Strangle Options Strategy » trading software

Day Trading Software Choices …Puts You In The Right Call

admin — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 21:34:51 +0000

As a former broker for a few years, in the late 90’s, I had many of my clients tell me that they couldn’t take advantage of a certain recommendation because they had lost their extra money day trading. Back than the access to sophisticated software programs was limited and also rather costly. Today we are so inundated with software systems, it’s almost impossible to know where to turn. There is a way to make your decision easier if we break it down into the areas you wish to learn more about. For instance, are you searching for educational help or a better method to track an asset concentrating on its trends? Stock trading has become one of the Internet’s largest growing activities, not only at the professional level, but as an investment-based extra activity as well. This will also determine which program or system best fills your requirements.To properly consider what software will best suit your needs, we must first determine a mutual understanding. Most investors who use the internet, know about swing trading. If you are not a day trader or long term investor, you are a swing trader. Many so-called experts lump all online traders into the bag of day trading. For the sophisticated observer it is plain to see the obvious differences. A day trader rides the rush of the asset, while a swing trader diagnosis the trends and holds onto it as long as the momentum last. If we are in agreement on these points than you will be able to comprehend the following suggestions I strongly feel is necessary for any software to be useful.1. It must be able to offer live streaming technical data. (Otherwise the program is merely educational) 2. The platform should defiantly include candlestick charting.3. Visually it has to be large enough for all the data to be seen easily. (Many of the online brokerage’s technical data is to small to be useful) 4. It must be cost effective. (Most good systems can be purchased for between one to two hundred dollars)For those of you not yet familiar with candlestick charting, I will try to give a brief but accurate explanation. The Chinese invented the market concept, and the Japanese perfected charting techniques with the use of the candlesticks. It is easy to understand this complex system, if we simply break it down to the ticks on the chart you follow everyday. We know that the lower tick is where the stock opened and the higher is where it closed. Now if we made the two lines parallel and connected them, what would we have? A candle. However, during that movement, the stock might have gone lower or higher then where it opened or closed, So our candle has formed a tail and a wick. Is it starting to make a little sense to you? Take these examples:

1. Lets assume a stock opens two cents higher than it closed yesterday. It later closes three cents higher than that. Should we get in? Not necessarily. Because as the candlestick showed us, even though it had a five cent swing from the day before, a long wick was created. This meant that it went even higher then it eventually settled on. That tells us that the pressure to go higher wasn’t strong enough. We will put it on our watch list, and keep a keen eye on it.2.A few days pass with similar results. Suddenly there is a break in the resistance. The stock has formed a candlestick with a long tail. What does this convey? We might put a buy signal for a couple of cents higher, because the long tail tells us that the bulls are ready to take over.3. Ideally you want to wait for clusters to form. Of course the greatest indicator is a long candle. One that opens and closes with hardly any wick or tail.This synopsis could have very easily taken place over a few hours rather than days, if you were day trading, for example. There are many “characters” in candlestick charting, and those who master reading them become successful.

If you can acquire software that gives you even the slightest edge in your favor, it is well worth the Investment. I don’t profess to being an expert, but I do know of some. I obviously don’t have the time to go into all the details now, but at my site Market Mentalist you will find all you need to know about investing online. There is access to some of the top trading systems available including software, books, newsletters, and Forums. Whether you are an inquisitive novice or a seasoned pro Market Mentalist offers the online investment resource you just might be seeking.

Stock Market Trading Software…Up Or Down You Make Money

admin — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 21:31:48 +0000

These Fundamentals Aren’t TechnicalI believe in order to lay a solid foundation for successful trading, there are three basic fundamentals you must adhere to. The first is knowledge. There are only three things really that separate us from an expert. Training and experience comes after knowledge. Knowledge comes first, and expertise is accomplished through experience and constant training. So, how knowledgeable are you? Let us assume that you have some knowledge or you wouldn’t be researching the market. Do you know the difference between day trading and swing trading? To me there is a major difference. Many so-called experts lump all online traders into the bag of day trading. For the sophisticated observer it is plain to see the obvious differences. A day trader rides the rush of the asset, while a swing trader diagnosis the trends and holds onto it as long as the momentum last. Knowing these subtle nuances will determine what kind of software you need.Training encompasses a lot of different meanings. For our purposes I want to address technical analysis. I strongly feel any trader not taking advantage of the immense knowledge gained from technical charts is wasting time and money. Of course the fundamentals are important. They are much more important to the investor than the trader, however. A company’s financials don’t matter a great deal if you are planning on dumping the asset in a few minutes, a day, or a week. If there was any news about the company’s financials, believe me you would see it reflected on the technical charts.Use Software for Your AdvantageA Solid Platform to Build Your WealthNow based upon the idea that my assumptions are accurate, and you are still with me, as far as software platforms, the following suggestions I strongly feel are necessary for any software to be useful.1. It must be able to offer live streaming technical data. (Otherwise the program is merely educational) 2. The platform should defiantly include candlestick charting.3. Visually it has to be large enough for all the data to be seen easily. (Many of the online brokerage’s technical data is to small to be useful) 4. It must be cost effective. (Most good systems can be purchased for between one to two hundred dollars)More on Candlestick ChartingA Candle Burns Bright in Your FutureFor those of you not yet familiar with candlestick charting, I will try to give a brief but accurate explanation. The Chinese invented the market concept, and the Japanese perfected charting techniques with the use of the candlesticks. It is easy to understand this complex system, if we simply break it down to the ticks on the chart you follow every day. We know that the lower tick is where the stock opened and the higher is where it closed. Now if we made the two lines parallel and connected them, what would we have? A candle. However, during that movement, the stock might have gone lower or higher then where it opened or closed, so our candle has formed a tail and a wick. Is it starting to make a little sense to you? Can you see the advantage of knowing this information, for getting in and out, and setting a stop loss?Take these examples: 1. Lets assume a stock opens twenty cents higher than it closed yesterday. It later closes ten cents higher than that. Should we get in? Not necessarily. Because as the candlestick showed us, even though it had a thirty-cent swing from the day before, a long wick was created. This meant that it went even higher then it eventually settled on. That tells us that the pressure to go higher wasn’t strong enough. We will put it on our watch list, and keep a keen eye on it.2.A few days passes with similar results. Suddenly there is a break in the resistance. The stock has formed a candlestick with a long tail. What does this convey? We might put a buy signal for a couple of cents higher than it has previously gone, because the long tail tells us that the bulls are ready to take over.3. Ideally you want to wait for clusters to form. Of course the greatest indicator is a long candle. One that opens and closes with hardly any wick or tail.This synopsis could have very easily taken place over a few hours rather than days, if you were day trading, for example. There are many “characters” in candlestick charting, and those who master reading them become successful.If you can acquire software that gives you even the slightest edge in your favor, it is well worth the Investment. I don’t profess to being an expert, but I do know of some. I obviously don’t have the time to go into all the details now, but at my site Market Mentalist you will find all you need to know about investing online. There is access to some of the top trading systems available including software, books, newsletters, and Forums. Whether you are an inquisitive novice or a seasoned pro Market Mentalist offers the online investment resource you just might be seeking.

Stock Option Trading Software

admin — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 09:11:03 +0000

How do you actually manage your portfolio of stocks and options?

How do you keep track of your profits (and losses)? How do you pick your next investment, or decide to get out of a position? Pencil and paper? A spreadsheet? Your online trading account? There may be a better way – using special-purpose software for all of these tasks.

What could this software to do for you? Here’s 10 things I would want from my software package:

1. Historical reports of the status of the stocks I am interested in – if I trade stocks this is obviously important. If I trade options, it’s just as important to know the progress of the underlying stocks before making buy/sell decisions.2. Automatically show trends, resistance levels, support levels – turning points are very significant in options trading.3. Allow manual creation of trend lines, projections, my own selection of resistance and support levels.4. Technical analysis of market data – e.g. showing candlesticks and other more complex analyses.5. Real-time trading data – what is happening right now in the market, showing current trading price ranges, trading volumes.6. Real time market news – prices can react rapidly to market news, both up and down, so it’s important to know what is happening to the companies you are investing in or planning to invest in.7. Automatic recognition of potential patterns, such as double tops, double bottoms, head-and-shoulders etc. It would be useful to have your attention drawn to the occurrence of these well-known patterns, so you can then make your judgement as to the future movement of the price.8. Price movement alerts – the ability to specify price levels that you want to reach to trigger selling, moving up or down. These alerts would indicate you had reached your target profit level (hopefully) or your maximum acceptable loss level.9. Automated trade submissions – the ability to specify conditions under which you want to submit a buy or sell trade, depending on the price of stocks or options you specify, or even depending on price movements. For instance, you might submit your call options for sale once they have passed above a set value, if they subsequently fall by an amount you specify.10. Accounting – a continuous valuation of your portfolio, and also a historical report of cash in and out of your account, and purchases and sales of stocks and options showing profits and losses per trade, per day/week/month.

A fundamental part of what you need for trading is actually the source of information, not just the means to make trades. In my list above I mentioned numerous data requirements – real time market data, real-time news etc. Your choice of trading software must take into account the availability of this data and the cost of providing it. If you are going to trade seriously, you will need real-time data with no time delay, whereas many of the ‘free’ data streams are actually delayed by 15 minutes or more. In fact, you might get your Stock Option Trading Software included in the account for the provision of the real-time data.