The increasing evolution of social trading facilities and tools has given rise to many niche products which traders can utilize to provide the confidence of sharing the knowledge of others while trading. At its outset, Online Trading was a somewhat isolating experience, whereby traders would need to master strategies on their own and often lose a considerable amount of their initial capital during the learning stages. The onset and rise in popularity of various interactive systems and social trading platforms has given traders a feeling of inclusion and empowerment, whereby strategies can be shared and copied, lessening the apprehension of traders worldwide.

One of the latest arrivals on this scene is to launch on Tuesday, January 15. Based in Toronto, Ontario, North America's third largest financial center, myTradeGroups.com is a free application which is designed to help traders improve their results by teaming up in small groups. myTradeGroups.com offers worldwide coverage.

Trevor Williams, founder and CEO of myTradeGroups, has his background in retail and institutional trading, and over his career became increasingly concerned by the number of new retail traders who opened a trading account, only to trade unsuccessfully and lose the initial investment before being able to find a strategy that works.

"The problem for the new trader is not so much a shortage of books, tools, analysis forums, market information or trading strategies, but rather that there are simply too many of them" explains Trevor Williams. "We understand that mentorship has always been necessary to help connect traders with materials relevant to their personal trading style."

"In the more personal days of the trading floor, traders did not survive long without their network of peers and mentors to help them avoid this very problem."

“Many believe that successful traders find their brilliant trades in isolation.” He adds. “In my experience, there is so much data out there that only traders who leverage their network stay ahead of the market.”

The product itself consists of a 'micro-communications' platform best suited for traders who follow and trade Forex , stocks, futures and CFDs. It is free for traders and tailored specifically toward their needs. It is not a forum or a social network, but does encourage trader interactions.

Trevor Williams is very much an advocate of small groups being an ideal method of working together in all learning environments:

“If you look at law, medical and business school programs, they all place participants in small study-groups to better cope with the avalanche of information. Having this type of network is a real asset to anyone studying the markets.”

“In trading, there are many things you might be willing to share or ask in a small group of peers that you would not otherwise comfortably post on a public blog or forum. It’s for these things that myTradeGroups.com exists.”

“Being able to communicate in real-time with a small group of similar traders provides our users an extra edge.”

In terms of its operation and ergonomics, there are 3 main features:

1) The user has a dashboard to join several topic-specific groups. Each group connects the user with a small number of similar traders.

2) Groups communicate with short messages that are delivered in real-time to each member.

3) Each group can expire after a period of time allowing the user to re-join and meet a new batch of traders.

In a world where social trading is becoming almost ubiquitous, Trevor Williams sees myTradeGroups.com as having two distinct advantages which will gain it popularity in the market place:

"Firstly, myTradeGroups.com enables traders to find others with whom they work well. It builds their network, which eventually becomes a more filtered and relevant source for keeping up with the markets and humanizes trader interactions. Secondly, services such as Stocktwits and Twitter are excellent, but they are especially ‘broadcast’ focused. myTradeGroups is more like a private conversation at the pub among peers."

"I often use the analogy of a golf course. If you show up alone, you get paired up with three other golfers, you exchange tips and banter throughout the course, then swap business cards to keep in touch at the end. myTradeGroups is a lot like that."

“You’ll initially meet a lot of traders.” says Williams. “But the end result will be your own, hand-picked network of peers who trade like you and help you manage the growing flood of daily information.” The application also provides mentorship groups, as well as a unique way to participate in team-based trading competitions."

The social aspect of trading is most certainly a major focus over recent times. Observing this development and its impact on the world of group trading will no doubt be of interest in the coming months.