Do Not Underestimate Free Currency Trading Platforms

By Hugh Kimura

In this article I will briefly outline the evolution of currency trading platforms and what this means to today's at-home trader. I first got involved with currency trading way back when the government deregulated it and made spot foreign currency exchange available to the public. Back then, currencies were the wild west of trading. Traders still had to execute trades via phone because they primarily had to deal directly with the banks.

Slowly brokers came out with Java applets for online browser based charting that were free but were very difficult to use. Every time the cookies on my computer were erased, I had to set up my charts all over again. It was such a hassle. Order entry was still web page based and your execution price depended a lot on the speed of your internet connection.

Then a lot of the higher end trading platforms like Tradestation started to allow you to trade foreign currency on their sophisticated platforms. Of course this cost a ton of money a month just for you to have an account and be able to use their charting and execution platform.

Now fast forward to the present day. The quality and sophistication of the free currency trading platforms available to the average retail trader have improved significantly. Capabilities that were once only available to traders who could afford to pay the exorbitant monthly fees are now available to everyone.

For example, my favorite currency trading platform is Metatrader 4. This is a charting and execution platform that many forex brokers give their clients for free. Of course there are many other proprietary currency trading platforms out there, but Metatrader is probably the most widely used.

Not only can you enter trades but you can also write automated trading programs and back test them on historical data. In addition, you can write custom indicators that you can just plug into the Metatrader charts. This is the same functionality that some traders used to pay hundreds of dollars a month for.

What this means to at-home traders is that they don't have to spend a lot of money on overhead and that money can go into education or their actual trading accounts. Isn't technology amazing? My advice is to look around the internet for a platform that suits you best but before you put down that credit card to pay a monthly fee, check out the free options...they may surprise you!