| How do you actually manage your portfolio of stocks | | | | you can then make your judgment as to the future |
| and options? | | | | movement of the price. |
| How do you keep track of your profits (and losses)? | | | | 8. Price movement alerts - the ability to specify price |
| How do you pick your next investment, or decide to | | | | levels that you want to reach to trigger selling, |
| get out of a position? Pencil and paper? A | | | | moving up or down. These alerts would indicate you |
| spreadsheet? Your online trading account? There | | | | had reached your target profit level (hopefully) or |
| may be a better way - using special-purpose | | | | your maximum acceptable loss level. |
| software for all of these tasks. | | | | 9. Automated trade submissions - the ability to |
| What could this software to do for you? Here's 10 | | | | specify conditions under which you want to submit a |
| things I would want from my software package: | | | | buy or sell trade, depending on the price of stocks or |
| | | | options you specify, or even depending on price |
| 1. Historical reports of the status of the stocks I am | | | | movements. For instance, you might submit your call |
| interested in - if I trade stocks this is obviously | | | | options for sale once they have passed above a set |
| important. If I trade options, it's just as important to | | | | value, if they subsequently fall by an amount you |
| know the progress of the underlying stocks before | | | | specify. |
| making buy/sell decisions. | | | | 10. Accounting - a continuous valuation of your |
| 2. Automatically show trends, resistance levels, | | | | portfolio, and also a historical report of cash in and |
| support levels - turning points are very significant in | | | | out of your account, and purchases and sales of |
| options trading. | | | | stocks and options showing profits and losses per |
| 3. Allow manual creation of trend lines, projections, | | | | trade, per day/week/month. |
| my own selection of resistance and support levels. | | | | A fundamental part of what you need for trading is |
| 4. Technical analysis of market data - e.g. showing | | | | actually the source of information, not just the |
| candlesticks and other more complex analyses. | | | | means to make trades. In my list above I mentioned |
| 5. Real-time trading data - what is happening right | | | | numerous data requirements - real time market data, |
| now in the market, showing current trading price | | | | real-time news etc. Your choice of trading software |
| ranges, trading volumes. | | | | must take into account the availability of this data |
| 6. Real time market news - prices can react rapidly | | | | and the cost of providing it. If you are going to trade |
| to market news, both up and down, so it's important | | | | seriously, you will need real-time data with no time |
| to know what is happening to the companies you are | | | | delay, whereas many of the 'free' data streams are |
| investing in or planning to invest in. | | | | actually delayed by 15 minutes or more. In fact, you |
| 7. Automatic recognition of potential patterns, such | | | | might get your Stock Option Trading Software |
| as double tops, double bottoms, head-and-shoulders | | | | included in the account for the provision of the |
| etc. It would be useful to have your attention drawn | | | | real-time data. |
| to the occurrence of these well-known patterns, so | | | | |