The Metastock Professiona V8.0, possibly the world's best known and established charting program is a real-time technical analysis tool. The loading and change of securities is easy and its compatibility with Windows makes for a nice package. MetaStock Professional comes packed with indicators, example trading systems and expert commentaries.

There are a couple of "glitches," however, once you get used to the program you can work around it. I had some difficulty with the setup, as the program had trouble finding the browser. Help was via emails and their internet site, which helped me struggle through it . One of the things that annoyed me were all the windows, in windows, in windows with their own title bars that take up space and repeat information. Another drawback is the execution speed of the code - indicators can take minutes to calculate, which in the worst case, could mean lost trading opportunities. It is also limited in ways to enter a hypothetical trade when you're designing and testing your strategies on historical data.

MetaStock is a tricky program to use - learning all of its functions can be a full-time job in itself. It is not a program that you can get up and running quickly. There are training seminars which would be worthwhile if you want to get the most out of the program. The Metastock has some fun indicators, however, the beginner might be fooled into thinking these are recommendations, which they are not. For this reason it is best used by the experienced investor.

Overall the Metastock Professional is a flashy product which will give great assistance for experienced traders.

System Requirements

90 MHz or higher Pentium PC,
32 MB RAM, 150 MB hard disk space

Star Trader is a powerful technical and fundamental analytical tool that even the most computer illiterate will be able to harness. It is designed so that the novice as well as the advanced trader can access the functions they will require to trade successfully. They have more charting and analytical tools than any other program currently on the market and while the average beginner will not utilise these tools initially, as they become more experienced the program's features will be realised.

Their customer support is second to none. You get to speak to an actual person and they have experienced chartists on hand to teach you some of the finer points of trading and how to get the most out of the Star Trader.

Their data is supplied by Online Stock Data which also supplies the fundamental data and it is fully compatable with the program making downloading a simple click of a button.

Star Trader will give you buy and sell indicators based on the criteria you have entered which includes what type of trades you wish to invest in. I selected the recommended variants and one month of paper trading yielded a profit of 37%. Pretty impressive stuff that inspires me to try the Star Trader over a longer trial period to test the program over a broader market environment. 

System Requirements

Windows 98 or better.

Pentium 400+ with Min 64 Meg RAM.

DISK DRIVE
CD ROM drive.
Hard Disk with at least 600 Megabyte free disk space.

Related Links.

EzyStation is a yearly subscriber-only service that can do data downloading, technical analysis, fundamental analysis, charting and scanning right through to portfolio management and profit analysis. There selling point is: if after 12 months you find you dont like trading you dont renew your subscription and you're not left with expensive software. There are however similar products where you keep the software for the same price. They dont have real time quotes and are best suited for end of day traders. Although the analysis is a little simplistic it serves its purpose for the beginners market.

You can only analyse the market during download snapshots of the day at 11am, 12:30pm, 2pm and 3pm using intraday. Included in the annual fee is the EzyStation subscriber website, which includes real time quotes, financial news and company announcements. It is a good entry point for traders as it is easy to operate but as far as value goes you could be up for quite a bit if you run it say, 5 years. For that reason alone I dont think it presents good value.

Windows XP compatible.

And finally, something for the Mac users. No longer will you have to run out and buy an IBM-compatible PC to analyze the markets technically because BeeSoft has developed the Mac-first, Mac-only stock market software. With over 2000 registered customers in over 30 countries and thousands more using their free demo version, BeeSoft has the most popular, in fact the only, program designed exclusively for the Mac.

Beesoft's ProTA Gold includes Internet data downloading, charting, technical analysis, trade tracking and portfolio analysis, and securities ranking. The Program adds the ability to write and optimize your own trading strategies, custom analytics, and database scanning criteria using a built-in formula building language. You have the flexibility of creating an unlimited number of your own custom indicators and can download custom indicators from the BeeSoft web site and install them into the program or post your own creations. ProTA Gold also provides the functionality of creating your own trading systems and backtesting

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