Until recently, if you wanted to trade stocks, stock indexes or commodities such as oil, natural gas, wheat or sugar, you needed to deposit large amounts of money and use cumbersome trading platforms.
Recently a good alternative emerged, which is trading stocks and commodities through the popular Metatrader platform, which up to now was used exclusively for Forex (currency trading).
First of all, we must consider ourselves lucky as the technology has advanced so much that we can now trade stocks and commodities using the Internet. There are several trading platforms that are linked to many stock exchanges to perform trading transactions. One can now easily buy and sell stocks as well as commodities with the help of such trading platforms.
The Metatrader platform has evolved over the years, and now it is considered as one of the most popular platforms for trading. Brokers who support Metatrader, now opened up new possibilities and offer stocks, indexes and commodities.
As we all know, Metatrader provides a lot of features to work around and use it while trading in Forex. The same tools and features can be used while trading in stocks and commodities. Some of the major benefits are discussed below:
-
Easy to use and user friendly – As a trader the most important feature I will consider is how easily I can trade with the help of the platform and understand it. Metatrader is one of the easiest to use and comes with a lot of user friendly tools that are easy to operate.
-
If you are already trading in the Forex market using Metatrader, and you are used to all the charting and trade management tools it provides, then it would be the easiest way for you to trade stocks and commodities with it.
-
Expert Advisors – One of the most loved features of Metatrader is the EA (Expert Advisor). Expert advisors are computer programs that can automatically analyze the market and trade for you. You can utilize some of the well-known and used EA’s to trade especially in commodities and make full use of them.
-
Indicators – Metatrader comes with more than 40 built in indicators. Some of the widely known and used indicators are RSI (Relative Strength Index), MA (Moving average), Bollinger bands, ATR (Average true range), Stochastic Oscillator, fractals, Ichimoku cloud, etc. These indicators will help you in taking a decision regarding a trade. Especially while trading commodities, some of the best analysts believe that moving average plays a very important role in finding price support and resistance. Plus you can use your favorite indicators too.
-
Charts in Metatrader are easy to operate and customize. You can easily customize charts according to your needs. One can choose from options like Line chart, Candlesticks and bar chart. There are also nine time frames available to view starting from one minute to one month. There are many other options available, which are considered as one of the most advanced, easiest and fastest charting solutions.
-
Analysis of price action is very easy in Metatrader. With the help of advanced trading tools one can easily analyze and strategize before taking a trade.
These are only few key benefits of using Metatrader. One must not forget that it is very convenient too as opening of account is easy and almost no paper work is required especially compared to “regular” stocks brokers.
However, there are some drawbacks of using Metatrader for trading stocks. Almost all brokers provide CFD (Contract for Difference). Because CFD’s are not traded in regular stock exchanges, this opens up room for broker manipulation. For example spread widening and stop loss hunting.
One of the other problems using Metatrader for trading stocks is that brokers need to follow local rules and regulations. Each country has different set of rules and regulations for stock exchanges which sometimes brokers ignore and as a result cause financial losses to traders. That is the reason some of the brokers do not provide the facility of trading stocks on their Metatrader terminal.
So, one need to be careful while choosing a broker for this purpose. Choose a broker that is well-established and value its customers. Make a list of selected brokers and then search for their track record. There are many brokers review sites, which can help you find some answers. Check for the rating of that particular broker and then if you are convinced, go ahead and open an account with a small amount initially. Later, you can increase the exposure if you are comfortable with all the things.
So, the bottom line is, you can trade stocks and commodities with Metatrader in a much easier way than before, and enjoy the platform’s advanced features, but you need to be careful while selecting a broker for this purpose.
About The Author
Vladimir Ribakov is a professional independent Forex trader and mentor. You can get Vladimir’s market forecasts and analysis in his blog: http://VladimirRibakov.com/ and his trading signals at Vladimir’s Forex Signals & mentoring club.
