The Best Platforms and Apps for Stock and Forex Traders in 2020
Have you been searching for the best trading platform? Millions of active traders are always on the lookout for ways to seamlessly trade stocks, forex, and all sorts of other securities, like options, futures, and bonds.
But the best place to start is make sure you have all the bases covered.
That means finding not only the best trading platform for stocks but the best one for forex. Finally, if you are new to the world of trading and investing, learn about the best trading platform for beginners.
Fortunately, many companies have created online apps and functional websites that allow those new to stocks and forex to place trades simply and quickly.
So, no matter what your area of interest is, check out the information below about the best app to trade stocks, the best trading platform for forex, and more.
What are the criteria for determining a top-ranked website, platform, or app?
In order to earn a place on our list, all apps, sites, and platforms had to meet four criteria, namely:
- Provide ease-of-use for beginners
- Offer low fees or offer their services for free
- Allow traders to use the broker of their choice
- Offer a system that lets traders place many different kinds of orders
Contents
The Top-Ranked Stock Platforms:
It’s important to remember that stock and forex platforms are very similar but also have key differences.
The differences are due to the fact that these two kinds of trading are very different, have different amounts of leverage, and take place on different exchanges.
But even before finding the best app to trade stocks, specifically, let’s take a look at the top stock-trading platforms for traders of all abilities:
- TD Ameritrade: With no account minimums, tons of extras for beginners and pros, no commissions, a sterling reputation, and broker-assisted trades, TD has been a favorite of traders for years. Along with one of the best apps in existence, TD Ameritrade Mobile, the interface is simple for online trading, and you can take part in trading stocks, options, bonds, futures, forex, annuities, crypto, and much more. This is a versatile platform that offers something for everyone.
- Interactive Brokers: Tons of research for active traders and IB is one of the few platforms on which you can trade virtually anything, including stocks, forex, mutual funds, metals, ETFs, options, and bonds. The platform has carved out a niche for itself by offering highly advanced tools for experienced traders. Fees are low but there is a monthly charge if your trading activity falls below a minimum amount.
- Tradestation: Tradestation is one of the best-designed platforms in the business but it does require a $2,000 account minimum to begin trading. Pricing can be a bit of a challenge to understand, but TS offers a top-notch list of services and tools for beginning, intermediate, and advanced traders.
- Fidelity Investments: Boasting very low fees and commissions as well as plenty of deep research and market information, Fidelity has some of the best customer service around and even offers broker-assisted trading for those who want it. There are no account minimums, and you can trade a full range of securities.
Note that some of the above platforms have proprietary apps that are built-in to their websites, so you can’t always use them as you with.
But it’s becoming more common for all trading platforms to offer stand-alone apps that you can download to your other devices, like smartphones, and trade whenever and wherever you want. The next section reviews the best forex platforms.
Check more information about top-rated stock platforms.
The Best Forex Platforms:
If you’re a forex enthusiast, then you know what you want in a platform, namely speed, accuracy, and research capability.
Trading pairs of international currencies is way different than buying and selling stocks.
For one thing, the action tends to be much faster, and traders usually don’t hold onto their currency very long before they sell it.
Because the goal of forex trading is to profit on short-term price swings, the best platforms aim to delivery lightning-fast transaction speeds, accurate quotes, and other relevant stats for busy traders.
Here are the best forex platforms for forex traders, based on multiple factors that are of interest to most people who deal with forex on a regular basis:
- cTrader: With helpful charting, tutorials, ease-of-use, and a simple learning progression for beginners, cTrader is ideal for traders of all levels. One of the best things about it is that it introduces users to the ECN, electronic communications network, that is a vital part of the forex trading world. ECN lets smaller traders have access to the posted activity of more experienced participants. That means you can do social trades from the cTrader platform or app whenever you wish.
- MetaTrader 4: MT4 is the oldest and one of the very best trading apps in existence, not just for forex, but for stocks and other assets as well. Charts, news, and a simple interface are what made TD4 famous, and those functions have improved over the years. If you can’t decide on a trading platform for forex, MT4 is a good default. It’s a good platform and app to learn on, and the skills are quite transferable to other apps.
- eToro Social Trading:
If you’re looking for the best trading platform for forex, the good news is that you have a lot of choices. the eToro platform is simple to use, let’s you follow leaders rather than make trading decisions on your own, allows you to trade more than 2,000 different securities, features very low fees, and is designed for easy use by both experts and beginners.
There’s no doubt it’s one of the best platforms for forex traders, but stock and bond enthusiasts can use it too. The platform also has entire portfolios that you can copy from leading traders, and allows users to trade several kinds of assets that are usually not included in platforms, like indices, CFDs, and commodities.
Traders should be aware of what level of sophistication they have.
If you are a beginner, not every platform for stocks or forex will be ideal for you.
That’s because brokers and companies who create software design particular items for beginners, intermediate, and advanced investors.
Beginners tend to look for simplicity and resources like trade simulators that can help them learn the ins and outs of basic trading.
The best forex platforms listed above are not categorized based on what’s best for beginners.
In the following section, we’ll discuss the best stock and forex platforms, followed by a final section about the best app to trade stocks.
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Check more information about top forex platforms.
Top Platforms for Beginning Traders:
Based on our analysis of the above platforms for both stocks and forex, what are the very best choices for beginning traders?
Here’s a brief rundown of what you should be considering if you are new to trading forex and stocks:
- eToro Social Trading: The eToro platform has several things in its favor. Not only is it one of the very best for trading forex, but it’s ideal for beginners and includes tons of features that help new traders learn about the markets, figure out how to trade currency pairs, and more. But the best part of it all with eToro is the platform’s proprietary app, known as the eToro Mobile app.
Another key benefit for active traders, even those brand new to the game, is that you can trade anything on the eToro app, including stocks, bonds, cryptocurrency, forex, and other assets. That means as you develop your trading skills, you’ll be able to utilize the many higher-level functions within the platform.
So, even though we’re putting eToro in the forex category, it also contains what some consider the best app to trade stocks too. Is eToro the best trading platform for beginners? For forex it is. For stocks, we’ll have to list TD Ameritrade, which is discussed in more detail below. - TD Ameritrade: Not only does TD Ameritrade have the best overall stock-trading platform for beginners but it offers the best app to trade stocks for traders of all levels. In fact, there are two excellent apps to choose from based on your personal preferences: the TD Ameritrade Mobile app and the equally excellent thinkorswim Mobile app.
Beginners, however, will especially appreciate the TD Ameritrade Mobile app because it includes a totally simple interface along with full functionality, great research, price alerts in real time, up-to-the-minute news, and a logical, easy-to-understand account summary section.
It’s one thing to have the best app to trade stocks, but even better when you can choose from two of them. Bottom line: for beginners, TD is the way to go if you want to trade traditional securities.
Verdict: The Best App to Trade Stocks:
What is the the best app to trade stocks?
It’s a hard choice because there are several ideal candidates and much depends on a trader’s personal preferences, level of expertise, and other essential factors.
Overall, however, the winner of the title, “Best App to Trade Stocks” has to be the TD Ameritrade Mobile app for its all-around versatility, a simple interface of just one page that includes all pertinent account information, expertly designed sync capability throughout the platform, and the ability to trade a wide range of assets like stocks, forex, bonds, options, and more.
There are probably some runners-up in the category of best app to trade stocks, with eToro Mobile being a close second, and Interactive Brokers being a near competitor in the third-place slot.
Here’s a bit more about Interactive Brokers Mobile trading app:
Users get all the functionality of the IB website, including complete alert capability, scanning for long lists of securities, and the power to open or place full orders on the go.
You also get super-fast entry and can take advantage of pre-set orders directly from the app.
Finally, the IB Mobile app is loaded with charts that can help guide you in placing trades as well as dozens of powerful indicators for on-the-spot decision making.
To be fair to other stock-trading apps out there, especially the ones we mentioned above but that did not make our final cut of the best three, all are excellent and get the job done.
With apps and platforms, most stock traders get used to whatever they use and end up preferring that one over others out of a certain level of comfort.
That’s why choosing a best app is so difficult.
In a way, it’s akin to picking the best car or best movie. Personal taste and experience level plays into the decision.
So, if you’re still trying to decide on a forex or stock trading platform or app, check out the information in the above sections again and see what feels right for you, based on your own level of expertise with the markets and your personal method of investing.