Ok, let's go over some of the basics. What is the forex? Well, forex, the word is simply a combination of the phrase FOReign Exchange. That's it, you're ready to trade. Oh, you want more? The forex market is an electronic market where the currency of different countries are traded.



In actuality, you are trading the value of currency A vs. the value of currency B. Although you can combine any two currencies to form a currency pair, there are four currency pairs that are considered the major pairs.

They are: EUR/USD (Euro/Dollar), GBP/USD (Pound/Dollar), USD/JPY (Dollar/Yen), USD/CHF (Dollar/Franc). You can spend your entire currency trading career trading just one of those pairs.

Now for some interesting facts about the foreign exchange (forex) market. It is over 30 times as large as any other financial market. Remember this fact, we will be touching on it again later. The forex market is open 24 hours a day 5 days a week. This is a great feature as it allows you to partake in the business of currency trading regardless of where in the world you are.

Back to the size of the forex for a second. Due to this attribute, the foreign exchange market provides currency traders with opportunities that do not exist on any other trading tool. Although this article is not being written to get into too much detail about this, I'll give you an example. There is no slippage on Stop orders during regular trading hours. If you are not sure what this means, I strongly suggest you spend some time looking it up. This is a quality that, by itself, separates the forex from all other markets.

So, now we get to the nuts and bolts of this article. What is an online forex trading platform?

Truth is, whether you are doing your own trading, following some form of forex trading alert or any other sort of forex trading system you are going to need an online forex trading platform.

Regardless of which forex broker you choose, you will be provided with some form of online forex trading platform. Usually, the trading platform will be the same whether you are trading mini contracts or full contracts.

What should an online forex trading platform provide?

Firstly, you should be able to see the value of your account at a quick glance. Also, you should be able to see how much money you have in the market and in what currency pair at any given time.

Secondly, the value of all currency pairs of interest to you should be right at your fingertips. This means that you should be able to define which currency pairs you want to have access to and you should be able to choose the look and feel of the quotes.

Thirdly, an order entering system should be easy to find and easy to use so that you can make quick reactions when you see an opportunity present itself. When you see a 20 pip reward and a 10 pip risk trade, you don't want to be fumbling around with your mouse or keyboard, you just want to trade.

In a very small nutshell, that's it. Those are the three things that an online forex trading platform needs to offer. If you have those than currency trading on the foreign exchange (forex) is only a few clicks away.