Online Trading Software
Online trading software comes in many shapes and sizes. Not only does it vary greatly in price, but it varies greatly in complexity, capability and user level. If you are looking for trading software then you need to be very clear on what you want since you can easily blow a lot of money on something you might only use to a limited extent.
Online trading software can be split into 3 main categories.
1. Analysis Software
The majority of trading software are aimed at being an analysis tool. Technical trading can be very complicated and with the right software you can simplify it to a great extent. Analysis software can help you see patterns and analyze a stock in great detail. The level of complexity and price varies greatly and many software packages has quite a steep learning curve.
If you only need a basic technical tool to see basic trends and prices then all the free websites is probably sufficient. If you use more complicated trading patterns then you can benefit greatly from the right analysis tools.
2. Trading Platforms
This can vary from the complexity of trading platforms that professional traders use to something as simple as the live trading platform that your online broker provides you. Basically this type of online trading software enables you to buy and sell shares online. Your trading account is linked up to the software and it allows you to place buy and sell orders.
Depending on the complexity of your software you are able to do a whole host of things and having Level 2 access will enable you to see live stock data as it happens. Most online brokers provide some sort of software free of charge and many will give their high end users Level 2 access without any additional charges. Trading platforms can be very powerful, but some have a steep learning curve.
3. Stock “Prediction” Software
The subject of much discussion is the so-called trading robots which is basically a software program that picks stocks. By analyzing stocks data, the software uses traditional stock picking criteria to automatically analyze and “pick” stocks – and in theory it is much more accurate than a any person can do manually.
While a person can only look at a limited number of data, the software can analyze an immense amount of data and therefore make better “decisions” – that is in theory at least!
There 3 categories of online trading software is not as clear cut in reality though since most software aim to do more. You will find that many trading platforms have a lot of powerful analysis tools while a lot of analysis software have a lot of automated “prediction” tool. It’s important to not get bogged down with software and to always remember that it is just a tool in your trading tool box. In the end YOU make the decisions.
