MT4 Expert Advisors
The mt4 trading platform comes with 3 default expert advisors. Don’t be disheartened. You can create your own custom expert advisors and run tests on them in the mt4 trading platform.
5: Trading Off The Chart Screen
One of best things about mt4 trading platform is the fact that you can trade off the chart screen. You don’t need to head up to the menu or toolbars “open an order”.
All you do is right click on the chart that you are in and you can open an order from right there:
6: Simple MT4 Order Types
The types of mt4 order you can use are really simple. No confusing orders like, the:
- Good till cancelled order
- good for the day order
- one cancels the other order
- one triggers the other order
All you have in mt4 trading platform are 3 types of orders:
- market orders ( buy at market and sell at market orders)
- stop orders ( pending buy stop order and pending sell stop order)
- limit orders ( pending buy limit order and pending sell limit order).
For more information on how each of these mt4 order types work, check out my post on mt4 order types.
7: Trading Profiles
You can create a lot of trading accounts, either demo or live trading accounts and can have access to them on the trading platform.
You can also switch back an forth between each account very easily:
8: Uses Very Low Resources
The mt4 trading platform is a windows based software and really uses less resource in your computer to function. Which means it doesn’t slow down any other programs you may be using.
9: Supports Different Languages
I think it was a really smart move for the creators of the mt4 trading software to support different languages.
If you are from China or Belgium or Korea or Indonesia or France, this trading platform comes in your own language.
And not just those countries, there are lots of others in the list.
All you do is go to the menu bar and click view and then languages and you have a list of countries there with their supported language:
10: Secure
When you trade with a live account, you want security and not get your trading account hacked. Well, here’s what MT4 trading platform is capable of:
- MT4 is a highly secure platform that encrypts the data between trader and server with a 129-bit key.
- The trader’s IP address is also completely concealed.
11: Flexible
Mt4 trading platform supports all currency cross and guess what?
You can trade other markets as well…all from the mt4 trading platform.
Markets like:
- commodities, futures and equities
All you need to do is go and click the mt4 Market watch toolbar and click it. This action opens up a window you have a very long list of all the markets there including forex as shown below. If you are confused, just hover your mouse arrow over an instrument and it will tell you what it is:
11: Customization
One thing that sets apart the trading platform from the rest is the fact that it can be customized. What do I mean by that? Well, it is this: a trader can customize the platform to meet his own needs and trading practices and it includes such things as:
- ability to develop your own Expert advisors
- as well as technical indicators
And all that can be done using the MT4’s advanced proprietary MQL programming language.
Summary
In all honesty, if you are new, your best bet is to start trading with mt4 trading platform.
Once you open it up on your computer, it is very easy to figure how the platform works. If you’ve tried other forex trading platforms previously and if you switch to mt4, you will definitely see a remarkable change because it is so user friendly.
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