Traders use a variety of different trading platforms depending on their trading style and volume. If you're still new to trading, Investopedia's Trading for Beginners Course provides an in-depth introduction to active trading. You'll learn market terminology, techniques for identifying trends, and even build your own trading system in over five hours of on-demand video, exercises, and interactive content.
There are two types of trading platforms: prop platforms and commercial platforms. As their name indicates, commercial platforms are targeted at day traders and retail investors. They are characterized by ease-of-use and an assortment of helpful features, such as news feeds and charts, for investor education and research. Prop platforms, on the other hand, are customized platforms developed by large brokerages to suit their specific requirements and trading style.
Automated trading – A platform that offers automation capabilities enables a trader to make market moves even if he/she is not at the computer at the time. The classic “stop loss” feature is a simple form of automation, but there are much more advanced platforms that enable you to program your own trading robot to carry out elaborate strategies or to react much faster than you can do yourself.
An asset class that your author has been researching substantially is cryptocurrency. Bitcoin and the other alt coins, appear to be like very few other investment assets and so far moves in very different ways to almost every other asset. While it is very volatile and high risk and has quite a learning curve, it might be useful for some investors to understand and add to their portfolio.
We hope that this beginner stock market investing guide sets you on a good path towards further research and learning, investment success and profits. It really is possible to be a successful investor if you want to be, but it will take time, effort, dedication and patience. If you can find those within yourself and treat investing as a journey that will take years, you can do it too.
This education really ought to include one of the daily papers that covers the movements on the stock exchange (information here) in detail, such as the Financial Times or Wall Street Journal. Remember, the investment bankers that you are competing against have Bloomberg terminals and Reuters subscriptions, while everyone else is watching CNN and MSNBC. Since everyone is reading the same things on the same days, these might not be the best places to pick up your share market tips...

Michael R. Lewis is a retired corporate executive and entrepreneur. During his 40+ year career, Lewis created and sold ten different companies ranging from oil exploration to healthcare software. He has also been a Registered Investment Adviser with the SEC, a Principal of one of the larger management consulting firms in the country, and a Senior Vice President of the largest not-for-profit health insurer in the United States. Mike's articles on personal investments, business management, and the economy are available on several online publications. He's a father and grandfather, who also writes non-fiction and biographical pieces about growing up in the plains of West Texas - including The Storm.


If you’re an active trader looking to try your hand at beating the market, you probably have a good idea of what you want in a brokerage: low costs, premium research, innovative strategy tools and a comprehensive trading platform. Below, we’ve selected the best online brokers in a variety of categories so you can choose one based on your personal priorities.

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