Online trading is a tricky sea to navigate, especially when you consider the NYSE holds around 2800 companies and NASDAQ boasts around 3 000 companies – this is before you begin digging into numbers held by LSE and Frankfurt.
In a single day, there were over 8.1 million trades in January 2021 – an increase of 23% when compared to figures in December 2020. This gives you a good idea of the amount of data floating around within the trading landscape, which no human can examine alone. Therefore, online traders need tech tools on their side; you will find five essentials below.
Trading PC
Invest in a good quality trading PC. Look for one with plenty of RAM, ideally a minimum of 8Gb, a fast processor, and an ergonomic mouse for comfort. Once you have your PC set up, you need metatrader 4 download pc, so you can start trading.
Stock Scanners
Stock scanners are designed to analyse future opportunities and tell you which stocks to invest in, meaning you never have to miss out on an opportunity. Without a stock scanner, you’d be left searching through trading opportunities manually, which would put you at a disadvantage. The scanner works based on criteria set by you. For example, if you only wish to trade on tech with a jump within the last hour, the scanner will notify you when stocks hit this parameter.
Stock Trackers
Stock trackers are different to scanners because they’re responsible for monitoring portfolios. This technology saves you from manually inputting data into a spreadsheet, meaning you can spend time researching companies and deciding on your next moves. To get the most out of this tech, it must integrate with your chosen broker, which will input data in real-time.
Capable Internet Connection
As the name suggests, online trading relies on a solid internet connection, which means having fast download speeds. You will find really good internet costs a fair amount, but it will improve your trading abilities, making it an excellent investment.
Even with the fastest broadband, there’s always room for outages, which is why you need to have a backup. Instead of waiting for engineers to finish work on your broken lines, get connected with 4G or 5G, and keep on top of those all-important trades.
High-End Computer
To complement your incredible broadband speeds, you’ll need a fast computer. Although you won’t be using any graphic-intensive tools, your computer needs to operate countless resources simultaneously. Therefore, you need to have a solid CPU and plenty of RAM to avoid unnecessarily crashing out. If your computer fails, it could spell the difference between winning and losing thousands.
A Healthy Community
Although not directly a tech tool, you will need access to a healthy community of like-minded traders. Having access to a thriving forum will allow you to ask questions, impart knowledge, and hopefully improve your portfolio. Further, your trading community can help you stay motivated when you suffer losses.
Without technology, traders would have too much data to analyse, meaning they’d lose out on beneficial opportunities. By investing in the technology systems outlined above, you’re increasing your overall chances of success.