Best Trading Platforms For Beginners – Full Guide

Are you a beginner wanting to get into trading or a seasoned investor looking to reach new investment goals?

Whatever your personal circumstances, you’ll need a good trading platform to try your hand at beating the market and help you manage your investments. There is a myriad of services to choose from, all offering different features and fees, and deciding between them all can be daunting.

In this guide, we have analyzed fees, account options, customer service, and features to produce a list of the best trading platforms for 2024. We will also cover 5 key factors you should keep in mind when making your selection.

Best Site for Intermediate Traders

If you’re looking for a more professional site to perform deeper technical analysis then Huobi is a good option.

Recommended Auto Trading Platform 2024

If you are a complete beginner and have limited free time, there is also a platform for you. Most of the services on this guide are brokerage companies where you have to trade manually. However, there are auto-trading software platforms you can use to trade the markets with little experience required. See our guide to algorithmic trading for the latest options.

Best MT4 Broker

If you’re a more experienced trader who wishes to trade forex currency pairs and analyze the financial markets, you may want to use a trading site that supports MT4. MT4 (Metatrader 4) is a trading platform that offers advantages such as mobile trading, trading signals and Expert Advisors, which can enhance your fx trading experience.

How to Choose a Trading Site

1. Fees

One of the first things to consider before choosing which trading platform to invest your money and time on are fees. While trading can be a profitable way to invest, commissions and fees can really eat into your profits, so choosing an affordable platform is essential. There is significant variance between trading platforms when it comes to fees, but in general, you should be aware of the following charges when selecting a platform:

Account minimums

The first expense you will have to face when online trading is the minimum deposit. Trading platforms often charge minimum deposits, which are not actual fees because it is money that will be immediately available in your account once you deposit it, however it is worth keeping in mind especially if your capital is limited in which case you may need to raise funds to begin trading.

Trading fees

Trading fees are the most common when it comes to online trading platforms. These include commissions and spreads. Brokers may charge fixed spread,  variable spread or commission based spreads. It is important that you read about the platform’s trading fees in detail before you begin trading as this can affect your bottom line. Some brokers may also have hidden overnight trading fees.

Deposit fees

Deposit fees are applied when you send money to your trading account from your bank account. Most platforms tend to offer free deposits, but if you are depositing funds with an international bank card, you should watch out for conversion rate fees.

Withdrawal fees

Some brokers may charge a fee when you withdraw your funds.

Inactivity fees: Many trading platforms also charge an inactivity fee when you stop trading for a given period of time. This means that yiu need to be strategic about your trading activity to avoid getting charged after a longer time of no trade. If you are a buy and hold investor, you may want to avoid platforms with such fees.

Account fees: It is not uncommon for some trading platforms to charge an account fee in the form of flat monthly payments, especially when it comes to Australia share trading platforms or stock trading platforms such as IG. None of the platforms in this article charge account fees.

2. Platform 

Trading tools

The trading tools available depend on the actual trading platform you are using. We consider MetaTrader4 or MT5 to be the best trading platforms out there. The only broker out of the ones we listed that uses MT4 is Libertex. The other platforms use different types of trading spaces, even though they are equally efficient.

Speed and order execution

The execution speed is a vital element to consider especially for a day traders. When trading or investing in fast-moving markets, the difference between losing and gaining thousands of dollars can boil down to a few milliseconds. Therefore, we suggest making sure that the platform you choose can keep up with your trading demands.

Copy trading

Some trading platforms offer the copy trading option, which allows traders to place the same trades as professional traders, which can be a profitable strategy for those new to trading. It does come with risk, however.

3. Asset Classes and Variety

Another thing to consider when choosing your online trading platform are the types of assets they offer and the variety. Asset variety and diversification are one of the most fundamental trading strategies and can help take your trading to the next level by balancing your portfolio and offsetting  risks.

4. Regulation

Regulation is another important factor to consider when choosing an online trading site. Whenever we review trading platforms, one of the first things we look at is whether or not they are regulated by financial bodies.

Holding a license means that agencies monitor how the investment firm’s operations closely. To maintain their regulatory status, the company has to abide by rules designed to protect the interests of customers.

5. Usability

Usability has to do with the ease of use of the trading platform in general as well as the sign up and verification process. After all, if you are serious about investing, you may end up spending a lot of time on the platform, so you want to avoid as many obstacles as possible. All the platforms we recommend have fairly simple sign up processes and intuitive interfaces.

Another thing to take into account in online trading is that many people confuse complexity with effectiveness. Most novices get overwhelmed when they find a platform that offers multiple features. They think that a complicated platform translates to an effective one and forget the concept of user-friendliness. Getting access to numerous features will not make you a successful trader.

A trading space that you find too complicated may actually overwhelm you and prevent you from making the most out of your trading experience. Make sure you familiarise yourself with the broker’s platform before you start investing on it. If you do not feel comfortable with it, we suggest moving on to a different trading platform.

Conclusion

When deciding between online trading sites, it is important to understand your investing goals and personal circumstances. Before you make your choice, assess your funds, risk tolerance and trading experience. You should also consider the trading platform’s fees and features available and whether they align with your trading style. For example, day traders who open and close multiple transactions per day should consider a platform with speed and low fees, whereas investors looking to trade forex may wish to use a service where leverage and margin trading is available.

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