A Forex trading platform is used by the Forex trader to place online Forex trades. The platform is software that you download to your computer from your Forex broker. When you open a Forex trading account your broker will give you a username and password you will use to access your account info as well as place trades.

Trading platforms vary greatly in what is offered. Platforms that offer premium features may carry a fee or a minimum opening account balance. Some platforms include a Forex charts component and even let you trade directly from the chart.

The trading software you get from your broker doesn’t have to have every possible bell and whistle. You can trade Forex quite successfully with the simplest software.

Here’s what to look for when searching for a Forex trading platform:

Ease Of Use – Is it easy to use or do you feel you have to jump through hoops to place a simple order.

Allows You To Place A Wide Variety Of Order Types – any software that doesn’t allow you to place the orders you need won’t be of much use to you. If, for instance, you are not allowed to place limit orders (which would be ridiculous) simply find another broker.

Easy On Your Computer System Resources – This is especially important if you will be using your computer for other tasks while running your trading software.

The best way to decide which Forex trading platform is best for you is to try out a few different ones. Forex brokers make this pretty easy these days as most all of them offer a free Forex demo account. The demo account is a great way for you to familiarize yourself with the platform.  So make sure that you try out a few different ones before you make your final decision.

Forex trading platforms serve as the interface between the Forex trader and the Forex broker.  A Forex platform is also called Forex trading software and is downloaded from your Forex broker. These platforms are what make online Forex trading possible.

Different brokers have different platform options.  Fortunately for today’s Forex trader just about every broker offers a free Forex demo account.  This is your broker’s way of allowing you to see the many features of their trading platform as well as get a feel for its ease of use in day to day trading.

Here are some of the features available in many of today’s Forex trading platforms.

Up-to-the-minute equity status — You can see your account balance in real time as the market changes.  It’s not important to watch your account balance constantly, but it is nice to know that you can find out exactly what it is at any moment during the day or night.

One click order placement — Many platforms allow you to simply click on the currency pair you wish to trade as either a buy or sell to enter a position. This is especially convenient and allows you to enter or exit a trade virtually instantaneously.

Trailing stops — For those traders who use trailing stops this is an especially useful feature.  Rather than having to watch the market you are able to set trailing stops to lock in your profit as your trading position goes in your direction.

Automated Forex trading — Certain platforms have the ability to place trades for you automatically based upon the Forex trading system you have chosen.  This is the ultimate in hands-free Forex trading.  Quite naturally, when using such a system is wise to make certain that it works the way you expected by using a Forex demo account first.

Forex charts — It’s very common for today’s Forex trading platforms to have Forex charts included. Trading using charts, especially candlestick charts, has become the standard of many successful Forex traders.

We just covered a few of the many features available in today’s Forex trading platforms.  Before deciding on one platform feel free to take advantage of the many free Forex demo accounts available to you.  Remember that finding a trading platform that you are comfortable with is an important factor in your success as a Forex trader.