To trade on the stock exchange, you need to open a trading account with a brokerage company. After opening an account, a new trader will be provided with a computer program – a trading terminal, with the help of which a newbie will be able to carry out transactions and earn money on exchange trading. In this article, we will tell you in detail what trading terminals for trading in the stock market are and what exactly they are needed for.
Main functions of the trading terminal
Many will immediately want to say that the terminal is necessary for making transactions and tracking the status of their trading account – and they will be right in their own way. The fact is that such tasks can be solved not only through the terminal. So, for example, you can make deals by phone call to your broker, within which the trader goes through a certain identification process, names the desired action to make a deal or place an order, after which the trader will be informed about the result of the actions taken. The disadvantages of this method include its duration – you need to call, go through identification, explain the desired action. This method is hardly suitable for fast trading, although it is quite acceptable for medium-term trading. In addition, it is impossible to track the status of a trading account by phone. More precisely, you can, of course, call and ask, but this method will not be entirely convenient.
As for tracking trading instruments of interest, there are many ways to accomplish this task. So, the price chart of the asset of interest can be displayed on the exchange website, as well as in the client’s personal account, and with various variations according to the required timeframe with the addition of the technical analysis tools of interest. However, if a trader needs to track several trading instruments at the same time, it will be inconvenient to use such web forms to view charts. It turns out that a trader can do without a trading terminal, but it will be extremely inconvenient to trade in this way.
Advantages of the trading terminal
Now let’s look at the advantages of working with a trading terminal in the stock market. The trading terminal combines a technical analysis platform with a client transaction management module. Also in the trading terminal there is an online broadcast of the news feed of the most authoritative news agencies. That is, within the framework of the trading terminal, a trader can in advance configure the display of the trading instruments he needs, taking into account timeframes, relative position, color and other parameters. Also, a trader can carry out various kinds of technical research with the selected instruments (and they need to be done regularly – since, for example, trends with the passage of time can slowly change – accelerate, slow down, narrow or expand). All this requires some kind of adjustments to the price chart.
Moreover, quite often a trader needs to use several options for the implementation of various tasks. So, for example, a trader can compose an investment portfolio for himself, tracking for this the dynamics of prices for shares of interest to him. But transactions of this kind may not occur every day, so many traders at this time are still actively trading, which allows them to fill in the pauses and make money. Such an organization requires several different settings of the trading terminal – fortunately, a trader can create as many of them as he wants. Moreover, experienced traders in the morning (before the start of trading) make adjustments to their charts and save the already changed form in a new settings file so that during the trading process you do not have to redo everything.
And, of course, in the trading terminal it is extremely convenient to track the dynamics of changes in your trading account, observing how investments bring profit. Moreover, in the same way, the ability to view news is implemented, which is published quite often and can affect the course of trading.
It is worth noting that in the conditions of modern reality, trading terminals have become extremely convenient – they can be installed both on computers and laptops (a very common option is to connect an additional monitor to a laptop via a VGA cable), and on smartphones and tablets. Trading from a portable device is especially convenient for traders who use exchange trading as an additional source of income and do it separately from their main job.
It should be noted that there are a lot of trading terminals for trading on the stock market, but the main and most commonly used are QUIK and MetaTrader, which provide traders with all the necessary trading functions, and also contain the ability to additionally connect third-party software modules if necessary. It is worth saying that in addition to trading terminals, there are also technical analysis platforms (for example, XTick Extreme), in which you can perform technical research, but without making transactions. However, the choice of a trading terminal is already a matter of preferences, but it is advisable that the trader has an idea of each of them in case of need.
Trading in the stock market through a trading terminal is extremely convenient, as it allows a trader to minimize the time spent on transactions and customize the chart architecture taking into account the task at hand. At a minimum, the very presence of a trading terminal makes you delve into the dynamics of stock and currency quotes (and other instruments), as well as read the news, thereby increasing your financial literacy, which is also an additional plus.
