Candlestick Charting For Dummies®

Exploring Your Charting Package Software Options

I’ve spent my career working on institutional or professional trading desks, and I can confidently say that the tools available to individual traders have come to rival what the professionals use. You may want to consider making the relatively small investment to tap into an attractive array of charting and analysis options.

Figure 4-10: A basic Excel candlestick chart with volume.

Many low-cost charting software packages are available for download for your candlestick charting endeavors, and I could probably write a whole book about them, but for this chapter, I’ve chosen three of the most popular offerings. All three of these have a core group of users that argue the merits of their chosen software, but it’s best for you to consider what each package offers and choose the one that best suits your needs.

Remembering a few key points when selecting charting software

When deliberating on which charting package may be right for you, you need to consider several key factors. First and foremost, make sure the software has the ability to display candlestick charts. This book is full of reasons why candlestick charting is a superior way to display price data, and there’s really no reason to waste time or money with a ...