A quick guide to trading from directly from charts
One of the key factors in successful trading is the ability to maintain your focus and to do so at each stage of a trade whether it’s research and analysis, money and risk management or execution.
The least distractions that you encounter in any of these phases the better. One way to avoid additional distractions is to avoid swapping or changing between screens.
Sometimes that can be more easily said than done yet there is one straightforward way to limit the number of times you toggle between screens and that is to trade directly from your charts.
The ability to do this and the level of functionality available to you can vary from broker to broker.
What do you need to trade from the charts?
FX and CFD traders who use either MT4 or MT5 can enable one-click trading in their charts. That, puts bid and ask prices for a given instrument in the top left-hand corner of the chart.
To execute a market order in predetermined size that you set you simply click the bid or ask button as required. Be aware though there are no second chances with one click dealing enabled. Click on the bid or the ask price and you have dealt in your preselected order size.
How does trading from charts work on MT4?
Those brokers who offer a ‘suped’ up version of the Meta trader platforms give their customers access to add-ins such as Tick Chart Trader which allows you to place orders directly from a tick chart with has an order ticket within it.
The Tick charts themselves can also be configured in a variety of formats and the add-in also supports hot-keys for trading such as B for Buy S for sell and so on.
If you have access to the Mini Terminal which usually comes in the same package of add-ons as one click trading then you can make use of smart lines which allows you to draw intelligent lines on chart.
Those lines can act as stop losses or take profits for full or partial orders and it’s also possible to use a time based line to close open positions at at specific point in the trading day.
Which brokers offer trading from charts?
Brokers who offer these MT4/MT5 add-ins include:
Trading from charts on third party applications
An alternative approach to trading directly from the chart can be found in some specialist charting packages such as Trading View. A popular third-party platform and community which more recently has linked to a number of brokerages.
You will need to have a specific account with a broker that’s linked to Trading View to take advantage of this functionality but it’s becoming an increasingly popular choice thanks to the ability to personalise your own chart set up in the web-based Trading View platform.
Which brokers allow you to trade from Trading View Charts?
These brokers whose clients can trade direct from Trading View’s charts.
- Oanda
- Forex.com
Disadvantages of trading directly from charts
Trading straight from the chart has its advantages particularly in terms of speed and lack of distractions.
But that immediacy can act against a trader.
It is easy to pull the trigger in haste and if you are using a tool such as one click trading that could mean placing trades, that if you had thought about a bit more, rather than acting instinctively, you may not of placed.
A lot of this comes to down you own trading discipline and and the rules you set yourself and that you need meet before you action a trade and sticking to them.
When to trade from the charts
Focusing solely on charts may work well for purely technical traders but if you to like to take a more holistic view and sample the market zeitgeist you may well want to look at news, research and social media feeds to get a complete picture.
There is no right or wrong solution here, it is more of question of deciding which is the best approach for you.
