It should be obvious to you now that you need a stock charting program to excel in trading. As you might have already guessed though, making a choice is quite complicated. There are so many programs across different price ranges.

You don’t have to dish out a lot of cash to get a good piece of trading software. In a lot of cases, those software companies that sell expensive tools only do so to create the impression that their product is premium and the best that money can buy. In reality, charting tools do much of the same thing regardless of their price.

This is not to say though that you should buy the cheapest option there is. Some cheap packages have low prices to encourage traders to buy. They then tie up their more expensive data plan with the software, forcing traders to buy the plan as well.

Clearly, you should never look at just the price when shopping for a charting tool. There are a couple of other things you should be paying attention to when you pick a package.

One of things you should research about first is the duration that a tool has been around. How long has it been in the market? Some tools are here today gone tomorrow. Sadly, when they disappear, so will product and customer support. That’ll be a nightmare for you since you’ll get stuck with software that’ll essentially be useless in the long run. Hence, you should stick with packages with longevity.

It’s crucial to try to get to know the quality of the user base as well. Find out what software users are like and how many they are by going into message boards and communities. Having many users is a good indication of a tool’s reliability. Obviously, the more users, the more people think it’s an excellent tool. Also, these same users can serve as your backup support when you need help.

Have back testing in mind too when you scout for a charting package. Software should be compatible with back testing facilities so you can put your system through dry runs. It’s a must for any new system to be tested this way. You will not essentially be testing using real time data. Even with just historical data to work with though, these should be enough to help you determine if your system is likely to work when applied for real.

One last thing to assess is the setup for data plans. There are charting software that will force its users to settle for an exclusive plan and nothing else. This is not the best option for you considering that not all data plans have what you want or what you’re looking for. You should pick software that’s flexible enough to adjust to the plan you want to go for.

Just like any product, charting software can come in many different kinds and types. As a buyer it should therefore be your top priority to evaluate your options to make sure you get the best tool for your money.

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