One of these has got to be the layout lock and unlock button. The problem is that until you have your layout set up exactly how you want it, you will find yourself having to go back and forth between a locked and an unlocked layout, and that will definitely cause some frustration. Beyond this, the initial period of layout customization will certainly be coloured by a level of frustration.

Particularly if you have even an ounce of OCD in your character, you will find this process challenging until you have everything lined up as you need and want it. Part of the reason for this frustration comes with how easy it is to overlap windows or to leave annoying gaps between them.

Now, this might be a result of the windows not snapping into place as crisply as the average user will want, in which case it can definitely be chalked up as a design drawback. However, this initial setup phase will always be kind of clunky on any platform and with any workstation. Still, you may find yourself making little adjustments from time to time, whenever you feel unhappy about how you set them up in the past.

Again, the ability to save your new layout is worth its weight in gold here. Customising your chart is exactly as easy and user-friendly as you would expect from such a professional platform. All of the options are available to you, including a wide range of timeframes and parameters.

At first glance, the sheer number of various options you are presented with when you click on Chart Settings might be bewildering to less experienced traders but you will quickly come to appreciate the functionality and flexibility of having so many parameters to choose from. The same settings menu is also your go-to place for a large range of indicators that are integral to the platform — simply click through the various drop-down menus under the Studies tab and pick out the indicators you need.

You can also make a number of adjustments to your chart just by right-clicking on the chart itself, which opens up a menu that will reveal a number of handy tools. Simply as a result of the large number of options available, you are going to want to take some time to familiarise yourself with all of these functions and it may take you a while to find what you are looking for.

Another element of additional functionality and flexibility in the Mosaic interface is the option to create your own tabs in certain windows. This is a great addition because it allows you to add multiple watchlists and portfolio view options that are then extremely easy to access.

More importantly still, you can add additional tabs along the bottom of the interface that allow you to open up various layout options. This is endlessly useful as it means you can have layouts devoted just to charts on various timeframes, ones devoted to tracking your portfolio, or, indeed, any combination of layouts you need to make your trading as informed and structured as possible.

The fact that you can design, adjust and save each one of these layouts means that you are able to customise your entire trading experience from top to bottom. There are a couple of drawbacks, of course, since no platform is ever going to be completely perfect.

One of these is that you will, especially initially, find yourself having to lock and unlock your layouts as you go back to them to make minor adjustments. This can get a little tiresome if you are determined to make each layout as neat and readable as possible.

Of course, there are smart ways to set up your layouts and there are less-than-smart ways to do it. The added flexibility of TWS does kind of guide you to smarter ways for arranging your layout. The better way to switch between currency pairs is to go to have a window set up on your primary layout displaying all of your pairs in an overarching watchlist. A simple double click on any currency pair in your watchlist will switch over your main chart to display that currency combination — offering you a much easier and more elegant way to skip between currencies.

You can also ungroup certain charts from this function so that they always display a given currency — to do this, simply click on the chain-link icon in the top right corner of your chart window.

While it provides a useful function, the grouping system is not the best solution as it gets quite confusing keeping track of what groups are assigned to what functions of over multiple currencies. It might have been better had the platform designers simply provided a chart lock function that would exclude a locked chart from changing whenever the user selects a different currency pair in their watchlist.

If users are already presented with a myriad of customisation choices and options, hundreds of functions and parameters to set, then the last thing they want to be doing is also keeping track of which charts have been assigned to which group. The mechanism for entering and placing orders is — in addition to the general ease of use, reliability, and indicators — perhaps the most important part of a trading platform.

For TWS, this has been handled with a high degree of functionality and flexibility, which makes it possible for users to adopt a large number of trading styles. Orders, whether active or pending, are displayed in a number of locations across your layout, which is a useful feature allowing you to easily and quickly cross-reference your outstanding orders at a glance. Depending on how you have set up your layout, you will be able to see orders very easily in at least three locations: in the Activity window, as a tab; in your Monitor window, under your portfolio overview; and at the bottom of your chart in a collapsible window that you can access as needed.

This window, called a ChartTrader, is a pretty useful way of quickly accessing information about the positions you have open on that particular currency pair, and also, it is rather neat that it can be retracted or recalled so easily. Hot-buttons are available for entering a number of order types and you can access them through a couple of locations also: through your dedicated Orders window, if you have that added to your layout, or you can bring up the Orders tab through the View drop-down menu.

These hotkeys can be almost endlessly modified in terms of the functions they perform, something day traders will find very useful. How they are programmed, however, is rather laborious and you will have to employ something akin to a trial and error approach to making sure they actually perform as you need them to.

For those of us not engaged in day trading, one useful thing here is that you can hide the hot-buttons if you prefer not to use them. Another thing to watch out for is that orders generated through the hot-buttons do not immediately appear in your usual orders window — though they do appear in the orders tab of the ChartTrader.

All the same, using hot-buttons is a little dangerous and if it makes you nervous, it is better simply to hide them through the View tab. That this is the one location where all of the various types of orders are clearly shown and easily accessible is perhaps a slight drawback but then, there does have to be one primary location for setting up orders and it just so happens that this is it. Moreover, the way it displays the order on your chart is also very helpful and clear — with the added bonus of some of the line colours being customisable so you can change them to suit your needs.

What you will initially need to be careful about is that some bracket orders will have their defaults pre-set at unwieldy amounts, which can distort your chart until you resize them to more appropriate levels. The good thing is that if you do drag your order out of place on the chart, whether deliberately or by mistake somehow, you will need to click additionally to update your order — which makes for a useful safety measure and also a prudent way of double-checking that you actually wanted to make that change.

A useful tool that the TWS provides is the ability to quickly and easily add additional protection to orders that have already been placed retroactively. Unlike a number of functions available through the platform, this is quite intuitive to use and will automatically register whether the position you have set up is long or short and will generate the appropriate close for this position.

Entering the stop order is just a couple of clicks away and setting the price is as easy and flexible as you would expect. You can also relatively easily set up trailing stops. You will have to enter them individually but there is an option for trailing stop orders in your Orders window which is pretty easy to use.

The only real way to do this would be to cancel your existing order before it gets filled and start again from scratch but this time adding in a trailing stop, instead of a static stop order that goes with the standard bracket order.

It would have been so much more useful if the platform allowed you to convert an existing stop order into a trailing stop but, alas, this function was not made available. This just goes to show, it continues to be true that trading platform designers are almost never traders themselves and some of those things you might need on a relatively regular basis have yet to make their way into the design of platforms themselves.

Another irritant, when it comes to trading stops, is that the trailing stop order function does not automatically default to the currency you are trading, which means that every time you are setting up a trailing stop you also have to double-check that you are telling it to set up a trailing stop for the currency pair you are working on at the time. Using a legging in strategy — where you stagger your entry into a position in order to mitigate risk — is catered for relatively neatly by TWS.

The platform designers have understood that some traders make use of this approach and have factored that in when crafting how orders are entered. The system allows you to link those two orders in a very useful way. Simply enter both bracket orders as you normally would, allocating half of your total position to each order, entering your stops and targets where you have determined they need to be.

Once these orders are live, you can go ahead and open up your Orders tab in your ChartTrader or the Orders tab in your Activity window and in either of these two places you can link these orders by merging your stops.

As a default, the stops will be set at half of the total amount you are committing to this position but you can just click on them and change them to equal your full position. That allows you to hold off and play the waiting game to see how the price movement develops.

If it develops as you predicted, your second order will be filled and you can update the stops with one easy click so that your whole position is protected. If, on the other hand, the price movement turns sour and your second order is left hanging, the quantity on your stop order will remain at the default amount half of what you planned to commit to this position and will kick in if things continue to go against you.

A perfect example of just how awkward and clumsy the platform can sometimes be is illustrated by the default minimum and maximum currency amounts. These defaults are set not only for currency amounts but also lot sizes. One saving grace of how orders work in TWS is the sheer simplicity and user-friendliness of how you can cancel an order. There are several ways to see existing and active orders — in the Orders tab under your chart, in your Portfolio tab in the Monitor window, in the Orders tab of the Activity window, etc.

This makes it easy to cancel an order in a hurry if you need to. The last check you need to have in place when you are closing an order is to make sure you follow through and click submit. A mean platform reviewer might say that this is a problem with how the various steps are designed and, more importantly still, worded. At the end of the day, when you get out of an order you were unhappy with, a smart trader will go through a mini-debrief of what went wrong and this will definitely include rechecking your portfolio tab to make sure everything is back to normal, so to speak.

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One of first things that you will do as a beginning trader is decide which hardware and software requirements you will need. This includes questions such as should I use a PC or Mac to trade? How much RAM do I need? and many other related questions. The purpose of this article will be to help you answer some of these questions, and provide some recommendations on the best way to configure and setup your trading computer.

Trading the markets poses enough challenges that a trader should not need to add additional stress related to computer hardware related matters. Although you can get quite elaborate in your trading computer set up, many out-of-the-box gaming computers will often have the required specifications to run most trading platforms in an efficient manner. And so, many readers may already have this type of workstation set up in their home. If not, you can build out a similar set up at a fairly reasonable cost.

To begin with, most active traders regardless of whether they consider themselves day traders or swing traders, should start with an out-of-the-box computer to keep their costs down. As you mature in your trading and gain more experience, you can always build upon your current set up or customize it completely to meet your specific needs. Some new traders mistakenly believe that the fancier their computer set up is, the better they will be able to trade the market.

Now, although a good trading computer will help you trade more efficiently, it will not necessarily make you a better trader. More specifically, a day trader, who trades the markets very actively throughout the day, will likely have a much different trading computer workspace compared to a position trader who only initiates a handful of trades on a monthly basis.

The day trading computer setup will obviously require a much more robust configuration. And so, you need to match the necessary hardware requirements with your specific trading style. Additionally, aside from the actual specifications of your trading computer, you will want to ensure that you are getting the fastest Internet speeds that are available in your area.

These days, most Internet service providers can provide significantly improved connectivity and speed at only a small incremental price increase. Thus, it makes great sense to research your ISPs different service offerings so that you can get access to the fastest Internet connections, which can certainly make a difference in trade execution. That is to say that you want to ensure that the room or office from which you are performing your market analysis and placing trades from are as distraction free as possible.

Depending on your particular situation, you may be able to do a better job than others, in creating this type of environment for yourself. In any case, it pays to trade from a space where you feel comfortable and relaxed, so that you are able to make the best, most informed trading decisions as possible. One of the first matters that you need to decide upon is whether you will be using a PC or a Mac computer.

They both have certain advantages and disadvantages. And although, it is beyond the scope of this article to get into all of these points, there are plenty of resources online that will help you decide which is better suited for you.

But generally speaking, Macs tend to be more stable and reliable compared to Windows-based PCs. Additionally, Mac computers tend to be much less prone to getting viruses and other malware. This can be particularly important if you will be using your trading computer for other tasks outside of trading, or if will be browsing the web quite frequently.

The most important consideration should be the compatibility requirements of your preferred trading platform with a Mac or Windows based PC computer. That is to say that certain trading platforms will only work on a Windows-based computer, others only on a Mac-based computer, while some may be compatible with both the Mac and the PC-based computer.

You will have to check with your trading platform provider to confirm the required operating system specifications As of now you will find that most platforms are compatible with a PC while only some are compatible with a Mac.

This is particular true if you are an FX trader, in which case, you will likely need a PC for your forex trading platform. Processing power within your computer is commonly referred to as CPU, central processing units. The CPU is responsible for running all the processes within your computer. This processing power is measured in gigahertz, GHz, and so the higher the gigahertz the faster your computer will run.

The typical CPU range for most out-of-the-box computer workstations is between 1 and 4 GHz. In addition to this your computer can have several cores which can run simultaneously. This would increase the total efficiency and speed of your day trading or forex workstation. CPU power is particularly important for more active day traders because of the large amounts of real-time incoming data that need to be processed on a continual basis.

As such, most active day traders should look for a quad core set up with a minimum CPU of 3. Swing traders that are less active could consider a dual core set up with a minimum CPU of 3 GHz. The hard drive serves as the storage unit for your computers data. There are two types of hard drives within most computer units. The solid-state hard drive has many advantages over the traditional hard drive.

SSDs provide enhanced overall performance and speed, and they have the characteristic of being more energy efficient as well. As such, most traders should consider either configuring their new trading computer to include an SSD. If, however, they are using a current trading workstation that has a traditional hard drive, then an upgrade to a solid-state drive would be recommended. RAM, random access memory, is responsible for running different processes simultaneously in an efficient manner.

RAM is measured in what is known as gigabytes GB, and the higher the unit of gigabytes the more processes you can run simultaneously in an efficient manner. Day traders should consider at least 16 GB of RAM at the minimum, however, 32 GB of RAM would be the recommended amount. As for swing traders at least 8 GB of RAM should be configured, and at least 16 GB of RAM would be recommended. T hese amounts can be adjusted up or down depending on the number of programs that you plan on running or keeping open at any given time.

Obviously the more programs that you will be running simultaneously, the higher the RAM capacity you should shoot for. The graphics card enables the processing of all graphic elements and videos on your computer screen. Getting a high quality graphics card will allow you to enjoy a better visual experience while trading. The minimum recommended specifications for a graphics card would be a Nvidia or AMD card with at least 2 GB of memory for a single monitor.

If you are using additional monitors, then you would want to increase your graphic card memory by two GB or so per additional monitor. A high-quality graphics card is essential for those that will require a multi monitor trading set up.

So how many monitors do you need to trade the market effectively? Now the answer to that question will be different for every trader based on their particular trading style and the tools that they use to support their trading decisions.

For example, a futures day trader that monitors a dozen different markets throughout the day, and needs access to a newswire, may opt for a multi-monitor setup that includes 6 to 10 different displays. At the same time, a long-term position trader, who trades off of the weekly charts may not require any type of elaborate set up beyond a single screen to trade efficiently.

And so, the answer will depend heavily on your trading horizon , the number of markets that you watch, the number of trading tools that you utilize, and other related details. Having said that, even very active day traders should start off with a relatively conservative multi-monitor setup.

As they move along their trading journey, they can add more monitors as needed to suit their trading requirements. As such ,you should not opt for an overly elaborate multi-monitor setup just to satisfy your inner urge for doing so.

That is to say that there should be a practical reason for adding additional monitors to your set up. The resolution of your computer screen is also an important consideration. Resolution refers to the number of pixels that are displayed on your computer screen. The higher the resolution the greater the number of pixels added, which will result in better overall clarity. There are three primary resolutions that you will typically find. This includes the X , the X , and the X In the overall scheme of things, this is relatively low, and can add efficiency to your trading business , which can be well worth the added cost.

Asus offers some of the best monitors for trading in terms of quality and price. As for the size of the monitors, that will be a matter of personal preference. But generally speaking, the most popular trading computer monitor sizes used range from about 24 inches to 32 inches. We have now covered all the major specifications that trading computers should have.

Additionally, if you have a multi-monitor setup, you will need several desk mounts, monitor mounts, and monitor stands to keep everything connected properly. Last, but not least you may need a USB to HDMI adapter to connect your trading computer to the various accessories that require it.

The right trading computer setup will help you to maximize your efficiency. While the best setup will be personal to each trader based on various factors including their trade frequency, and personal preferences, there are certain minimum requirements that should be met.

We discussed some of these minimum specifications as it relates to different components such as processing power, hard drive, RAM, graphic cards and more.

A as final note, traders are advised to try to keep their day trading or forex trading computer setup simple whenever possible, and avoid any unneeded hardware or software that will only serve to complicate their trader computer workstation. Take Your Trading to the Next Level, Accelerate Your Learning Curve with my Free Forex Training Program. Home Trading Articles Forex Futures Crypto Stocks Options. Download the short printable PDF version summarizing the key points of this lesson…. Click Here To Download.

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The order fee to the Forex order fees The account balance before and after the currency trade minus the order fee With this trade 5. All the same, when you have finished closing out your existing positions, resetting your demo account is easy and, even though a message will pop up telling you that you may have to wait a day, it usually happens instantly. The FX Order attached will only be submitted, right after the primary order got executed. Observe the installation rules set out in the post MT4 Trading Systems: Gifts for the New Year. Although you can get quite elaborate in your trading computer set up, many out-of-the-box gaming computers will often have the required specifications to run most trading platforms in an efficient manner. When you exit closes all orders in the basket.

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