Best Forex Trading Platform Guide

IC Markets Is The Best MetaTrader 5 Broker

IC Markets is recommended for MetaTrader 5 Traders with:

• The lowest spreads on most major forex pairs
• Low Commissions From $3.50 per 100k traded
• No fee funding and withdrawal methods
• The choice of MetaTrader or cTrader platform
• An option for social trading through ZuluTrade
• Fast ECN trading speeds and low latency
• Large range of CFDs including 120 global shares

1) IC Markets Has The Lowest MT5 Spreads

Comparing the top fx brokers’ average spreads in 2022, IC Markets was the clear winner as shown in the table below. This was based on each broker’s website data on their ECN account types, which we review each month. These low spreads are considered similar to what ECN brokers offer and are determined by market conditions like volatility and liquidity. IC Markets offer ECN spreads as low as 0.0 pips + commission, with commission trading fees being the broker earning its main source of income from commission.

IC Markets MT5 Spread Comparison	EUR/USD AUD/USD EUR/GBP GBP/USD USD/SGD AUD/JPY EUR/JPY USD/JPY USD/CAD	EUR/USD AUD/USD EUR/GBP GBP/USD USD/SGD AUD/JPY EUR/JPY USD/JPY USD/CAD	EUR/USD AUD/USD EUR/GBP GBP/USD USD/SGD AUD/JPY EUR/JPY USD/JPY USD/CAD	EUR/USD AUD/USD EUR/GBP GBP/USD USD/SGD AUD/JPY EUR/JPY USD/JPY USD/CAD	EUR/USD AUD/USD EUR/GBP GBP/USD USD/SGD AUD/JPY EUR/JPY USD/JPY USD/CAD
	0.02	0.17	0.27	0.23	0.85
	0.17	0.24	0.40	0.59	1.38
	0.20	0.20	0.40	0.50	1.50
	0.44	0.42	0.40	0.85	1.30
	0.17	0.30	0.54	0.59	N/A
	0.20	0.40	0.50	0.60	10.00
	0.10	0.50	0.60	0.60	1.30
	n/a	0.50	0.60	0.20	3.10
	0.43	1.22	1.09	1.00	1.93

Avg. spreads are taken from each broker's website and updated monthly. Last update on 01/10/2022

MetaTrader 4 + 5 commissions are also competitive and based on the base currency chosen. While this is often determined by your location, it impacts the commission rates with AUD, EUR, JPY and GBP the best value. If you are outside of these regions, many traders will choose the USD as most forex pairs and crypto pairings are against the USD.

There are no hidden trading fees such as deposit or withdrawal fees including payment methods including credit cards, PayPal and even Bitcoin wallet. Individual broker reviews reflect the positive sentiment of the straightforward fee model.

Lowest Spreads + Low Commissions = IC Markets MT5 Fees

The minimum deposit requirement when opening a live MetaTrader 5 account is $200 USD. Note that financing fees apply for overnight positions held on CFD markets.

2) IC Markets Has A Range Of Tradable CFDs

The MetaTrader 5 platform provides you access to IC Market’s full product range of CFDs. This allows you to trade forex, cryptocurrency, futures, commodities, bonds and indices. Maximum leverage, competitive spreads and commissions range by the CFD traded and the subsidiary you are signed up to. The unique advantage of MT5 is the ability to trade share CFDs with the online broker offering ASX stock CFDs including BHP, NYSE stock CFDs including Walt Disney and NASDAQ CFDs including Google (Alphabet).

IC Markets have 60 forex pairs, 19 commodities and 120 share CFDs.

3) IC Markets Has Fast Execution Speeds

As of October 2022, the average MetaTrader 5 execution speed was 36.5 ms. This speed is the average order execution time from the moment the trade is executed to the moment the trade is confirmed. While some individual regions may beat this number, it’s the lowest report worldwide average for this forex platform.

To achieve ultra-fast execution, IC Markets MetaTrader servers are located at the Equinix NY4 data centre. This is where 600+ buy/sell firms and other service providers are located. By having the server in this central location, IC Markets offers STP, low-latency pricing fees and no dealing desk.

The MT4 + MT5 server used by IC Markets has under 1ms latency. This applies to the largest VPS providers of nearby data centres dedicated lines or through the NY4 data centre itself.

60% of IC Markets trades are algo trades based on execution speeds.

When a trader’s monthly volume exceeds 15 lots, a VPN is provided free of charge.

MetaTrader 5 Background

Three years after the release of MT4, the team at MetaQuotes developed MetaTrader 5 (MT5). The key reason for the new platform was to allow share CFD trading. The popularity of CFD trading and more brokers offering MT5 is why 11.5% of MetaTrader usage was MT5 in 2020 (up from 5.4% in 2019). Below shows the details of the Forex Magnates MetaQuotes study.

Pros Of MetaTrader 5

As stated above, unlike MT4 which focuses solely on currency trading, MetaTrader 5 offers a wider range of CFDs including share CFD trading. CFDs work by trading the price movements of underlying assets and are derivative products. The trading platform is faster than MetaTrader 4 and offers more indicators and a wider range of order types. More specifically the five core features of MT5 include:

• 21 timeframes (including 11-minute charges)
• 6 pending order types
• Netting and hedging mode options
• Depth of Market function
• Partial order filling policies

Cons Of MetaTrader 5

The biggest issue of MT5 is the programming language for automated trading, called MQL5. This is different from MetaTrader 4 and the MQL4 programming language, therefore you would essentially be learning new coding from scratch if you are an MT4 user. This has been a key reason for the slow adoption of MT5. The popularity issue is also a factor when it comes to purchasing EAs (trading bots) or copy trading with a smaller marketplace compared to MT4.

Additional IC Markets Details

An enhancement IC Markets offers is the ZuluTrade social trading extension. This social trading feature is used by over 100,000 traders in 192 countries and has two unique features. The first is Zulu Rank which ranks the individuals to consider copying. Factors considered when ranking range from performance, stability and exposure. The second is Zulu Guard, which provides account protection that can step in to protect your capital.

Final Verdict On IC Markets

IC Markets is the best Australian forex broker for those looking to trade forex or CFDs with MetaTrader 5. This was based on the low spreads, range of markets and fast trading environment offered. IC Markets is ASIC regulated (AFSL 335692) and with a strong market share is ideal for beginner to advanced MT5 traders.

View IC Markets Review>>Visit IC Markets >>

FxPro Is The Best cTrader Broker

Our top pick for cTrader is FxPro based on their:

• No dealing desk Execution and low trading costs
• The fastest average cTrader execution speeds
• Regulation across five major jurisdictions
• Up to 7,000 orders executed per second
• Low EUR/USD spreads for cTrader

1) FxPro Offers No Dealing Desk

FxPro uses straight-through processing (STP) technology to execute your cTrader orders anonymously with no dealing desk (NDD) intervention. This means they are not a market maker and don’t interfere with trades.

The main benefit of NDD interference is fast trade execution speeds with the majority of orders executed in 11.06 milliseconds. The result is that the quotes shown by FxPro in almost all cases are the price the order is filled with a low percentage of slippage having almost an equal positive and negative impact. Most cTrader traders are executed through the London (LD5) Equinix Data centre with servers connected to tier 1 banks through Quotix.

The resulting spreads for FxPro are not competitive for MT4 (1.58 pips) or MT5 (1.51 pips) but excellent for cTrader at just 0.37 pips. This makes them offer the best trading costs for cTrader only.

With 7,000 orders executed per second and co-location servers, traders benefit from the FxPro infrastructure.

FxPro offers spreads of 0.37 and 11.06ms execution speeds.

2) FxPro Is Regulated Across The Globe

FxPro has regulation in two Euro zones with FCA registration number 509956 and CYSEC licence number 078/07. They are also regulated in South Africa by the FSCA with authorisation number 45052, the Middle East (Dubai) and the Bahamas.

With so many regulated bodies, traders can choose the entity that matches where they are located or what conditions they wish to start trading under (eg balance protection, leverage).

3) FxPro Offers A Range Of Markets

FxPro offers 250 instruments to be traded through the cTrader platform this includes over 70 forex pairs, the futures market, spot indices across the world, over 150 stocks and global shares, spot metals and energies such from oil to gas.

FxPro also offers training courses, news and analysis and trading tools to get the most from these 2590+ instruments.

cTrader Background

Created by Spotware, cTrader is the third most popular forex software and is offered by a wide number of retail foreign exchange brokers. While no exact market share statistics have been published, below shows the popularity of the websites and app downloads of the three most popular platforms.

Pros Of cTrader

Our compare forex brokers platform chart below shows the difference between MT4 vs MT5 vs cTrader. It highlights that many consider cTrader the top forex trading platform with superior analytical and graphic objects of 65 and level II pricing. For automated trading, cTrader offers cAlgo which has a .NET framework and C# language which some programmers will be more familiar with than MLQ4 or MLQ5.

Cons Of cTrader

The smaller market share of cTrader vs MetaTrader means that the online community is more niche, limiting the sharing of bots and the copy trading environment. The server for Spotware is located in the UK, compared to MetaTrader, which is based in the USA and can be an issue for accessing liquidity and trade execution speeds.

Final Verdict Of FxPro

FxPro has the best infrastructure with co-location servers for cTrader. The results are fast execution speeds on average of 11.06 ms, average cTrader spreads of 0.37 and a range of instruments that can be traded. Traders looking for cTrader should choose FxPro is regulated by the FCA (in the UK) and CySEC (in Cyprus) but is not regulated by ASIC (Australia). Australian traders may therefore consider Pepperstone instead which also offered cTrader with similar features.

Full Review Of FxPro >>Visit FxPro >>

*Your capital is at risk ‘84.72% of retail CFD accounts lose money’

FXCM Has The Best Forex Trading App

FXCM is the best NinjaTrader broker and also has the best mobile app through its Trading Station proprietary platform. Key features of FXCM Trading Station are:

• App Store versions for iPhone and iPad
• Google Play versions of table and mobile android devices
• Simple, intuitive interface
• Range of financial markets including crypto-major baskets
• Advanced technology with 88%* of orders having zero or positive slippage
• Award-winning customer service
• The option of spread betting for UK residences
• Regulation from the UK, Australia, to South Africa
• Detailed forex trade education, including webinars
• Free demo account

*As per the Nov 2020 Price Improvement Statistics

In 2022 FXCM offers NinjaTrader 8 for forex trading and for Ireland and UK traders Spread Betting is also available. For both types of trading, the broker offers a risk-free demo account that includes full historical market data, access to third-party apps and indicators, and the ability to develop and test automated trading strategies.

Background To NinjaTrader

Based out of the USA, NinjaTrader is an advanced charting forex software package created in 2004. Most forex traders using NinjaTrader are based in North America with the platform registered by the National Futures Association (NFA).

Pros Of NinjaTrader

Most traders choose this software based on customisable charts and real-time bid/ask simultaneous data. Hundreds of trading indicators are pre-configured with drawing tools available. The tools ‘Market Analyser’ helps traders scan changes in forex markets with the ability to build watch lists and indicator values. Alerts can be configured for currency market movements and automated strategy programs are pre-configured.

Cons Of NinjaTrader

NinjaTrader is only offered by six foreign exchange brokers. The community using the software is small with only 60,000 traders last year. NinjaTrader has no mobile app with only a Windows desktop version available.

Final Verdict For FXCM

FXCM is the leading regulated broker offering both NinjaTrader and Trading Station, with the latter offering the most advanced mobile app for both iPhone, iPad and Android devices. The broker’s trading fees are higher for beginners, but their VIP account (active trading account) offers up to 62.4% in savings, making them a good option for high-volume traders who prefer to use their mobile devices.

View FXCM Full Review >>Visit FXCM >>

*Your capital is at risk ‘67% of retail CFD accounts lose money

IG Is The Best ProRealTime Broker

IG has 200,000 clients globally and is listed on the FTSE 250. Key features include:

• $0 minimum deposit requirement
• Tier 1 regulation by ASIC, FCA, MAS and the CFTC
• Strong research tools and online training program
• Easy trading account funding methods (including Swiss Franc)
• Wide range of tradable financial markets and interest rates

Background To ProRealTime

Founded in 2001 and developed by IT Finance in France, ProRealTime’s key strength is the technical analysis functionality. Unlike most other forex trading software, the is web-based with no downloads required. There are customisable currency market scanners and advanced charting facilities. For automated trading, the platform uses ProRealCode coding language.

Pros Of ProRealTime

As outlined above, the technical analysis functionality of ProRealTime is the key strength of the trading software. Both macro and micro currency traders can access 100+ indicators with filtering options by strike price and expiration dates. The interface has a wide variety of charts and unlimited timeframes, with the ability to place trades based on trend lines across asset classes.

Cons Of ProRealTime

The platform was not designed for mobile trading with no trading apps available. For some brokers offering ProRealTime such as Interactive Brokers, the trading platform is limited to some regions with no access for Australian and USA residents. Australian traders can only use the software in demo mode. The other issue is the fees some brokers charge from interactive fees to real-time data access fees.

More Details About IG

There are two types of trading accounts. The first is a spread + commission account used by advanced traders looking for the lowest fees. Our analysis found that IC Markets has the lowest spreads in this category. The second category is called a standard account and has no commissions. Our analysis shown below compares the average spreads of standard accounts and determined IG offered the lowest spreads overall.

Standard Account	EUR/USD AUD/USD AUD/JPY EUR/GBP EUR/JPY GBP/USD USD/JPY USD/CAD USD/SGD	EUR/USD AUD/USD AUD/JPY EUR/GBP EUR/JPY GBP/USD USD/JPY USD/CAD USD/SGD	EUR/USD AUD/USD AUD/JPY EUR/GBP EUR/JPY GBP/USD USD/JPY USD/CAD USD/SGD	EUR/USD AUD/USD AUD/JPY EUR/GBP EUR/JPY GBP/USD USD/JPY USD/CAD USD/SGD	EUR/USD AUD/USD AUD/JPY EUR/GBP EUR/JPY GBP/USD USD/JPY USD/CAD USD/SGD
	1.13	1.01	2.06	1.71	2.27
	0.70	1.30	0.30	1.30	1.40
	0.80	0.90	2.80	1.70	2.30
	1.20	1.20	1.90	1.30	2.00
	1.30	1.40	2.50	1.80	2.80
	0.62	0.77	1.50	1.27	1.30
	1.10	1.20	1.40	1.40	1.50
	1.30	1.50	2.20	1.80	2.00
	0.77	0.84	1.67	1.40	1.43
	1.20	1.20	1.40	1.40	1.20
	1.20	1.20	1.40	1.40	1.40
	1.30	1.80	2.60	1.90	2.10
	1.30	1.70	2.40	2.10	1.70
	1.20	1.40	1.50	1.40	1.60
	1.24	1.77	3.94	1.65	2.14
	1.40	1.20	2.70	1.90	2.70
	1.70	1.80	3.30	2.00	2.30

Avg. spreads are taken from each broker's website and updated monthly. Last update on 01/10/2022

Please note that other fees apply when trading, including financing fees for overnight positions. These financing fees will depend on the software platform chosen with IG.

Final Verdict On IG

IG is one of the most popular worldwide brokers with a $0 minimum deposit requirement and an excellent trading stack. The broker is recommended for traders looking for the niche ProRealTime trading software but not for other mainstream forex platforms like MT4 where other brokers offer lower trading fees.

Compare Broker Spreads >>Visit IG >>

eToro Offers The Best Copy Trading Software

When opening an eToro trading account, a demo account is automatically created. This has $100,000 of virtual funds which traders can experiment with and practise using the platform’s full functionality. The demo account includes the research tools from eToro investors and industry experts sourced from financial institutions.

There are a variety of trading platform options from the web platform to mobile iOS app for iPad and iPhone devices. There is also an app for Android devices.

A Deep Dive Of The eToro Trading Platform

eToro specialises in social trading and copy trading with a platform specifically designed for trading CFDs. The online broker was recommended for social traders based on the platform functionality, number of copy traders online, and depth of CFD trading options.

eToro Copy Trading Platform Pros

The most obvious advantage of the eToro trading platform is that the platform is specifically designed for social trading. Unlike other platforms which require you to integrate third-party software or an add-on extension, eToro provides all the social tools you need for social trading. In this sense, eToro could be described as the Facebook of social trading, where traders can discuss all things trading with each other and get valuable feedback.

The other notable advantage of the platform is the copy trading feature. This comes in two flavours, CopyTrader and CopyPortfolio. With CopyTrader, you can follow and copy other users’ trading strategies. This is exceptionally useful for beginner traders or traders with little free time, as they can profit off the trades of other traders.

eToro provides performance analysis of other traders to help you find the traders to copy and risk management tools to help you exit trades when traders don’t perform.

eToro Copy Trading Platform Cons

While the eToro platform is user-friendly and simple to use, there is a learning curve when it comes to understanding some of eToro’s terminology and parameters. For example, eToro has created its unique formula to calculate a user’s risk score from 1 to 10.

Traders should understand how it works as it can help result in superior copy and trading decisions however it is complex to understand. The other disadvantage of eToro is the specialist social trader platform that does not have as many technical indicators and graphical tools compared to specialist CFD platforms such as Next Generation by CMC Markets.

The eToro Trading Community

eToro has millions of traders but more importantly, it has the most traders engaged in social trading. These traders allow their trades to be copied in real-time by other traders because of a unique popular investors’ program. Below shows how this works with traders rewarded based on the size and the number of other traders copying their positions.

Other key social trading features include live newsfeeds, allowing traders to discuss strategies and share strategies.

Financial Markets Offered By eToro

In 2020, 47 currency pairs can be traded with eToro. Other key financial markets include 17 cryptocurrencies (including bitcoin), 145 EFTs, 13 commodities and 13 indices. The biggest financial market unique to eToro is their share trading ability to trade more stocks in most global markets as a contract for difference.

In Australia, eToro trades as eToro AUS Capital Ltd and it is ASIC regulated with the Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL) number 491139. The broker is also regulated by CySEC (Cyprus Securities & Exchange Commission) and in the UK by FCA (Financial Conduct Authority).

Final Verdict On eToro

eToro is recommended for social and copy trading based on market share. It has over 10 million clients and the trading software makes it easy to filter these traders to the performance and risk criteria to suit an individual’s need. While the broker has higher trading costs than other brokers like Pepperstone or IC Markets, the platform’s ease of use makes the broker the logical choice for copy traders.

Open a demo account >>Visit eToro >>

*Your capital is at risk ‘68% of retail CFD accounts lose money’

Plus500 Trading Platform

Plus500 is a CFD provider that offers a large range of financial instruments for trading. The company offers its proprietary trading platform, designed specifically to make monitoring and trading multiple instruments at one time as easy as possible.

Advantages Of Plus500 Platform

Plus500 trading platform is well known for its ease of use when trading its large range of financial products. The main screen is designed to display multiple CFDs with real-time quotes and only the most necessary information through an exceptionally easy-to-view and organised layout. This helps users as it keeps things simple when trading, there is no need to switch screens to implement strategies or perform orders.

Our top picks for novice traders include several other brokers, but Plus500 has the best risk management tools available through the platform. This includes guaranteed stops, which are not available with most brokers.

Disadvantages Of Plus500 Platform

The Plus500 trading platform has several limitations. The software does not offer algorithmic trading, meaning traders looking for trading automation may find the platform does not suit their needs. Traders looking for advanced analysis tools may also feel restricted as the Plus500 trading platform offers just 15 indicators and 10 timeframes and the level of platform customisation is limited.

The other main issue with the Plus500 trading platform is that it is proprietary with a closed ecosystem. This limits the level of customisation one can do either through creating their custom signals with their code, adding extensions or plug-ins from 3rd part providers to increase the number of technical indicators or graphical tools available and switching platforms should you wish to change brokers in the future.

Plus500 Is Best Forex Broker For Beginners

Plus500 offers the following features for novice traders:

• Easy to use forex platform
• 50+ foreign exchange markets
• The ability to trade forex, CFDs and ETFs.
• A range 0f cryptocurrency CFDs
• Order types include guaranteed stop-loss orders (GSLOs)
• Technical analysis is ideal for all trading experience
• Trader’s guide including technical analysis and market analysis
• Trading signals that alter when market-sensitive events occur

One of the key features of the Plus500 trading platform is the risk management tools that are not often offered by other brokers. This includes guaranteed negative balance protection (NBP) ensuring you don’t lose more than your deposit. Guaranteed stop-loss orders are also available, allowing you to set a maximum potential loss for trades. Both don’t prevent the high risk of losing funds, but the trading tools reduce the high risk by allowing you to set limits on your losses.

While Plus500 is a good platform if you are new to trading, but we do not recommend the platform if you intend to use it to learn to trade. For this, we recommend their demo account as you can practice with virtual cash before using your own money to invest. Leverage instruments involve a high level of risk, so we recommend exercising caution before you trade.

Plus500 is the trading name globally but a number of subsidiaries exist worldwide from Plus500AU in Australia (AFSL 417727), Plus500UK Ltd in the United Kingdom (FRN 509909), Plus500CY in Cyprus (Licence No. 250/14) and Plus500SG for Singapore traders with License Number CMS100648-1.

Final Verdict On Plus500

Plus500 has the easiest-to-use trading software and with strong regulations combined with a low deposit requirement of just $100 the broker is recommended for beginner traders.

Plus500 Review >>Visit Plus500 >>

*Your capital is at risk ‘72% of retail CFD accounts lose money’

City Index Is The Best eSignal Broker

City Index perfectly integrates its price engine software to the TradingView interface, making it possible for forex traders to trade directly from TradingView charts with the following advantages:

• Access to +12,000 global financial instruments
• 3 different types of tradable contracts (CFDs, spread bets and spot FX)
• Multiple powerful chart types (11 chart types)
• Fast and secure HTML5 technology
• An extensive selection of smart technical tools (+65 technical indicators)
• Mobile trading charts with over 60 customizable technical indicators
• 16 years of currency exchange rates and price history

1) City Index Risk Management Features

City Index engineered its Web Trader platform to run with protective risk management features that come in the form of:

• Negative balance protection
• Automated margin closeout
• Guaranteed stop-loss orders

Negative balance protection is an automatic stop-loss feature that ensures clients do not lose more than the account balance and are indebted to their broker. When a debit account balance occurs because of unforeseeable market events, the negative balance protection policy will restore your trading account balance to zero.

Additionally, the City Index TradingView platform is equipped with a guaranteed stop-loss order, which for an extra fee that is built into the spread warrants that your SL will be triggered at the specified price. Please note that CFDs remain complex instruments and traders show learn about the risks even with these features.

Note* The City Index GSL order ensures no slippages on the stop-loss order

Our team of experts also weighed into our proprietary scoring system the wide range of order types offered by City Index, which includes:

• Hedging order tools (go both long and short on the same instrument)
• Partial close order feature (liquidates your position in increments)
• One-click trading mode directly from the TradingView charts
• Advanced trailing stop orders
• One cancels the other (OCO order)

City Index smart trading with innovative Risk management features

2) TradingView Access To Intelligent Trading Tools

City Index clients can access a plethora of smart trading tools that can help them find new trading opportunities. City Index web-based charts are powered by TradingView but are enhanced by the in-house technology built by the team of experts at this brokerage trading firm. Find out below the trading tools accessible through City Index’s TradingView platform:

• 11 chart types for different trading styles (Bars, Candlestick, Hollow Candles, Heikin-Ashi, Point & Figure, Line, Area, Baseline, Renko, Line Break, and Kagi)
• Performance tracking charts, allowing to compare two or multiple markets on the same chart
• 74 advanced drawing tools (Elliot Wave studies, Gann studies, and Fibonacci chart studies)
• 65 custom technical indicators and studies (Advance / Decline Line, Correlation Coefficient, Double EMA, EMA Cross, VWAP, Williams Fractal, Zig Zag and much more)
• 360° market view features unite in one place market information, related news, economic calendar, technical and fundamental analysis portal, expert market analysis and watch list integration

City Index is rich in advanced trading tools on their Web Trader Platform.

Final Verdict On City Index

Overall, the City Index TradingView platform has professional capabilities and trading tools that can satisfy the needs of the most sophisticated traders. TradingView is supported by most popular browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer 11 and Microsoft Edge. You can trade on any device and operating system anywhere directly from your browser without the need to install it on your PC.

View City Index Review >>Visit City Index >>

CMC Markets Next Generation Platform

CMC Markets has a proprietary platform to provide you with optimal trading conditions with CMC Market’s range of 10,00 trading products. Advantages of choosing CMC Markets include:

• Access to 10,000 CFD products
• Competitive commission-free trading for all CFD products (except shares)
• Share trading (via CMC Invest Platform)
• Risk management with a Guaranteed Stop-Loss
• Dynamic charting
• Range of order executions types
• Automated execution

Next Generation

The CMC Markets Next Generation trading platform comes with a number of features that make them stand out in a competitive market. Good usability is available than to its layout wizard which allows you to choose between floating or fixed windows, decide on 5 types of layouts and choose what colours you prefer. This is a good thing as the platform comes with over 35 drawing tools, 115 technical indicators, and 70 chart patterns for 12 types of charts so you would want a layout that works for you. When building your charts, you can access 20 years of price history and set your chart intervals anywhere from 1 second to 1 month.

In addition to customisable layouts and charts, the platform comes with a client sentiment tracker and a pattern recognition scanner that can scan over 120 products every 15 minutes and then send you alerts automatically.

One last feature worth noting is the risk management tools A guaranteed stop loss order and boundary order are available for a small premium to provide an element of protection when markets are volatile.

CMC Markets has great execution

While CMC Markets is a market maker, they operate more like a no dealing desk broker. The broker crunches 225 million prices every day from 14 feeds so the broker is constantly looking for the best quotes at all times. CMC Markets have a fill rate of 99.9% and this is always at the price you see, this means no requotes. Lastly, unlike some market makers that may reject your trades when conditions are unfavourable to them, CMC Markets automate this process and never intervene in your orders.

CMC Markets Range Of Markets Is Large

With 10,000 products to trade, CMC Markets has one of the largest range of products for trade of all brokers. In fact, they don’t just offer CFD products, you can even trade shares and these shares will come with a CHESS number if you are trading ASX shares.

Other products for trade include

• Forex CFDs: 338+ currency pairs.
• ETFs and Share CFDs: Share from 23 countries (9000+ shares including 2000 Australian stocks).
• Commodities: 100+ hard and soft commodity products
• Treasury CFDs: 50+ treasuries
• Index CFDs: 90+ major indices

CMC Markets CFD Trading Accounts

CMC Markets keeps things simple, only one type of trading account is available. Forex pairs start from 0.7 pips and don’t have commission costs.

While forex and other products don’t have commission costs, there are costs when trading shares. How much you pay will depend on which market you are buying into but it’s $7 in Australia.

View CMC Markets Review >>Visit Broker >>

TradeStation

TradeStation is an online charting system and social network for traders to converse with each other, share ideas and trade scripts. It’s offered by a select number of brokers, including OANDA and Saxo Bank.

Advantages Of The TradeStation Platform

The major advantages of the TradeView platform are its charts and social trading features.

TradeView offers superior charting for a large range of CFDs. Traders can choose from 10 HTML5 chart types with up to 8 charts per layout and over 50 drawing tools to help analyse trends and identify opportunities. TradeStation also has a stock screener based on different metrics from over 100 search fields. A similar feature is offered by xStation offered by XTB.

Disadvantages Of TradeStation Platform

TradeStation is not a true trading platform. You cannot buy and sell through it, to do this you will need a broker that integrates TradeStation into its platform. It also does not offer Level 2 data regardless if traders subscribe to a Premium subscription. While the software offers a free subscription to get some features, a paid subscription will be needed to get the best features such as a screen with multiple charts and customer services.

OANDA Is The Best TradeStation Broker

OANDA ranks as the best US-based forex broker offering TradeStation which they call OANDA Trade Web, OANDA Trade Desktop and ONADA Trade Mobile and Table app.

OANDA is recommended for their:

• Strong regulatory oversight from the CFTC and NFA
• A large number of currency pairs (+71 FX pairs)
• Multi-currency deposit solution with 9 account base currencies
• Technical analysis powered by Autochartist
• Sophisticated technical analysis tools
• Award-winning retail FX platform
• Integrated leading news services (Dow Jones International, 4CAST and OANDA MarketPulse)
• Execution with no-requotes and no order rejections

1) Oanda Autochartist Technical Analysis Tool

Oanda offers its clients access to Autochartist, a powerful third-party tool that uses automatic chart pattern recognition software. All Oanda Trade clients can gain free of charge access to the Autochartist software. Some Autochartist features and advantages are listed below:

• Ongoing market screening of potential forex chart patterns
• Get customisable alerts for your preferred trading signals
• Market volatility analysis
• Historical performance stats of your trading activity
• And much more

Make better trading decisions with indicators, overlays and tools, including AutoChartist.

Additionally, OANDA clients can have access to an economic calendar integrated directly with the TradeStation platform. If your trading relies on news activity, you can get real-time breaking news along with market commentaries from industry-leading FX experts.

OANDA No Minimum Deposit Requirements

The review conducted by our team of industry experts revealed that OANDA doesn’t enforce a minimum deposit policy. At OANDA, forex traders can deposit and withdraw money through 4 supported payment methods including:

• Debit card (MasterCard, Visa or Discover)
• Bank transfer
• Cheques (USD only)
• Automated clearing house (ACH)

Additionally, OANDA supports not only the major currencies for deposits which include USD, AUD, GBP and EUR, but it also supports minor currencies like the CAD, HKD, JPY, SGD and CHF. In total, OANDA customers can use 9 different account base currencies along with their favourite banking method.

Trade with OANDA under regulatory + risk compliance + transparent trading environment.

Final Verdict On OANDA

OANDA was found to be the best forex broker for the TradeStation platform powered by its advanced price technology. The fact that Oanda’s online trading services are regulated by the most trusted financial authorities in the world (ASIC, NFA and CFTC) confers a high level of trust among retail FX traders. For a limited period (30 days) traders can use the TradeStation demo account to test the financial services offered by Oanda.

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