Best-Charts

Best-Charts from Stock-Anal is a free program that offers a multitude of stock data and analysis features, such as technical analysis, intraday chart analysis, and optimal buy and sell signals. The program also offers advanced indicators, such as equivolume, point & figure, and GMMA (Guppy Multiple Moving Average). The program provides almost-real-time data and analysis, although it does require manual refreshing, which is a drawback. (For a review of downloadable auto refreshers, see last week’s Featured Download article.) Best-Charts requires no credit card or personal information.

After installation, Best-Charts opens to a screenshot of www.Stock-Anal.com’s front page, which highlights some of the program’s features. To get started analyzing stocks right away, enter a ticker in the top-right “Symbol” box. For example, entering YHOO will display charts and data for Yahoo! while entering ^DJI will display the Dow Jones industrial average. On the charts, a red “X” indicates a sell signal, while a green “O” indicates a buy signal. Clicking the “W” on the toolbar located just above the charts will refresh the data. Clicking the “More” button on the toolbar will display the charts for more advanced indicators.

Among the best features of Best-Charts is that the program allows users to create up to 20 portfolios that can each hold and monitor up to 40 stocks simultaneously. To set up a portfolio, click on the Portfolios tab, select Edit List, and select a list to edit/create. Here, you can change the list name and enter up to 40 tickers (separate tickers with spaces).

After a list is created, clicking on the Portfolio tab and selecting the list will display the portfolio’s stocks and data showing their current state, which can be updated by clicking the PF button on the toolbar. The button to the right of PF will display intraday MicroCharts for all the stocks in the portfolio.

To get more detailed data on a particular stock in the portfolio, select the stock and click the Intraday TA Indicators button located to the right of MicroCharts. This will open a variety of charts regarding the selected stock. To display a TA summary of every stock in the portfolio, go to the Portfolio tab and select “Analyze 40 stocks (quotes from web)”; this should take a few minutes to load.

Investors who like to follow the news on a variety of stocks may find the portfolio’s news column feature to be particularly useful. Clicking on “News” in a particular stock’s row will open the user’s default browser and display the most recent Yahoo! Finance headlines regarding that stock. This eliminates the need to type and remember ticker symbols.

To help users manage all these great features, the Windows tab shows which files are open and allow users to change their view. For instance, selecting “Tile” will organize the files into one window, without overlap.

These are just a few of the many features offered by Best-Charts. The program is useful to both beginners and advanced users. Best of all, since the program is freeware, trying it will leave the user’s budget unscathed. Users of QuoteTracker will also find that stock data from QuoteTracker is compatible with Best-Charts.

Best-Charts

http://www.aaii.com/download-library/download?DL_ID=687

System Requirements: Windows operating system

Size: 1.5MB

Price: Free