How to Choose Stock Charting Software

Make more money in the stock market by learning how to choose the best stock charting software.

Gone are the days when every stock market player had to be an expert or else hire a broker.

In today's age of personalized stock marketing, you can either spend a whole lot of time learning the market's ins and outs-or you can get software that will do everything for you.

Stock charting software comes in many shapes and sizes. But most models independently track the market on a constant basis and give you graphs and alerts to show when you should buy or sell.

Below are some tips on choosing the best stock charting software:

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Learn how to read stock charts. Some software has built-in alerts that make it super-simple to play the stock market. Others have less bells and whistles and more tracking power; some of these may rely solely on graphs to let you know what's going on. Many types of software will assume that you already know how to read stock charts.

2. Pick your preferred software version. Do you want the free online version, or would you rather pay for something with a little more muscle? Many first-time stock market players prefer to get their stock charting software for free during their learning period.

   Bigcharts.com and Stockcharts.com are just two examples of reliable sites that will get you up and running in no time.

3. Customize your chart to fit your needs. No matter which model you choose, a good chart will have lots of menus and tabs to help you tailor the program to your exact needs. Take advantage of this tool to make sure that you are getting the most out of your stock charting software.

   Your chart will let you select specific stocks to track and pick a time frame for each one (weekly, daily, hourly, etc.) You can also change the colors on everything in the chart to make it easier for you to follow. You can modify the way the chart presents itself (do you want a bar graph or a line graph?) and many other things.

4. Use the extras. If you think you need more information, the stock charting software will have every imaginable option. You can track several aspects of your stock on the same graph, follow its performance history, set up alerts and indicators to predict its future direction, and get live streaming quotes from your broker.

5. Last but not least, it's important to learn how to read all of this information in order to make your pick. And thanks to the user-friendly stock charting software that is now widely available to so many people worldwide, before you know it you too will be playing the stock market like a pro!

6. While you're here be sure to take a look around for more tips and information about the stock market.