How to develop trading platform: features, benefits, options [Updated 2020] (2024)

Nowadays there is a common practice among people globally to make purchases online. Some of them choose to buy online for the ease of convenience, others because some online platforms offer competitive prices. Statista states that there are over 1.79 billion global digital buyers worldwide in 2018 and predicts 2.14 billion people will buy services and goods online in 2021. This tendency makes businesses likely to think or behave in a way of online trading software development and implementation that will help them gain more profit.

Trading online is a great solution to buy and sell financial products through the e-trading platform. Currently, e-trading platforms are an alternative to using traditional brick-and-mortar trading firms and organizations. These platforms are normally provided by web-based brokers and are available to every person who wants to make money from the market. In today's high-speed trading environment, e-trading platforms offer a real-time solution with a full range of trading services.

What is an e-trading platform?

E-trading platform is also known as an online trading platform, comprehensive software solution providing an ability to place trades and monitor accounts, create portfolios through financial intermediaries for investors, traders remotely and in real time. With the advent of e-trading, the investors are actively rushing towards it. A growing number of active investors are bypassing conventional brokerage offices entirely and doing all their trading online.

Essential differences between traditional trading and e-trading

While many people value the traditional broker-client relationship, there have been technological changes in the trading industry that has left people to shift from the traditional method to the online trading methods. There are some significant differences between both the trading methods and the one that is best for you will depend on what you prefer the most. Here is the table in which you can see some of the top differences between traditional and web-based trading to reach an informed decision based on your needs.

Also, you can take a look at some of the major characteristic of online trading platforms below:

• combination of demand and supply on one web-resource;
• inexpensive transactions;
• operational aggregation of goods/services in accordance with market trends;
• direct income from the first buyer (user);
• easy handling when working with the client base;
• high level of security.

How does online trading platform work?

When you buy or sell within e-trading platform, your order can be filled in seconds due our computerized world. Let’s find out how the trading platform works:

• You log in and enter your order with your online broker.
• After that the order is placed in a database.
• The database checks all the different trading markets and identifies the best price for you.
• Once the market that successfully matched the seller and buyer sends a notification to both parties.
• The order and the price are displayed to all investors.
• E-trading stores a record of the trade in history if there is a need to study past transactions.
• Also, the system sends a contract to the broker who sold the shares and the broker who bought them.

What’s the idea?

You will definitely know that it’s possible to make a profit from trading. No matter what the market is, successful traders should be prepared to work hard in order to get good returns on their investment. That’s why when you first start out trading, a good way of developing your trading efficiency and skills is to use an e-trading platform that helps you to reduce the amount of risk involved and improve your skills in a safer environment. Whether you are an investor who needs access on the go or a trader who requires the performance and flexibility of a professional trading environment, an e-trading platform is a place to stay. If you are new to online trading, you might be overwhelmed by all the platform options and can use a brokerage company to make the purchases for you. Having all that in mind, using an e-trading software can help your business in the following:

• You can track your progress in real time.
• You have high control over your investment.
• You have a chance to avoid brokerage bias.
• You can automatically stop losses or take profits when your trades get to a particular level.
• You can easily manage movements and activities.

Taking all that into account, we have decided to create a concept of e-trading platform that includes all the necessary elements to trade more efficiently. Sounds impressive, right? Let’s dive into the details below!

User Roles

Here we are going to define roles that give certain privileges to the user and grant access to the platform features and functionality. You can find three user levels within the e-trading system:

• Trader: a user who engages in the buying and selling of financial assets within online trading platform.
• Broker: a user who is licensed to trade stocks through the e-trading platform.

Project structure

Here you can find the structure of the project and see what technologies can be used to develop trading system.

Trader Dashboard

To log in as a Trader in the e-trading platform, you should choose a Trader account type, insert your username and a password into the login form. Only by logging in as a Trader can you see the following widgets:

• Balance History
• Portfolio
• Active Orders
• Trades History
• Deals

Watchlist

You can find the Watchlist in your main menu. This feature is used to see if the stocks you monitor meet certain criteria or investing opportunities. What’s more, it helps you to analyze price movements and spot trading opportunities to make a decision. In the page, you can see the following columns:

• Markets
• Change
• Sell
• Buy
• High
• Low
• Sentiment
• Action

Portfolio

With that feature, you can bring together all your investments and group all your financial assets such as stocks, bonds, commodities, currencies and cash equivalents, as well as their fund counterparts, including mutual, exchange-traded and closed funds that are divided into pieces of varying sizes, representing a variety of asset classes and/or types of investments to accomplish an appropriate risk-return portfolio allocation. In the page, you can see the following tables and diagrams:

• Markets
• Portfolio
• Available to withdraw

Alerts

This feature can be found in the main menu. Daily alerts can enhance performance within the trading platform. Not only do they notify you about market development, technical indicators, or reaching a specified price target, they help you to make precise decisions and increase your profits. In general, trading alerts can be divided into several categories: news alerts, technical alerts, price alerts, and economic alerts.

Also, you can set up an alert by clicking on the item you are interested in. Once you click, you will be shown a pop-up where you can make a change to the settings:

• add alerts values;
• alert settings.

Newsfeed

From the corresponding option in your main menu you can find the Newsfeed feature. This feature enables you to catch up on what’s happening with the markets or people within e-trading platform. On the top of the page you can see two tabs - market news and company news. Also you can apply filters option to display news based on your preferences.

Transactions

This feature can be found also in the main menu. Transaction means the activity of buying and selling between two parties - Buyer and Seller. All the information about transactions is presented in a well-structured table with the following columns:

• OrderID
• Market
• Type (Buy/Sell)
• State (Open/Closed)
• Date
• Action

Withdrawals

Thanks to the Withdrawals feature in your main menu, users can withdraw funds from their accounts fast and easily. Funds can be withdrawn up to the value of the balance of your account, minus the amount of margin used. They are withdrawn using the same method, and sent to the same account, as previously used for your deposit. Payment will be made in the following order of priority:

• Credit card
• PayPal
• Bank transfer

You will be notified via email once the processing of your withdrawal request has been completed, together with the payment provider details of where your funds were sent.

Messages & Video call

Thanks to that feature, you can message with users within the e-trading platform in real time, send and receive text messages, voice messages, and video. Not only does it simplify the process of collaboration, but also it speeds up the process of decision making.

Analytics

With this feature, you can analyze the current day’s trades and historical trade data from a comprehensive statistics report. Not only does it display individual trade and time analysis, but also it allows you to review current trader performance. in addition to that, you can monitor trader performance over a week or month or particular time of day, as well as analyze performance during specific market conditions. In the page, you will see the following information:

• Balance Status
• Revenue
• Saving
• Statistics
• Performance
• Activity
• Yearly/Monthly Expense

Settings

All the settings are default. If the default settings work for you, there is no need to change them. The default settings for some common indicators are presented in the list below:

• 14-period Relative Strength Index (RSI)
• 20-period Commodity Channel Index (CCI)
• 14-period Stochastic Oscillator
• 20-period Bollinger Bands (with 2 standard deviations bands)
• 12, 26, 9 periods for Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD)

Broker Dashboard

In the e-trading platform, you can choose a Broker account type and log in as a Broker by inserting a username and a password into the login form. Once you log in as a Broker, you will be redirected to the page with the following widgets:

• Balance History
• Portfolio
• Active Orders
• Trades History
• Deals
• Day trading dashboard

Watchlist

You can find the Watchlist by pressing the corresponding option in your main menu. The Watchlist involves 2 tabs: Clients’ Watchlist and My Watchlist. This feature is used to see if the stocks you monitor meet certain criteria or identify your investing opportunities. In addition to that, you can analyze price movements and spot trading opportunities to make a decision. In the page, you can see the following columns:

• Markets
• Change
• Sell
• Buy
• High
• Low
• Sentiment
• Action

Portfolio

The Portfolio can be found in the main menu. Thanks to that feature, you can see a group of assets coming in many forms, including stocks, bonds, commodities or derivatives. Not only can you display your portfolio positions in a chart or pie chart formats, but also it helps you to compare each position to sector and industry trends. Here you can see two tabs:

• My Portfolio
• Clients’ Portfolios

In the Clients’ Portfolios section you will see the following information:

• #
• Full Name
• E-mail
• Status

By clicking on the field, you will be redirected to the Client’s page. Not only can you see the portfolio and watchlist, but also you can place a trade.

Alerts

This feature can be reached from your main menu. You can find 2 tabs: Clients’ Alerts and My Alerts. You will get free, automatic and customizable notifications sent to you if your specifications are triggered. The e-trading platform will monitor the markets - how prices move and economic events occur.

Once there is an opportunity for you or for your client, you will get notified immediately and can make a decision. Moreover, you can set up an alert in order to be notified about a desired trade event, and stop worrying — you will not miss an opportunity on the trading market.

Newsfeed

By clicking on the newsfeed option, you will be redirected to the page where a comprehensive overview and insight of the global currency markets will be displayed in real time. In order not to face information overload, traders/brokers can easily find the relevant information without need to crawl through paragraphs of text to place winning trades. Not only can traders and brokers grasp market-moving news in the shortest possible time, but also they are on top of the market.

Transactions

You can reach this feature from the corresponding option in your main menu. That feature allows you to effect the transaction between two parties - a seller and a buyer. All the information about transactions you can find in a well-structured table that includes the following columns: order, market, type (buy/sell), state (open/closed), date, actions.

Withdrawals

You can withdraw funds from your account fast and easily with the Withdrawals feature. Usually funds are withdrawn by using the same method, and sent to the same account. The amount of margin used will be stopped out of your balance. You will get a notification through an email once the processing of your withdrawal request has been completed.

Messages & Video call

With that option, you can easily message a client you work with or any person within the e-trading platform in real time. From the comfort of your home or office, you can get all the relevant information. Only after making agreement upon the placing trades/selling/buying can a broker perform further actions.

Analytics

You can easily reach the Analytics page from the corresponding option in your main menu. Not only does it help you to get a comprehensive overview of the e-trading process, but also you can professionally manage risks and monitor market-moving events and trends in real time. In the page you can find the following information:

Settings

The Setting page can be reached from your main menu. With the Settings option, you can set up your own settings - rules and restrictions. If the default settings work for you, there is no need to change them.

Key features of the e-trading platform

Below, we have put a list of major features that any e-trading platform should include. However, the issue is how to turn these features into a great trading software that will work correctly, or in a similar vein, how to develop an e-trading system effectively. Let's take a closer look at the feature list below:

• User authorization&user profile. Opening up an online trading platform, users should find authorization as a user-friendly, highly secured process. Also, a wide range of options like to login with an email address, mobile phone number or social accounts should be offered. All users’ information is kept in their profiles and can be updatable and editable.
• Search. With this feature, users can find relevant information they are searching fast and easy.
• Portfolio updates. Users can track and monitor their portfolios with a filtering option in a real-time mode.
• Deposits. This feature is in great favor. Users can access detailed deposits information in a convenient way.
• Newsfeed. This feature highlights information that includes the latest news within the e-trading platform.
• Notifications&alerts. With this feature, users are knowledgeable about the current news within the e-trading platform. Messages can be sent to them at any time to let them know if there is an event or they need to take some actions.
• Transactions. Users can view dashboards, monitor, run reports about their transactions in the online mode.
• Quotes monitoring. This feature allows users to view/monitor all their quotes flow online.
• Sorting&filtering. With these built-in features, users can better navigate within e-trading system and display data in a readily understandable format.
• Placing trades. This feature allows users to view/edit their financial data placed within the e-trading platform.
• Analytics. Dashboards, charts, graphs, gauges, reports, and other visuals are invaluable tools for presenting information in a quick and easy to digest manner. They really help to illustrate the key financial data, analyze them to make an informed decision.

How to build a trading platform

Whatever choices are made, trading is a specific area, but it might be very profitable for businesses. Let’s take a closer look at these factors that should be brought to notice:

• UX design. It is extremely important to increase user acquisition and user retention. When designing a system, its structure and user flows you should think through in order to avoid mistakes, create the perfect and coherent visual identity and give an extensive attention to the usability goals, user characteristics, environment, tasks and workflow processes, and so on. Navigation within the trading system should provide users with a better orientation to promptly reach the desired section, quickly direct to the desired section, find and access the data you need.
• UI design. It focuses on styling the structure and content that are easy to access, understand, and use to facilitate users’ actions. It brings together concepts from interaction design, visual design, and information architecture. All the interface elements such as colors, typography, graphics, images should be harmonious and used consistently across the e-trading software solution to evoke desired emotions.
• Frontend development. Refers to the client side of the e-trading software solution and involves user interface, web pages development, and so on. When building an e-trading platform, frontend engineers implement the structure, design, behavior, and animation of everything users visually see on the screen when they open up the e-trading platform. The required technologies are HTML/CSS/JavaScript, jQuery, Bootstrap or Foundation, React or Angular.
• Backend development. Refers to databases/servers the user cannot see in the browser, involves the communicating with the server that provides data on requests. All information, like user profiles, payments transactions are stored in the created database. Backend developers request the server to display required data stored in the database. The following technologies are used: Python, .Net, PHP, SQL-databases - mysql, postgres, sql server, and NoSQL databases such as MongoDB; RESTful Services, APIs, etc.
• Testing. QA engineers with a great knowledge of testing processes and a "customer-focus" vision who will work on assuring the quality and integrity of features&functionality, checking them to ensure the e-trading platform operates correctly before going live are required. QA engineers verify that all the operations perform according to specification and all internal components have been adequately tested.

Also, you can read about: How we've created an investment platform

Benefits of the e-trading system

Below we have identified some aspects of why online platforms for trading are so beneficial. Let’s read about them below:

• Applicability. The online trading market evolves rapidly, providing an avenue for businesses to profit. Nowadays, you can create an e-trading solution with a seamless user interface and quite extensive functionality that will help you build wealth at the very start.
• Profitability. E-trading platforms allow owners to reduce costs. There is no need to lease the premises or hire additional staff to run a business. You should just create an e-trading software solution and then promote it.
• Availability. Online trading provides a broad spectrum of available financial solutions available. You can find exactly what you need whether you are a professional or individual trader.
• High level of control. Users can operate on the exchange, view all the actions, and control in a snap from their e-trading dashboard.
• Oriented on user needs. E-trading platforms can offer highly personalized services to users through an understanding of their goals, philosophy and risk tolerance that increases user engagement.
• 24/7 accessibility. You can access your e-trading portal whenever and wherever you are to perform the transactions or take any other actions.
• Lower transaction charges. Users conduct transactions within the e-trading platform themselves from their accounts thereby obviating the need to hire additional staff to handle orders, etc.

Bottom line

As the trading environment becomes more mature, consumers become more tech-savvy and particular about the quality of the products and services, making businesses provide more specialized consulting services and financial solutions to better serve their clients. We, at DDI Development, have proven experience in building a diverse range of web and mobile solutions for different business verticals. If you are thinking of e-trading platform, let us know and we can turn your idea into a real software.