Top 10 Best Stock Trading Technical Analysis Software 2024 (2024)

In-depth testing shows the best stock software for trading and technical analysis are TradingView, TrendSpider, Trade Ideas, and Stock Rover. Each provides unique benefits, features, and price points.

With 24 years of experience as a certified stock market analyst, I’ve rigorously tested over 100 stock trading products, allowing me to craft the web’s most comprehensive review of stock trading software. Get ready to dive in!

Best Trading Software Review Summary

Our review testing identified the best stock trading software as TradingView for global trading and community, Trade Ideas for AI-powered bot trading, and TrendSpider for pattern recognition and backtesting. Stock Rover is ideal for investors, and Benzinga Pro is for real-time news traders.

Experience shows traders need software with excellent chart technical analysis, real-time news, and technical market scanning. Investors need stock software for financial screening, in-depth stock research, robust portfolio tracking, and portfolio management. The right stock software for you is based on your needs.

1. TradingView: Best Overall

★★★★★ 4.8

Our testing reveals that the best stock software overall is TradingView, with excellent backtesting, technical analysis charts, stock screening, a highly rated stock app, and a free global plan.

TradingView benefits from an active trading community of 20 million people sharing ideas and strategies. Easy to use yet powerful, TradingView is the best stock market software on the planet.

✅ Traders & Investors
✅ USA & International
✅ Best Stock Charts & Backtesting
✅ Integrated Broker Trading
✅ 20M Active User Community

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2. TrendSpider: Best Automated Trading

★★★★★ 4.7

Best AI-powered multi-timeframe stock chart pattern recognition & backtesting.

TrendSpiderenables automated pattern recognition for Trendlines, Candlesticks, and Fibonacci levels.TrendSpider is best for all traders seeking cutting-edge AI software that automates technical chart analysis, trendline & pattern recognition. TrendSpider covers Stocks, ETFs, Fx & Crypto Markets.

✅ Stocks, Futures & Crypto
✅ USA
✅ Auto-trendlines
✅ Candlestick & Fibonacci Patterns
✅ Backtesting & Auto-trading

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3. Trade Ideas: Best for Day Traders

★★★★★ 4.6
The king of day trading software unleashes the power of AI with a proven track record. Trade Ideas uses AI to backtest millions of conditions daily to generate higher probability day trading signals. Trade Ideas is the best Automated trading software; using the Brokerage Plus program, you can automatically trade the Holly AI algorithm signals with Interactive Brokers.

✅ Day & Swing Trading
✅ USA
✅ Best AI Market Scanning
✅ AI Bot Integrated Trading
✅ AI Trading Signals

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4. Stock Rover: Best for Investors

★★★★★ 4.6

Stock Rover is the best software for US value, dividend, and growth investors, providing powerful screening, an industry-leading 10-year financial database, and real-time stock research reports. Stock Rover’s free service is very good, but Stock Rover Premium + provides unparalleled benefits for growth investing.

Simply the best software for smart investors with demanding investing strategies.

✅ Growth, Income & Dividend Investors
✅ Best Stock Screening & Research
✅ Portfolio Management
✅ Stock Research Reports
✅ USA

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5. Benzinga Pro: Best Real-time News

★★★★☆ 4.5

The fastest real-time news, charting, and block/insider trade scanning.

If you want to trade news events in real-time, our analysis shows the Benzinga Prostock program gives the reactive trader an edge in the market. The fastest and most cost-effective real-time news event trading service on the market.

✅ Real-time News
✅ USA
✅ Options Alerts
✅ Audio News Squawk
✅ Block & Insider Trades

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Best Stock Software In-Depth Testing

1. TradingView: Winner Overall Best Stock Software

TradingView is an easy-to-use, powerful platform that supports all international stock markets. TradingView is designed for traders who value a great price, powerful chart analysis, backtesting, and a large social community.

TradingView Rating	4.8/5.0
⚡ Features	Charts, Trading, News, Watchlists, Screening
🏆 Unique Features	20 Million User Community, Backtesting
🎯 Best for	Stock, Fx & Crypto Traders
🆓 Free Version	TradingView Free
🎮 Premium Trial	Free 30-Day
✂ Premium Discount	-25% Discount Available
💰 Price	Free or $59/m or $49/m annually
🌎 Markets Covered	Global

There is no doubt that TradingView is a worthy winner and holds its place as number one overall. I love TradingView and use it daily; I post charts, ideas, analysis, and chat with other traders. I also do strategy development and backtesting on TradingView.

TradingView Features Ratings	4.8/5.0
📈 Charts	★★★★★
📡 Screening	★★★★★
📰 Financial News	★★★✩✩
🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒 Social	★★★★★
🔍 Backtesting	★★★★★
💡 Pattern Recognition	★★★★★
🖱 Ease of Use	★★★★★

Pros

✓ Great Technical Analysis Charts
✓ Social First, Chat, Publish, Follow
✓ Good Backtesting & Screening
✓ Easy to use
✓ Crypto, Forex, Stocks Globally

Cons

✘ No Real-time News
✘ Watchlist Customization

TradingView Pricing & Software

TradingView is available for free, but it has limitations regarding charts, screening, and indicators. The Pro+ service is $25/m annually and has extensive benefits, including multiple devices, screens, charts, and post-market data.

The benefits of TradingView are fast data speeds and global stock exchange coverage. TradingView covers Stocks, ETFs, Funds, Futures, Forex, Bonds, and cryptocurrencies globally, making it a good choice for international investors.

Our testing shows that TradingView’s pricing model and global stock exchange coverage make it the best free technical analysis software in India, the USA, and internationally.

TradingView Software Download for PC & Mac

TradingView is an HTML 5 application that runs in the cloud, meaning you do not need to download any software for the PC or Mac. When you launch TradingView, the HTML 5 code automatically downloads to your PC browser and simply works.

TradingView is the best online stock chart program because it has the speed and power of a desktop app but runs in the cloud, improving setup and data management.

TradingView has an App for Android and Apple devices. Over 150,000 users rate it 4.8/5.0, making it the best stock analysis mobile app available today.

Trading with TradingView

With TradingView in the USA, you get broker integration with TradeStation for stocks and Forex.com for foreign exchange currency trading. In Europe, you have integration FXCM and Saxo Group for currency and CFD trading. You can place trades directly from charts, which will take care of profit & loss reporting and analysis. The only thing TradingView does not cover is Stock Options trading.

TradingView Scanning & Screening

TradingView has over 250 criteria for scanning and screening stocks, Forex, and Cryptocurrencies. There are 48 different fundamental criteria and 96 technical variables available. TradingView also includes 48 economic indicators available through the Federal Reserve Database (FRED), including the Federal Funds Rates and World Economic Growth.

TradingView Community & Platform

TradingView has over 20 million active users sharing ideas, charts, and chats. Thousands of groups discuss financial markets. The TradingView community is an excellent way to generate ideas and learn from other traders.

TradingView has integrated newsfeeds, including Reuters, MTNewswires, Benzinga, and DailyFX. The newsfeeds are not real-time but do add value. I would recommend trying the trading platform to see it in action.

TradingView is the King of Social Trading with the biggest and most active trading community.

Chart, Scan, Trade & Join Me On TradingView for Free

Join me and 20 million traders on TradingView for free. TradingView is a great place to meet other investors, share ideas, chart, screen, and chat.

Join Me On TradingView

TradingView Technical Analysis

TradingView has over 160 stock chart indicators and unique charts, such as LineBreak Charts, Kagi Charts, Heikin Ashi charts, Point & Figure Charts, and Renko Charts. As an advanced technical trader, you will be well served.

With the Premium membership, you also get fully integrated Level II insight. TradingView is an industry leader as a tool for technical stock analysis.

As a technical analyst, I am incredibly impressed with the offering of Kagi, Heikin Ashi, and Renko Charts, including Point & Figure and Line Break. Also, the user community has developed thousands of bespoke indicators and strategies. This chart selection gives you everything you will need as an advanced trader.

Backtesting & Automated Trading

TradingView has an active community of people developing and selling stock analysis systems. With the premium-level service, you can create and sell your own. The community also offers many indicators and systems for free.

I have implemented my MOSES (Market Outperforming Stock ETF Strategy) into TradingView. TradingView enables you to create any system or strategy easily using Pine script. Below, you can see three MOSES Strategies compared with the equity curve. This MOSES system beat the NASDAQ 100 by 100% over the past 24 years.

TradingView’s backtesting report includes everything you need to evaluate a strategy’s performance, including net profit, drawdown, buy and hold return, and strategy risk profile.

I like that you have results in a few clicks [Strategy Tester -> Add Strategy]. You can also tweak the strategy parameters and observe the results. Reporting is good, and the tabs show the strategy’s profit performance.

TradingView has a market replay functionality that lets you play through the timeline and shows you the chart scrolling and the trades executed; it is simple and powerful. All buy and sell orders are drawn on the chart and highlighted. TradingView is a great package, especially as the free version includes backtesting.

The only thing you cannot do is forecast and implement Robotic Trading Automation. For stock market forecasting, you are better off with MetaStock. For Robotic Trading Automation, Trade Ideas is the best.

TradingView Usability

TradingView is the best stock trading software for beginners because it is easy to use but powerful enough to grow with you as you gain experience. The community of over 10 million people will help you learn and gain knowledge. TradingView takes about 2 minutes to set up; no credit card, no installation, and no configuring data feeds; it is ready to go because TradingView works with a single click.

Video: Why TradingView is the Best Stock Software

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2. TrendSpider: Best Automated Stock Chart Analysis Software

TrendSpider is best for all traders seeking cutting-edge AI software that automates technical chart analysis, trendline, and pattern recognition. TrendSpider has robust system backtesting and automated Fibonacci & Candlestick recognition covering Stocks, ETFs, Fx, and Crypto Markets.

TrendSpider Rating	4.7/5.0
⚡ Features	Charts, Watchlists, Multi-timeframe Analysis, Backtesting
🏆 Unique Features	Automated Trendlines, Fibonacci, and Candlestick Pattern Recognition
🎯 Best for	US Stock, Forex & Crypto Traders
🆓 Free Version	❌
🎮 Premium Trial	❌
✂ Premium Discount	30% Off Monthly Plan Code "LST30" 50% Off an Annual Plan (No Code Required)
💰 Price	$149/m or $75/m annually
🌎 Markets Covered	USA

TrendSpider is a leading stock charting software packed with innovative technical analysis tools. If you are a serious market analyst, TrendSpider will help you do the job quicker and with better quality and prevent you from missing an opportunity.

TrendSpider Features Ratings	4.7/5.0
📈 Charts	★★★★★
📡 Screening	★★★★★
📰 Financial News	★★★✩✩
✨AI Strategies	★★★★✩
🔍 Backtesting	★★★★★
🧪 Code-Free Backtesting	★★★★★
💡 Pattern Recognition	★★★★★
🚦 Auto-Trading Score	★★★★✩
🖱 Ease of Use	★★★★★

Pros

✓ Automated Candlestick, Chart Pattern & Trendline Recognition
✓ The Best Point-and-Click Backtesting & Strategy Development
✓ Auto-trading Bots
✓ 150+ Different Candlestick Patterns Recognized
✓ 220+ Charts & Indicators
✓ Multi-Timeframe Analysis
✓ Real-time Exchange Data Included in Price
✓ Stocks, ETFs, Forex, Crypto, Indices & Futures
✓ Seasonality Charts
✓ News & Analyst Ratings Change Scanning
✓ In-Person 1-on-1 Training Included

Automated Trendline & Fibonacci Detection
✓ Automatic Multi-Timeframe Analysis
✓ Code Free Backtesting
✓ Real-time Data Included
✓ Stocks, ETFs, Fx, Crypto, Futures

Cons

✘ No Social

TrendSpider’s standout capabilities include automated recognition of candlestick patterns, trendlines, and chart patterns. It simplifies backtesting and strategy creation with point-and-click functions automatically displayingbuy and sell signals on the chart.

Furthermore, TrendSpider now scans for financial news, analyst estimates, rating changes, insider trading data, and seasonality charts. In 2024, TrendSpider launched an AI-powered assistant,and automated trading Bot execution serves as the crowning touch.

TrendSpider Pricing & Software

TrendSpider has radically simplified its pricing model for 2024. There is only one plan, and it includes everything: real-time data, futures, AI-powered pattern recognition, backtesting, news, options, crypto, futures, and even automated bot trading with broker integration!

• The standard price is $149 per month. The best deal is opting for an annual prepaid plan, which offers a 50% discount, equating to $74.40 per month.
• If you prefer to pay monthly, the price is $149, and adding code LST30 during checkout will save 30%, meaning the monthly plan costs $104.30.

Automated Technical Analysis

Automated trendline detection and plotting do a better job than a human can; using algorithms, the system can detect thousands of trend lines and flag the most important ones with the highest backtested probability of success.

The automated trendline & candlestick detection and recognition do a better job than any human

TrendSpider’s multi-time-frame analysis allows you to view multiple timeframe charts on a single chart, with the trendlines plotted automatically. Another great feature is the advanced plotting of support and resistance lines into a subtlely integrated chart heatmap.

6 Innovations Unique To TrendSpider:

1. Automated trendline detection and plotting do a better job than a human can; using algorithms, the system can detect thousands of trend lines and flag the most important ones with the highest backtested probability of success.
2. Automated multi-time-frame analysis means viewing multiple timeframe charts on a single chart with the trendlines plotted automatically.
3. Advanced plotting of support and resistance lines into a chart heatmap.
4. Automated Fibonacci detection and mapping unique to TrendSpider
5. Integrated backtesting of automated trendlines, showing win rate, profitability, and drawdown.
6. Raindrop Charts are a unique and intuitive way to visualize volume profile or volume at price action.

The latest innovation from the TrendSpider team is the market scanner, which enables you to scan a specific stock and the entire market for trades matching your technical criteria. Combining AI trend detection and analysis with scanning the whole stock market is a unique advantage.

TrendSpider takes a different approach to backtesting. The platform is built from the ground up to automatically detect trendlines and Fibonacci patterns, meaning it already has backtesting built into the code. The highest probability trendlines are automatically flagged, and you can adjust the sensitivity of the detection algorithm to show more or fewer lines.

TrendSpider Backtesting

TrendSpider has also implemented a strategy tester that allows you to type what you want to test freely, and it will do the coding for you. It is a smooth and straightforward implementation.

I like the ability to adjust your backtest conditions on the fly, and the “Price Behaviour Explorer” and “System Performance Chart” automatically update. You can jump into coding if you want to, but the key here is that you do not HAVE to.

Integrated backtesting of automated trendlines, showing win rate, profitability, and drawdown, is a new addition and warmly welcome; the team has propelled TrendSpider into one of the leading technical analysis packages in the industry.

Is TrendSpider Worth It?

Yes, TrendSpider is worth buying if you are a stock trader who wants to utilize cutting-edge automation for technical stock chart analysis. The automated pattern recognition of trendlines, Fibonacci, candlesticks, and backtesting make it a compelling proposition.

3. Trade Ideas: Winner Best AI Stock Prediction Software

Trade Ideas is best for active day traders wanting AI-driven trading signals. It provides actual buy and sell signals for trades by performing millions of backtests daily on 70+ strategies. The Holly AI platform has an audited track record of beating the market.

Trade Ideas Rating	4.6/5.0
⚡ Features	Charts, Scanning, Broker Integration, Trading Room
🏆 Unique Features	AI Trade Signals, Auto-trading, Proven Profitable Track Record
🎯 Best for	US Day Traders
🆓 Free Version	❌
🎮 Premium Trial	Try the Trading Room for Free
✂ Premium Discount	-15% Discount Link: Use Code “LIBERATED”
💰 Price	$228/m or $167/m annually
🌎 Markets Covered	USA

According to our testing, Trade Ideas is the industry-leading artificial intelligence-powered stock market scanning and trading signals generation platform. Despite a complicated user interface, the real power lies underneath with 30 channels of trading ideas & three AI systems pinpointing trading signals for day traders. Trade Ideas promises and delivers the nirvana of market-beating returns.

Trade Ideas Features Ratings	4.6/5.0
📈 Charts	★★★★★
📡 Screening	★★★★★
📰 Financial News	★★✩✩✩
🚦 Trading Score	★★★★★
🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒 AI	★★★★★
🔍 Backtesting	★★★★★
💡 Pattern Recognition	★★★★★
💰 Buy & Sell Signals	★★★★★
🖱 Ease of Use	★★★✩✩

Pros

✓ 3 AI Trading Algorithms
✓ Market-Beating Audited Performance
✓ Exceptional Stock Scanning
✓ Real-time Trade Signals
✓ Auto-trading With AI Signals
✓ Free Live Trading Room Access

Cons

✘ User Interface
✘ Takes Time To Learn
✘ Choice of Indicators

Trade Ideas is unique because the software tells you when to buy and sell stocks by analyzing millions of trade setups daily. The analysis results in 3 to 5 high probability trades every day.

Trade Ideas is the most expensive software in this review because it offers the possibility of beating the market using AI pattern recognition and establishing a trading bot to auto-trade on your behalf. For a full pricing breakdown, see our Trade Ideas review.

Trade Ideas, unlike any other software, does all the work for you providing you specific market beating AI trading Signals, to help you make regular profits.

The Trade Ideas Platform

Extensive testing reveals that Trade Ideas is an incredibly powerful stock trading desktop app that seamlessly integrates cloud-based AI algorithmic stock signals to provide high-probability day trading opportunities.

When you first open Trade Ideas on your desktop, the software feels clunky and not user-friendly. Every chart and table is in a separate window, so if you want to resize the view, you must resize all eight windows. This seems such a hassle initially and seems to hark back to the age of Windows 98.

There is a good reason for this design; you have endless flexibility and window configuration options if you operate multiple monitors and large screens. Even though they are fully separate windows, they can be linked and unlinked to provide a more fluid experience with some practice.

So, although it is clunky and some of the most important functions are hidden behind right-click menus in certain windows, you start to get used to the design after a few hours.

Stock Scanning & Screening

The Trade Ideas scanner system, unique in the industry, is at the heart of the trading platform. By clicking New -> Alerts, you can access the Alert Config Window, which gives you immediate access to over 40 trading scans. In the screenshot below, you can see all the in-built scans categorized into Bullish, Bearish, or Neutral. Depending on the overall market direction, you can select a potential strategy for the day.

A particularly impressive and innovative scan was discovered during testing: the “Unusual Social Mentions Scan.” The Trade Ideas AI engine constantly scans StockTwits for surges in mentions of particular stocks. If you click load settings, you will be immediately presented with a real-time list of stocks spiking on social media.

Automated AI Stock Trading

The Trade Ideas platform has a powerful, easy-to-use backtesting system that does not require programming knowledge. A point-and-click backtesting system is rare in this industry; the only alternative software with this capability is TrendSpider.

The most amazing thing of all is that you can let Holly AI to auto-trade for you through Interactive Brokers.

Is Trade Ideas Easy to Use?

No, Trade Ideas is not easy to use; it takes time to learn. I estimate at least four days of effort before you understand the platform. However, Trade Ideas helps new clients by providing excellent support, a live trading room, and personal one-on-one training sessions.

If you aspire to be an active, profitable day trader, this package is well worth it, as all the hard work is done for you every day. I am thrilled to partner with Trade Ideas because they bring a unique and extremely powerful service to retail stock traders.

Unleash Trade Ideas’ AI

4. Stock Rover: Best Stock Analysis Software for Investors

Stock Rover is ideal for USA value, dividend, and growth investors seeking innovative fundamental stock analysis, screening, and portfolio management software. Stock Rover enables the easy implementation of powerful investing strategies.

Stock Rover Rating	4.6/5.0
⚡ Features	Charts, Powerful Screening, Research, Broker Integration
🏆 Unique Features	10-Year Historical Financial Data, Full Portfolio Mgt, Correlation, Rebalancing & Value Investing Benefits
🎯 Best for	Growth, Dividend & Value Investors
🆓 Free Version	Stock Rover Free
🎮 Premium Trial	Free 14-Day
✂ Premium Discount	25% During Trial Period
💰 Price	Free or $28/m or $23/m annually
🌎 Markets Covered	USA

Stock Rover is an exceptional software for US value, dividend, and growth investors. It offers robust screening, a top-notch 10-year financial database, and real-time stock research reports. While Stock Rover’s free service is excellent, Stock Rover Premium + offers unmatched benefits for growth investing.

Stock Rover Features Ratings	4.6/5.0
📈 Charts	★★★★★
📡 Screening	★★★★★
📰 Financial News	★★★✩✩
📰 Portfolio & Research	★★★★★
🔍 Backtesting	★★★★✩
🖱 Ease of Use	★★★★★

Pros

✓ 10-Year Financial Data
✓ Best Screening Criteria
✓ Stock Scoring & Ratings
✓ Value, Dividend & Growth Screeners
✓ Easy to use

Cons

✘ No Social Community
✘ No Real-time Charts

It is awe-inspiring that Stock Rover has stormed into the review winners section on its first try. It is also the outright winner in our Best Stock Screener Review. I actively use Stock Rover daily to find the undiscovered gems that form the foundations of my long-term investments. I created the Liberated Stock Trader Beat the Market Stock System using Stock Rover.

I do not say this lightly. If you are a long-term US Investor, Stock Rover is the best & only software you ever need.

Stock Rover Pricing

Stock Rover is available for free, but the real power is unleashed with the Premium Plus service, which is superior to competing stock screeners and less expensive. Stock Rover Premium Plus costs $27.99 per month and includes unlimited stock ratings, scores, analyst ratings, margin of safety scoring, a 10-year historical database, and investor warnings.

Stock Rover has the best implementation of stock screening, research and portfolio management on the market today.

Stock Rover Portfolio Management

Stock Rover integrates with every major broker, including our review-winning broker, Firstrade, and Interactive Brokers. You cannot place trades from charts, but it will cover profit and loss reporting on your portfolio and provide portfolio rebalancing recommendations. Stock Rover uniquely includes current dividend earnings and future income prediction reporting, making it a unique portfolio analysis platform.

Fundamental Stock & ETF Screening

Stock Rover is best at screening for stocks to build professional growth, dividend, and value stock portfolios. Stock Rover provides detailed research reports, historical screening, portfolio management reporting, rebalancing, and correlation.

If you manage your portfolio of stocks with multiple brokers, Stock Rover will also integrate them into one view. Stock Rover is not for day traders but for long-term investors who want to maximize their portfolio income and take advantage of compounding and margin of safety to manage a safe and secure portfolio.

Stock Rover scores perfectly in our screener testing, offering the most detailed stock and ETF financial data. Stock Rover has over 600 data points and historical data stretching back ten years, enabling you to backtest fundamental strategies. Stock Rover also has unique Margin of Safety, Fair Value, and Discounted Cash Flow data to help you invest like Warren Buffett. Add the exclusive stock scoring systems, and Stock Rover is the best stock screener for the North American markets.

Watchlists have fundamentals broken into Analyst Estimates, Valuation, Dividends, Margin, Profitability, Overall Score, and Stock Rover Ratings. You can even set the watchlist and filters to refresh every single minute if you wish.

Powerful Pre-Built Screeners Integrated into Stock Rover

Stock Rover has over 150 pre-built and tested screeners you can import and use. You need to have the Premium Plus service to take advantage of this. I have analyzed most of the screeners, which are very thoughtfully built. One of my favorites is the Buffettology screener.

Stock Rover Research & Stock Ratings

The team at Stock Rover has implemented some great functionality; I particularly like the roll-up view for all the scores and ratings. I have imported the Warren Buffett portfolio, including his top 25 holdings. I have also selected the “Stock Rover Ratings” tab. This tab rolls up all analysis into a simple-to-view ranking system, saving a vast amount of time and effort while providing a wealth of insight.

Stock Rover News Service

Stock Rover pulls information from over 30 news sources, including Yahoo Finance and Benzinga News. The news feeds are not real-time, but they are useful. If real-time news is a priority, you can subscribe to Benzinga PRO News separately. Regarding social chat and community, Stock Rover has no perceivable service.

Stock Rover provides investors with financial growth, valuation, efficiency, and profitability ratings to help them select the right stocks; this makes it the best stock-picking software available today. If you are a long-term investor, this is the software for you.

Why Stock Rover is Best for Investors: Review & Test Video

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5. Benzinga Pro: Best Stock Program for Trading Breaking News

Benzinga Pro is a unique stock program for trading real-time stock news. Benzinga Pro is designed for day traders and delivers real-time market-moving news to give you a trading edge. The service is complete with a news squawk box, direct access to the news desk, and real-time charting and scanning.

Benzinga Pro Rating	4.5/5.0
⚡ Features	Real-time News, Calendar, Charts, Screening
🏆 Unique Features	Stock & Options Squawk Box, News Sentiment, News Rating, Options Alerts
🎯 Best for	US Stock, Fx, Commodity & Bond Traders
🆓 Free Version	❌
🎮 Premium Trial	14 Day Free
💰 Price	$197/m or $166/m annually
🌎 Markets Covered	North America

Benzinga Pro is the best for scanning and screening the news, but it can also screen for technical and fundamental data. Benzinga Pro has 32 fundamental screening criteria, including P/E, PEG, Profitability, Margins, and Insider Ownership. There are also 23 market scanning criteria, including volume change, relative volume, and short interest.

Benzinga Pro Features Ratings	4.5/5.0
📈 Charts	★★★★✩
📡 Screening	★★★✩✩
📰 Financial News	★★★★★
🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒 Social	★★★✩✩
💰 Buy & Sell Signals	★★★★★
⏰ Alerts	★★★★★
🖱 Ease of Use	★★★★★

Pros

✓ Best Real-time Stock Market News
✓ Squawk Box Live Feed
✓ Real-time Alerts & Signals
✓ Good Charts & Screening

Cons

✘ North America Only
✘ No Broker Integration

Benzinga PRO costs $79 monthly for the Basic Plan, which gives you real-time newsfeeds and watchlist alerts. Benzinga Pro Essential costs $117 monthly, adding the Squawk Box, Calendars, Sentiment Indicators, and the Chat with Newsdesk functionality.

The app is stable and elegant, allowing you to set up multiple workspaces and monitors to suit your needs. Benzinga is also constantly adding new functionality, and it is a platform that should grow with your needs.

Benzinga Signals: Scanning for Block Trades, Options Activity & More

Another example of how Benzinga is continually innovating is Signals. Signals is a feed with block trade or price spike news that directly impacts a stock’s supply and demand balance at a foundational level.

Let’s take a look at a block trade. A block trade is a huge, market-moving amount of stock, either bought or sold. Block trades impact price, and you can take part in that price move or not, depending on the direction of the trade.

Signals could be a trading strategy in itself. Watch the block trades roll in, observe the direction, and make your trade. See a colossal block trade sell, buy Put Options, see a block trade buy, buy calls.

Real-Time Trading News – BZWire Access

Core to the Benzinga Pro service is access to the real-time newsfeed, which updates quickly and effectively. The only news excluded in the basic package is the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) announcements and Public Relations (PR) newsfeeds.

Please do not underestimate the newsfeed; it is truly enormous. But despite the depth of financial content being released every minute, the Benzinga Pro web-based applications are high-speed, responsive, and configurable. The configurable nature of the newsfeed is what makes the service so great. For the full test of Benzinga, see the Benzinga Pro Review.

Newsfeed Alerts – Alarms On Specific Sectors Or Categories

You can also choose to be alerted to specific categories in your newsfeed. For example, you can select to be alerted via email or a desktop pop-up and sound if any hot news or market-moving news is announced. Any category can be flagged for alerts, so you do not need to watch the newsfeed continually; you can be trading and hear the alarm as a call to action.

Benzinga Pro Squawk Box & Newsdesk

Benzinga’s Squawk Box frees you from staring at the on-screen newsfeed by having the newsroom reporters read the latest high-impact news live as it hits the feed. Squawk is one of the biggest benefits of the Benzinga Pro Essentials service.

I have Squawk Box open while watching the markets, so I do not need to constantly watch the screen. Every two minutes, a real-time audio feed announces the latest big news via my PC speakers; this service alone is worth the upgrade to Benzinga PRO Essential.

Benzinga Pro has an active user community, with eight live chat channels and a Benzinga TV channel featuring Benzinga studio’s live broadcasts. Additionally, a special live chat stream for Benzinga’s Options Signals service enables clients to pounce on Options pricing opportunities.

Benzinga Pro has dramatically improved its technical analysis charting over the past few years by integrating a cut-down version of TradingView (our review winner). The TradingView integration offers 120 indicators, real-time stock charts, and seven chart types, including bars, candles, Heiken Ashi, Line, Area, and Baseline charts. You can now draw on charts and perform solid technical analysis.

Is Benzinga Pro Worth It?

Yes, Benzinga Pro is worth it for day traders and investors who want an actionable real-time news service, sentiment indicators, market scanning, and financial reporting to get a profitable edge in the market.

After using Benzinga Pro for five years, I can say that the exclusive features, such as the audio squawk box, chat with the newsdesk, and the powerful calendar suite, make It worth it.

Unleash Real-Time News With Benzinga Pro

6. MetaStock: Best Stock Program for Backtesting & Forecasting

MetaStock is best for stock traders who need real-time news, access to a huge stock systems marketplace, and the best technical stock chart analysis, backtesting, and forecasting. All international exchanges are covered & backed up with excellent customer service.

MetaStock Rating	4.4/5.0
⚡ Features	Charts, Watchlists, Scanning, Backtesting
🏆 Unique Features	Forecasting, Real-time Global Trading News (Multi-language)
🎯 Best for	Stock, Fx & Commodity Traders
🆓 Free Version	No
🎮 Premium Trial	❌
✂ Premium Discount	3 Months for 1
💰 Price	MetaStock R/T $100/m, MetaStock Xenith Realtime News $265/m
🌎 Markets Covered	Global

The latest release of Metastock is a big hit with improvements across the board. Considerable advances in scanning, backtesting, and forecasting make this one of the best offerings on the market.

MetaStock Features Ratings	4.4/5.0
📈 Charts	★★★★★
📡 Screening	★★★★★
📰 Financial News	★★★★★
🔍 Backtesting	★★★✩✩
💡 Pattern Recognition	★★★★✩
🚦 Auto-Trading Score	★✩✩✩✩
🖱 Ease of Use	★★★✩✩

Pros

✓ Best Stock Backtesting
✓ Largest Selection of Charts & Indicators
✓ Real-time Global News
✓ Stock Forecasting
✓All International Stock Exchanges

Cons

✘ PC Only/No Mobile App
✘ No Broker Integration
✘ Poor Interface

MetaStock is designed as a broker-agnostic technical analysis platform. It does provide limited broker integration, but the execution of trades from charts and live integrated profit and loss analysis of your live portfolio is limited.

MetaStock Scanning & Screening

Using MetaStock R/T, you can see an incredibly in-depth analysis of company fundamentals from debt structure to top ten investors, including level II. Excellent watchlists featuring company financials and powerful scanning of the markets make MetaStock unique.

MetaStock Real-time News

MetaStock R/T Refinitiv integration means you get institutional quality real-time news, analysis, research, and economic outlooks. Refinitiv is the fastest global news service available in the industry. For international investors, MetaStock is unique because the news is also translated into all major languages.

MetaStock Technical Chart Analysis

MetaStock has over 350 stock tools for charting, annotation, and drawing trendlines and indicators, the broadest selection of technical analysis tools on the market today. MetaStock is the clear leader in pure technical analysis of stock charts; it includes Point and Figure and Market Profile Charts, meaning it has the best stock trading charts.

MetaStock Systems & Backtesting

Another area where MetaStock excels is what they call “Expert Advisors.” MetaStock harnesses many inbuilt systems to help you understand and profit from technical analysis patterns and well-researched systems. This is a unique differentiator from the competition. The most significant addition to the MetaStock arsenal is the forecasting functionality, which sets it apart from the crowd.

MetaStock has over 100 computerized stock market systems called Expert Advisors. These programs scan stock charts for a system’s targeted conditions. The Expert Advisor systems, either in-built or as 3rd part add-ons, will help you understand and profit from technical analysis patterns in price and volume. This is a unique differentiator from the competition.

You can even use artificial intelligence-like functionality to test a set of variables within your backtesting. For example, you can use the “Fuzzy Logic” program to test your stock system against many different variations of your criteria to see which variables work best for this stock. Fuzzy logic is an incredibly powerful feature that is often overlooked with MetaStock.

MetaStock Forecaster Capability

The most significant MetaStock innovation is the forecasting functionality, which does not exist with any other software. By selecting Forecaster from the power console, you can choose one or more stocks, ETFs, or Forex pairs. You are then presented with an interactive report that enables you to scan through the many predictive recognizers, which help you understand the basis for the prediction and the methodology.

3 Months for the Price of 1 on MetaStock

7. Tickeron: Best Selection of AI Bots & Signals for Traders

Tickeron has impressive AI-powered chart pattern recognition and prediction algorithms for stocks, ETFs, Forex, and Cryptocurrencies. Tickeron excels at providing thematic model portfolios, specific pattern-based trading signals, and success probability and AI confidence levels.

Tickeron Rating	4.4/5.0
⚡ Features	Portfolios, Watchlists, Screening
🏆 Unique Features	AI Trade Signals, AI Portfolios & AI Pattern Recognition
🎯 Best for	Traders & Investors Using AI Trading
🆓 Free Version	Yes
🎮 Premium Trial	14-Day Free Trial
✂ Premium Discount	50% Off All Annual Plans
💰 Price	Free or $250/m or $125/m annually
🌎 Markets Covered	USA

Tickeron’s trading platform is unique and innovative. It combines artificial intelligence and human intelligence based on the community of traders, so you can compare what humans think versus machines. Tickeron targets day traders, swing traders, and investors with intricate features and benefits specific to your investing style.

Tickeron Features Ratings	4.4/5.0
📈 Charts	★★★★✩
📡 Screening	★★★★★
🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒 Social & News	★★★✩✩
✨AI Strategies	★★★★✩
🔍 Backtesting	★★★★✩
💡 Pattern Recognition	★★★✩✩
🖱 Ease of Use	★★★★★

Pros

✓ 45 Streams of Trade Ideas
✓ 40 Chart Patterns Recognized
✓ AI Trend Prediction Algorithms
✓ Audited Performance Track Records
✓ Build AI Portfolios

Cons

✘ Custom Charting Limited
✘ Cannot Plot Indicators

Tickeron is a wholly-owned subsidiary of SAS Global, a leader in data analytics whose services are used by the majority of Fortune 500 companies. Tickeron uses AI rules to generate trading ideas based on pattern recognition. Firstly, they use a database of technical analysis patterns to search the stock market for stocks that match those price patterns using their pattern search engine. Of course, each detected pattern has a backtested track record of success, and this pattern’s success is factored into the prediction using their Trend Prediction Engine.

Tickeron offers a free Beginner plan that enables portfolio creation, alerting, and AI investment ideas. The Premium Tickeron plans are overly complex, with services aimed at swing traders, day traders, and investors. All plans have this in common: Intermediate One costs $50-100/mo, Intermediate Two costs $120-200/mo, and Expert costs $250/mo for access to all features.

Pattern Recognition

At the heart of Tickeron is its AI algorithms’ ability to spot 40 different stock chart patterns in real-time. You can select which pattern you want to trade, and it will filter stocks, Forex, or cryptocurrencies that currently show it. Patterns are split into bullish patterns for long trades or bearish patterns for those who wish to go short.

Tickeron’s real-time pattern recognition is particularly useful for swing or day traders, where market timing is the top priority. Tickeron can also scan the entire market and suggest which patterns work best on a particular day. In the screenshot above, you can see “Today’s Top Ranked Patterns,” which rates the potential success of the patterns based on the market’s current trading activity.

Ultimately, pattern recognition saves pattern traders a lot of work hunting for potential trade setups because it does all the work for them.

Trading Signals & Prediction

Tickeron has implemented a powerful feature called AI Confidence Level. Based on the stock’s history, the success rate of a particular pattern, and the market’s current direction, Tickeron can assign a confidence level to a trade prediction.

The screenshot below shows that the Tickeron AI predicts that ABUS has an 88% chance of declining in value and ACET has an 81% chance of increasing in value.

The outstanding feature of the Tickeron prediction engine is that you can click “Show previous predictions” to check if the AI has done a good job in the past with a particular pattern on specific stocks. The prediction engine provides the right level of clarity and granularity so you can make informed trading decisions.

Tickeron is designed to find high-probability trading opportunities, not for long-term investors wishing to build a sustainable portfolio. If you are a long-term investor, I recommend Stock Rover.

Tickeron AI vs. Human Intelligence

A unique feature of Tickeron is the ability to compare the AI prediction engine forecast versus what the community predicts. The image above shows that 58% of the community believes Bank of America will increase in price. This is a fascinating insight, and I look forward to Tickeron publishing research on the accuracy of human prediction versus artificial intelligence algorithms.

Is Tickeron Worth The Money?

Tickeron is worth buying if you are a short-term trader because it provides high-probability AI-backed trade signals. For active pattern day trading, I recommend a trading account value of over $25K.

Get 50% Off Tickeron

8. TC2000: Best Stock Trading from Charts USA

TC2000 is best for US and Canadian traders seeking rapid entire market scanning and screening, with excellent charts & indicators. TC2000 has an integrated brokerage, meaning you can trade stocks and options directly from charts.

TC2000 Rating	4.3/5.0
⚡ Features	Charts, Custom Indicators, Real-time Screening
🏆 Unique Features	TC2000 Brokerage, EasyScan, Options Strategies
🎯 Best for	Stock & Options Traders
🆓 Free Version	Yes
🎮 Premium Trial	Free 30-Day
✂ Premium Discount	-25% for Bi-Annual Subscription
💰 Price	Free or $60/m or $50/m annually
🌎 Markets Covered	USA

TC2000 has long been one of my favorite tools; I have been a subscriber for over 20 years and find the latest release another step forward. The platform offers nearly everything a trader will need and is endlessly customizable and scalable.

TC2000 Features Ratings	4.3/5.0
📈 Charts	★★★★★
📡 Screening	★★★★★
📰 News & Social	★✩✩✩✩
🔍 Backtesting	★✩✩✩✩
🚦 Broker Trading Score	★★★★★
🖱 Ease of Use	★★★★★

Pros

✓ Fantastic Charts & Indicators Selection
✓ Good Technical & Fundamental Stock Scanning
✓ Trade Directly From Charts
✓ Real-time Exchange Data
✓ Very Good Margin Rates

Cons

✘ No Social Community
✘ No Backtesting
✘ No News

TC2000 is a slick and powerful technical analysis platform. It enables scanning and screening the entire US market for fundamentals and technical analysis. You can use the huge library of available indicators and create custom indicators and conditions without coding.

TC2000 runs on your iPhone, Tablet, Mac, or PC. The service is available for free so that you can try it out. The real power of TC2000 is unleashed with the gold service, which costs $29.99/m or $24.99/m with an annual contract. TC2000 is a great solution for trading US stocks, ETFs, or Options.

TC2000 Trade Management

The TC2000 Brokerage offers stock trades at $1 per trade, which means TC2000 has a tight integration for trading stocks from the chart and has good stock options trading visualization. TC2000 is one of the best Stock Options analysis software programs, allowing you to scan and build options strategies seamlessly. You can scan on gamma, delta, expiration, options spread, and even short interest.

TC2000 Scanning, Screening & Charting

If you want fundamentals screened in real-time layered with technical screens integrated into live watch lists connected to your charts, TC2000 is a power player. TC2000 Easyscan can be set up with a few clicks, and you do not need coding experience.

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 70 different indicators, you will have plenty to play with. They have also introduced live alerts that you can configure to email or pop up if an indicator or trend line is breached; very useful indeed.

Is TC2000 Easy to Use?

Yes, TC2000 is incredibly easy to use, which masks the power of the software. You will be up and running quickly and feel productive in minutes. TC2000 also has a support desk in the USA and is one of the few vendors you can call by phone and speak with a real person.

Get TC2000

9. Portfolio 123: Good Screening & Backtesting for Investors

My testing of Portfolio123 shows impressive stock screening, software with a robust financial database, and integrated commission-free trading with Tradier. Portfolio123 can be used by income, value, and growth investors but is also advantageous for swing traders.

Portfolio 123 Rating	4.3/5.0
⚡ Features	Screening, Research, Powerful Backtesting
🏆 Unique Features	Free $0 Integrated Trading, 10-Year Financial Database
🎯 Best for	Stock & Options Traders
🆓 Free Version	No
🎮 Premium Trial	21 Days for $9
✂ Premium Discount	None
💰 Price	Free or $83/m annually
🌎 Markets Covered	USA/Canada

Portfolio123 covers stocks, fixed income, and ETFs on US and Canadian exchanges, so it is unsuitable for international stock investors. However, you can design a fully automated real-time trading strategy with a broker that will hold the stocks that pass your screen and sell those that don’t.

Portfolio123 Features Ratings	4.3/5.0
📈 Charts	★★★★★
📡 Screening	★★★★★
📰 News & Social	★★✩✩✩
📰 Portfolio & Research	★★★★★
🔍 Backtesting	★★★★✩
🖱 Ease of Use	★★★★★

Pros

✓ 470+ Screening Metrics
✓ 10-Year Backtesting Engine
✓ Pre-built Model Screeners
✓ 260 Financial Ratios
✓ Integrated Free Trading

Cons

✘ No Integrated News
✘ No App for Android or iPhone

The real power of Portfolio123 is unleashed with the Screener and Pro service. Their pricing is in line with the competition and competitive, considering the benefits.

When you register with Portfolio123 and log in, you are greeted with the dashboard, which gives you an instant market performance breakdown but, more importantly, shows you your portfolio performance.

Portfolio Management

With Portfolio123, you get tight broker integration with Tradier and Interactive Brokers. You cannot place trades from charts, but you can automate trading based on rules or issue bulk trades; plus, Portfolio123 will take care of profit & loss reporting.

The Portfolio123 screener allows you to filter 10,000+ stocks and 44,000 ETFs to help you find the investments or trades that match your exact criteria. Portfolio123 also has ranked screening, which enables you to rank the stocks that best match your criteria, filtering a list from hundreds of stocks to a handful. You can also define your custom universes, setting the macro criteria for which stocks are included in the sample.

Over 225 data points will cover most ideas based on fundamentals. Portfolio123 has 460 criteria, including analyst revisions, estimates, and technical data.

The number of factors available for screening is impressive. Not only can you screen based on reliable information from a company’s financial reports, but you can access technical factors, create your factors using period and announcement dates, eliminate stocks with high bid-ask spreads, limit your screen to stocks in a certain industry, or sector, rank factors against other stocks in an industry or sector, and change your factor balance depending on economic conditions.

Building your Portfolio123 screener is theoretically easy; select Research -> Screens, and you can start to play. No programming skills are required, but basic coding will certainly help. You must study the coding logic and understand the proprietary criteria names to create more powerful screening rules.

Portfolio123 Backtesting

Portfolio123’s backtesting engine is where the software shines. Expertly implemented, fast, and extremely configurable, Portfolio123 has the best backtesting service for people serious about testing fundamental strategies.

Portfolio123 enables you to be very granular in setting up your backtest with entry rules, slippage, weighing, rebalance frequency, and custom timeframes.

The Portfolio123 screener is built to make users test not just pre-built concepts but all sorts of hypotheses. You can use your universe rank with your multi-factor rank and run backtests or rolling backtests.

The image below shows the LiberatedStockTrader screener I developed in the previous section. I backtested the screener for two years to see how it performed historically. My screener beat the market in this particular timeframe, returning 70.5% versus the S&P500’s 52%.

Pre-Built Screeners

Portfolio123 has over 76 pre-built screeners that you can import and use. To take advantage of this, you need the Screener subscription plan service. I have reviewed many of them, and they are very thoughtfully built. One of my favorites is the “Small Cap Winners” screener.

The Small-Cap Winner strategy had a 5-year return of 189% versus the Russell 2000 return of 58%, very impressive.

Is Portfolio 123 Worth It?

Portfolio123 is an excellent screening and backtesting platform for swing traders and medium-term growth investors. An incredible selection of fundamental criteria, a 20-year financial database, plus the most powerful financial backtesting engine make Portfolio123 a great choice for experienced stock system developers.

Get 21 Days of Portfolio123 for $9

10. VectorVest: Scanning & Market Timing Stock Trading Software

VectorVest helps simplify market timing by providing buy and sell ratings on US, Australian, and European stocks. VectorVest is a powerful software designed to assist in market timing through precise stock strength calculations and reliable buy and sell trade signals.

VectorVest Rating	4.0/5.0
⚡ Features	Charts, Watchlists, Screening
🏆 Unique Features	Market Timing Gauge, Auto-trading
🎯 Best for	Beginner Investors
🆓 Free Version	No
🎮 Premium Trial	1st Month $0.99
✂ Premium Discount	None
💰 Price	$149/m
🌎 Markets Covered	USA

Vectorvest is a popular stock trading software that offers various features to help investors make informed decisions. Its market timing gauge and auto-trading capabilities make it a top choice for beginner investors looking to get started in the stock market.

In addition to its market timing feature, VectorVest also offers charts, watchlists, and screening tools to help users track their investments and identify potential opportunities.

Vectorvest Features Ratings	4.0/5.0
📈 Charts	★★★★✩
📡 Screening	★★★★★
🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒 Social & News	★★✩✩✩
✨AI Strategies	★★★✩✩
🔍 Backtesting	★★★✩✩
💡 Pattern Recognition	★★★✩✩
🚦 Trading	★★★✩✩
💰 Buy & Sell Signals	★★★★✩
🖱 Ease of Use	★★★★★

Try VectorVest

Pros

✓ Simple to Follow System
✓ Specific Buy & Sell Signals
✓ Market Timing Signals
✓ US, Canada, Australia, & Euro Stocks

Cons

✘ Limited Chart Indicators
✘ Expensive, Especially With Add-ons
✘ Complaints About Data Integrity

What sets VectorVest apart is its commitment to transparency, as it now openly publishes its track record. With such credibility, it is worth considering as a valuable tool for investors.

VectorVest’s premium service costs $149/m, while the basic service lacks many of its benefits. In terms of pricing, Vectorvest is neither expensive nor cheap; it sits in the middle. It does not compete with TradingView, MetaStock, or TrendSpider, which offer incredible value for money.

Trade Management and Screening

VectorVest software is straightforward to use because it is designed to promote the Value, Safety, and Timing system. This means they have a minimal variety of stock market indicators; they provide only what is needed to trade within their VST system parameters.

Try VectorVest

VectorVest News & Social

VectorVest does not have specific features to enable social chat or community within the software. However, it provides a weekly market update to subscribers; these are available on YouTube. Some customers complain about the cost of the training courses available through VectorVest and the constant focus of VectorVest on trying to sell the courses and add-on products.

Vectorvest Technical Analysis

VectorVest has 20 technical indicators and drawing tools, including trendlines, Gann, Fibonacci, moving averages, momentum, RSI, and Stochastics. However, compared to other stock analysis software, VectorVest’s chart analysis selection is very poor.

If you are an experienced technical analyst who wants to perform detailed charting analysis, you may want to consider MetaStock, which has 300+ indicators, or TradingView, which has 160+ indicators.

Stock Market Software Quick Summary

The best stock software and app for traders is TradingView, which has excellent chart analysis, backtesting, and screening. Trade Ideas and TrendSpider excel at AI stock prediction and charting. Stock Rover is the best stock analysis and research software for investors. Finally, Benzinga Pro and MetaStock provide excellent real-time trading news platforms.

Frequently Asked Questions