I'm currenly using MBT. Regular hours charts work well.Pre-market charts don't offer much, time & sales etc. I Rely on futures with several MA'S along with ocillators. But as I'm gaining more exsperience I'm hearing stories of better programs out there & that they offer pre-market charts? One program that was mentioned is called Raven Quote. I can't trade without chart's. Anybody have any info as to who really does have the best out there. I have tried cyber(similiar to MBT,minor diff.) & I'm aware of Q-charts although I have not tried them as yet.
Sailplane, You can chart pre and after market with MBT. Here's how: Right click on your chart and choose "Setup". In the field labeled "Data Period", change it to "Time & Sales". This will enable you to chart during extended hours based upon any trades that come across the tape. You will notice, however, that those charts from pre and after market are sort of messy, due to the fact that there is not much volume. You tend to get lots of spikes, etc.
I use I-View, a stock scanner based on the Realtick feed that has decent pre-market charts (candle, bar or line), but it only works for Nasdaq stocks. It also shows all the pre-market activity, Gaps, Highs, Lows, etc. You have to rent this software and it is $125 a month. You can see my previous posts regarding this scanner at http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=1381 I don't understand why Realtick doesn't keep the same format for pre and post market trading as regular market hours. For example all the prices on the tape turn purple. What a Pain in the ass, you can't tell the difference between a buy and sell. I am sure there are very good outdated reasons for this, but this is the 21st century. They need to update their software in this regard. Alex
you can change the way time / sales is displayed in Real Tick to an amazing degree of detail. Right click on the T/S window and go to Setup and then follow the instructions for customization. Or give RealTick a call and one of their tech support will walk you through it. I've found RT to be amazingly powerful in its customizability and as a new customer I'm pretty happy overall. However, I do agree with you in that there should be a graphical display of prices in bar/candlestick format rather than simply a tick line.
Whew,I have recieved very informative responses to my chart ques. I will have to do a lot of research Monday to see what works.I still have not heard a peep from anybody about Ravens so called super charts that blow everything away thats out there???