Real-Time Stock Trading Software, Charting and Data Vendors

Reliable charting software with a robust Real-Time (RT) market datafeed is the lifeblood of any professional trader. At any instant, with Real-Time data, a trader from anywhere in the world, through an internet connection, can find out how a particular instrument is trading. Every tick i.e. every single buy/sell transaction is transmitted out by the exchanges and distributed through the data vendors network and to the customer, all within a span of a few milliseconds. The widespread availability of Real-Time data has made it possible for the average Joe to stand shoulder to shoulder with professional Wall Street traders.

Essentially, there are 3 types of real-time trading charting software and data types as follows:

Live Streaming Charts & Data

Live streaming data is actually live quotes displayed on your PC in real-time but no data is physically stored on your PC. All data, be it live or historical, is downloaded as needed from your data vendor's servers. This is normally the most basic level of real-time data and most brokers will provide this free with your trading account. The features vary widely as some may provide some basic charting whereas others just provide basic level 1 (bid, ask, volume & last done) quotes. You can also subscribe to streaming data at very reasonable rates (typically < $10 per month) from reputable service providers like Yahoo Finance, ProphetFinance & Quote.com. You can also try a free streaming package from ADVFN. These packages also normally have an option for a basic stock screener to aid in selecting stocks based on pre-determined fundamental or technical criteria.

Real-Time Charting & Data

The next level of live data is best approached from a "quality and timeliness of data" angle. There are many data vendors in this sector but a good number of them are 3rd party re-sellers so you can see where the "timeliness" factor comes into play. The big boys like your fund & money managers and financial corporations will usually obtain their data from 1st tier providers like Thomson Reuters and Bloomberg. These systems are costly but they do provide the best data available anywhere.

For professional and proprietary traders trading full-time, some may go with the above-mentioned systems but others may choose the next level of providers such as RealTick and CQG. The general public and startup traders normally choose data vendors that are priced more reasonably but still offer robust data and charting like eSignal and QCharts.

The other prominent group of charting software makers use the free datafeed from your current broker to provide inexpensive yet powerful charting capabilities. Programs like Medved Quotetracker are very popular amongst many traders who prefer this option. Quotetracker's ability to use many different datafeeds from different sources allows a trader to determine which datafeed is the best without changing the charting front-end. The combination of QuoteTracker frontend charting and IQFeed 3rd party datafeed is one of the most robust in the industry and is especially popular among retail e-mini traders and scalpers.

Real-Time Charting with "On-the-Fly" Analytics and Backtesting

As desktop computing power increases, the home-based retail player is able to tap onto trading software systems which were previously only available to large money managers or trading prop shops. Real-Time analysis software like NeoTicker, NinjaTrader and Ensign enable anyone with a real time data feed to backtest and analyze thousands of stocks or trading instruments in realtime to search for pre-determined technical criteria.

For e.g. lets say you typically trade using a 5 mins chart, which is a popular timeframe for e-mini S&P 500 traders, and you want to buy a component stock of the S&P500 when the S&P futures form a head & shoulders and break out to the upside, but with the condition that the component stock is still trading below its 5 period moving average. Once programmed, the software will "on the fly" analyze all the stock data coming in and alert you when any component stock matches the criteria you mentioned. You can then review it and manually place a trade or you can also fully automate the whole process by integrating your analytics software with your broker's interface and let your software place the trade for you.