Have you been able to keep up with all the advances in trading technology during the past few years? Even active traders and investors are often caught off-guard at the speed of new product, program, and app introductions. There are literally hundreds of automated, robotic, setitandforgetit platforms out there.

In addition to automated features and stand-alone products, many of the best-loved tools, like MetaTrader 4 and similar platforms, have been adding fresh, high-tech features to their standard offerings. Today’s traders, both part-time and professional, can take advantage of dozens of technical analysis tools, automated functions, copytrading programs, expert advisor algorithms, and much more. Here are the pertinent details about the latest technological advances that help traders and investors, along with some of the best platform features, analysis tools, and powerful features of one of the most popular platforms in existence, MT4.

Recent Tech Changes Benefit Traders

It’s fair to call the current era a golden age of securities trading. That’s because, in just a few years, non-professionals have gained access to a vast number of platforms that come with some astonishing built-in features. But, it’s important to evaluate any platform or program offered by your broker before committing to using it regularly. The five things to look for in trading platforms, whether you use a broker-provided one or an outofthebox retail product you bought for yourself, include:

• Speed of execution
• Total number of useful features
• Customer support
• The number of markets it has access to
• Overall mechanical stability and reliability 24/7

After choosing a program that suits your needs and works with the markets you wish to access, spend time learning about the newest features, like autotrading, scanning, news feeds, and research capabilities.

Trading Platforms and Their Special Functions

There are dozens of excellent platforms out there, all of which have their particular strengths. For instance, several are geared for beginners, while others are designed to be used with particular markets, like forex, options, or traditional stock shares. Anyone who knows how to download MT4 can create custom programs and technical indicators using MT4’s proprietary language, MQL4, to build custom indicators and unique programs known as expert advisors. The ability to tailor technical signals to personal preferences is one of the hallmark traits of modern software.

In addition to MetaTrader4, which focuses on forex and CFDs (contractsfordifference), there are many other products and programs, each one created to serve a particular kind of trading enthusiast. What are some of the most beloved high-tech functions? They include orderplacing, scanning, news collection, advanced chartmaking, multiple tools for performing fundamental research, customer support, and more.

Copy Trading

Part of the modern revolution in the way people buy and sell securities is copytrading, a technique anyone can use to enter the same orders as an experienced trader they choose to follow. Depending on the brokerage firm you use, it’s easy enough to set all or just a portion of your account balance on copy and enjoy nearly the same profitability as the expert you’re following.

RoboInvesting

Brokerage firms that offer roboadvisors perform a similar service as copytrading, but with an important difference. Roboadvisors are created by wealth management specialists. The programs are geared to each investor’s risk tolerance and several other personal preferences. Once initiated, the roboadvisor places, manages, and exits all trades based on a specific algorithm, with no, or very little, human interaction needed.

Tech Analysis Tools

Among the most exciting technological advances in recent years are the various tech indicators available to everyday investors. Depending on the number and complexity of technical analysis you wish to use when placing an order, indicators can help you decide how to move your money, when to get out, stay in, or exit a particular position. In addition to useful and popular indicators like the A/D (accumulation/distribution) line, people use the ADI (average directional index), OBV (on-balance volume), MACD (moving average convergence divergence), the Aroon indicator, stochastic oscillators, and the relative strength index (RSI) to make decisions about what to buy and sell, and when to do so.

What’s On the Horizon?

Developers are coming up with fresh ideas, indicators, programs, algorithms, apps, and proprietary platforms on a regular basis. Perhaps the most popular single area of advancement is related to fully automated buying and selling of securities. For the many part-time investors who lack in-depth knowledge and don’t have time to do careful analysis on their own, robo trading, expert advisors, copytrading, and other automated kinds of orderplacement and account management are the way to go.