Advanced trading platform in South Africa

The success of a trader's operations largely depends on the quality of the trading platform, as well as the comfort of the trader on the platform. The high level of competition on the brokerage market prompts brokerage companies to devote a lot of time to the development of advanced platforms with wide functionality, design and convenience.

What is an advanced trading platform in the modern sense? It is a situation when a broker is constantly improving the trading software. It is when today is better than yesterday.

Advanced trading platforms, in the opinion of most experienced traders, are:

• easy registration in the system;
• user-friendly interface of the program, flexible settings of the platform;
• good choice of assets for trading;
• availability of all necessary functions for trading;
• comfortable and accessible methods of deposit and withdrawal;
• informative;
• availability of demo version of the program;
• different versions of the application available for different types of gadgets;
• high-quality technical support.

Of course, all of the above points are important when choosing a trading platform, but advanced trading platforms have gone further and upgraded each function to the maximum, making the trader's work more comfortable and secure.

Let's take a look at how an advanced trading platform in South Africa works.

Registration

The registration process on advanced trading platforms is very simple. Despite all the functionality and technological complexity of the programme itself, the developers have made it as easy as possible to create a trading profile for a potential trader, so that from the first steps on the platform a novice investor will feel confident and comfortable.

To create an account, visit the broker's website, find the "registration" option. Once you activate this option, you will be presented with a simple registration form, which you should fill out. At the registration stage it is enough to write your name and contact details (e-mail or phone number). Follow the prompts of the system, confirm your registration and start exploring the platform.

Of course, when you will be withdrawing money from your account, you will have to go through additional verification in the system - it is not difficult and does not take much time. As a rule, most platforms will ask for electronic scans of your identity documents. Some advanced trading platforms have implemented a photo or video verification feature. These are additional security measures provided by the developers of the program to ensure the safety of your funds.

What to look out for at this stage? Firstly, the brokerage company itself. It should be licensed to conduct brokerage activities and have positive feedback from experienced traders and investment market experts on its activities.

Second, the sources where you download the trading application or register. This should only be the official website of the broker, or the official playmarket on your mobile device. Never register on unknown websites or using links from random spam-mails in order to avoid fraudulent actions against you by third parties.

Interface and personal settings

The advanced trading platforms feature a well-designed software interface, with excellent graphics and a user-friendly working panel. 

All basic operational options such as "buy", "sell", "activate multiplier" are highlighted in bright colours and large buttons for a better visual experience.

In addition, flexible personalised settings help you customise the platform to your tastes and needs. You can change the background layout of the work screen as well as the colour palette of the quote chart, the number of work windows on the screen, their size and layout, keyboard shortcuts for keyboard shortcuts and types of alerts.

Choosing a chart type

Advanced trading platforms allow you to choose the type of chart you want, based on your investment methods and trading strategies. There are four main types of charts:

• Linear;
• Candlestick;
• Bars;
• Heikin-Ashi.

The line chart is the simplest type of displaying the price dynamics of a trading instrument. Only closing price is used for drawing; it is used to form the line for price movement. The line chart is notable for its simplicity due to the absence of redundant information. However, this type of chart does not fully reflect all of the details of price movements, as well as gaps (gaps) are not shown on the line chart. In addition, classic graphical analysis tools work with a large error on the line chart, as well as trading strategies, which take into account the levels, at which the price stopped.

The element of the price display on the bar chart is the Bar. A bar is shown as a vertical line with horizontal marks (where the left one is the open price (O) of the bar and the right one is the close price (C) of the bar). The vertical line represents the movement between the minimum (L) and maximum (H) price of a trade instrument over the corresponding period of time.

Bars with the closing price higher than the opening one are called ascending or bullish. A bullish bar is often coloured in a cool colour scheme (green, blue). Bars which close below the opening price are called descending or bearish bars and are usually coloured in warm colours (red, orange, yellow, etc.).

The bar chart, unlike the line chart, fully reflects the price movements of the asset and also allows you to determine the trading range for a particular time frame. At the same time, the bars on the chart show price changes in a more complex way, making it more difficult for beginners who are over-informed at the initial stages of learning.

The principle of displaying a candlestick chart (often called Japanese candlesticks) is similar to a bar chart. A distinction is made between the candlestick body and the candlestick shadows. The body of a candlestick - the wide part of the chart element, which shows the gap between the opening (O) and closing price (C). The shadow of a candlestick shows the movement between the low price and the high price over a period of time.

Like the Bar, a candlestick may be upwards or downwards, depending on how the price moved in relation to when it opened.

The candlestick chart is the most popular chart type among traders, due to its high information value and convenience. In addition, Japanese candlesticks are part of technical analysis (there is even a separate section - "Candlestick Analysis").

The Heiken Ashi chart can be classified as an exotic chart. The difference from the Japanese candlestick chart is that the Heiken Ashi chart uses the indicator with the same name. Thus, Heiken Ashi shows the average price of the trading instrument, based on data from previous candlesticks.

Chart Heiken Ashi is smoother and displays trends better, which may allow more accurate identification of changes in traffic, and corrective movements, which accordingly will help improve the efficiency of trading. This type of chart is suitable for intraday trading, as well as for long-term trading, because of its convenience and clarity.

Placing and setting up working windows

Advanced trading platforms allow you to work on a single chart as well as to open several working windows on the screen simultaneously. You can change the arrangement of the windows, as well as their size and position relative to each other, using the computer mouse.

This is useful for analysis, because you can select statistics for different time periods and display all the windows at the same time for comparison and to get a clear picture for analysis.

This function is also convenient if you trade several assets at once or if you have several open active trades in the same asset. As a rule, the ability to view many working windows at the same time is actively used by day traders.

Modern platforms allow opening up to nine charts simultaneously. 

Moreover, in each window you can adjust the chart type, colour scheme and select the time frame independently from the other windows.

Setting up notifications and information windows

Setting up alerts helps you not to be distracted by monitoring - all system changes that are relevant to your trading will be notified to you via push notifications or browser on-screen alerts, or you can set up personal alerts via phone calls or emails to your email account. Choose the option that works best for you.  You can set up alerts for closing positions, for changes in positions in the leaderboard, for changes in the price of an asset.

Browser-based notifications on your screen will notify you of:

• trade closing;
• successful withdrawal of funds;
• cancellation or execution of a pending order;
• continued position balance;
• market news;
• new chat messages;
• new chat messages; 
• changes in asset prices.

You can enable or disable these settings, leaving only the ones you want. This way you will increase your productivity and not miss any important trading moments.

Other platform settings

In addition to the above settings, you can also change your privacy settings by choosing which information to make open to other traders and which to block from public view. Advanced trading platforms also allow you to generate an alias for chatting and public display if you do not wish to reveal personal information.

A keyboard shortcut setting will help you set up quick commands for your keyboard, which speeds things up considerably.

In addition to these, general settings such as interface language, time zone and display scale and so on are mandatory. Advanced trading platforms feature a wide range of languages, the ability to change the layout and scale of the interface, and to add or hide options in the personal menu.

Ability to trade in different financial markets

Modern trading platforms offer the opportunity to trade in various financial markets using assets that are popular among traders, such as stocks of well-known companies, commodities (gold, oil), to trade currencies in the forex market or to choose the currency of the 21st century - cryptocurrency.

Advanced trading platforms have gone further and added the ability to invest in ETFs and futures.

Each of these assets has its own specifics of analysis, trading, so the developers did not forget to add an information tab to each asset, where you can view statistics, trading charts and the current price of the asset.

Trade several assets at once, to diversify risks. The handy "total portfolio" and "trading history" sections, which most advanced platforms have, will help you easily keep track of open positions, and the multiple windows setting will allow you to view several trades at once, if you wish.

Availability of tools for trading

Having the right tools for trading is an important consideration when choosing a good trading platform. An advanced trading platform means advanced features that allow you to apply sophisticated tools in two clicks.

For example, you do not need to make a formal request to a broker to activate the leverage feature. All you need to do is activate the "multiplier" function on the toolbar and select the leverage ratio you want. You should remember that leverage is not only an opportunity to significantly increase the amount of invested capital, and therefore the possible profit from a transaction. Using leverage, you also increase the amount of possible loss in case of unsuccessful trading. So, in spite of the simplicity of using this tool from a technical point of view, make sure you understand how the multiplier works, and only then use it in trading.

Pending orders are also popular among traders. A pending order is an instruction to a broker to close a deal when the price of an asset reaches a certain limit you set. In other words, you do not need to monitor the price chart all the time, just set the order and your deal will be closed automatically when the price reaches the level you set.

It is possible to set both upper and lower limits for the deal. Therefore there are two main types of stop orders:

• Stop Loss is an instruction to the broker to close the trade when a certain level of price loss is reached. If the price of the asset falls and reaches the limit you specify, the trade will close.
• Take Profit is a type of pending order to the broker to close the transaction when the price reaches a certain level - profit. If the price reaches the Take Profit level, the trade will close automatically and lock the profit.

Stop orders help traders to secure their deals considerably. If, for example, you need to step away from your work screen, or there is a technical failure and your Internet connection is down, you have the assurance that your trades are protected.

Availability of tools for analysis

A good trader is, above all, an excellent analyst. A proper market analysis and a well-crafted forecast for the rise or fall in prices of certain assets helps to make the right deals and profit from the transactions.

Experienced traders use methods of fundamental and technical analysis to be able to predict the most probable variant of price movement based on the current market trend.

The developers of advanced trading platforms have taken care of trader's convenience by installing high quality trading tools into the trading software.

Technical analysis is an attempt to calculate the market. It is based on mathematical processing of previous price values and making a forecast about the future movement on their basis.

Formulas, algorithms, indicators and levels - in general, objects that interpret the quotes chart in one way or another - help traders in this. Thus, it is transformed from a chaotic set of prices - into a logically organized structure.

Advanced trading platforms are equipped with built-in indicators for the analysis, which you can use separately or in any combination.

If you wish to view the whole picture when you open a trading platform, you will need to add fundamental analysis tools to your arsenal. It is based not only on the observation of a chart, but also on the tracking of global economic and political events.

Sections such as "News", "Market Analysis" and the economic calendar will help you do this.

In addition, you can choose any convenient period to analyse, as well as open archive news on a single asset.

Learn from the platform

If you think that an advanced trading platform is a program only for professionals, you are very wrong. The developers of good trading platforms have also taken care of those who are new to trading, by adding a "Training" section to the platform, as well as the option to open a demo account.

The tutorials contain video tutorials, written in plain language and complete with practical examples on the charts. On advanced platforms, you will find many such lessons, ranging from the basics of investing, to advanced indicators, to tips on how to develop your trading strategy. We recommend these lessons, especially if you're really new to trading.

The opportunity to open a demo account will allow you to test the trading platform and practice trading without depositing real money in your account. A demo account will provide you with a certain amount of fictitious money for this purpose. Of course, you will not be able to withdraw this money, but you will be able to hone your trading skills without risking your own capital.

Convenience of payment transactions

Today's advanced trading platforms offer a wide range of convenient deposit and withdrawal options. You will be able to make deposits using a bank card or online payment system. Advanced trading platforms cooperate with reputable financial intermediaries to ensure security, convenience, comfort and speed of processing of orders. In order to transfer money to your account, all you need to do is activate the deposit option, select a convenient way of depositing from the list of available options, type in the deposit amount and confirm the transaction. Each trading platform sets its own minimum deposit and withdrawal limits. You should choose the trading platform on the basis of your personal finances.

Withdrawals are made using the same methods as deposits.

Other advantages of trading platforms

In addition to the benefits mentioned above, advanced trading platforms provide quality technical support in the form of a 24/7 feedback chat. Resolve any technical issues by choosing a convenient language of communication.

The platform also provides good information support thanks to a news section. Stay up to date on all the important events in the economic world without having to take a break from work.

Trading on an advanced trading platform greatly increases your chances of success. Convenience, reliability, a wide range of assets, information value, speed of order processing and an intuitive interface are the main features of advanced trading platforms in South Africa.

You can test the advanced platform by opening a free demo account and see for yourself all the advantages of comfortable trading!