Best Stock Trading Platforms For Beginners [5 Top Picks]

You are starting out on your exciting stock market investing & trading journey, but what do you need to help you on the path to success.  Like anyone learning a new trade, you need people to help to guide you and give you ideas.  You need a software platform that is intuitive, easy to use, yet powerful.  You need your stock trading platform to be not too expensive.

In this best stock trading software for beginners review, all the platforms here winners, your choice depends on what you are looking for.

The Best Stock Trading Platforms for Beginners Are:

1. TradingView -- Simply the best for social sharing of ideas, charts & strategies. A revolution for the beginner in stock trading, no installation & a price starting at free.
2. TC2000 -- Easy to use, yet powerful stock chart analysis, screening & trading + A live USA seminar roadshow every year trains beginner investors for free.
3. MetaStock -- incredible power wrapped up in “Expert Advisors” & backtesting, designed to help you find a great trading system to build your success.
4. EquityFeed -- With inbuilt technical screening, fantastic ease of use, real-time news and powerful level II views, EquityFeed is a great option.
5. TrendSpider -- Can you draw trend-lines?  If not, TrendSpider will do it for you, AI technology to help the trader do the heavy lifting.

Click the name above to jump to the review section

TradingView -- Simply the best for social sharing of ideas, charts & strategies. A revolution for the beginner in stock trading, No Installation & A Price Starting At Free.

Highly Recommended for U.S.A. & International Investors & Day Traders who Value a Great Price and Insanely Good Fundamental & Technical Analysis. With Great Streaming News Engines and the Best Ease of Use, you cannot go wrong.

TradingView --  Overall Review Winner 2019

It is really impressive that TradingView has stormed into the review winners section of our Stock Market Software Review in its first try. I now actively use TradingView every day, and it is a key tool in my portfolio, it is not just for beginners, but for pro traders also.

With excellent social integration, chat, news and the ability to follow other investors and view and share trade ideas, combined with global stock exchange data TradingView are one of the global stock charting analysis leaders.

You can have TradingView for free, it is also a review winner for our Best Free Charting Software Review so you cannot go wrong.  However, there are limitations to the free version which mean an upgrade to a paid service can be worthwhile.

TradingView Pricing

You can have TradingView for free, it is a review winner for our Best Free Charting Software Review so you cannot go wrong.  However, there are limitations to the free version which would warrant an upgrade to the higher level services.  In any case, TradingView is best in class in terms of price.

How Much Does TradingView Cost?

• Free $0 -- 1 Chart per Layout -- 1 Device -- 1 Alert -- 3 Indicators per Chart -- 1 Saved Chart Layout
• PRO $9.95 US /mo -- 2 Charts per Layout -- 1 Device -- 10 Alerts -- 5 Indicators per Chart -- Unlimited Watchlists
• PRO+ $19.95 US /mo -- 4 Charts per Layout -- 2 Devices -- 30 Alerts -- Intraday & Extended Trading Hours Data
• Premium -- $39.95 US / mo -- 8 Charts per Layout -- 5 Devices -- 200 Alerts -- Top Customer Service -- Unlimited Everything

I would recommend going for the TradingView PRO+ at $19.95 per month or the Premium at $39.95 per month, the benefits are extensive including Priority Customer Support and unlimited everything.  I use the PRO+ version.

If you want the intraday spread charts & custom chats go for TradingView Pro+.  In any case, try it out completely Free and play around with it to see if you like it.

[Related Article: Save Money & Time With Our In-Depth TradingView Pricing Guide]

TradingView Platform For Beginners

TradingView runs on PC, Mac, Tablets, and Smartphones and requires Zero Installation, it simply works.  The Market data is huge, covering nearly all Stock Markets and it includes Stock, ETF’s Futures, Foreign Exchange & Bonds, all at no extra price, which means outstanding value for money combined with excellent support options.

Also, a huge benefit is that the Data Speed and Coverage are mind-blowing, covering literally every stock market on the planet and not just stocks but a lot more.

What Can I Trade Using TradingView?

• Stocks -- tens of thousands of stocks, see above for exchange coverage
• Forex (FX) Currencies -- All the Major, Minor, Exotic currencies covered
• Futures -- Energy, Metals, Agriculture, Indices and even Interest Rates
• Crypto Currencies -- 26 including Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash
• Bonds -- 30+ Government Bond Types

Can I Trade Bitcoin on TradingView?

Theoretically Yes but only outside the USA. You can enable this with an account through a CFD Broker.  The reason I say theoretically is that CFD (Contracts for Difference) Brokers will not enable you to fill your Bitcoin Wallet, they will only enable you to have a virtual trade open with a selling price that “should” reflect the current market price.  It’s like buying a gold ETF, rather than buying actual physical gold.

Watch this Video Review of the Benefits of TradingView

[Related Article: How Do Technical Analysis Software Platforms Work?]

Trade Management

With TradingView you get broker integration with CQG, OANDA, Poloniex and Forex.com Winner of Our Best US Forex Broker Review, you can place trades on charts and it will take care of Profit & Loss reporting and analysis for you.  They are adding brokers all the time and I expect soon the major global discount brokers to be available.

You Can Paper Trade on TradingView -- Perfect For Beginners?

When you are viewing a chart, click the BUY Button and you will be asked to select your broker.  Simply select Paper Trading.

Fundamental & Technical Scanning & Screening

Another perfect 10 for TradingView as they hit the mark on Real-time scanning and filtering, and fundamental watchlists also.

The list of fundamentals you can scan & filter on is truly huge.  Any idea you have based on fundamentals will be covered.  They even have insane amounts of economic data like Federal Funds Rates and World Economic Growth, thanks to a connection to the QUANDL database.

Watchlists have fundamentals broken into Performance, Valuation, Dividends, Margin, Income Statement and Balance Sheet.  You can set the watchlist and filters to refresh every minute if you wish.

Powerful Yet Simple Screening Tools -- Integrated into TradingView:

• Stock Screener -- See the example below to see how powerful and easy it is to use.
• Forex Screener -- shows by default the major and minor pairs and you can add exotic FX pairs.  You can filter on rising and falling fx pairs and even set alerts directly from the screener.
• Crypto Screener -- similar to the Forex Screener in power and flexibility.

TradingView Fundamental Stock Screening & Analysis

The TradingView Stock Screener comes complete with 150 fundamental and technical screening criteria, all the usual criteria are there such as EPS, Quick Ratio, Pre-Tax Margin and PE Ratio (forwards and trailing twelve months).  But it also goes deeps with more esoteric criteria such as the number of employees, Goodwill and Enterprise Value.

Another great thing about the screener implementation is that is is very customizable, you can configure the column and filters exactly how you like it.  As you can see above I have changed the overview screen to include the number of employees, P/E, and EPS TTM.

Try This Interactive Example of TradingView Fundamental Screening & Analysis

TradingView has a very slick system and they have put a huge amount of thought into how Fundamentals integrate into the analytics system.

What makes TradingView stand out is the huge selection of economic indicators you can map and compare on a chart. For example, you can compare the Civilian Unemployment Rate versus the growth in Company Profits for the U.S.A.  This is incredibly powerful.

The Best Bit: News & Social Media Integration -- Great For Beginner Traders -- Join Hundreds of Thousands of Traders

TradingView is built with social at the forefront and it is simply the best to socially share and learn, forget StockTwits, Tradingview is the best.  Fully integrated chat systems, chat forums and an excellent way to share your drawings and analysis with a single click to any group or forum.

Follow me on TradingView for regular market and stock analysis ideas and commentary.

This makes for an excellent way to generate trade ideas or learn from other traders.  You have to try it and see it in action to understand the power of the implementation.  However, I always warn be careful of who you listen too, you should always make up your own mind.

They have also thoughtfully integrated a Kiplinger newsfeed, Stocktwits, and various FX newsfeeds.  With a social first development methodology, combined with powerful economic statistics and a solid newsfeed it is a great package.

As soon as you connect to TradingView you realize this is also developed for the community.  You can look at community trade ideas, post your charts and ideas and join limitless numbers of groups covering everything from Bonds to Cryptocurrencies.

Video & Trade Ideas Implementation

TradingView have the concept of ideas.  This is where the community can submit ideas about a specific stock or group of stocks to the community.  Their published ideas can then be rated and the authority of the submitter will then grow.  With the powerful social media integration, you can also publish your ideas simultaneously to the TradingView community, Twitter & StockTwits

They have also in 2018 implemented Video Ideas so that contributors can record a video with the touch of a single button and submit to the community.

The news feeds are fully integrated, including Kiplinger, DailyFX, Futures Magazine, FXStreet, and StockTwits.  Add that to the social network and you have a great solution.  The news service is only second to MetaStock with their Reuters Feeds.

Technical Chart Analysis

With over 160 different indicators, and unique specialty charts such as LineBreak, Kagi, Heikin Ashi, Point & Figure and Renko, you have everything you will need as an advanced trader, day trader or swing trader.  I have the Premium membership and with that, you also get Level II insight, fully integrated.

TradingView also has an exceptional selection of drawing tools including tools unavailable on other platforms such as extensive Gann & Fibonacci tools. 65 drawing tools and hundreds of icons for your charts, notes, and ideas.

So, Why Is TradingView Number One For Beginners.

1. Automatic Stock Chart Technical Analysis Indicator Rating

Most people do not want to learn the in-depth details of how each indicator works.  This innovation allows you to save time, by getting an instant readout of which indicators are bullish, bearish or neutral.

This is really well implemented because there are 2 key types of technical analysis indicator, moving averages based on price and oscillators based on price and or volume.  The screenshot below shows a stock I have help for a 50% gain over the last 4 months, and it is quite accurate based on my observations.

When you view a chart, you can simply click on “Technicals” and you are presented with 3 gauges. Left shows the oscillating indicators like relative strength, stochastics, and Average Directional Index.  On the right, you have a selection of Moving Averages, Simple, Exponential and even Ichimoku Cloud.

Each indicator is then averaged out to give an overall Buy, Sell or Neutral Rating.

This is an excellent implementation of automated technical analysis designed with the user in mind.

TradingView Charts In Action -- Try It Here

Example: AAPL Apple Stock Chart with RSI & Ichimoku Cloud.

2. Advanced Charts

I was incredibly impressed with the offering of Kagi, Heikin Ashi and Renko Charts including Point & Figure and Line Break.

Also, the user community has developed indicators as exotic as Moon Phase (see chart below).

With this selection of charts, you have everything you will need as an advanced trader.  Plus, with the Premium membership, you also get Level II insight, fully integrated.  Well done TradingView.

Did I mention the charts are fast and beautiful?

Also, for the power technical analyst, they have also implemented Darvas Box, Elliot Wave and Point & Figure Charts. All round an excellent package.

3. TradingView Alerts on Indicators & Drawings

TradingView alerts are immediate notifications when the market meets your custom criteria. For example, “Alert me if Netflix crosses $200 up”. You can place alerts on Indicators, Prices or even trendlines, it is extremely flexible. All users can get visual popups, audio signals, email alerts, and email-to-SMS alerts. A Premium plan holder can additionally get real-time server-side text message (SMS) alerts, delivered directly to his / her phone.

Usability For Beginners -- 1st Class

Within 5 minutes I was using TradingView, no credit card, no installation, no configuring data feeds, it was literally just there.

TradingView is up and running with a single click.

Click on the TradingView logo on the left and it will be instantly running. 

It does not get easier than that.

Even better is the fact it is already configured for use.  All controls are intuitive and the charts look amazing.  It is quite a feat that it is so easy to use considering TradingView has so many data feeds and backend power.

97 Point TradingView Service Data Sheet

Data Sheet	TradingView
Pricing & Software
Monthly End of Day	Free Pro $9.95 Pro+ $19.95
Monthly Real Time	Premium $39.95
Customizable Data Feeds	✔
Customer Service & Education	Excellent
PC	✔
For MAC	✔
Tablets Smartpones	✔
Market Data Coverage	Global
Data Speed	Excellent
Stocks	✔
ETF	✔
Mutual Funds	✔
Futures	✔
Forex	✔
Bonds	✔
Pricing & Software Score	10
Trade Management
Broker Integration Stocks	✔
Place Trades from Charts	✔
Live Position P&L	✔
P&L Analysis	✔
Trade Management Score	8
Fundamental Scanning & Screening
Real Time Scanning & Filtering	✔
Fundamentals Scanning	✔
Watch Lists with Fundamentals	✔
Extended Economics Fundamentals (New)	✔
Fundamental Screening Score	10
Multiple Charts Per Desktop	✔
Bar Line HLC Candlestick	✔
Point & Figure	✔
Equivolume	Premium
Others	Kagi, Heikin Ashi, Renko, Line Break
Indicators
Bollinger Bands	✔
Directional Movement	✔
Ichimoku Cloud	✔
MACD	✔
Momentum	✔
Money Flow	✔
Moving Averages	✔
Parabolic SAR	✔
Rate of Change	✔
Relative Strength / RSI	✔
Stochastics	✔
Custom Indicator Development	✔
Volume	✔
Darvas Box	✔
Elliot Wave	✔
Total Number of Indicators	160+
Drawing Tools
Trend Lines	✔
Pitchfork	✔
Automated Alerts	✔
Technical Analysis Score	10
News & Social
News Feed	✔
Real-Time News Feed	✔
Economics & Deal News	Kiplinger Futures
Market Commentary	✔
Community Chat	✔
News Score	10
Systems & Backtesting
System Marketplace	✔
Create Customizable Systems	✔
Back Testing Point & Click	✔
Back Testing Programmatic	✔
Systems & Back-Testing Score	7
Setup & Usability
SW Setup	10
Ease of Use Score	10
Usability Points	20/20

Summary -- TradingView Best For Beginners

You can follow me or thousands of other traders on TradingView, it is a continual learning process.  Easy to use yet endless possibilities, you will never outgrow TradingView during your learning journey.

TC2000 -- Easy to use, yet powerful stock chart analysis, screening & trading. A live USA seminar roadshow every year trains beginner investors for free.

Award Winning Telechart TC2000 Won Our 2019 Stock Market Software Review. But Why Is It Best For U.S. Investors & Loved By Liberated Stock Trader?

Telechart has long been one of my favorite tools, I have been a Platinum service subscriber for over 18 years and find the latest release v18.x to be another great step forward.  I started learning stock trading as a beginner with TC2000.  It has an endlessly customizable and scalable platform that offers everything an investor in stocks, exchange-traded funds and options would need.

TC2000 was a winner in our Best Stock Market Analysis Software Review, beating 25 other competitors.

Pricing and Software

TC2000 is competitive on pricing with all premium stock market analysis software vendors, in fact, it is a leader in pricing, with only TradingView offering a similar price point. TC2000 has been voted as best software for 25 years straight by the readers of Technical Analysis of Stocks & Commodities Magazine.

TC2000 Silver Service Features Price -- $9.99/month.

• All levels of service enable you to use the TC2000 Brokerage, which enables live from the chart trading and competitive commissions beating out TD Ameritrade and Merrill.
• 100,000 stocks options and exchange-traded fund data -- included
• Real-time streaming data is available with an additional charge per exchange connection.  This is the same for all software providers.
• 8 great layouts ready for use including my favorite Sector Drilldown, which I discuss later in the review.
• Unlimited watchlists, with 80 pre-built layouts
• Personal Notes to keep track of your actions
• Unbelievable Application Configurability -- probably the best in the industry, enabling you to build intricate workflows, tabs and pop out windows
• Mobile access to your charts, watchlists, and settings.

TC2000 Gold Service Features (Recommended) Price $29.99/month

The reason I recommend the Gold Service is because of the following killer features:

• EasyScan is enabled -- this allows you to unleash the powerful fundamental scanning, you can scan on EPS, PE Ratio, Earnings Growth, Sales and many more.  It is the best fundamental and technical scanning in the industry at this price point.
• Unlocks Technical & Fundamental Scanning Combinations -- for example, if you want to combine the stock price crossing the 20-day moving average plus a volume surge with growth in the earnings per share for the last quarter.  This is only possible with TC2000
• EasyScan results are displayed extremely quickly -- this can save a lot of time
• 100 Alerts are enabled -- TC2000 has an excellent alerts system which is extremely flexible allowing you to alert on any indicator, price or trendline. Alert can be routed through to your email, SMS or as on-screen popups.
• Charting of Fundamentals from MorningStar -- this is great because it enables you to plot, for example, earnings per share (EPS) onto the chart.  This enables you to see visually if a company has earnings acceleration over time.

Platinum Service Price $89.99/month

• The Platinum service is triple the price of the Gold service, but if the following features are as important to you as they are for me, then it may be worth the investment:
• The EasyScan dashboard is now real-time -- you can feel all your scans and criteria in watchlists pulsing with activity as they constantly refresh
• Real-time scan results -- you can even setup reports that summarize the results of your scans to enabled simpler tracking of thousands of data-points

Worden Brothers continue their winning ways, with very competitive pricing starting at only $9.99 per month for the Silver package.  I would recommend the Gold service to start with as you get a more powerful alerts engine and unlock the huge power of the technical & fundamental scanning and filtering that TC2000 is famous for.

TC2000 is aimed squarely at those trading stocks, ETF’s, mutual funds and stock options, specifically on the U.S.A and Canadian Markets.

TC2000 $25 Discount Pricing Code Voucher & $129 Worth of Bonuses.

Liberated Stock Trader has partnered with Worden Brothers the creators of TC2000 for over 9 years, I am their biggest fan.  I even based my PRO training course around TC2000.  However, this is a factual review, there are many other software vendors that may meet your needs.  But if you decide TC2000 is the right software for you will get a $25 discount from TC2000 plus $129 in free gifts and discounts from Liberated Stock Trader.  Simply use this button to get started.

Download TC2000 & Try For Free -- Includes $129 worth of bonuses from TC2000 & Liberated Stock Trader

TC2000 Trading Platform For Beginners

As I have been using the software since 1999 I can say the software is first class and reliable.

TC2000 for Windows

Developed with Microsoft’s Dot.net framework TC2000 runs natively on the PC.  It is fast, responsive and simple to use.  The resolution of the software enables very intricate design details that other development platforms cannot match. Very quick to download and installation is a breeze.

Visit Worden Brother Inc. & Download TC2000 Now

TC2000 for Mobile

Worden Brothers have apps on both the Apple store and the Google Play store, as you can imagine due to screen real-estate some of the functionality is trimmed.

TC2000 Support & Customer Service

Support is excellent both on the forums, via email or via the phone.  When you call you will get straight through and are able to speak with skilled personnel in the U.S.  I have never had an issue where it was not solved more or less immediately.

If you have not selected a Brokerage, you should look at TC2000 Brokerage as an option, they have competitive rates which also means you get full integration so you can trade stocks & options directly from your charts, a huge bonus.

If you trade U.S. Stocks, ETF’s or Mutual Funds, then this is a great solution.  Worden also provides regular live training seminars which are of very high quality and also tour the U.S.A with free live training seminars for subscribers.

TC2000 Training & Education

The Worden Brothers in-house training team have hundreds of video webinars online available instantly.  But even better than that they seem to be on a more or less constant roadshow with live free seminars across the United States.  One of my students recently wrote to me telling me how great the training was and how much she learned.  If you are based in the U.S. or can travel, it is well worth attending one of the scheduled seminars.

Trade Management

Worden recently released TC2000 Brokerage offering discount brokerage services at $4.95 per trade.  This new service means a tight integration between the charting software and the brokerage house.

Essentially it means the holy grail, trading directly from charts in a visual way.

Worden Brothers make a clean sweep 10/10 when it comes to trade management, with full Broker Integration (as long as you choose them as your broker).

Fundamental Scanning and Screening

Make no mistake about it, if you want fundamentals stock screeners in real-time layered with technical screens all integrated into live watch lists connected to your charts TC2000 is a power player.

I selected TC2000 as my tool of choice back in the year 1999 because it offered back then, simply the best implementation of fundamental scanning, filtering and sorting available on the market.  20 years later, they are still a leader in this section.

They offer a huge selection of fundamentals to choose from 192 to be exact, but even better than that, what makes it truly unique is the fact you can, with a few clicks, create your own indicators based on the fundamentals.

You can then overlay the indicators directly on the charts, which opens up a whole new world of technical and fundamental analysis.  10 out of 10 for TC2000 again.

Technical Chart Analysis

TC2000 has an excellent array of technical indicators and drawing tools, all the big ones are there, from OBV, RSI and Bollinger Bands to Fibonacci Fans and Andrews Pitchfork.  With over 240 different indicators you will have plenty to play with.

Here is a setup I use to find divergences in stock price and volume supply and demand, it is very reliable because it uses a mix of price, volume and price/volume indicators.  I have also back-tested Ichimoku Cloud indicator accuracy and it is also quite reliable.

All of these indicators are available in TC2000.  The chart below shows you the implementation.

A Powerful Chart Setup With TC2000:

Top Chart Pane: Daily Price -- GOOGL

• Parabolic Stop And Reverse (SAR) is a wonderful indicator to show the trend direction and pivot points
• Moving Averages 100, 50, 10 -- the core of any analytics
• Ichimoku Cloud -- an effective Japanese indicator

Lower Chart Panes Help Detect Price Momentum Divergence:

• Wilders Relative Strength Index (RSI)
• Chaikin Money Flow
• On Balance Volume

As you can see you have a huge amount of indicators and drawing tools to choose from in TC2000

As you can see on the chart window they have also introduced live alerts which you can configure to email or pop up if an indicator or trend line is breached.  Very useful indeed.

Ease Of Use -- Perfect For Beginner Traders

TC2000 is easy to use and yet very powerful.  The interface design strikes the right balance between looking great and being instantly useful.

A heavy focus on watchlist management, flagging stocks, making notes and powerful scanning make is easy to use and master.  Software setup is completed in a few minutes, but it also runs perfectly across devices.

Instant Usability.

If you want to run a very quick test to see how easy to use TC2000 is, try the following.

1. Download TC2000 for PC
2. Follow The Install Instructions
3. Open TC2000
4. Click File
5. Click Open Layout
6. Click Sector By Year

In 5 Clicks you have this wonderful industry sector drill down.

In the above chart I have drilled down into the Technology Sector, and instantly we see the industry indexes, Semi-Conductor, Gaming, Solar etc.  What is really nice is we see to the right the relative performance for the sector versus the S&P-500.

Instantly you can see which sectors are outperforming the market… in 5 clicks

Easy Scan Dashboards

EasyScan Dashboards are reports that can track multiple EasyScans at one time. Counts are continuously updated so you can see stocks move between your scans, great for beginners to get a feel for the market.

• Click the report button on the toolbar at the top of TC2000.
• Click to create a new EasyScan Dashboard.
• Click the checkbox to toggle edit mode on and off.
• With edit mode turned on, click the + button to add your custom EasyScans to the dashboard.
• Counts are updated in real-time (if you have real-time data).
• Right-click on any scan to make edits or view the watchlist of passing stocks.

Interested in TC2000?

Download TC2000 & Try For Free -- Includes $129 worth of bonuses from TC2000 & Liberated Stock Trader

Summary -- TC2000 Great For Beginners

I thoroughly enjoyed “growing up” as a trader with TC2000, it is a first-class platform with a team built on integrity, value for money and cutting edge technology that unleashes investing opportunities.

TC2000 Full Charting Software Data Sheet

Vendor	Worden Brothers - TC2000
Pricing & Software
Monthly End of Day	Silver $9.99 Gold $29.99
Monthly Real Time	Platinum $89
Customizable Data Feeds	✔
Customer Service & Education	Excellent
PC	✔
For MAC	✔
Tablets Smartpones	✔
Market Data Coverage	U.S.A. / Canada
Data Speed	Excellent
Stocks	✔
ETF	✔
Mutual Funds	✔
Options	✔
Pricing & Software Score	10
Trade Management
Broker Integration Stocks	✔
Broker Integration Options	✔
Place Trades from Charts	✔
Live Position P&L	✔
P&L Analysis	✔
Trade Management Score	10
Fundamental Scanning & Screening
Real Time Scanning & Filtering	✔
Fundamentals Scanning	✔
Watch Lists with Fundamentals	✔
Fundamental Screening Score	10
Technical Analysis
Charts
Multiple Charts Per Desktop	✔
Bar Line HLC Candlestick	✔
Point & Figure
Equivolume
Others	Heiken Ashi
Indicators
Bollinger Bands	✔
Directional Movement	✔
Ichimoku Cloud	✔
MACD	✔
Momentum	✔
Money Flow	✔
Moving Averages	✔
Parabolic SAR	✔
Rate of Change	✔
Relative Strength / RSI	✔
Stochastics	✔
Volume at Price	✔
Custom Indicator Development	✔
Volume	✔
Total Number of Indicators	240+
Drawing Tools
Fibonacci Retracement	✔
Fibonacci Time	✔
Fibonacci Fan	✔
Trend Lines	✔
Text Overlay	✔
Pitchfork	✔
Error Channel	✔
Gann Fan	✔
Quadrant Lines	✔
Speed Lines	✔
Tirone Levels	✔
Automated Alerts	✔
Technical Analysis Score	10
News & Social
News Feed	✔
Real-Time News Feed	MT NewsWire $8 pm
Community Chat	V12.5
News Score	8
Systems & Backtesting
System Marketplace	✔
Create Customizable Systems	✔
Back Testing Point & Click	With StockFinder
Back Testing Programmatic	With StockFinder
Systems & Back-Testing Score	4
Setup & Usability
SW Setup	10
Ease of Use Score	10
Usability Points	20/20

MetaStock -- incredible power wrapped up in “Expert Advisors” & backtesting, designed to help you find a great trading system to build your success.

MetaStock + Refinitiv Xenith 

Pricing and Software

To understand the pricing, you need to know that you can purchase MetaStock with Datalink the data provider, or you can purchase a real-time subscription or even my preferred choice which is MetaStock + Refinitiv Xenith.  Why do you need Xenith, because it is the premium stock market and financial markets research tool and includes a real-time news platform powered by Thomson Reuters?

MetaStock XVI with Datalink -- $22 per month

MetaStock XVI by itself starts at a very reasonable $22 per month which unlocks the entire package and as you will see that is a great combination of award-winning technical analysis and expert advisors for system backtesting, forecasting, and analysis.

It is designed only for the PC, but can be run on Mac with PC emulation software.  You will need to download and install MetaStock and configure your specific data feeds for the markets you want to trade.  So the software installation is not as slick and quick as competitors but the package is extremely powerful because it enables you to configure different data provider, like your broker for example.

MetaStock has a clean sweep in terms of Stock Exchanges covered (e.g. All of them) and it covers ALL of the vehicles, Stocks, ETF’s Mutual Funds, Options, Futures Forex, and Bonds.

MetaStock is one of the biggest fish in the sea of stock market analysis software.  Backed up by the mighty Thomson Reuters you can expect excellent fast global data coverage and broad market coverage.  There are two other packages below, having reviewed the Xenith application I would recommend the MetaStock + Refinitiv Xenith option ensure you have the real-time news package with MetaStock. 

MetaStock R/T -- with Reuters Real-Time Data. $99 per month

This package is a fully-functional version of MetaStock R/T (real-time) charting and analysis software that is designed for real-time market analysis.  It is powered by XENITH so you should get  real-time news, data, and analysis

MetaStock R/T Subscription with Refinitiv XENITH. $199 per month

This service is also a fully-functional version of MetaStock R/T charting and analysis software that is designed for real-time market analysis and is powered XENITH the key difference is it provides streaming data on any time frame including tick, intraday, daily, weekly, etc.

MetaStock with it’s Thomson Reuters Xenith News service integration is worth the money just for the news service, but it is so much more than just news.  See in the News section below what Xenith can do.

We work with MetaStock as a partner and have a special 3 months for the price of 1 offer for our readers.

MetaStock Xenith / Eikon News, Charts & Analysis Overview Video

Trade Management

MetaStock does provide broker integration but the execution of trades from charts and live integrated P&L analysis is limited, this is definitely an area of improvement for the future.  However, for trading, you can use Xenith.

Fundamental Scanning and Screening

As  I mentioned MetaStock is owned by Thomson Reuters, who are without a doubt the biggest and best provider of real-time news and market analysis.  They also have an incredible database of global fundamental data, not just on companies but countries, economies and industries.

The filtering and scanning possibilities are endless. I would like to see better integration within the MetaStock suite, bringing together the fundamentals and the technical analysis to enable better charting and technical analysis on fundamentals. However, the wealth of data is first class.

Using Xenith you can see a really in-depth analysis of company fundamentals from debt structure to top 10 investors, including level II market liquidity.  Excellent watch lists featuring fundamentals and powerful scanning of the markets gets a perfect 10

MetaStock + Refinitiv Xenith News

News Service.

MetaStock XVI has full Xenith (previously Eikon) integration with institutional level news, analysis, and outlook.  This is the fastest global news service available on the market including translations into all major languages.  Reuters also provides TV news coverage through smartphone and smart TV applications, it is after all the largest news agency in the world.  Along with the package you get Reuters Insider alerts which are exclusive content and research provided by the expert analysts on the financial network team.

Special News Features.

Core features include detailed financial snapshots of a company.  In the image below you see the Xenith Streaming News Screen for Netflix (Ticker:NFLX).  Take a look at the attention to detail here and the amount of original news coming in from the Reuters Network, you will get this news before anyone else.  Included in Xenith you also get stock quotes, charts, detailed Analyst Estimates and a full listing of all financial details and SEC filings, complete with upcoming events listings so you are prepared for action.  Thomson Reuters as you can imagine covers everything including stock, options, bonds, futures, FX and macroeconomic news and data.  An unparalleled source of information.

MetaStock Refinitiv Xenith -- News & Research Software Platform

The platform itself is very easy to use as MetaStock have placed an emphasis on the user experience and workflow.  You can have multiple workspaces for multiple monitors and save each workspace seamlessly for reuse.  Of course, the software is available on all devices from PC’s to Smartphones and TV’s.

Thomson Reuters the king of the real-time newsfeed and global market data coverage is the owner of MetaStock, so you get the entire wealth of knowledge included in the package.  This should not be underestimated.

MetaStock however, does not have any social elements, which under normal circumstances, would detract from the score, however, because the news feeds are so strong it warranted still a 10 out of 10.

Technical Chart Analysis

MetaStock takes a clean sweep when it comes to Charting covering all the core chart types, but also includes, Point & Figure, Equivolume, and Market Profile charts.  When it comes to indicators, MetaStock has 300+ different types, including Darvas Box and Ichimoku Cloud.  MetaStock will also help you develop your own indicators based on their coding system.

Finally, MetaStock racks up a perfect score on the drawing tools section, which includes Gann and Fibonacci tools.

Stock Systems and Back Testing

Another area where MetaStock excels is what they call the expert advisors.  MetaStock harnesses a huge amount of inbuilt systems that will help you as a beginner or intermediate trader understand and profit from technical analysis patterns and well-researched systems.  This is really a key area of advantage.

Predict Market Prices With MetaStock Forecaster Video

The biggest addition to the MetaStock arsenal is the forecasting functionality which sets it apart from the crowd.

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You can even use artificial intelligence like functionality to test a set of variables within your backtesting.  You could for example test if price moves above the moving average 10,11,12,14,16,18 or 20, in a single test to see which of the moving averages best work with that stock.

MetaStock is one of the few vendors that take forecasting really seriously.  The system backtesting is great because it allows you to test if a theory, idea or set of analysis has worked in the past.  Forecasting takes it to a whole new level by playing forward the backtesting to see how successful you might be with a strategy under certain circumstances.  The configurable nature of the reporting for the results of both backtesting and forecasting are excellent.

Ease of Use

MetaStock has made huge strides this year in terms of installation and usability.  You are up and running quickly and you do not need to spend time trying to configure data importers anymore unless you want to use a 3rd party provider.

Once installed the huge selection of automated expert advisors you can deploy on the selection of stocks in your purview make MetaStock well worth the investment.

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MetaStock Review Summary

My personal recommendation for an investor or trader is to combine the MetaStock & Xenith Packages together.  The depth of fundamental research and news in Xenith is staggering and the in-depth analysis, backtesting, and forecasting in MetaStock is industry leading. If $199 for the Xenith + MetaStock Package is too much, then fear not. If you simply want end of day data and all the MetaStock functionality the price starts at a reasonable $22 per month.  You can even by one-off licenses if you prefer.

If you are looking for something without all the backtesting and forecasting and the better ease of use, then TradingView or TC2000 are the better option and have better prices.  Read our Complete Stock Charting Analysis Software Review to find out what is best for you.  If you are primarily interested in real-time news services to help your trading, take a look at our 10 Best Financial News Services Review.

MetaStock Service Data Sheet

Vendor	MetaStock
Pricing & Software
Monthly End of Day	$22
Monthly Real Time	$99
Software Only Fee	$449
Customizable Data Feeds	✔
Customer Service & Education	Excellent
PC	✔
Market Data Coverage	Global
Data Speed	Excellent
Stocks	✔
ETF	✔
Mutual Funds	✔
Options	✔
Futures	✔
Forex	✔
Bonds	✔
Pricing & Software Score	10
Trade Management
Broker Integration Stocks	✔
Trade Management Score	4
Fundamental Scanning & Screening
Real Time Scanning & Filtering	✔
Fundamentals Scanning	✔
Watch Lists with Fundamentals	✔
Extended Economics Fundamentals (New)	✔
Fundamental Screening Score	10
Technical Analysis
Charts
Multiple Charts Per Desktop	✔
Bar Line HLC Candlestick	✔
Point & Figure	✔
Equivolume	✔
Others	Market Profile
Indicators
Bollinger Bands	✔
Directional Movement	✔
Ichimoku Cloud	✔
MACD	✔
Momentum	✔
Money Flow	✔
Moving Averages	✔
Parabolic SAR	✔
Rate of Change	✔
Relative Strength / RSI	✔
Stochastics	✔
Volume at Price	✔
Custom Indicator Development	✔
Volume	✔
Darvas Box	✔
Elliot Wave	X
Total Number of Indicators	300+
Drawing Tools
Fibonacci Retracement	✔
Fibonacci Time	✔
Fibonacci Fan	✔
Trend Lines	✔
Text Overlay	✔
Pitchfork	✔
Error Channel	✔
Gann Grid/Line	✔
Gann Fan	✔
Quadrant Lines	✔
Speed Lines	✔
Tirone Levels	✔
Automated Alerts	✔
Technical Analysis Score	10
News & Social
News Feed	✔
Real-Time News Feed	✔
Economics & Deal News	Reuters
Market Commentary	✔
News Score	10
Systems & Backtesting
System Marketplace	✔
Create Customizable Systems	✔
Back Testing Point & Click	✔
Back Testing Programmatic	✔
Forecasting (new)	✔
Robotic Trading (new)
Systems & Back-Testing Score	8
Setup & Usability
SW Setup	9
Ease of Use Score	8
Usability Points	17/20

EquityFeed -- With in build technical screening, fantastic ease of use, real-time news and powerful level II views, EquityFeed is a great option for the beginner.

Recommended for Day Traders, who want a super simple and slick workflow, real-time streaming charts & news and unique Level II data, Dollar Volume Information & excellent broker integration

With their slogan “Find It, Trade It, Profit” EquityFeed is considered a gold standard for Day Traders.

Pricing & Software

EquityFeed specializes in providing real-time data and news fast directly to your screen.  With a medium price point, it is neither cheap or expensive, but you do get a lot for your money as we will explore later in this review.  Data speeds are excellent and it has excellent U.S. data coverage including extensive Over The Counter markets (OTC:BB, OTCQX, OTCQB, OTCPINK, GREY)

Trade Management

EquityFeed has introduced the “Chart Montage” functionality, which enables an ultrapowerful way of trading off the charts.  This single window contains a wealth of critical trading information, including real-time streaming news, level 2 data, including time and sales.  Also, Equity Feed is the only software to offer the Dollar Volume data.  The EquityFeed Team have a fantastic set of integrations to your broker to enable this, which includes TD Ameritrade and Interactive Brokers two of the powerhouses of the brokerage world.

Fundamental Scanning & Screening 

EquityFeed contains many fundamental screens.  But what is the key for days traders?  The ability to scan entire markets for liquidity and volume patterns to find volatility you can trade for a profit.  This is the EquityFeed unique offering.

News -- A top placing and definitely worth mentioning this year is the deal news section in EquityFeed.

I really like the simple, yet powerful implementation, you can get the low down on contracts and deals struck between companies.  This can give you an edge if you can quantify the impact of the deal on the companies bottom line.

Technical Chart Analysis

In third place in this round, EquityFeed does not offer as many chart patterns or chart indicators as it’s competitors, but it does not have to.  Most people will only use 5% of the indicators available, and fortunately, EquityFeed covers all the important ones.  The power here is in the technical analysis screening, which is very fast, seamless and powerful.

Ease of Use -- Up And Running In Minutes

In the development process, EquityFeed has opted to keep everything on the surface super simple and intuitive to use.  However, don’t be fooled by the power underlying the streamlined interface, which in a few clicks you will be viewing Level II liquidity data and buying directly from the charts.  I have been extremely impressed with the progress EquityFeed is making in their product and carving out their day trader niche.

With great ease of use, an excellent way of managing real-time news and extremely powerful scanning, EquityFeed is highly recommended.  As to this the excellent broker integration options and you have a first class package.

Vendor
Pricing & Software
Monthly End of Day	N/A
Monthly Real Time	$135 -
	$250
Software Only Fee
Customizable Data Feeds
Customer Service & Education	Email Only
PC	✔
For MAC	✔
Tablets Smartpones
Market Data Coverage	U.S.A. inc OTC
Data Speed	Excellent
Stocks	✔
ETF	✔
Mutual Funds
Options
Futures
Forex
Bonds	✔
Pricing & Software Score	9
Trade Management
Broker Integration Stocks	✔
Broker Integration Options	✔
Place Trades from Charts	✔
Live Position P&L	✔
P&L Analysis	✔
Trade Management Score	10
Fundamental Scanning & Screening
Real Time Scanning & Filtering	✔
Fundamentals Scanning	✔
Watch Lists with Fundamentals	✔
Extended Economics Fundamentals (New)
Fundamental Screening Score	9
Technical Analysis & Charts
Multiple Charts Per Desktop	✔
Bar Line HLC Candlestick	✔
Point & Figure
Equivolume
Indicators
Bollinger Bands	✔
Directional Movement
Ichimoku Cloud
MACD	✔
Momentum	✔
Money Flow
Moving Averages	✔
Parabolic SAR
Rate of Change
Relative Strength / RSI	✔
Stochastics	✔
Volume at Price
Custom Indicator Development
Volume	✔
Darvas Box
Elliot Wave
Total Number of Indicators	11
Drawing Tools
Fibonacci Retracement	✔
Fibonacci Time
Fibonacci Fan
Trend Lines	✔
Text Overlay
Automated Alerts	✔
Technical Analysis Score	8
News & Social
News Feed	✔
Real-Time News Feed	✔
Economics & Deal News	Deal News
Market Commentary
Community Chat
News Score	9
Systems & Back-testing
System Marketplace
Create Customizable Systems
Back Testing Point & Click
Back Testing Programmatic
Forecasting (new)
Robotic Trading (new)
Systems & Back-testing Score	4
Setup & Usability
SW Setup	9
Ease of Use Score	9
Total Points	18

TrendSpider -- Can you draw trend-lines?  If not, TrendSpider will do it for you, AI technology to help the trader do the heavy lifting.

The new kid on the block, Trendspider is doing something very different and innovative to separate itself from the crowded stock chart analysis software market.  It solves the problem of too much time spent doing analysis, drawing trendlines, tweaking indicators and analyzing timeframes.  I was immediately a fan and believe it has a bright future ahead.  We start with an overview of some of the interesting benefits.

Automated Trendline Detection

Learning the skills of determining trend-lines and market direction is a tough ask for beginner traders, this is where TrendSpider enters the market.  The automated trendline detection saves a lot of time for newbies, speeds up trade preparation in the morning, and improves accuracy.  The TrendSpider algorithm uses mathematics to correlate all the bars on a chart and then draw the lines.  It highlights the touches at peaks and troughs in a price trend.  As a technical analyst, this is how you are supposed to do it, the more times a price touches the trend line and reverses the stronger the trend.  Therefore, if a price breaks through a strong area of support and resistance it is more predictive.  If you do not like a trend that the AI has used you can manually delete it or fine-tune them.  With this capability, you can have a complete trendline analysis on any chart in a few seconds.

Multi-Timeframe Analysis

Here is where is get even more interesting, the Multi-Timeframe Analysis can be used to super-impose trendlines or indicators from different timeframes onto a single chart.  It may seem a little complex at first, but when you get used to it, it makes a lot of sense.  Instead of constantly switching timeframes and redrawing trendlines it is simplý there.  It is not just for trendlines though you can use it with the array of 42 stock chart indicators to ensure you do not miss anything.  Dan Ushman the company founder uses it in his trading especially with indicators like Bollinger Bands and with trendlines which help expose things other traders miss when they are focused on one timeframe or one indicator at a time.

One thing I also really like is the price indicator analysis, you can let the application plot, name and highlight your Japanese Candlestick patterns of choice.  Want to find Evening Doji Stars, Hammers or Engulfing Patterns?  Just turn on the pattern recognition it is that easy.

How Does Automatic Trendline Detection work in TrendSpider?

Advanced Support & Resistance Lines

The one thing that blew me away here is that the TrendSpider team have found a really elegant way to take the masses of computed data and overlay it onto a single chart.

Using the drop-down selector “S/R Trends” enables a kind of heat map which shows the hundreds of potential trendlines and the darker red the area the more touches and concentration of trendlines there are.  See the chart below for reference.

Dynamic Price Alerts

Dynamic price alerts on indicators and trendlines free you up from the need of staring at charts waiting for them to set up, and help you avoid emotional traps like trading out of boredom, rather than choosing the exact time to trade.  The alarms can be configured on indicator or trendline breakthroughs, bounces or touches on any timeframe.  The trade alarms can be sent to email or SMS for your phone.

Software & Pricing

Trendspider is an HTML5 application, which means it works on any connected device, requires zero installation, zero data stream or data download configuration.  This appeals to me a lot because with a single click you are up and running.  Also, considering the complexity of the automatic calculations the application runs swiftly taking just a few seconds to complete an entire analysis.

Pricing starts at Free to try, but the real power comes in with PRO Trader Plan which starts at $24.75 per month.  This includes Real-Time Data, NASDAQ, NYSE & Amex Stocks, ETF’s and surprisingly Cryptocurrencies.  In this package, you also get unlimited lookups, trend detection, and 10 Dynamic Price Alerts + a free 30 minute personal one on one training session.

The Elite Trade Plan is $37.25 per month, has everything the PRO plan has and in addition includes after-hours and pre-market data, OTC, Forex and Futures data.  On top of that, you get 20 Dynamic Alerts.

Considering you get real-time data the pricing is very competitive, in fact considerably lower than other charting software vendors.

Open A TrendSpider Account Now & Get A Special Bonus

If you try Trendspider via the button above simply contact us afterward and we will send you our superb Stock Market Crash Detection Video Course & eBook worth $29- for Free.

Trendspider Review Summary

We have focused on what is unique about Trendspider, it is designed for a specific purpose, taking the guesswork and painstaking hours of analysis away from traders.  But what do you not get?  Well, you do not get fundamental scanning & filtering, trading from charts or broker integration.  There is no social aspect at the moment and no news service.  But it is not designed for these things, it is designed for fast effective machine driven technical analysis.

I see a bright future for TrendSpider, for example, I expect in the near future to be able to see the analysis of how well any given indicator or price pattern actually works overall or for any given stock.  The analysis of the probability of a successful prediction would be an amazing leap forward.

Full TrendSpider Data Sheet -- Features & Functionality

Vendor
Pricing & Software
$ Monthly End of Day Data	N/A
$ Monthly Real Time Data	$24.75 -$37.25
Software Only Fee	N/A
Customizable Data Feeds
Customer Service & Education	Excellent
PC	✔
For MAC	✔
Tablets Smartpones	✔
Market Data Coverage	U.S.A.
Data Speed	Excellent
Stocks	✔
ETF	✔
Mutual Funds
Options
Futures	✔
Forex	✔
Bonds
Trade Management
Broker Integration Stocks
Broker Integration Options
Place Trades from Charts
Live Position P&L
P&L Analysis
Fundamental Scanning & Screening
Real Time Scanning & Filtering
Fundamentals Scanning
Watch Lists with Fundamentals
Extended Economics Fundamentals (New)
Fundamental Screening Score
Technical Analysis Charts
Multiple Charts Per Desktop	✔
Bar Line HLC Candlestick	✔
Point & Figure
Equivolume
Others
Indicators
Bollinger Bands	✔
Directional Movement	✔
Ichimoku Cloud
MACD	✔
Momentum	✔
Money Flow	✔
Moving Averages	✔
Parabolic SAR	✔
Rate of Change	✔
Relative Strength / RSI	✔
Stochastics	✔
Custom Indicator Development	Coming soon
Volume	✔
Total Number of Indicators	42
Drawing Tools
Fibonacci Retracement	✔
Fibonacci Time
Fibonacci Fan
Trend Lines	✔
Text Overlay	Coming soon
Pitchfork	Coming soon
Automated Alerts	✔
Technical Analysis Score	10
Social
News Feed
Real-Time News Feed
Economics & Deal News
Market Commentary	Via Blog
Community Chat
Systems & Backtesting
System Marketplace
Create Customizable Systems
Back Testing Point & Click
Back Testing Programmatic
Forecasting (new)	Via Automated Trendlines
Robotic Trading (new)
Setup & Usability
SW Setup	10/10
Ease of Use Score	8/10

Best Stock Trading Platforms For Beginners Review Summary

If you want simply the best social environment & community to learn to trade, then your only choice is the TradingView platform.  If you want great stock market screening and trading from charts, then choose TC2000. EquityFeed has a powerful yet easy to use scanning and real-time news engine. MetaStock is for the analytical minds that want to test thousands of expert advisors to find the winning trading system.  lastly, if you want to do your own analysis but do not know how, TrendSpider will help with its automated trend finder technology.