Trading platform software for real time trading

Trading platform software - a set of technical and software tools that provide users (traders) access to information about conditions on financial markets, enable trading operations, and keep records of liabilities between the client and the Company providing financial market access services.

The trading platform software runs on the internet and consists of two main parts:

1. The client terminal is a programme that is installed on the trader's computer or mobile device.
   
   
2. The Company's server delivers quotes (information about the prices of financial instruments) to traders' client terminals, performs trading operations on traders' requests, and maintains traders' accounts.

What criteria should quality platforms have?

First and foremost, it is about stability. Although the term seems evident and straightforward, it includes several factors among them.

• reliable and timely display of current quotes;
• 24/7 availability;
• high bandwidth;
• server capacity;
• absence of sticking and slowdowns.

All these points are interconnected and depend on the hardware used by the real time trading platforms.

The best real time trading platforms offer quality backend and a wide range of opportunities for individual interface customisation and technical analysis. That said, it is essential to check that the solutions offered are not empty.

What types of trading are there?

There are several types of trading, among which there are most often seven types.

So, here are the types of trading:

• Scalping - trading in which the trader receives a small profit from each price movement. It requires constant and detailed work of the investor as it is necessary to work at the shortest timeframes (for example, one minute).
• Trading on medium-term is the best variant for newbies; it is less risky and calm than scalping. The profit/loss is based on price movements equal to one hour, several hours or 24 hours. During this time, it is possible to analyse the data soberly and choose the strategy.
  
• Trading on long timeframes (week, month) is based on economic processes, external factors and market movements. As a rule, it is chosen by large capitals - corporations, banks and other financial institutions.
  
• Momentum trading is a rare type when an investor combines trading on different timeframes.
  
• Technical trading - a trader trades on any timeframe based on technical analysis, i.e. predicting the likely change in prices based on how they have changed in the past under similar circumstances (trend analysis).
  
• Fundamental trading - a trader trades in the medium term using fundamental analysis, i.e. analysing and predicting the market value of an issuer based on the performance of companies.
  
• High-frequency trading is carried out not by humans but by sophisticated, powerful computers that perform up to several million computing operations per second to close trades at maximum profit. It is a new, evolving tool that is nevertheless prone to attack and periodically wreaks havoc on the global stock markets.
  

In addition, trading can be categorised by objectives, assets, speed of transactions, etc.

What to trade on the real time trading platform?

Many brokers have begun to offer currency pairs and financial instruments such as CFDs, cryptocurrencies, ETFs, precious metals, binary options, and much more. 

At practically every broker, you will find a CFD or Contract for Difference trading instrument. 

So, a contract for difference allows you to trade not the asset itself but only its price. Thus, CFD allows speculating on price movements (up or down), but investors get all the advantages of trading in shares without actually having them.

In other words, it is a contract between the client and the broker, which allows the exchange of the difference between the value of a security at the moment and its value at the end of the contract.

Before the advent of contracts like this, only big players could trade this instrument because the opening price was in the tens or even hundreds of thousands. CFDs widened the range of market participants by offering access to traders with different capital levels.

Trading CFDs is no more difficult than in stocks. The only difference is that the contract is concluded relative to the price, and the trader doesn't get the security. That is, when buying a contract for the difference, you won't get dividends. In addition, transactions are only between the broker and the trader.

You can trade CFD contracts not only on shares but also on currencies, commodities and indices. Nevertheless, it is recommended to choose the stock market. Here the trends are preserved for a more extended period, and during the reporting period, the shares of this or that company show considerable movement.

At the initial stage of a trader's career, traders should pay attention to currencies. The most attractive currencies for trading are the currency pairs with the highest liquidity and, therefore, the smallest spread. First of all, of course, this is the pair EUR/USD. Other pairs with the most liquid currency are USD/JPY, GBP/USD, USD/CHF, USD/CAD, AUD/USD and NZD/USD, and EUR/JPY and EUR/GBP.

It is enough for a trader-beginner to choose not more than four pairs out of the ones listed above. In the beginning, this will be quite enough, even with redundancy. It is desirable to choose the pairs, the highest volatility of which falls on different sessions.

By opening charts of selected pairs in various timeframes, a beginning trader will receive a very vast field of activity. A trader will have something to practice in the analysis as well as in opening and supporting deals. Traders should consider that at first, the beginners will be busy getting acquainted with the interface of the terminal, as well as learning the basic concepts of trading (spread, swap, margin, and much more). Experts recommend that you should spend your energy monitoring a maximum of four currency pairs the first time. 

How to start real time trading in Hong Kong?

You can register online, then download the trading platform software and install it on your computer to start real time trading. The registration process does not take long. You will only need to confirm your identity by providing some information.

Opening a demo account

So, the first thing a first-time trader needs to do when downloading the terminal and opening a demo account is to become familiar with the trading platform interface and its essential functions. It would be appropriate to draw an analogy with the novice driver. In the beginning, the beginner's attention is concentrated on the operating controls of the car, while there is no time to keep track of the road. Only when hands and feet find the right pedals, buttons and levers - the driver is ready to concentrate on the essentials: analysing the road situation and choosing the direction and speed.

In the same way, a beginning trader should not care about trading, not about getting any results (even if virtual) but concentrate on simply performing the essential functions of the trading program. If you take the time to learn the basics, you will soon move on to action. 

What should novice traders study first?

Here are the basic operations that a trader should master while practising in the terminal on their demo account:

• How to find a necessary pair in the market overview, open its chart, change the chart's appearance (its type, timeframe, colour design, additional elements like separating lines or reflecting the volumes of deals in the market);
• How to find and apply technical analysis indicators to charts;
  
• How to add auxiliary visual elements to charts (for example, support and resistance lines or channel boundaries);
  
• How to open market orders, how to modify an order (set and change stops, decrease volume), and how to close an active order;
  
• How to open pending orders, and how to modify and cancel a pending order;
  
• How to view the history of closed and cancelled trades for a certain period;
  
• How to observe the news line and the economic calendar (if any) in this trading platform software.
  

Also, the process of working on a demo account should help traders to identify and remember such values as:

• Spreads and swaps of the most demanded pairs;
• The pip value depending on the traded currencies and lot size;
  
• The amount of margin required to use different leverage sizes;
  
• Account stability (i.e. how many pips the price has to go against open orders before you are in a stop-out situation).
  

Opening a real account

To open a real account after mastering all the information, you need to make a deposit.

You can do this by credit card, bank transfer or e-wallet. 

Since real time trading involves risk, the process of mastering the terminal means, above all, a large number of different operations repeated many times. In this case, as we have already noted, you should ignore the result of such "trading" - the focus should be on the process. On the other hand, suppose any trading platform functions seem unclear, or there are difficulties in using them. In that case, it is worth spending time on the additional study of documentation and, possibly, to address the help of a profile forum or the broker's support service. Learn, and you will be successful!