Charting Software & Account

[e.nigma]

Hi All,

I am new to trading and having read a lot of the articles on T2W. I have opted for a simple moving average strategy to test the water and gain experience of trading with real money. I am after some charting software that will allow me to set up a filter to catch stocks that move passed a moving average (be it up or down) at the end of each day. As I want to act on what I see I am assuming that I will want software that gives me live pricing as opposed to end of day or delayed. Does anyone have any recommendations?

Also, I have a spread betting account and a CFD account set up although again i'm not really sure which would be best to use to begin with. All ideas are gratefully received.

Many thanks.

 

[peto]

I am a little confused when you say that you are looking for crosses "at the end of each day" in which case any delayed charting service would do (which one will depend on if you are looking at US/UK/other stocks) . If you want "to act on what [you] see" it suggests a real time approach, day trading perhaps, you might need something more expensive like Quotetracker linked to , say IQ feed.

as regards the accounts, try them both and assess for speed of execution without slippage and cost, in the form of spread width. If they are comparable then the SB account will be more convenient, because there is no tax declaration required, and if you are in profit, then no tax on profits. But first you have to make a profit (no easy task), and the lowest dealing costs without slippage will assist in that.

 

[e.nigma]

Thank you for the advice. Looking back on what I wrote I can see that I wasn't too clear on what signal I was trying to describe and also what markets i'd be looking at. I will be trading UK stocks and what I am looking to do is get on the PC around 4:15pm and filter out stocks whose price has passed a moving average then buy or sell (depending which way they have moved) at the close.

 

[peto]

http://stockcharts.com/def/servlet/SC.scan is an good free scanner for us stocks, and http://shares.telegraph.co.uk/stock_screener.cgi is the best I can find for uk ones but no doubt there are better. Why uk shares? US stocks offer a far better range and have much tighter bid-offer spreads. If you make a success of your early efforts you are likely to want to open a direct access account with level 2, at which point US shares will offer a far better prospect due to the low dealing costs of US discount brokers and the lack of stamp-duty.

 

[e.nigma]

Thank you for the web addresses. Both do exactly what I need, especially the Telegraph one. I opted to trade UK stocks originally because they fitted in and around work commitments. Also my trading personality indicates that I am more of a short term trader looking to pick small bits out of the market over a couple of days so in most cases the UK stocks would suffice. However, the biggest factor is margin requirement. Seeing as I am only looking to start with £500 to test the water, UK stocks will require less capital.