Trading and Investment Platforms

Trading started long before screens. On the exchange floor, brokers shouted orders and signalled with their hands — the system known as "open outcry" — while prices travelled on automatically printed paper strips (ticker tape). Later, orders were placed by phone. The road from the crowded exchange floor to a few taps on a phone screen was marked by a handful of moments that changed the game for the everyday trader.

The platform communicates permanently with the broker's server. Prices arrive from liquidity providers and update continuously. When you place an order, it is sent for execution within milliseconds and the result shows up in your account immediately. The platform then calculates in real time your position's profit or loss, the margin in use and the remaining available margin.

The part few people know is where the price you see actually comes from. It doesn't start at your broker but at the world's largest banks: on the interbank market, banks such as JP Morgan or Citi (the top-tier "Tier-1" liquidity providers) quote exchange rates to each other. That price then travels down a chain of intermediaries, and your broker aggregates it and displays it on your screen — the whole journey takes less than a blink. The full chain, link by link, is explained on the page what a broker is.

Platforms are grouped by several criteria. It pays to understand them, because the same market can be accessed in very different ways depending on your style.

A question we get often: which platform is the most used? The answer depends on what you want to do — active CFD trading, or long-term investing and analysis.

This is the most searched comparison in the category. In short: MT4 is simpler and focused on the currency market, while MT5 is multi-asset and more powerful. But "more powerful" doesn't automatically mean "better for you" — it depends on what you trade.

cTrader is appreciated by traders who value transparent execution and high-quality charts. It offers Depth of Market, advanced analysis tools and automation through cBot, written in C#. The interface is modern and clean, which is why many prefer it over MetaTrader.

Among our partners, cTrader is available at FxPro and IC Markets, as well as at several funding companies that use it in their evaluations.

TradingView started as a browser-based chart-analysis tool and grew, over time, into a genuine social network for traders and investors. It has some of the best charts available online, its own scripting language Pine Script, and connects to more and more brokers for execution straight from the interface.

Many of our partners let you connect your account to TradingView, so you can do your analysis and execute orders in the same place.

Beyond the universal platforms, some of our partners have built their own, with features you won't find anywhere else.

CFXD(formerly Advanced Trader)

The bank's own CFD platform, with TradingView charting and complex order types (OCO, IF-DONE).

Partner: Swissquote Bank

SaxoTraderGO / PRO / Investor

Three proprietary platforms for real multi-asset investing — from a simple portfolio to a professional multi-screen station.

Partner: Saxo Bank (EU clients)

FxPro Edge

FxPro's own browser platform, alongside MT4, MT5 and cTrader.

Partner: FxPro

AvaTradeGO

AvaTrade's own mobile app for tracking your account and trading on the go.

Partner: AvaTrade

Admirals Platform

The proprietary platform (web and mobile) and the Supreme Edition suite, offered alongside MetaTrader.

Partner: Admiral Markets

IBKR Trader Workstation

A professional platform for real global investing and complex portfolios.

Partner: Interactive Brokers

All our partners are regulated brokers and banks, and each offers its own set of platforms. Below is the full table — which platform at which partner — grouped by specialisation. For details on each firm, see the regulated brokers page.

Beyond simply placing orders, modern platforms have features that make the difference between a disorganised trader and a disciplined one. Here are the most useful.

The essential difference from short-term trading is this: when investing, you own the real asset (a stock or an ETF), unlike trading through CFDs, where you anticipate the price direction without owning the instrument.

For long-term investing, the relevant partners are Interactive Brokers and Saxo Bank (for EU clients). Both offer powerful platforms built for access to a wide range of global markets.

Funding companies use dedicated platforms to evaluate your performance before granting you trading capital. The most common at our partners are DXtrade, Match-Trader and cTrader, alongside MetaTrader. Before starting an evaluation, check which platform each program requires.

For the crypto market, the relevant partners are Binance and Bybit, with their own web and mobile apps, TradingView integration and copy-trading tools. Unlike the classic currency-market platforms, these offer direct access to digital assets and to this market's specific instruments.

Many active traders don't work on a single screen. A professional trading desk means several monitors, each with a clear role: charts, order list, news and the economic calendar.

How the big players trade

Financial institutions — banks, hedge funds, trading firms — work with professional data terminals such as the Bloomberg Terminal or LSEG Workspace, with direct market access (DMA), connections over the FIX protocol and their own algorithmic execution systems. These platforms are paid, through monthly subscriptions that can reach thousands of dollars, and their cost is justified by the volume of data and the infrastructure behind them. The difference from retail platforms isn't "secrets", but speed, depth of data and the direct connection to the market.

The platform and the way your order is executed are two different things. The same platform — say, MetaTrader 5 — can be offered both by a broker that is your direct counterparty (a market maker) and by one that sends your order into the market (NDD). The execution model isn't visible in the interface, but it influences price, spread, cost and speed.

In short, there are two families. A market maker ("dealing desk") is your counterparty, often has a fixed spread and suits beginners and small accounts. A no-dealing-desk (NDD) broker — with the STP, ECN and DMA variants — sends your order to liquidity providers, with a variable spread plus commission, and is preferred by active traders. Neither model is "good" or "bad" in itself; what matters is regulation and how well it fits your style.

There is no "best platform" in general — there is a best platform for your profile. What matters is what you trade, how often, whether you want automation and which device you work from. Try the options in the selector below to see where to start.

Chapter 10 shows which platform each partner offers. Here you compare the platforms against each other, feature by feature.