Unfortunately, it's not real-time, and I know you're looking for RT, so don't flame me. Anyway, it's just a reminder that www.stockcharts.com is out there, too. I'm an amateur, but the charts are really cool, and I think that using them to plan future (swing) trades will benefit me.
Alright, I'm downloading QT (haha, "cutie"). I feel a bit weird logging into Scottrade from another platform... is that safe and secure? So I guss I place my orders through QT and they're routed to Scottrade's servers? edit - I like it so far but it's not the most intuitive software I've ever used. The charts are cool but I need to configure my account so I can actually buy something.
Yes you will still place orders through scottrade. qt is not a front end for scottrade. at least when i had scottrade. you can log into qt at any time it is highly advisable to get another feed besides scottrade ie.. "they suck:
It looks like I can't actually place trades with Scottrade through QT (it's not one of the account choices). So I think I will have to log into Scottrade manually and place the order there while using QT as my charting software. I'm gonna run the charts side by side and see if the match exactly with regard to timing.
If you want to use qt as a front end youll have to select one of the brokers from this list. http://www.quotetracker.com/
Has anyone who uses stockcharts.com had a problem with the data? I recently had a problem with two mutual funds which dropped over $2.00 and over $1.63 just the past 2 weeks. The tickers are CRIMX and RGAFX. Previously, those one day drops were reflected on the stock charts for those 2 mutual funds in my 401K. Lo and behold, yesterday when I checked on the same stock charts, the charts are totally different. Not only did that one day drop not show in the charts but, the same mutual funds are now trending up with the big down days missing. I go e-mail stockcharts and they give me the excuse that this was due to a year end distribution. That is BS of course, a mutual fund on a down trend does not suddenly go on an uptrend all of a sudden. Actually, the funds were still down yesterday. For the record, I am a subscriber to stockcharts and like the fact that you can have a huge number of stock lists with the charts all set up to look at each day. Of course, with this data error thing, one would be a fool not to check the stock data to make sure. It is just sad that they don't take customer complaints seriously enough to check it instead of giving lame excuses. Unfortunately, I don't see anything comparable out there as far as the features go and the price as well.
Ok, so you're not day trading. Why not download scottradeElite and use the demo as a free chart package?. Thats what I've been doing for months now. It's 20 minutes delayed info, but not like it matters if you're not day trading. cm69
Having a realtime charting package like qt is of great importance to anyone who is serious about trading or investing. Whether your an active trader or not key price levels S/R are reached and retraced all day long having 20 minute old data is useless. No matter what kind of trader you are you schould at least have a live chart Theres alot of different software vendors. For you tightwads QT is even free with a decent datafeed still under $30.00 a month
I have been with Scottrade for several years. 6 weeks ago I down loaded and now run Quote Tracker and Scottrade at the same time on the same machine ( I have 2 monitors hooked up ). The data feeds are live and they match from screen to screen when Scottrader is used. You can not trade using Quote Tracker in Scottrade. Not a problem, trade using Scottrader as usual. The charts are awesome in QT. The news can be configured to use the Dow Jones news supplied by Scottrader. I watch the stocks all day, every day. The only problem I have is that it gets logged off sometimes. I am certain that this is a Scottrade thing. The normal Scottrade will log you off for inactivity or a certain amount of time ( not sure which ). At that point I simply close QT and re-start it. All of this is free. You can pay by the month if you register. This will get you a little bit longer duration of charts and the ads go away. They do not bother me either way. A link out to Prophet charts gets longer detailed charts. A friend recently asked me about a stock. I loaded it and put it on a chart for the last 6 months with Bolinger Bands and 3 other indicators on the bottom. I then made a snapshot of the chart ( the software turned it into a .GIF file and I sent it to him. That is just one of the many very cool features. Since I am 63, larger text is a pleasure also. This is one problem I have with Scottrader. The higher the resolution, the smaller the text. With QT everything is adjustable. I love Quote Tracker. I am thinking of sending the $60 for a year subscription just because it is so good. You will spend several weeks tweaking all the things that are adjustable. Of course this is true with any software that is adjustable. Good luck trading.