Professional trading platform in Qatar

What is a professional trading platform?

Online trading has recently become increasingly popular around the world. An impressive list of trading tools has become available to potential investors in a few clicks. Modern trading offers great opportunities and traders can expect to gain access to the financial markets by using an online platform.

A professional platform is the software used to trade: opening, closing and managing market positions via a financial intermediary such as an online broker. The great popularity of interactive platforms has opened up new opportunities for retail traders and investors in Qatar.

The trading platform displays market conditions by providing real-time quotes. 

After the information is systematized, it is displayed on a chart. The user is able to choose the time frame in which the information is grouped. This is called a timeframe.

Time frame is one of the most important components of trading and can directly influence it.

To facilitate the work of traders and investors, modern platforms provide many tools.

These include real-time news feeds from major news agencies, sound alerts indicating significant system and trade events, generating trade reports, saving trade history, and the ability to perform fundamental and technical analysis on the platform. 

One of the most useful and popular tools for traders is the economic calendar, which helps traders analyse future market direction and see published results of key economic and geopolitical events. 

The trading platform allows traders to place market and pending orders, manage positions and monitor trading accounts at any convenient time (except weekends and national holidays).

You have understood that the trading terminal is one of the main tools for every trader and investor.    Therefore, it is important for it to be user-friendly, of high quality and reliable in operation and to meet all established modern requirements.

When choosing a professional trading platform in Qatar, the following criteria should be considered. The most important, of course, is the speed of the software. There should not be any slowdowns and slippages, as well as slow opening of orders. Next, you need to evaluate the interface of the software. It should be user-friendly and well- thought-out so that you understand which sections you need to enter and which actions you need to perform. You should intuitively feel where you need to click to get where you want to go without having to navigate through several links in the hope of reading the news, etc.

Security of transactions and confidentiality of transactions is also an important consideration. When working with a terminal a trader should be sure that his personal data is protected, that he gets the correct information about the market situation and no one can interfere in the process of trading. 

Finally, when choosing a trading platform, traders are guided by the available functionality which facilitates their tasks. Thus, built-in tools for market analysis and experts' recommendations help to build your own trading strategy, and the possibility of automatic trading allows you to open and close transactions without the participation of the trader.

Many trading software developers are paying more and more attention to mobile applications.

The ability to interact with the market via phone or tablet allows the trader to be anywhere and still work. 

Mobile devices are very handy for controlling the current market situation, monitoring quotes and open positions, placing or modifying open orders, closing positions, etc.

If you want to learn trading, you have to decide which market you are most interested in. This choice will determine your research direction and which news to follow.

Now let's have a look at platforms adapted to specific markets.

An online stock trading platform

Trading in the stock market today is one of the most popular types of investment, allowing you to make high profits with moderate risk. Access to trading is provided for almost all world economies, and therefore this market is global and universal.

Stocks are the most useful and accessible financial instrument in this market, both in Qatar and globally. But the biggest advantage of stocks is that they offer the greatest potential for growth. 

The stock market offers a wide range of opportunities for profit.

There are two ways to make money from stocks:

• trading;
• by investing.
  

Investing in stocks for the long term is different from speculating on them quickly. If you buy stocks with the prospect of holding them in your portfolio for several months or years, fundamental analysis becomes necessary. The long term method is suitable for passive investments. The income in this method is the dividends from the securities. Be sure to diversify your investments, i.e. invest in more than one asset. This will help reduce risk.

You can use short-term movements of the market, which last from several seconds to several minutes, as well as long-term ones from several hours to several days or weeks. It does not matter when the market is rising or falling, a trader has an opportunity to profit from any market movements, including those of the downtrend. 

Short-term investors and traders rely more on technical analysis. In technical analysis, traders assume that the price already takes into account all the fundamental factors.  

Stock CFDs are a very popular instrument among traders. When trading with this tool, the trader does not purchase an asset, but its price, using the difference between opening and closing quotes for speculative profit.

The main difference of CFD trading from pure asset trading is the possibility of using leverage. Leverage essentially involves borrowing money from a brokerage firm in order to increase a trader's capital. 

CFDs can be bought and sold, allowing you to profit from both rising and falling markets. Trading a stock through a CFD is virtually no different from any other trade in your broker's desktop terminal. You can place limit and market orders as well as stop orders in the same way.

A platform for online forex trading

On these platforms you can trade currency pairs such as EUR/USD, AUD/USD, GBP/USD and others. Such trading is an exchange of one national currency for another (buying one for the nominal value of the other). You can profit from both rising and falling prices because a fall in one currency always means a rise in the other.  The price formation is due to the constant changes in supply and demand. Every time you buy a currency on the market, there is a demand, and the price goes up. When you sell, the supply is in excess and the price of a unit of money goes down.

By trading in pairs, a trader tries to anticipate the future movements of a chosen asset, one or more, in order to generate profit.

For example, if you open an EUR/USD trade, you do not need physical EUR. You need the profit that when the dollar appreciates against the euro, you will sell your euros back and receive for them more dollars than you invested. Forex trades do not result in the physical delivery of currency; they are simply a tool to benefit from future price fluctuations.

All a trader has to do is choose the right moment to open and close a position. It is believed that almost half of the deal's success is the entry point.

The trading platform comes with full technical analysis functionality, enabling traders to analyse currency charts in real time and apply a range of different technical indicators to them. You can also trade currency pairs directly from the charts.

However, with a trading plan, proper trading tools and sufficient knowledge of the currency market, your chances of success as a forex trader can be greatly improved.

Platform for online options trading

Options (derivatives) are a special derivative instrument that allows you to effectively reduce the risks of existing positions in the stock market and also gives you the opportunity to earn not only on directional movements of stock instruments (up when buying and down when selling), but also on movements in either direction.  By using this tool, you can hedge the risks in your portfolio or, conversely, make profits by speculating. The price of options is low, and therefore they allow you to earn even with a modest deposit.

There are two types of options:

• A call option is a contract that gives you the right to buy an asset at a fixed price during the life of the option. It is similar to a long position on a stock: the buyer expects the price of the stock to rise significantly before the option expires.
• A put option is a contract entered into for the right to sell an asset at an agreed price. It is a kind of protection against a fall in the price of the asset. A put option is similar to a short position: in this case, the buyer is waiting for the share price to fall before the option expires.
  

Every option has an expiry date. That is, they don't trade forever like a stock. It gives you the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell the asset. 

For example, you as the option holder may not exercise the contract if the price of the underlying asset changes to your disadvantage.

There are option contracts for all types of instruments. These can be currencies, precious metals, commodities, cryptocurrencies and so on. 

In addition to stock options, there are also binary options-contracts, which use the prediction of the price direction of an asset for a given period of time. In this case, the trader's goal is to determine one of two possible outcomes: whether the asset will rise or fall. The term of the contract is also limited to its expiry time.

A platform for online commodity trading

Commodity trading platforms provide the opportunity to trade a variety of assets as well as individual commodities, commodity groups if they are similar to each other in terms of production or characteristics.

The total number of different commodities linked to this market is approaching a hundred. Conventionally, they are divided into two main subgroups:

• Industrial raw materials and semifinished products (this includes the most popular resource, oil, as well as petrol, fuel, fuel oil and propane).
• Agricultural and forestry commodities.

The commodities market is one of the most convenient markets, where you can multiply your investments in a relatively short period of time. All you need to do is to choose the right strategy and do the right analysis. Online commodity trading has become a popular way to hedge inflation and diversify portfolios. 

Commodities have a high volatility. And it is different for each type of commodity. For example, the volatility in the oil market is quite different from the volatility in the coffee or corn market. Determining the degree of volatility of the traded asset allows you to correctly size your trading position and place take- profit properly.

A good option for investing in commodities is to buy shares of commodity corporations, which produce and process commodities. (steel, mining, oil companies, etc.).

Trading CFDs on commodities is also one way to profit from price fluctuations.

A Contract for Difference (CFD) is a type of contract between a trader and a broker to profit from the price difference between the opening and closing of a trade.

When trading commodity CFDs, you do not buy the underlying asset itself, but rather speculate on the price rise or fall of a particular commodity.  The CFD trader can open short or long positions, stop and limit losses and use trading strategies that suit his objectives.

Finally, you can buy the underlying asset. That is, participate in the growth in value of the commodity directly by buying the commodity in the form of futures, ETFs, options, etc.

An online trading platform for an ETF

The term ETF has become increasingly common in recent years in relation to equity trading. These are investment funds that replicate the price of an underlying asset. This could be a commodity, a bond, a stock index or a basket of other assets.

ETFs typically have high daily liquidity and low commissions, thus attracting investors.

A trader can buy one stock and have a full investment portfolio that matches, for example, an underlying index. Without ETFs, it would be impossible to build such a portfolio of 40-500 companies with little capital.

The value of ETF shares exactly replicates the dynamics of the chosen stock index, of which there are many. For example, the Dow Jones index. There is an index that includes high-tech companies, car manufacturers and other areas.

By holding an entire portfolio of stocks, an ETF spreads risk across a broader spectrum. If one stock in a particular sector doesn't perform as well, other stocks make up for it.

Simply put, an ETF is a convenient and sought-after financial tool for both passive income and active trading. 

The main advantage of trading an ETF over buying a single stock or other individual asset is, of course, diversification and the associated lower risk. 

Another advantage is the ease of selecting the right ETF. Compared to analysing a stock, analysing an ETF is much easier.

A platform for online cryptocurrency trading

Cryptocurrency trading is generating a lot of interest among investors and traders. Recently, the digital currency has shown itself to be a practical and promising asset. 

A modern professional trading platform provides users with a large set of tools for investing: price chart for the selected trading pair, order creation form, information on trading volumes, transaction history, etc.

Trading on cryptocurrencies is no different from similar markets for stocks, currencies, commodities. There is the same trading: exchange of fiat money for cryptocurrencies and back. The only difference is that there is no coupon payment like in bonds, and there is no dividend. The main idea for earning from speculation: buy cheaper, sell dearer. Don't invest all your money in one cryptocurrency. Split up between a few promising ones: Bitcoin, EOS, Ethereum, Tron, Dash, Ripple, etc. 

You don't know what will happen with each coin, so it's best to hedge and diversify your risk. Create a good investment portfolio of promising cryptocurrencies.

Unlike the traditional financial market, the cryptocurrency market lacks many restrictions. What sets it apart from the stock market, for example, is that it operates 24/7, has no high barriers to entry, and trading commissions are relatively low. Because the cryptocurrency market operates around the clock without interruption, there is no need to close positions at the end of the trading day or week.

Platform for online index trading

Everyone these days is familiar, in one way or another, with the concept of stock indices (stock exchange indices). A stock index is the average value of several financial instruments which are included in the index. It is a way of assessing the state of a particular sector or of a country as a whole.

They can be divided into the following types:

• National - consisting of shares of the most financially important companies in a country and reflecting its economic well-being.
• Market indices track all stocks listed on a country's stock exchanges. 
• Global - consists of shares of global companies, regardless of their location.
• Sectoral - indices include stocks of companies in a particular industry, thereby serving as a kind of indicator reflecting the state of affairs in the industry as a whole.

The index can be thought of as a kind of basket or set of shares. By buying securities from an index, you are essentially investing in several companies at the same time. Even if one company goes under or enters bankruptcy, the others are not.

It is important to know that the index is never traded in its pure form - traders operate on its derivatives. For example, CFDs.

In terms of investing in the index itself: there are instruments in the financial system today that allow you to earn on the growth of indices. And indices are unique in this aspect - they always go up from a historical perspective. 

Index trading has the following advantages:

• Affordability: Low financial costs and high liquidity;
• No need to keep track of index composition;
• No need for independent market analysis;
• It is a perfectly diversified portfolio at a symbolic price.

How to start using a professional trading platform in Qatar?

All things considered, we hope you now have an idea of what a trading platform is and what you need to look out for when choosing one, as well as what types of markets there are.

One of the most important things to start trading in Qatar is choosing a broker. 

You need to compare different platforms and choose the best one for you, at the end you need to make sure that the trading platform suits your individual needs before you part with your money.

If you have already made your choice, and you want to use a professional trading platform in Qatar, then it's time to sign up for the terminal!

Sign up for the platform

You sign up and enter into an agreement to provide your services on the financial markets. 

Firstly, as a new user you'll need to create an account, get verified (if required), add funds to your account, and you're good to go. Some exchanges allow you to trade anonymously, but most sites require customers to be verified by providing personal information and documents. 

You should know that verified accounts are safer and give the investor more trading options. 

So, to register you need to enter some personal details, an e-mail address and, of course, a password (which nobody else, but you should know about). 

Be sure to read the terms and conditions of the exchange registration. They may contain a lot of important information. 

By registering, you accept all the conditions, written in the brokerage agreement. Once you have sent in your completed form, wait for an e-mail and click on the link in the e-mail to activate your account.

It is important that you give correct information in the form, otherwise you will have problems with the withdrawal. The brokerage company may request supporting documents in order to verify that the client is withdrawing his money and not some scammer or third party.

Demo Account

If you are a novice investor, it is always helpful to use a demo account to practice, overcome fears and select the right strategy.

A demo account is a trading simulator. It allows you to get acquainted with the trading terminal, learn the basics about the subject of investments, evaluate the service quality of the brokerage company and find out how quickly the technical support service works.

Profit made on a demo account is virtual - it cannot be withdrawn. Similarly, your losses are also virtual - you will not have to pay for losing trades.

As for experienced investors, a demo account is a great way for them to test their new trades. Such preliminary testing allows us to see how much profit a new strategy can bring and whether something has to be changed in it.

Demo-account allows you to learn all the details of opening/closing positions, placing pending orders, examining all the pros and cons of trading with high leverage, without risking your own funds.

Real account

Replenishment of the exchange account also occurs on a standard algorithm: select the Deposit tab and transfer money to the specified address of the deposit. Many brokers set a minimal money threshold for account opening. Of course, you can deposit a larger amount, depending on your financial capabilities. You can get started with a small initial deposit, so it is better not to invest all the money you have at once.

Using the payment systems that are specified on the terminal, you can easily deposit and withdraw your funds whenever you like.  Some brokers now support popular e-wallets. Don't forget to ask about fees and charges before you fund your account. So, once you have money in your brokerage account, you can place orders to trade.

You should know that self- respecting trading terminals provide their clients with 24/7 technical support, which guarantees the possibility to contact a support agent from anywhere you are, as well as free training materials (lessons), chat rooms where you can chat with other participants, etc.