Charting software reviews
Whilst i am just one man trying to get as much info to you as i can, i can't review everything. Here at "trade2win" they have managed to do just that, click above.
Software
One of the worlds best known charting packages. Only for US stocks.
I need a review of this please.
UK share package. Good monthly fee - Only £11
Another frontrunner in charting software
UPdata Technical Analyst.
Powerful Stock Charting and Technical Analysis Program
Omnitrader & Visual Trader. I have to admit they both look very interesting indeed. I hope to be able to review these at some point.
At £60 it certainly looks like a good price, but does the need to source your own data cause a problem? Written by a guy that needed his own
charting package, and so did it himself - gotta admire him for that. Support therefore is excellent apparantly, direct to source.Can anyone give a review?
I have heard good stuff about this software also. Click above.
Got a 100% user rating on CNN!! Adware program and therefore FREE, can't beat that.Apparantly only good for intraday though. Will come back to you on this one.
Another well known and respected software package.
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Which software to use for charts analysis
Looking to "stock screen" using indicators quickly for free?I have discovered a great website that will do just that.
www.chartfilter.com
Its great, simply tell it your parameters, i.e show all stocks that has crossed the 50 moving average TODAY.
Click go and thats it. Its has both about 50 odd indicators, as well as fundamental stock screening facilities.
I am currently using this to test its effectiveness over the coming weeks. I will let you know my results via the softwate page. |
Well, there-in lies probably the biggest question of all, because if we are not trading solely on company fundamentals, then our decisions depend on how we interperet what the technical readings on our charting software says.
After all, if the chart gives us a buy signal, we have to believe in the signal before we part with our well earned pennies, (well, speaking as a typical yorkshireman i know i dont like to let go of my money easily).
So here i aim to put YOUR reviews of the different software packages available, not just my own. Hell, you cant expect me to do ALL the work now can you?
Please contact me to give a review of your own software choices so i can post here on the web.
Firstly before we begin, on the left are links to as many different software sites i can find, with no bias from me.
Which do i use?
Well, this is probably not the best way to start, as my choice may not yet be proven to be the right one, remember i am after all still learning just like you!
Before i dig myself a big hole then with my current choice, we should first determine what we are looking for in our "perfect charting package".
Real-time data or End-of-day?
Free or more pennies out my pocket?
Ability to adjust and manipulate settings, set up search parameters, stock screen etc
Inclusion of historic data (needed to backtest stratergies)
These are what i think are the major points, others such as inclusion of news, director dealings, city analyst recommendations etc are important but not essential.
You may disagree on these points.
Well, i come back to the old "tight as a Yorkshireman" rule to which i am bound by from birth, and i have opted for a free online choice. But i must say this decision was not made lightly.
I did try a "pay monthly" service from one of the UK's leading charting companies- Sharescope, but i just couldnt get to grips with it. But i will come back to that one, and my reasons why later.
My current choice is ITCharts from IT-Finance.
Now before you rush off and click the provided link, hang on. I am going to save you some money.
If you click the above link, it will take you to the website where you have the traditional choices, end-of-day data actually provided for free - which is a good deal as the likes of Sharescope and others charge for this,
or real-time data which you will have to pay for.
But......... we want the good stuff for free dont we? eh! eh!
Well, i have discovered that good old IGIndex the spreadbetters use this company for thier charting, and if you are a registered customer of IG then you have access to the 15 min delayed data ....FREE
Its great, and well worth the business you may (or may not) give to IG.
Open an account with either of thier companies IGIndex.co.uk or Spreadright.com or even
Binarybet.com and once into thier dealing software, click on the tools tab (bottom right) and there you will see the charting button.
Once opened, set your preferences and then you will see a "save" icon at the top left. Save your preferences and then store the page in your IE favourites.
Thats it then, you now have access to thier "delayed" (5 mins or so) service for "nowt" as we yorkies say.
So what does the package have to offer.
Well it gives historic data, and if you do as i suggest above it will include data right down to 1 minute levels, great for the larger stocks, FOREX etc.Click to see
You can do all the usual trend lines, support resistance blah blah blah that you would expect.
It has a good spread of technical indicators to choose from, Stochastics, bollinger, MACD etc etc to the tune of 22 different ones in total. More than enough to confuse anyway!!Click to see
You can create as many portfolios as you wish, each with different settings.
The graphics are what i think to be as one of the simplest and least confusing i have come across so far. Also the colour scheme is very easy on the eye and does not confuse.Click to see
As its an online only package, its not really complicated to navigate your way around. In fact its dead easy. It gives us, the novice, what we need without having to wade through loads of settings and preferences for stuff we dont really know or understand and will probably never use.
It covers just about all markets, my major fustration with the other packages. sharescope does only UK, the rest do only US. Well thats no bloomin' good is it!Click to see
Ok, so what are its drawbacks?
Well, firstly its an online service only. This is a major concern if you dont have an "always-on" connection, such as broadband. Normal 56k dial-up services cost per minute and this may be a real concern when choosing this package.
Also as its online only if you like me use a laptop, you dont have access to the charts when not connected to the net, no good when i'm sat in the car, or in a hotel room.
I havent looked into it (hint hint, will you?) but will the "end-of-day" service they offer allow you the data without being connected?
If so, then as its free, then that would be a great deal.
The only other main drawback is that it does NOT have any form of stock screening. So you couldnt tell it to search for all stocks that have crossed their 50 day moving average today, or have broken 52 weeks highs.
This is a concern. The other packages tend to offer this and it does save a lot of time in selecting which stocks to watch.
But as always there are ways to do this very job, without any substantial costs.
I find the quickest way to screen stocks for todays chart breakouts is by using the ADVFN Toplists service.
One click of the mouse shows you all the stocks that have broken out of several different types of chart patterns. Then you just search those stocks within ITCharts. This service from ADVFN does however cost.
If you go via this site frequenttrader.co.uk and look down the bottom of his page, he has a special offer that will get you 3 months of this service from ADVFN for only a fiver.
There are other ways to screen for chart breakouts, even for free on the net. I will review these methods later.
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Charting Technical
