Broker to Trading

Day trading is short term trading where the trader trades a market in its trading hours in a day, opening a position and closing it within this time frame, but perhaps more typically engaging in shorter term trades which will not extend far into the trading hours by their nature. The trader can then trade again in the next session the following day, if they wish. Some markets do not have day trading hours, for example Forex. Forex is traded continuously from open on Sunday to close on Friday. However it does have sessions which segment the 'day'.

The trader may wish to focus on a particular Forex session, perhaps one which is open during the hours they can trade. Different sessions can have different characteristics, contingent to some extent on liquidity. For example, some may find the Tokyo session to be less volatile than some other sessions (volatility is a complex market phenomenon, which can make it harder to trade), as long as there is not major Yen based news, or a major news release from the NY session, or even more general market volatility, as USD/JPY can see major moves when there is strong general market volatility.

All sessions though can see trends, ranges, pattern formation and volatility. The lead up to market open can see significant trend formation, as money is pushed into pairs. All this can be amplified by more general market volatility, including the potential for trend collapse and reversals.

To day trade Forex the trader needs to open an account with a broker and trade on their online trading platform. Brokers tend to offer one or more platforms, normally free to use. They will tend to have different account types, some perhaps suited to those who want to trade with smaller sums and those who can trade with larger account values. However the core piece of trading technology (as it is all electronic and online) is the platform.

So what is a good trading platform for Forex. It depends to some extent on the experience level of the trader and how they want to trade Forex. Forex has the capacity to encompass many trading styles. As it is open 24 hours with different sessions during the day, the trader can trade at will (though may find some times more suitable then others, depending on their strategy).

The trader may wish to use automated trading. However full automation, trading with robots, may be a technique perhaps more suited to experienced traders. A robot executes a strategy but the trader should probably know what the strategy is, and ideally be automating a strategy they have used because automation may offer features which may be helpful for the strategy (for example allowing rapid execution, which the trader may find difficult to do themselves). However robots can produce rapid losses as well, so the trader needs to understand why and how to use one.

MT4 and MT5 are platform suited to robot trading, and an MT4 and MT5 broker is included in the table above. However the other broker (Plus500) has a platform designed specifically for the human trader. But since a pick of platform is required, Broker to Trading will do so, with the caveat that what is a good platform is very subjective and different traders may prefer different kinds of platform.

Best Forex Day Trading Platform

The pick is FOREX.com's Advanced Trading Platform. This is a Forex trading platform provided by a major, long established Forex broker. The advanced Trading Platform has 90+ Forex pairs (a relatively large number) as well as other markets, clear charting particularly for those who use value when trading or trade with candlestick patterns, trading tools such as technical indicators and graphical objects, fundamental data in the shape of a news feed and economic calendar and for more advanced traders the capacity to automate part of their trading, by using or designing chart based trading signals (with entry and exit show on the chart).

The trader may sign up for a FOREX.com account below, which will provide access to all of its platforms, including the Advanced Trading Platform, a user friendly Web Trader and MT4 with support for automated trading with EAs, and demo as well as live accounts.