Personal Stock Monitor Gold

One of the most popular applications in the AAII Download Library over the last several years has been Personal Stock Monitor Gold from DTLink Software. This Windows-based application offers stock and portfolio tracking, charting and technical analysis. It also offers streaming, real-time quotes and charts to those with a TD Ameritrade account or with a DTN IQFeed account subscription. Furthermore, Personal Stock Monitor offers built-in trading through TD Ameritrade.

Stock Market Data Services

Personal Stock Monitor PSM Gold supports three different stock market data services for delayed or real-time streaming data: Yahoo!, TD Ameritrade, and DTN IQFeed. For free, delayed U.S. equity and options data, Canadian equity data, and international stock exchange quotations, PSM Gold supports Yahoo! Finance. When available, the program supposedly will automatically download up to 20 years of historical data for charting. However, I was not able to get the program to successfully download more than 10 years worth of data for a given symbol.

For real-time, streaming data, PSM Gold supports TD Ameritrade and DTN IQFeed. Sadly, although the program supports end-of-day Yahoo! data, you are not able to link a Yahoo! Finance real-time data account.

Integrated Trading

For those with a TD Ameritrade account, PSM Gold allows you to place live trades and receive trade confirmations for stocks, exchange-traded funds ETFs and options. You can also edit or cancel open orders from within the program.

Charting & Technical Analysis

Personal Stock Monitor Gold

PSM Gold offers three different chart styles: line, bar and candlestick. You can create historical charts with up to 20 years of data or intraday charts with up to 60 days of data. If you are using a real-time data feed, the charts also update in real time.

For additional analysis, there are over 30 technical indicators from which to choose. Using "script extensions" you can customize the software to suit your needs and create your own indicators. This is more involved than what I have found with other software packages, but they also usually cost a lot more than PSM Gold. If you are familiar with scripting languages such as VBScript, you probably won't have any trouble getting used to this feature. The Personal Stock Monitor website also has a number of articles explaining how to create your own extensions.

Users of PSM Gold are able to share charts online or via e-mail. You can also print charts or save charts as images-along with any annotations you have made to them.

Portfolio Tracking

PSM Gold allows you to track multiple watchlists as well as actual trading portfolios, with a cash balance and the number of shares or contracts held. The program will calculate the value of your portfolio throughout the trading day and in real-time if you are using a real-time data vendor.

The program supports the QIF data format for importing and exporting transactions to or from Quicken, Microsoft Money, and other programs using this format.

Alerts

PSM Gold includes a number of alerts to inform you of important events for selected ticker symbols. You can specify alerts for data elements such as price, bid, ask, change, volume, and others. You can also set as many alerts for a given symbol as you want and each alert will trigger a different action (actions include making a sound, playing a .wav file, or sending an e-mail or text message).

Data Importing/Exporting

If you are upgrading from an older version of the program, PSM Gold can import intraday and historical data created by previous versions of the program. Lastly, you can export historical data in MetaStock ASCII format, which is a popular data format among technical analysis and charting programs.

Overall

I found the program to be very easy to navigate and use. If I was unsure of something, the help system offered quality tutorials. The only problem I had was not being able to download a full 20 years of historical data when creating charts. The program offers a respectable number of technical indicators and offers the ability to create your own indicators-a real bonus.

I also like the fact that you can try the program risk-free for 30 days. More and more you have to enter a credit card to start a trial, but not with PSM Gold.

Personal Stock Monitor Gold v9.2

DTLink Software

www.personalstockmonitor.com

Systems: Windows 98 or higher, including Windows 7; 50M of free hard drive space; Internet connection

Price: $49.95 (free 30-day trial)

Available here at the AAII Download Library.