Forex Orders

HOW TO PLACE A FOREX ORDER USING A TRADING PLATFORM

This is one of the most important things when selecting your broker.
Say that you or your Forex robot has decided to place a Forex order. This lies on one extreme of the trading equation and on the other extreme is the broker who directly executes the order. The program that mediates this interaction providing the information for you or your robot to decide on trading and that relays your order to the broker is called a trading platform.
Several trading platforms exists, historically every large broker had its trading platform.

Probably being the largest Forex platform developer, Metaquotes entered the market of forex platforms in the year 2000 and started to rapidly consolidate its foothold. In 2005 Metaquotes released Metatrader 4. Since then the popularity of this platform is such that several brokers, including some of the largest ones are now using it as its standard platform. Some others are giving forex traders the option to use their classic platform or Metatrader 4 (and guess what traders will choose).

The extraordinary success of Metatrader 4 is based on several features:

1. Excellent marketing: free distribution with proliferation of trading demo accounts making users “addict” to this platform.

2. Extraordinary flexibility, making possible to configure the screen as the user desires, adding or removing items, repositioning them, creating ad-hoc user-tailored templates, changing the zoom, etc.

3. Exceptional connectivity, interacting with email, with full-featured handheld and cellphone versions and even with a feature of web publishing through the FTP server.

4. Being totally programmable by using the Metaquotes Language Editor which is very simple to use for every individual with basic knowledge of the C language, however easy to learn for those which have no knowledge of C. This extraordinary capability of programming has given rise to the Expert Advisors.

5. Expert Advisors are a number of programs based on Metaquotes Language which may be used to trade by using a pre-determined algorrhytm. Expert advisors have given rise to trade automatization and may be used in different brokers which support the MetaTrader4 platform. The explosive proliferation of expert advisors is in the public domain, generating a healthy and continuous struggle for the market, will tend to perpetuate this platform which is needed for their use.

The forex market has changed with the advent of Metatrader 4 in a way that is no longer reversible. The system may be replaced in the future by more advanced versions, but the standardization it has generated will remain since a lot of products (expert advisors) are generating a need for that.

So whenever you choose your broker, be sure that Metatrader 4 is the platform in use or at least that you have the option to trade using Metatrader 4.

Metatrader 4 may be downloaded from:
http://www.metaquotes.net or from a broker supporting its use (see the list below).

A very healthy advice: You may sign for a free Demo account in most brokers, download Metatrader 4 and start to trade, without risk! Make all the errors you can while still you use demo money.

Another healthy advice: Look for a no-dealing desk broker, meaning that there is no intervention (human or another system) between your order (or your robot’s) and the execution. This is faster (in a rapidly change market may be critical) and is less difficult to manipulate. Ask every broker if it has this feature before you decide.