marydsuza
06-14-2012, 01:20 AM
When you are looking for a charting tool to use in trading, the most important feature to consider is the chart's ability to give you clear insight. It is essential that the charting package you will choose gives you the correct set of charts and tools since charts are the primary tool for doing technical market analysis.
So what important features should great charting software have in order to help you get better insight? Basically, a charting package should have the following characteristics to be able to make insightful charts:
1. Colors and color schemes
Since you are going to spend a lot of time looking at and analyzing charts, your charting software must feature a range of color options and customization schemes. A customized chart that matches your preferences is easily readable. It is not only pleasing to the eyes, but also easily highlights and identifies the most important trading signals.
The ideal colors for a chart background are neutral colors such as white, black, or grey. It is hard to read very bright or fluorescent charts since such backgrounds can cause eye irritation. On the other hand, there are chart elements that should be drawn in contrasting colors to make way for easier analysis. You can also assign certain colors to indicate special significance. For instance, prices moving down are usually depicted using a red color. To make comparisons, different colors can also be used for stocks or indices.
2. Layout and organization
A trader usually tracks multiple stocks, and in the process evaluates them using different sets of trading strategies. While running your trading software, you must also be aware of additional information from different news sources. Most experienced traders make use of multiple monitors to display charts, news sources, trading software reference notes, etc. As you have to deal with these different sets of data, it is important that your charting software has the capability to organize how these sets of information are displayed.
So what important features should great charting software have in order to help you get better insight? Basically, a charting package should have the following characteristics to be able to make insightful charts:
1. Colors and color schemes
Since you are going to spend a lot of time looking at and analyzing charts, your charting software must feature a range of color options and customization schemes. A customized chart that matches your preferences is easily readable. It is not only pleasing to the eyes, but also easily highlights and identifies the most important trading signals.
The ideal colors for a chart background are neutral colors such as white, black, or grey. It is hard to read very bright or fluorescent charts since such backgrounds can cause eye irritation. On the other hand, there are chart elements that should be drawn in contrasting colors to make way for easier analysis. You can also assign certain colors to indicate special significance. For instance, prices moving down are usually depicted using a red color. To make comparisons, different colors can also be used for stocks or indices.
2. Layout and organization
A trader usually tracks multiple stocks, and in the process evaluates them using different sets of trading strategies. While running your trading software, you must also be aware of additional information from different news sources. Most experienced traders make use of multiple monitors to display charts, news sources, trading software reference notes, etc. As you have to deal with these different sets of data, it is important that your charting software has the capability to organize how these sets of information are displayed.