TradeSmarter Platform Review

Last updated on March 30, 2014

TradeSmarter – The First Australian Binary Options Trading Platform

While the platform does have a straightforward design, there is little in the way of extra features that makes it stand out from the competition. When looking at the Features page on the platform section of the website, Trade Smarter describes the platform as being “the most profitable platform.” Statements like this should be viewed as a red flag by traders because a platform itself is never profitable – only strategies can be profitable. A platform can be easy and efficient to use but even that much is questionable with TradeSmarter’s platform offerings.

The trading station itself can be viewed in either “box” or “list” form, and each of these layouts will be seen as preferable for certain types of trading styles. Traders with longer term strategies that are focused on a few major assets will likely prefer the box format, as this helps to give more detail about fewer trading assets. The list form however, is likely to be seen as favorable by traders with shorter term views (such as scalping decisions) where a larger number of assets is constantly monitored.

The platform does offer most of the standard basics but the overall layout is relatively boring to look at and in the past, it didn’t accentuate the main trading buttons in a way that was easy to see. Because of this, some shorter term traders had a harder time executing positions in a timely fashion but it’s good to see that lately they’ve added more size to the mentioned button and now everything seems to be well balanced. Also, as a new addition they’ve introduced Social Trading, a feature which allows you to see what other traders are doing.

Platform Ratings

Platform functionality (8/10) Platform Features did execute when tested

Platform efficiency (7.5/10) Layout not as efficient as those from major competitors

Ease of use (7.5/10) Platform clearly tailored toward novice traders but layout does not match this intention and could be made easier to use

Additional information (8/10) Additional Blog analysis offered

Expiry times – 30 sec, 60 sec, 2 min, 5 min, 15min, 30 minute, 1 hour and others (8.5/10)

Trading tools available – Take profit, Rollover, Double Up, Sentiment Indicator (8.5/10)

Trading options available – High/Low, Above/Below, One Touch, Range/Barrier (8/10)

Prices & Rates: Accurate

Why TradeSmarter doesn’t suck?

Trade Smarter places most of its focus on attracting newer traders. There is a step by step trading tutorial that is built into the platform itself as well as some basic educational materials that help traders understand the simple mechanics of placing a trade. This is going to be favorable for traders of some experience levels but once these things are understood, they start to look misplaced in the trading platform.

As far as potential advantages, the platform does include most of the basic features that are offered by competitors in the industry. The platform is customizable and shows a sentiment gauge that will allow you to see what the majority of traders are doing with a certain asset at any given time. The charts themselves do offer a visual representation of what is happening to the price as well as a horizontal line that tells you when the expiration time for the trade will be seen. Calling these features advantages, however, will be considered by many as being an overly generous explanation, as these features are relatively standard in the industry.

Why does TradeSmarter suck?

TradeSmarter apparently has no problem getting by with the basics but this sets it well behind some of the leaders in the industry. Technical traders will also be disappointed because of the lack of charting tools that are available on the platform. Because of this, those implementing technical strategies will need to find other software in order to conduct their regular trading analysis.

TradeSmarter Platform Technology

The platform technology that is offered by Trade Smarter can only be described as limited at best. While there were no major issues with the workability of the software, the features are very basic. To some people, this might actually sound appealing as there might be nothing to distract from the trading experience but the visual layout of the platform can appear cluttered and it can be difficult to clearly see the essential aspects of the trading station. According to them, the platform is based on ”Amazon resizable compute capacity in the cloud…” but for the time being we are not familiar with this technology, nor do we know what it can do to help Binary options trading.

Special Features

TradeSmarter platform allows the trader to use the Risk-o-Meter function which empowers the users to create their own custom Risk – Reward profiles. A conservative trader can choose to go for a lower payout but a higher refund in case the trade goes wrong while a more aggressive trader can choose a high payout versus a low refund.

My TradeSmarter Trading Experience

When looking at new platforms, I try to use the platform’s strong points in order get a real sense of what the company is offering. Unfortunately, with Trade Smarter’s lack of feature offerings for either fundamental or technical trade, I looked instead to the sentiment indicator gauge when placing my trade. I do not normally do this but since there is very little else for traders to use when making their position decisions, I thought I would put myself in a similar arrangement and try to make a trade using the information they have on offer.

Since I am mostly a contrarian trader by nature I tend to look for assets that are over extended in one direction or another. Using the sentiment gauges, I found that the AUD/USD forex pair was breaking key short term support levels as a majority of traders were buying CALL options (by a ratio of 57% to 43%). Since it was looking as though those bullish traders would be forced to close their positions at a loss, I entered into a 1 hour PUT option in the pair. Prices stalled after the break, however, and the trade finished slightly out of the money so I will look to enter again later at higher levels.

Overall my experience with the Trade Smarter platform was lackluster at best. There is very little (if anything) that sets this platform apart from the offerings provided by the company’s major competitors. So, while the platform might be viewed as acceptable by newer traders, there is very little that is likely to keep the interest of traders with more experience so it appears that Trade Smarter will have to do something to expand its offerings in order to achieve any sort of strong position in the industry.