Five characteristics of a good trading platform

I have certainly traded on a variety of trading platforms throughout my career. Some platforms have been a joy and a pure pleasure to work on, and other platforms have made me want to burn my hair. The variety and quality of trading platforms available to traders range from terrible platforms to excellent platforms.

To get the word out to comply, I would just list the platforms that are high quality and I would list the platforms that were horrible. Unfortunately, if I were to take that approach, the pile of lawsuits and the cease and desist would have my mailbox overflowing. So I’ve picked out a few features from the big platforms and listed why I think they’re particularly effective.

Of course, the effectiveness of any platform is directly related to the quality of the data source. For the purposes of this article, we’ll assume that all platforms have a proper data feed and simply remove that variable from the discussion.

1. A good platform has a set of quality charting tools at its disposal.

When trading an active chart, it is essential to be able to draw trend lines, Fibonacci retracements, pivot points, and a host of other tools that traders other than myself deem necessary. It is not necessary to have a degree in physics to facilitate the drawing of these symbols. The procedure for entering trend lines and other symbols should be done effortlessly and without too much thought. After all, your main focus in trading is price action on the chart and not figuring out how to draw lines on your chart.

2. A good platform should be easy to read and interpret.

A good platform should be easy to read and configure. You shouldn’t have to read a 200 page manual to operate the software. The graph should be clear and easy to understand and the index readings should be legible and prominent. Platforms that are difficult to set up, or require daily maintenance to set up, waste valuable trading time and ultimately cost the trader money. A quality program will also save your settings from the day before and when you start the program the next day the exact settings should appear, you shouldn’t need to add your oscillators and indicators daily.

3. A good platform has a complete set of oscillators and indicators.

There is nothing more annoying than using a platform that does not have a complete set of indicators or a method to add those indicators to the chart. Many low-end platforms have five or six basic indicators and that is the extent of their functionality. Also, a good platform should allow you to adjust the time frames and other variables in the indicators based on your personal preferences. Again, it shouldn’t take too long to perform these functions. They should be self explanatory and not require flipping through the dreaded 200 page manual to determine how to set up a 14 period setup on a commodity channel index.

4. A good platform allows for a number of input and output options.

A good trading platform allows you to quickly set the number of contracts you intended to trade while also giving you the means to set your profit target and stop loss. This should be a smooth activity and not require an excessive amount of time. Most good trading platforms also have a provision that allows you to scale out of trading at certain profit points. Also, a good platform will have an easy to understand trailing stop feature that is easy to set up. You should also be able to set up a simple support trade with a minimal amount of effort.

5. A good platform never fails or crashes

There is no worse feeling in trading than being in an active trade and the platform software fails. There is no excuse for software incompatibilities with operating systems. The platform is the essence of your profession and it must function as such. This particular requirement is one of my favorite reasons, as I changed them on a platform that was very unstable and made for a long and frustrating day. I have never used that platform again, and I never will. Software designers are well aware of the design flaws inherent in trading platforms and there is absolutely no reason why these flaws should not be addressed in a way that ensures the trader a flawless trading experience. There is nothing worse than buggy software.

There are many other flaws inherent in trading platform software, but these five stand out as business killers in my book. I will not tolerate any of these failures and will quickly switch platforms if I encounter these issues with any frequency. Of course, a one-time failure can be expected. But a constant and recurring glitch in trading platform software is inexcusable.