While there are many available tools to help an individual investor judge the quality of bond or equity funds or to provide stock screening assistance, it is rare to find reviews of the execution software a self trading individual might need. This article looks at three types of stock investing software – eSignal, NinjaTrader, and Interactive Brokers.

However, before delving into the different services offered by each of these, it will help us to first consider what any trader requires before trading. First, generally (and very broadly) speaking, there are technical traders, and fundamental traders. Fundamental traders typically will do their research on a stock, based on its industry, financial performance and some type of value analysis. When they have concluded that a stock is worthy of a buy (or indeed, a short sell), fundamental traders can simply use a pure execution service such as a stock broker, or indeed E*TRADE, Charles Schwab etc, to carry out their trades.

On the other hand, technical traders look for cues to carry out their trades primarily on price action, and chart indicators, such as looking at average prices over a period of time, and looking at the balance between sell and buy orders over a period of time. Because there is a lot of graphical input and output, as well as what can be repetitive calculations (for example, when calculating moving averages over a long period of time), it should be no surprise that most stock trading software tends to lend itself to the technical trading business. With that in mind, we can look at the three software providers mentioned above – eSignal, NinjaTrader, and Interactive Brokers.

Of the three, Interactive Brokers is the only one that also allows execution directly through the same platform. With eSignal, or NinjaTrader, the user will typically open a separate trading account, which they can trade with either over the phone, or in cases link to their eSignal and NinjaTrader software. The eSignal software is free for a trial, but in order to make full use of its capabilities, it is required that you pay a monthly fee for access to live, or historical data series, which they do supply in abundance. With eSignal, it is extremely easy if you are a beginner to use charts, identify trends, and to manipulate data.

For more advance users, programming options are available, whereby a trader can write their own trading macros that are linked to live markets – in essence, if you can write something that replicates a trading rule, you’ll just need to activate it, sit back, and just watch it trade. NinjaTrader is a similar type of software, but which is entirely free. In fact, the user can download data series from any source they wish, and upload it for testing with NinjaTrader, to produce technical trading signals. As with eSignal, programming is available to advanced users, but unfortunately, the programming language used between the two is not easily transferable. Simply because of the ease of data supply, most technical traders who do not wish to spend time digging for data, will find the reasonable eSignal fee a good incentive to start their trading using this company.

Finally with Interactive Brokers, the cost of use can be different depending on the user – for example, if you are a particularly heavy trader, it is possible that IB will charge you no fees at all, except for the trading commissions that you generate with them! However, of the three, apart from its execution ability, IB also stands slightly apart because it offers options trading. For the short term stock traders, options provide another dimension to their tool set, whether it is in the form of option and stock arbitrage, or if it is to use options to hedge existing positions in stocks.

Hopefully, this article will have provided you with an introductory insight into the world of trading software available to you – ultimately, any consumer should be quite clear that all reputable software providers will offer free trials of their services, and that whether one or the other is preferable will ultimately be up to the trading experience that each individual comes across. Good luck and good charting.

Where to go to get good information? Well that could be anywhere. I’ve learned to take information from all sources to assist me and my trades. The one thing to keep in mind is to make sure you follow up on the information to assure that it’s correct and valid. There are more mistakes made in the stock market than there are not. Traders and Investors make mistakes everyday and that’s just the way it is. To help limit your mistakes, you need to do your own research and due diligence before you invest.

Getting stock tips are not the only information you should be looking at when it comes to buying and selling stocks or investing your hard earned money. What about the condition of the economy? Is it stable? See what’s going on in Washington. If the U.S. Treasury is printing out money like it’s going out of style, then realize that the dollar isn’t worth what it was before the increase of currency. Unemployment plays a major role in the condition of the markets and when you see the unemployment rate climbing, then it’s going to push the overall markets down.

What about the new tax laws (or the end of old tax breaks) that will effect your gains? In 2011, the Bush tax credits will come to an end and traders as well as investors are going to pay more in capitol gains taxes. The will be increases across the board when it comes to investment taxes. There will also be increases on dividends.

Have you given any thought about investing in precious metals? Gold, silver and platinum are a good way to hedge against the falling dollar. No matter what happens to our currency (or any other), gold will always be the investment of choice when the economy is getting worse. Gold has been a great investment during those times of trouble.

Just remember that looking for stock market information, you need to look further than just a bunch of stock tips.

Globally, stock markets have been performing pretty well in most of the countries, especially, India and China. However due to the economic downturn in the United States initiated by the sub-prime crisis, the stock markets of the US have not yielded much return to their traders and investors.

This gives rise to the role and importance of stock market trading software. Stock market trading software is extremely essential for the investors, and more importantly for the short-term traders because all different types of calculations have to be done before entering into a particular stock.

One such software available in the market is the ‘JStock’. It consists of a watch list for stocks, a snapshot comprising of the Intra-day price movements of the stocks, a Stock market indicator. One can sign up for receiving alerts via both SMS and e-mails. There are features for managing the portfolio as well as giving useful tips. People have found it to be one of the best stock market software ever. Traders have reviewed that the technical analysis done by this software has really helped them in taking intra-day decisions.

Atomic Trade Pro is excellent stock market trading software specially designed for traders and investors of various risk appetites. It encompasses some magnificent tools for designing charts on the basis of predications and researches will be made. It comprises of a predictive score which is built on the basis of advanced technology by the usage of neural networks. One can do the trend analysis for the markets with the help of this software thereby helping in the buy/sell/hold decisions. They are beneficial to traders not possessing very honed analytical abilities to predict the movements of the markets.

E-Gate is comprehensive stock trading software which provides the traders and investors with web-based service for getting the quotations regarding the real-time stock price movements. The software is totally reasonably priced and will not pinch the pockets of the trader. They not only do a thorough technical analysis of the stock, but also conduct give indications of the fundamentals of the stock, thereby enabling decision-making with respect to the stock. They also provide latest news about the company and its corresponding stock. Fibonacci tools are used in this software along with different chart tools like OHLC, Candlestick and Close Line. One can also check his profit and loss statements by exporting the entire sheet on an excel file.

Basically stock market software should provide indicators for studying the Price-to-Earnings Ratio, Earning per share and the different trends the stock has shown over a period of time. They should also help the Pigs, i.e. the investors with a very high risk appetite to take decisions quickly so that they can make big money in a short period of time. For all these reasons, the need of stock market software has increased over the past two decades.

When I started trading stocks years ago, there weren’t so many websites available that I could go to to get my research done. I used to (and still do) subscribe to IBD (Investor Business Daily). A newspaper which would cover everything I needed to know about the stocks I was investing in as well as other that I was thinking about building a position in. I would also call the companies and speak to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) or the Chief Financial Officer (CFO). As years went on that all changed. I can now go to dozens of websites to find everything that I need to know about the stock market. I do on some occasions still call the company to get a good idea of what the company is up to.

But what websites do you go to to get what you really need and omit the unnecessary information? Everyone need a stock market guide to help them make the right decisions, but be careful. I know that there are many sites out there that offer to send you e-mails on a daily basis to clue you in on the hottest stocks of the day, but the problem is that most of them are only out there to make a buck for themselves.

The internet has come so far that every company (big or small) has their own website. That is one of the first places you should go when you’re doing your research on a particular stock. If you what to know which ones I use, it will be a very short list. There are only two websites that I use to get any news wire information on a daily basis. The first one is Yahoo Finance and the other is TheStreet.com. Both site offer many tools and up to date information on all stocks that are traded on the major indicies as well as the Pink Sheets and OTC:BB (penny stocks) Why else go anywhere else with two great sites?

Using other websites can give you more work than you need to do when it comes to doing your research.

It’s the same way with these websites that seem to be popping up on what seems to be a daily basis. With the overall market being down so much from it’s high in 2007, there are many traders out there that are trying to make their money back by starting these subscription base websites. In doing so they not only make money on the website’s traffic, but also in the stock that they are pumping at any given moment.

I’m not saying that every site out there is doing this type of shady practice, but I know that there are quite a few out there. You as an investor/trader need to take responsibility of your portfolio and your actions instead of expecting someone else’s decisions to make your stock purchases. Yes, it’s a lot more work for you to research stocks and to do your due diligence on a daily/weekly basis, but at least you know where your money is and who it’s invested with.

No matter who you may open an account with for your online stock trading, you need to use the tools and other resources that the site provides to really know who you should and shouldn’t be investing in. You should also use other sites to affirm your research. Don’t ever rely on one site to do all your research on. Some sites will list things different than others and in some cases, you’ll find information on one site that you couldn’t find on the others. Remember, knowledge is power and someone else’s knowledge will only take you so far.

If you read the other posts that have been put up on this site, you should have a pretty good idea on how to buy and sell stocks and how to decide which stocks you want to put your money in.

How to make your nest egg even bigger is by staying on top of the news that is released on each of the companies that you’re in. Just because the company is doing good at the time that you purchased the shares doesn’t mean that it will stay that way.

Throughout the day, week, and month, every stock will rise and fall in value. Depending on what is going on in the stock markets themselves will effect your stock in one way or another. This is where your research will come in. If you see that your stock has lost 10% of it’s value in a day or so, your research will have told you if it’s because of the company or just a healthy pull-back. If it was a pull-back because of profit-takers or that the major indices brought it down, then you should go ahead and buy more shares at the lower price to take advantage of the situation.

If the price fell because the company came out with a bad earnings report or lowered it guidance for the future, well then you will have to decide to either sell or just hold o to the shares you have until there’s some sort of rally before getting out.

Like I said, stock trading is easy if you just do the research and stay on top of the news to keep yourself in the loop of things.

What is a online discount broker? You see their advertisements all the time, it just a matter if you’re aying attention to the commercials. TD Ameritrade, Scottrade, Zecco are just a few for now and it’s a good place to start.

Not only will they brokers assist you in opening an account, but they will help you in what you need to know if you want to succeed. All of them offer many tools to help you do your research and find the right companies to invest in.

In an earlier post I said that it’s very important to stay on top of your investments and by that I don’t mean just looking at the balance of the account. You need to know the latest news that is being released. Just because the company is doing good for the last three months doesn’t mean that it will be doing good for the next three months. From one quarter to the next things can change and quite often does, especially during slow downs in the economy.

I’ve used one of these types of brokers for years and have learned a lot from the representatives that are available. If you’re lucky, you’ll click with one that you can build a relationship with and get a few perks along the way.

These online discount brokers are the way to go no matter how much money you have to invest. Who ants to pay high fees and commissions to some of these brokerage houses? I know I don’t and never will. Look around and find one that’s right for your trading needs.

Everybody wants to hit it big either by playing the lottery, go to Las Vegas or trading stocks, but the truth of the matter is that most people never do. The lottery and the roulette wheel is not the place to putting your hard earned money if you’re looking to make it grow. Let’s be for real, they call it gambling for a reason.

As for trading in the stock market can be a different story. Stock trading is not gambling and should never be treated as such. Like I said, you can make some great gains and double or triple your money, but don’t expect it to happen over night. No one ever becomes rich trading stocks, wealthy yes, rich no (unless you’re Warren Buffet). If a stock that you’re in doubles in value, you are only going to make twice the money you had. So, if you invested $2000 and it doubled, you would only have $4000 after all was said and done.

Don’t get me wrong, when I say that you can’t get rich, I don’t mean that you should even bother investing in the stock market. Quite the opposite, you should be investing in your future as well as teaching your kids to invest in theirs. The longer you’re invested in the stock market the wealthier (and eventually richer) you will become.

Patience is a virtue and to be involved in the stock market, you will need it. Don’t ever treat stock trading as a game because it’s not a game. I enjoy trading stocks and have a lot of fun doing it, even though you will hear some say differently.

Take your time, learn everything you can and be patient.