


The first such platforms were mainly used for stock exchange and known as RFQ (request for quote) systems, in which clients and brokers placed orders that were only confirmed later. It was also was during this time that electronic trading platforms started being applied to carry out at least a part of these transactions.

Until the 1970s, financial transactions between brokers and their counterparties were still being processed manually, and traders did not have the possibility to access the global financial markets directly but only through an intermediary. Online investors can trade on live market prices being streamed by trading platforms, as well as enhance their profit potential with some additional trading tools provided by these platforms such as trading account management, live news feeds, charting packages and can even use trading robots, also called expert advisors.Īs compared with today’s online trading platforms used for trading a series of financial instruments such as currencies, equities, bonds, futures and options, the very first such software versions were almost exclusively associated with stock exchange. facilitate online transactions between buyers and sellers by executing their trades). brokerage companies) that operate as financial intermediaries (i.e. Online (or electronic) trading platforms are computer-based software programs used to place trading orders for various financial instruments through a network with financial institutions (e.g.

especially developed for individual online traders). Not only is MT4 considered to be the most popular online trading platform to access the global markets but it is also regarded as the most efficient software for retail foreign exchange trading (i.e. For most online traders and investors, whether they are trading forex or CFDs (Contracts for Difference on various financial instruments), MetaTrader 4, is undoubtedly a household name today. Released in 2005, the MT4 trading software became extremely popular with retail forex traders especially for its easy to use features and the ability to even facilitate automated trading by allowing users to write their own trading scripts and trading robots (commonly known as expert advisors). MetaTrader 4, commonly nicknamed MT4, is a widely used electronic trading platform for retail foreign exchange, developed by the Russian software company MetaQuotes Software Corp, which is currently licensing the MT4 software to almost 500 brokers and banks worldwide.
