Best Trading Platform Australia
The brokers with the best trading platforms for Australian traders in 2020 are:
- Pepperstone – Best Overall
- IC Markets – Lowest Spreads And Fees
- CMC Markets – Best CFD and Share Trading
- EasyMarkets – Best Beginner Trading Platform
- Interactive Brokers – Most Advanced Charting
- ANZ eTrade – Most Sophisticated Share Trading
- IG Markets – Best Range-Of-Markets Platform
To compare the forex brokers offering the best trading platforms, we created a best forex broker platform comparison table.
In this article, we look at the leading trading platforms based on popularity and features and recommend the best Australian brokers offering the platform.
Best Forex Trading Platform for Australian Traders
Australian forex traders have a selection of online trading platforms to choose from. Below we discuss some of the best trading platform options available to Aussies and the best forex brokers that offer them.
MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5
These two versions of the most popular online trading platform in the world offer Australian traders an excellent trading experience.
MetaTrader 4 offers one of the largest online community which Australian traders will appreciate when it comes to dealing with any question for every conceivable trading subject.
MetaTrader 5 while not yet as popular as MetaTrader 4, is growing in popularity and will supersede MetaTrader 4 in future. This platform seeks to improve on its predecessor by offers a greater range of technical analysis tools. This means more charts, more timeframes and more metrics. MetaTrader 5 also offers a greater range of financial instruments than MetaTrader 4. Traders have the option of Shares CFD trading which was not previously available.
Both platforms made by Metaquotes offer 
the popular Expert Advisors (EAs) which allow you to apply algorithms and automated trading strategies.
Pepperstone Razor Account
If you are looking for an Australian broker that offers MetaTrader 4 and 5 platforms then we recommend Pepperstone.
Pepperstone is an Australian broker based in Melbourne. The team consists of veteran forex managers that understand your requirements as an Australian forex trader.
Traders with Pepperstone will appreciate the security they offer through ASIC regulation. ASIC is the Australia Securities Investment Commission which requires stringent requirements put in place by ASIC which is Australian Securities Investment Commission regulatory agencies.
The Razor account type can be used with MetaTrader trading platforms and along with highly popular platform cTrader. One of the primary benefits the Razor account offers is that it provides a trading environment similar to an Electronic Clearing Network (ECN) account. ECN-like accounts allow for trades to be routed straight to the markets (STP), bypassing broker dealing desks, meaning that you will never wake up to find one of your orders filled at a price other than what you expected. Another key benefit is the ability for you to determine the amount of leverage you want to employ, which is a great way for traders to manage risk exposure. Additionally, Pepperstone offers excellent award-winning customer support, ensuring Australian clients can receive efficient answers to any queries regarding the MetaTrader platform and Razor account.
CMC Markets
Currency Management Corporation (CMC Markets) is based in London but has a hub in Sydney that caters to Australian traders’ unique requirements. Part of their appeal is the market access to 330 currency pairs. Currency pairs have tight, ECN-like spreads, so as an Australian trader do not have the concern of paying high prices to trade more exotic Asian-Pacific currencies. Forex traders can execute trades using CMC Market’s proprietary trading platform, Next Generation.
As a platform for Australian traders, one of the things you will most enjoy is the ability to trade over the web with any internet-enabled device. Your busy life of work, kids and so on can limit the amount of time you can spend in front of the computer, but with Next Generation, you can keep an eye on your trades and the currency markets. With iOS and Android compatible apps, or the mobile-friendly version of Next Generation, you can take advantage of any gaps you find in your daily routine to stay in the flow of the currency markets.
Why Forex Is So Popular For Australian Investors
One of the factors Australian traders seeking to capture profits from online trading currencies in foreign exchange currency markets (forex) is that the times of peak currency market activity are out of sync with Australian time zones. Whilst it is entirely true that the Forex market trades 24 hours per day for 5-1/2 days per week, there are many hours when price activity is quiet due to a lack of trader participation.
There are four predominant forex sessions during a trading day, that is based on the time in major cities with large financial market operations. Those sessions are based on Sydney, Tokyo, London and New York. The different sessions overlap to a certain degree. By far, the most critical session in which to participate in is the tail end of the London Market and the beginning of the New York market. The four-hour period when those two sessions overlap is when the vast majority of trading activity, even activity related to the Australian and New Zealand dollars, takes place in terms of currency pair price movements.
For someone living in the Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST) zone, those prime hours when the London and New York Forex sessions overlap are 11:00 PM to 3 AM. Given that you would prefer to be sleeping during those hours, choosing the best trading platform for Australian traders requires various order types and algorithmic trading functions because very little of the trading being done will be actively managed.
Taking Advantage of Forex Orders Based on AEST
No, you do not have to forego sleep in order to participate in the forex markets. Rather, you can use special order types to set up your trades in advance, go to bed, get yourself a good night’s sleep, and then have a look in the morning when you get up to see how your online trading strategies panned out. Strange as it may sound, trading in this fashion is less stressful, because price analysis, trade entries, exits and maximum acceptable risk can be made outside times of peak price activity without your emotions getting the better of you.
Using “Limit” and “Stop” orders on your forex trading platform, you can efficiently plan your trades. You will be much more objective without watching trades go in your favour or against you, tick by excruciating tick, and you will be able to determine logical entry and exit points, as well as control your exposure to risk. To new traders, this discovery is a welcome revelation. To those with some degree of experience, it is a solid reality. A good trading platform for Australian traders will take the effect of time zones into account and offer tools to compensate for this.
Share Trading Options With These Platforms
For Australian investors requiring an online share trading platform, IG Markets and easyMarkets offer both forex and share trading on their primary trading platforms. Another firm that offers a forex/share trading hybrid is CMC Markets. Alternatively, forex brokers such as Pepperstone, offer CFD share trading on the top platforms such as MetaTrader 4.
Brokerage Fees When Online Trading
The best trading platform Australia option should also factor in brokerage fees. Generally, there are two main brokerage fees:
- Spreads
- Commission
The spread is more applicable to forex trading with the difference between the buy and sell (bid/ask) price being the compensation to forex brokers facilitating trading. A round trip, flat rate commission is often associated with share trding or ECN-like forex trading accounts. Here a set commission is set per trade or more often, by the quantity traded. Commissions are more straightforward than spreads to calculate brokerage fees, hence why experienced traders often opt for these online trading accounts.
Best Trading Platform Australia Conclusion
Trading forex in Australia has unique but not insurmountable challenges. The best trading platform for Australian forex brokers making a living in the southern hemisphere, far removed from the big financial centres of London and New York, no more difficult than any other aspect of daily life. In an increasingly connected 24/7 world, you can trade forex on a level playing ground in real time with anyone in the world.
IC Markets
