Technical Analysis Software Catch 22

trickynick said: "I have been wondering if it would be a good idea to become more technically sophisticated in my trading, but I don't want to buy software until I am convinced it would result in an interesting amount of trading profit. Well, the problem is merely evaluating whether or not it is worth it is becoming mathematically intesive enough to be rather time consuming without the help of exactly the kind of software I would consider buying if I were going to do this. Am I missing something? Is there inexpensive software available anywhere that is any good?"

drdan said: "[QUOTE=trickynick]Is there inexpensive software available anywhere that is any good?[/QUOTE] In my experience, No! To expand on that I have not even experienced expensive software that is any good at technical analysis. The black box method just does not seem to pay off. It may in one market direction but let the market change and the program no longer works. Just my experience."

trickynick said: "Most systems I have been able to develop paper trading so far with no tools besides a pencil and paper and what free charting sites are available basically result in a very complicated largely uncertain way to make returns that end up not being very interesting, particularly when I factor in things like commissions and tax liability. If I end up having to add the costs of software and data subscriptions to this then I am out in the woods in terms of what I end up with for returns. Maybe you're right that this isn't really where it's at but I'll keep looking into it."

HappyHarry said: "Almost all of the technical analysis software appears to be sold as part of a whole system you have to use."

surething said: "The best technical software I have seen is Investor RT.. It is (relatively) inexpensive but gives you all the chats you'll need plus an added bonus.. Investor RT has an easy to use programming language that allows you to look for signficant technical development across the entire market.. It requires a datafeed however which is an added cost.. Total, both run about 250 a month combined.. I would recommend that you perfect your chart analysis skills with QuoteTracker (it's free) and has everything the sophisticated packages have, save the programming tool. It also runs off your ETrade Realtime data streamer or a hundred other providers. Hope this helps"

StockHunter said: "I use visualtrader, and blocks. I like them both, and blocks is free if using end of day data (i.e. only gives you the current day's data when the market closes), their realtime feed is also good (for a fee). My total monthly cost is $135 (for realtime data fees) for both. The actual software for blocks is free, and for visualtrader it's different prices for end of day and realtime versions."

AlfredSokol said: "$135 month sounds pretty hefty."

StockHunter said: "[QUOTE=AlfredSokol;71735]$135 month sounds pretty hefty.[/QUOTE] Well thats my total for 2 data feeds + a fee for backtesting. each data feed is only about $50-$75 a month"

Ishi said: "Hi gents, Not sure what you expect to gain by little effort in anything. It must be very scary betting your money on a method you can't even prove worked in the past. Granted I am a modeler and systems guy, but seriously time in all it's forms and money lost would be much greater without a plan and qualitative guidance. Computers don't lie and don't cherry pick like you eyes do scanning charts. I don't know anyone who can do paper and pencil back testing on large symbol sets, like "All US stocks". Doing so on only a hand selected few symbols results in an illusion. The attached image is your answer... Cheers - Ishi Quant trader, programmer"