Metastock
Dennis, I know you intended this question for Lee, but let me toss my $.02 in. I am a financial software geek, and have tried/trialed a number of the more well-known charting packages.
We recently tried Metastock Pro which has realtime internet feed as well as end-of-day. Despite the help of tech support, we never did get the realtime program to run correctly. One of the reasons we considered MS was the potential to realtime scans. However, limitations in the number of symbols I can archive with Signal Online really limits the usefulness of this feature. We also found end-of-day downloads to be very s-l-o-w. Bottom line - we sent it back. MS people seem genuinely helpful and we got our refund quickly. Stocks & Commodities magazine has a generally positive review in a recent edition.
A similar product is Technifilter Plus, altho it does not have a realtime capabiltiy. It has a number of useful scans, reasonable charts, and will test strategies, etc. It scores big with me because I can download TC2000 data (which is the fastest I've encountered) and I can convert to be used by TF+. You can download TC2000 data intraday and use TF+ for scans in a 20 minute delay mode (I have not done this however). A three month trial sets you back $69 and TF+ has great documentation. TF+ received a favorable review in S & C last summer.
TC2000 is my basic delayed data and basic scanning software. It is a no brainer to use, you can code your own scans, and it also has tremendous organizing features. But the speed of downloads is what I like the best. Its biggest drawback is the charting capability - its not in the same league as MS or Supercharts. If you want just end-of-day charts, Supercharts would be hard to beat. Here on SI there is a forum at Subject 7216.
Other products that I use: Tradewind is the absolute best realtime charting package, IMO. IQSuites has realtime charting with most indicators and also some funky and programmable scans (eg, search for all stocks with bearish engulfing candles). At $34/month it is a super value. I also subsribe to IBD's daily graphs as do most of my trading based on a mo-mo type of strategy.
Happy Holidays to you and all the fine folks on this thread!! |
