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Best Stock Trading Platform for Day Trading

by Meir Barak | based on content from the Market Whisperer – day trading book
For day trading stocks or CFDs, you need to choose the best day trading platform. The day trading platform is the trader’s pipeline to the market. The trading platform must be fast, effective, and reliable. It does not need to be overly sophisticated, because such platforms tend to be slow and cumbersome to operate.Have you ever seen a race car driver’s cockpit? If not, you’re likely to be disappointed the first time you do. We tend to assume that race car drivers need special, smart controls with a whole gaggle of electronic devices. But the opposite is true: these drivers need very little. What these drivers need most are speed, agility, and dependability. The same is true of the day trading platform. Don’t look for unnecessary platform “toys.” Just like the race car driver, you need a fast, dependable foundation. In the long run, the day trading process is based on just three basic buttons: Buy, Sell, and Short.
The Best Stock Trading Platform is a Direct-Access Platform
Not all brokers or trading platforms are suited to a professional day trader. “Online brokers” cater to long-term investors by providing web-based platforms. “Direct-access brokers” provide downloadable trading platforms that allow stock and CFD traders to send orders quickly and directly to any target. Unlike web-based trading platforms, “direct-access trading platforms” can be installed on a day trader’s home computer, where they provide faster execution, more features, and easier configuration than most web-based tools.To be a successful day trader, you must work only with direct-access brokers and trading platforms. A direct-access trading platform lets the trader route buy and sell orders directly to the stock exchange computer or directly to a CFD broker. The trading platform you will use also must include charting, which will help you follow stock prices in real time.
Choose the Best Stock Trading Platform
In summary, the best trading platform must:
  • be of the direct access type, allowing you to buy or sell stocks or CFDs directly to market makers and ECNs. or to a range of automated systems.
  • be installed on your computer (i.e., not web-based), because only installed programs are fast, reliable, and extensively configurable.
  • be simple and user-friendly, with the ability to simultaneously display at least 20 different charts over several screens.
  • provide the ability to save your selected screen configurations.
 There are too many trading platforms to mention here, but one that adapts well to novice traders and experienced traders alike is called Colmex Pro Trader (www.colmexpro.com). This well-respected platform is a real “cockpit” for stock trading, with a few extras, but no unnecessary bells and whistles. This platform is offered to US residents via our funded accounts program and to non-US residents here.

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