How to choose a trading platform for beginners

While the platform is the technology – the ‘what’ as well as the ‘where’ of trading – your broker is the ‘who’. This is the company that owns the platform and is your intermediary, the trading services provider buying and selling on your behalf within different markets.

Just like all service providers, different brokers will offer different things. Some are strictly trading-focused, while others are only for investors, for example. We do both, having a platform that caters to share trading for investors and CFD trading for traders.

You’ll also want a platform that’s available whenever and wherever you want to trade. It should be available on your mobile phone, desktop, tablet and more. It may even be able to give you access to third-party platforms, too.

We offer access to the following platforms:

• Our award-winning online trading platform¹
• Mobile trading
• Algorithmic trading
• Well-known international third-party platform MetaTrader 4
• API trading for seasoned traders
• Direct market access on L2 Dealer and ProRealTime for professional traders

3. Products and markets

Not all trading platforms will give you access to the same products and markets. So, if you have a specific asset in mind to trade or invest in, you’ll want a platform that has a good offering in that space. If you’re not sure yet what market you want to trade, you’ll want a platform that gives you exposure to as many different assets as possible.

Here are just some of the markets we offer on our platform:

• Over 13,000 Australian and international shares, including BHP, Commonwealth Bank, Tesla, Apple, Alibaba, Alphabet and much more
• More than 80 of the world’s top indices, including the ASX 200, FTSE 100, Dow Jones, S&P 500, Germany 40 and more
• Over 80 of the most popular forex pairs to trade, including major pairs like the AUD/USD, GBP/USD and EUR/USD, minor pairs like the CAD/CHF, emerging currency pairs like the AUD/CNH and even exotic pairs like the EUR/CZK
• All 27 major commodity markets, including gold, oil, gas and soft commodities like sugar and wheat
• More than 3400 local and international ETF markets covering indices, sectors, commodities and currencies
• 11 major cryptocurrencies, two crypto crosses and our Crypto 10 index
• Numerous themes and basket trading that follow global market trends, including clean energy, robotics, electric vehicles and more
• Trading on the future direction of interest rates in several of the world’s biggest markets
• Bond ETFs and futures to speculate on changes in long-term interest rates

4. Platform costs and exchange fees

Another important factor to consider when choosing your platform is how much it will cost to trade with that provider. It’s important to know what these fees are, and when they are applied.

For example, creating an account with us is completely free of charge and there is no obligation to fund your account nor is there a minimum balance required when you do. This is not always the case with other platforms.

Then, there’s the fact that many brokers may charge a fee when you deposit funds to trade or invest. With us, we will charge a small fee if you fund your account with a credit card (1% for Visa, 0.5% for Mastercard) or Paypal (1%) but you can make bank transfers, use debit cards and BPAY free of charge.

If you’re trading regularly, the main charge you’ll need to consider is ‘the spread’. This is the difference between the buy and sell prices when you open a CFD position. In most cases, we charge our own spread on top of the market spread, as our fee for the trade.

If you’re trading share CFDs or investing in shares, we will charge a small commission ($7 for Australian share CFDs and $8 for Australian shares). However, if you’re an investor who places three or more trades in the previous calendar month on our share trading platform, you’ll only be charged $5 per trade on Australian shares³. Whether you’re an active or casual investor, when using our share trading platform, you’ll pay no commission on US shares.

5. Tools

As a beginner trader, you’ll want access to as many tools as possible to maximise your chances of success and also explore what will work best for you. Some of the features we offer are:

• Charts – a huge variety of ways to view your preferred market, from candlestick trading charts to Heikin-Ashi, HLOC, line charts and much more – plus 19 drawing tools within those charts
• Trading signals – actionable ‘buy’ and ‘sell’ suggestions for you from our platform, based on analysis of the chart patterns of your chosen market
• Alerts – automatic, customisable and free-of-charge notifications which alert you to specific market parameters of your choosing
• Indicators – helpful formulas and patterns you can view on any market’s price chart to help you with your trading strategy – we offer 32 different indicators
• Trading analytics – computational analysis from our platform of your positions, based on your trading data, to help you evaluate and improve your performance (available on our CFD platform only)

Another powerful tool you use if you’re a beginner trader is our demo account, which enables you to finetune your strategy, as well as familiarise yourself with our platform, before using your own money. You’ll get $20,000 in virtual funds to practise with - which you can use before opening a live account and starting to open real positions.

We also try to make withdrawing and depositing funds as easy as possible. You can withdraw your money whenever you like, for free. Plus, you can make deposits via PayPal, BPAY, with a bank transfer or with your debit or credit card.

Successful bank card and PayPal payments are deposited immediately, while bank transfers may at times take up to three working days. In the meantime, you can upload a proof of payment to trade with the funds right away.

8. Customer service

You’ll also want the very best support possible, so you can count on your provider when you need them most. We’re ranked as the No.1 CFD provider⁵ for a reason – our customer support, staffed by real people and not chatbots, is there to help every step of the way.

You can contact us by phone, online chat, email or X (formerly Twitter) – 24 hours a day, except from 7am to 5pm Saturdays (AEST).⁶

When you’re a beginner trader, we can be especially hands-on if you need. Our experienced team and our platform itself provide assistance that guides you to the right tools for your needs – from setting up automated price change alerts on your desired markets to getting you started with free online courses.

We can help direct you to self-learning opportunities with IG Academy, plus hundreds of articles with trading strategy tips and expert market analysis.

Beginners’ trading platform comparison

Here’s an additional breakdown of all our platforms compared to one another, so you can choose the best one for your needs and skill level: