Forex Trading Platforms For Brokers

Brokers need reliable software that will interface with their clients and the market. The ideal solution in most companies’ eyes is a custom built platform, but this does not necessarily have to be written from scratch. There are several packages these days that are very adaptable but where the basics are done for you. This can save a lot of programming time and, therefore, money.

Probably the first thing to consider when designing broker trading platforms is ease of use. Traders want something that is user friendly and intuitive. Most people hate having to read a manual; they prefer to learn by trial and error. This means you have to allow for clients to explore and try things out without having the system crash on them because they did not do everything in just the right way.

It is also important that the package is flexible, if you did not have it custom built. Your company’s software must have a different look and feel to anybody else’s if you want to brand yourselves as a professional concern.

Forex Trading Platforms For Traders

As a trader, you have a very wide choice of brokers and their trading platform will be one of the important factors in making a decision. It is important that it is easy to use and provides clear information in a readily accessible way.

If you are relying on the broker trading platform for your technical analysis rather than subscribing to a third party charting service, it is important to check out the charts and indicators very thoroughly. You can usually do this best by opening a demo account. Be sure that the platform provides all of the indicators that you might need, not only for your current forex trading system but for any others that you might be likely to develop or use in the future. The relationship with a broker is an important one and may continue for many years, so it is best to get it right from the start.

Many traders these days use automated forex systems or robots to trade for them on autopilot. Some are commercially available and others are custom built for an individual trader’s forex system. Many of these robots (called expert advisors) are built on the Metatrader 4 platform. They then need to communicate with a broker’s API or interface. Some broker platforms are compatible and some are not, so again, if you are planning to use any kind of automation either now or in the future, the question of having compatible forex trading platforms will be important.

This is because forex trading did not begin until the gold exchange standard was relaxed when the Bretton Woods Agreement was dissolved in the 1970s. At that time foreign exchange trading was dominated by banks and major financial institutions. By the time private investors were getting heavily involved, the internet had arrived and forex software came into play.

Therefore to trade currencies you will need a computer and a reliable broadband internet connection with which to trade the forex market. Broadband is important because you will need to perform a forex software download which takes a lot of computer power and you will be dealing with prices that change within a second. You cannot afford to have delays, hang ups or a slow connection so a fast broadband connection is necessary to run your forex program. Equally, your computer must be relatively new say, less than five years so that you have a relatively recent operating system and your PC or Mac needs to be running efficiently.

If your computer has many files and other software on it that you have to wait five minutes for anything to download, you should consider getting a new one exclusively to run your forex program for fx trading. Having a dedicated computer for your online trading has many advantages in any case.

For example, it will mean you do not have to share the computer with your spouse or family. It will be available whenever you want to trade. And if you want to run any forex software that requires a permanent internet connection, such as a forex robot like FAP Turbo, Forex Megadroid or Forex IvyBot you can leave it switched on and know that nobody else will mess with it. Foreign Exchange is a 24 hour market so there are big advantages to having automated forex software trade for you at times when you could not be online yourself.
In addition, having a second computer dedicated to your trading means that you have a backup. Computers of all types very often develop problems, either with hardware such as the hard disk or with software through viruses and malware. If a disaster suddenly happens to your main trading computer, then having another in the house means that you can continue trading. This could be very important if you have open trades with no stops. The result of not being able to access a computer for several hours could be catastrophic.

The main software program that you will use will be the forex trading platform provided by your broker. In most cases, you access this online through their website. You do not need to download anything. Through this platform you will access many services including charts, a demo account and your actual trading account. This means that you can trade either in demo mode or for real, on the live market, through the software provided by your broker.

A few brokers use desktop forex platforms instead of internet based platforms or you can use Keith Cotterill’s, The Ultimate Forex Predictor or TUFXP for short although this will only run on a Microsoft Windows computer. With a desktop platform, you download the software to your own computer. The desktop system may be faster but it has the disadvantage that you have to keep your computer on all of the time if you have an open trade with a stop loss. If the system is internet based, you can set your stop loss in your account on the broker’s forex software, switch off your computer and know that the stop will still be active.

In our FAPTurbo Evolution review we look at this new forex trading robot hitting the market in mid July 2009.

As you will know if you have been around the forex market for a while, FAPTurbo was the big automated forex software hit of late 2008 and is still trading well in mid 2009. The economic downturn seemed to do nothing to prevent this automated forex trading system from making money for its users. So what is with the release of FAPT Evolution, the new revision of FAPTurbo from the same developers?

The first thing to note is that FAPT Evolution is designed to work with one brokerage company in particular, the Swiss based Dukascopy. In fact until they ran into trademark issues the developers’ original plan was to name this new robot FAPT Swiss.

The robot remains independent and Dukascopy will not be providing support for the automated software, only for their own trading platform. Still, this makes FAPTurbo Evolution a very different creature from the old style expert advisor forex robots that, like the original version of FAPTurbo, run on Metatrader 4 and are compatible with a number of brokers who support this platform.

Dukascopy is a highly regarded broker and we do not envisage the close dependence to be a problem. However, if you were thinking of getting FAPT Evolution to run with a few hundred dollars in a mini trading account you will have to think again. The minimum investment at Dukascopy is $10,000. So this is a not a robot for the small time investor.

For obvious reasons the developers are planning to limit the number of copies sold.  FAPT Evolution is already making a big noise in the market and Dukascopy may be flooded with new account enquiries, so we recommend you get in fast if you want in.

The development team is fast becoming the market leader in the world of forex robots. They say themselves that “FAPT Evolution is the most powerful and stable Forex Robot we have ever developed, period.”

Some patience may be needed in the first few days while the brokers deal with so many new accounts and you deal with the learning curve required to set up your new robot. However, the software will have its own forum where you can pick up support and suggestions from other users as well as the developers. This takes a lot of pressure off the developers’ own support system and should be your first port of call for any minor issues.

The differences here mean that ‘Evolution’ was maybe not the best choice of name. This new version of FAP Turbo is not so much a new model as an alternative choice for a different type of investor. In short, the release of Evolution should not stop you from buying the original FAPTurbo with its proven results, if that would suit you better.

So for beginners and those with smaller investment funds, we recommend starting out with the original version of FAP Turbo which you can operate on a mini account with several brokers.

However, serious forex brokers should take a close look at FAPT Evolution. Our conclusion from this FAPTurbo Evolution review is that this could revolutionize your forex trading and take automated forex systems to a whole new dimension.

You know the feeling, shall I or shoudn’t I take this trade, should I close it out now or let it ride. We’ve been there a million times ourselves and in our experience we’ve made more money when emotion is out of the equation.

 FAPTurbo Reviewed is a website we’ve discovered that gives a realistic and seemingly impartial review of FAP Turbo