Stock Software – the Best Software for Stock Analysis

Here are some options for finding stock software for analysing and monitoring your stock trading and investments. Whether you’re a small investor or part time stock trader, these software packages will make your life easier. Stock software usually takes three forms: website based, desktop computer based and finally mobile computing based. Day traders and professional traders normally prefer desktop based trading applications. Websites that have stock analysis functions are perfectly adequate for the small investor. In many cases these websites have a wide range of free to use tools. Finally mobile computing now offers an attractive way of being able to trade stocks from any location.

Stock software – Stock analysis websites

The problem with desktop software is that you have to figure out how to install it. Once it’s installed then you often have to update it, which is quite a frequent occurrence for financial software. Finally desktop software often has to download the latest stock data, and this all takes time.

One alternative is to get some web based stock software. Many of the web based stock software sites are free for a basic service, but you have to pay for a live ticker feed if you want the latest stock prices in near realtime. Live prices are pretty much essential for stock day traders and forex day traders.

If you only want to manage your personal stock portfolio and maybe do the occasional trade then you might be able to just use a free stock analysis website.

For UK based traders the best free stock site is iii.co.uk (here’s more information and a comprehensive review of iii.co.uk). The site offers stock investors a high quality portfolio system which covers stocks, unit trusts, ETFs, investment trusts and cash based investments. You can even track your debts via the portfolio tool. As far as trading tools the site offers a range of stock analysis tools including some great stock charts. The stock charts support candle stick and standard stick charts. Moving averages and Bollinger bands can be plotted on the charts. There are also a wide range of other indicators and oscillators. A particularly good feature of iii’s website is the ability to chart weekly graphs if a stock has a trading history that stretches back three years or more. Iii’s free stock charts are based on time delayed data but there is the option to pay for a live prices ticker feed.

iii.co.uk also offers some stock screening tools. Stocks may be screened on price change over time, PE ratio, dividend yield or a wide variety of other criteria. iii also has its own low priced trading service which does include advanced features such as the ability to place limit and stop loss orders.

Other free stock sites include Yahoo finance, the Motley Fool as well as Google’s finance pages. Google’s financial site is becoming increasingly useful now that the Google Android operating system is becoming more widespread on mobile phones and other devices.

 The best known stock software package for the small investor is MetaStock. This is a comprehensive desktop based stock analysis and trading tool and is a favorite with day traders. MetaStock comes in three versions. The standard version contains time delayed stock prices and is useful for traders trading on a daily or weekly basis. MetaStock Pro is a better option for day traders as it supplies live stock prices. Finally MetaStock Pro FX is stock software that has been specifically designed for foreign currency (forex) traders.

As a software developer, the thing I particularly like about MetaStock is the ability to write custom stock screening and backtesting scripts to test out new trading algorithms. Don’t worry if you’re not a programmer though, there are thousands of scripts and plugin add-ons available that allow all kinds of new trading algorithms and trading strategies to be used in stock trading via MetaStock. One of my favorites is the Bollinger Band System. This MetaStock add-on is a trading system that allows Bollinger Band trend following to identify the most profitable trading opportunities in a wide range of stocks.

An alternative to MetaStock is TradeStation. This is a comprehensive trading software solution for the day trader. TradeStation offers the small investor access to trading strategies that the big Wall Street professional traders use, such as automated trading of stock and forex transactions, backtesting of trading strategies and custom scanning of trading opportunities in the live market. A free trial period is available for TradeStation. For power users, TradeStation is also fully customisable through a built in programming language called EasyLanguage.

Mobile phone technology has now advanced to the stage where a stock software solution for a mobile phone is now a realistic option. There are a wide range of mobile stock trading software solutions available. Many of these solutions are supplied as an extension of a desktop or web based trading service. E*Trade is a popular US based trading company. It offers the investor the possibility of trading on a mobile phone via its E*Trade Mobile Pro software. The software is available for a range of mobile computing systems including the BlackBerry, iPhone and iPad.

As well as specialist software apps, it is of course also possible to use any web based trading platform thorough a mobile phone that has a web browser included. Google’s Android operating system for mobile phones has a particularly well specified web browser built into the operating system.

There are also a wide range of free stock software applications. One example is AptiStock. AptiStock offers a wide range of charting and analysis for a wide range of US, UK and Asian markets. The software uses end of day data, so it’s of most use to longer term traders trading on end of day or weekly stock data.

Free stock software usually has a lot of limitations, and the lack of live stock data means it is of limited use for day traders and serious investors.

In summary there are a wide range of stock software packages available. MetaStock and TradeStation are especially popular with stock and forex day traders as they offer incredibly powerful trading facilities similar to those used on Wall Street. For the smaller investor it’s possible to use the free stock websites to keep track of a portfolio. These sites also offer web based stock software for performing basic stock analysis such as trend following using moving averages or Bollinger Bands.

The author of this article is not authorised to give financial advice. This article is for information only does not constitute financial advice. Before making investment or stock trading decisions consult an independent financial adviser.