Selecting Trades

Hello all,

I am, as you cn probably guess, new to all this and was seeking some help and advice from those experienced in the trading world. I am keen to get involved and believe I understand risk and reward and have the right frame of mind to trade successfully. I have outlined a very basic strategy which hopefully will work for me including a 3:1 Reward/Risk ratio, never risking more than 1% of my bank and staying away from the FTSE for the time being. I think end of day and intra day trading would suit me best. I am going to get some charting software but before I fork out for it I have some questions.

Is it possible to configure the software to spot trends and breakouts and get it to alert you about them? Or do I have to trawl through all the companies listed and check each chart. What exactly can the software do for you to make your life easier and help to identify winning trades?

Any help gratefully appreciated and apologies if this has been asked before.

Hi Trotters,

Most software packages allow the facility to search charts based on a specific criteria, which you (the user) defines beforehand.

Trends, breakouts (and anything else for that matter) can be coded and used as the search criteria.

I'm aware of one, which is free, which actually draws S&R and Trend lines. Check out ProRealtime.

However, it may be worth checking out some other packages to get a feel for what they can offer.

Here's a few to start with:

BullCharts,
Metastock,
Amibroker

I use Amibroker for a number of personal reasons and rate it very highly....

Regards,

Chorlton

Many thanks for that Chorlton, I'll have a look at those. I don't know if I made it clear in my first post but when I said I wouldn't be trading the FTSE to start with I meant the index itself. I am primarily going to concentrate on FTSE listed equities. Do all the different charting programs cover all the major indices and the companies listed on them or are there some that are better for the Uk and some better for the US etc...?

trotters101 said:

Many thanks for that Chorlton, I'll have a look at those. I don't know if I made it clear in my first post but when I said I wouldn't be trading the FTSE to start with I meant the index itself. I am primarily going to concentrate on FTSE listed equities. Do all the different charting programs cover all the major indices and the companies listed on them or are there some that are better for the Uk and some better for the US etc...?

Click to expand...

The majority of the charting packages require data, which has to be purchased seperately. They do not come supplied with it.

However, ProRealtime offersfree EOD data, so I would suggest looking there first.