Top 5 Additional Features To Think About Before Choosing a Forex Broker?

To trade the Forex market with real funds one must open a trading account with a broker. There are a large, even overwhelming, number of brokers available on the internet. As a beginner trader you normally spend a lot of time researching facts, kand ey terms and educating yourself on how to trade.

Spread data, broker commissions, CFD leverage, deposit amount etc. are amongst the top factors why traders compare and choose particular brokers. Choosing the right broker can be very time-consuming so we have compiled a list of five additional features the majority of trusted and regulated broker offer.

Negative Balance Protection

This feature protects a trader from entering into a negative trading balance. Every broker sets a margin call which means you are restricted to the maximum Lot size you can trade. Forex trading is highly leveraged trading and the market is very volatile therefore sometimes a losing trade can exceed risk or stop levels meaning you lose beyond deposit levels. Negative balance protection is useful when a trader leverages more on their trades relative to their account size.

Educational Support

Brokers that offer webinars, seminars, video tutorials and additional trading education support are more valuable to beginner traders. A lot of top regulated brokers offer extra support on how to draw trendlines, use Fibonacci retracement, pivot lines, moving averages etc. AvaTrade broker educational platform the “Sharp Trader” offers a lot of content for their traders. According to AvaTrade broker, Sharp Trader offers “offers a comprehensive range of videos, articles, daily news and trading tools, taking you from trading fundamentals to the advanced strategies of leading professional traders”.

One-click Trading

This feature is necessary for executing a trade with a single mouse click without the hassle of opening other windows. As we know trading entry opportunities come and go within seconds so it’s very handy to have this feature. This is very helpful for traders looking for short-term opportunities i.e. Scalp traders or ‘Scalping’. Many brokers have their online versions of trading terminals (also known as web trader) like XTB’s xStation. Although this feature is available on Metatrader4 it has to be downloaded as a plugin.

Guaranteed Stop loss

Sometimes trades may go beyond a stop loss price by a couple of pips (percentage in points) thus increasing your loss. Brokers refer to this as ‘slippage’ and it mostly occurs during times of high volatility. Brokers such as XTB and Plus500 have the anteed stop loss which enables traders to be certain of knowing that trade will terminate at the Stop loss price level.

Trailing Stop

Using a trailing stop is a great way to protect profits if you have not established an exit strategy. The trailing stop is a moving stop loss. Your stop price moves at a specified distance behind the market price. In a rising market, it moves higher i.e. a long trade but will remain stationary when the price falls when in that long trade.

Trailing will only occur when the market price moves in favour of the trade to which the order is attached. Trailing stops are designed to lock in profit levels and they literally trail along your increasing profit and adjust your stop loss levels accordingly. Trailing stops are an important component of traders’ risk management unless they have an exit strategy in their trading plan that might serve them better.