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CHARTING SOFTWARE

I often get asked about charting software. Personally, I use eSignal (and used to use ShareScope) to trade the UK market (details below) but other SST traders who trade different markets have kindly passed on their recommendations and comments for your benefit.

Please be sure that whatever software you use, it has the Directional Movement Indicator (DMI or ADX) and that it can be changed from the default setting (usually 14 day) to 8 day.

There are many more charting packages on the market than those listed. I only pass on comments from SST traders who wish to help others in selecting software.

ShareScope www.sharescope.com
The software I used to trade UK markets for quite a few years. I found it easy to use, extremely reliable and the support is very good. There are two versions: End of Day and Real Time. End of Day is all you really need to trade the SST Strategy. US stocks are currently only available in RT and you can only view the last 10 days which is not a lot of use. They are developing EoD for US stocks but no release date as yet (as far as I know).

If you subscriber remember to select Short Swing Trading from the drop down where it asks "How did you hear about ShareScope?"

eSignal
I now use this and I have to say I am very impressed. It is probably the best I have ever used. There is a demo version and a discount for SST Members. You can select to subscribe to a wide range of exchanges including UK, Australian, US & Canadian. You will need the non-professional version if you are a private trader and there is a pricing calculator in order to find out how much it will cost you. Real time and EoD is available. I bought the RT version (eSignal Premier) which is excellent and data quality is very good. The reason I bought eSignal is that it runs the SST Plug-in.. To find out more about eSignal click here.

ProRealTime (Well worth a look!)
This is new software on the market - from Belgium of all places - but it looks pretty good and I recommend you take a look, particularly as the EoD version is FREE. It has everything you need for SST trading and I have had reports that the support is very good (thanks Rorie). It has just had FTSE Indices and UK stocks added. Data seems to be good quality. To take a look go to: www.prorealtime.com

MetaStock www.metastock.com
I have not used it myself but know traders who do. Highly recommended system but quite expensive. End of Day and Real Time versions available. It also appears to be possible to program the DI crossover into the "edit data" facility to test for trigger points for the next day.

Cybertrader www.cybertrader.com/software.asp
You can view and test a demo.

AmiBroker www.amibroker.com
Standard Edition is $149 (single payment) which seems reasonable to me. Can be used with Interactivebrokers real time data feed which is free if you make more than 6 trades on Futures per month or $10 p.m. if you make less than $30 commissions p.m. (Thanks for the Info Corrado, Italy)

Ensign Internet www.ensignsoftware.com
Has a big range of charting features all user configurable but the interface can sometimes be a bit strange - ‘non-Windows’. Lots of drawing tools. Covers every market: UK, USA, Europe etc. Expensive at $40 per month which includes EOD data. Unfortunately download not available until 9:30pm or later. Email help is very good.

Sierra Chart www.sierrachart.com
Draws beautiful charts! Plenty of charting features.
$25 per month which includes EOD data.

Incredible Charts www.incrediblecharts.com/
Has good range of charting features. Looks promising. Covers USA, Australia markets BUT NOT UK yet. 18 AUD (£8) per month which includes EOD data.

Free Charts with ADX www.stockcharts.com
Thanks to Darrell (SST trader) I can recommend this EXCELLENT site (better than Big Charts) for free charts where you can change the ADX setting and use 50 ma. When you get to the site enter your stock Ticker, select time period, ma and for Indicator select "Wilder's DMI (ADX)" then change the period from 14 to 8. For $10 pm you can set up to 100 charts and format them to include pretty much anything you want. You can then scroll through them to find trades to open. There is also a stock scanning facility. (Thanks for the additional info David, Canada)

Yahoo finance.yahoo.com
Thanks to Milen (SST trader) for suggesting this site. Good information on US & Canadian stocks. It is a free site and well worth a look.
I have had reports that the YAHOO free data feed has occasional errors in data for trading - please beware.

Big Charts www.bigcharts.com (Straight to charting page)
This is another FREE site. I would not want to actually trade with it because it lacks detail and although it has Directional Movement and 50 ma, you cannot adjust Directional movement from the default to 8 days. It doesn't even say what the default is but usually it's 14 days. To set up use SMA (simple ma) 50 and in "Lower Indicator 1" select DMI (Directional Movement Indicator).

Quotetracker www.quotetracker.com
Recommended by Tessa (SST trader) who says you can download FREE intra-day charts immediately which have adjustable DMI.

Lycos/Quote.com finance.lycos.com
Darrell (SST trader) recommended this site and I have used it myself in the past. Real time and cheap with drop downs for time frame and indicators. However, I suspected and it has recently been reported by David (not me) that the quality of data is not good and neither is their help line (I will not quote his exact words!)

TC 2000
I believe this is good in many respects and in August 04 they added the ADX (DMI) indicator so now can be used for SST.

NexTrend www.nextrend.com
Thanks to Derek for providing this link. He says this is free software and data (after registering) and if you set your charts up as INDU you get a live Dow Jones feed. Comprehensive studies (indicators) including ADX (DMI). Data only available for US Indices & stocks.

Inverline www.inverline.com
Thanks to Alan here is another free site (with registration) that has EoD and Intra day charts and adjustable indicators including ADX (DMI)

Brokers
Many brokers give access to chart facilities which have DMI. (Brown & Co is an example)

IG Index software -I have had an email from Lindsay to say the data from IG does not match that of ShareScope and had the effect of reducing profit from SST. Any more views on this?

Fcharts www.spacejock.com
New in 2006, I heard about this from an SST Member (James) who says it is great and there is a free version as well as a version with more indicators for a nominal amount. You can get data from any source such as Yahoo, www.eoddata.com and others. You can also get a live data feed for intra-day charts. I have not checked this out for myself yet.

Internet connection
All software needs Internet connection. Obviously Broadband is what we all go for if we can but David (Cornwall) warns against sattelite Broadband saying it is considerably slower than ISDN. Perhaps it will improve in the future.

Tell me about your charting software experiences (briefly) and I will post your comments here.

Enjoy your trading,

David Graeme-Smith

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