Metastock trading software is probably the oldest and also sophisticated trading software in the trading software industry. It started under DOS before being converted to Windows operating system around 1995. This software contains a lot of features and we will try to outline the more important ones so you can get a fair idea of this trading software.
Free trial facility
Metastock offers a 30 day refund policy if your are not satisfied. Considering the very sophisticated functionality of this trading software, you better get early in your evaluation job before the 30 days expire. Remember the objectives of a trading software which is being capable of generating 100% automated trading signals.
Technical indicators available
This software offers more than 200 technical indicators in their trading software. It may sound great but just remember that no one individual technical indicators is good in all market conditions. The technical indicators offered are standard with some of them proprietary. This means that you will have to find the right combination of technical indicators to manage your trading decisions.
Generate automatic trading signals
Metastock offers 26 performace trading systems they claim having being tested on several markets with good performance. It does not say however what kind of performance. As we stated earlier you must verify those trading systems yourself in the market you are interested in trading and test them over at least 10 years back. Then verify the overall performance as well as the market conditions it generates the best performance and the worst performance. In the past when we used this software they were also supplying some trading systems they claim being very good but it turned out it was not. So be very carefull with those 26 performance trading systems offered by metastock.
User defined trading system
Metastock was one of the first software to offer that feature to their users many years back. It is not a too difficult language but if you are not familiar with computer programming you might find it a bit hard to use, but still after hours of trial and error you can manage to specify a simple trading system. They supply macro functions to each technical indicator they support and you can reference past data easily. So it is here that you will have to combine different indicators to come up with a good trading system. They also have a very nice testing facility including an optimizer facility. For example if you are not sure which moving average to use or which Relative Strength Index (RSI) to use (14, 15,21), you can use the optimizer to find the best value for you. The optimizer can find the best value for all parameters you speciafy as a whole instead of individually. This tool alone is very usefull.
Pattern recognition
Metastock offers some drawing tools you can use to spot patterns. However we don't believe it is automatic. Once you draw trend or support lines it will stay on the chart every time you will redisplay but it won't appear automaticly the very first time you display a chart for a security. Automatic built-in pattern recognition is not the strength of metastock contrary to wave59 which is a natural feature.
Data feeds availability
Metastock offers many data feeds. It comes out of the box with a CD full of several securities. However it is only for 5 years back which is not enough as stated earlier to test a good trading system. They also offer access to Reuters through the internet. Reuters have one of the largest database of securities that go very far back in the future. So this is the place where you can get data 10 years and more back to test your trading system. This software also offers access to Esignal, Quotecom especially if you want to get into day trading. just remember that those services come with a fee ranging from 25$ up to 100$ a month. Metastock does not directly support ASCII files you might have already. You have to import them into the software first before working on them.
Day trading support
Metastock offers the day trading facility through it's professionnal version. It comes at a higher fee (see pricing structure below). It accesses in real time either Esignal or Quotecom data.
Special characteristics
Matastock offers their Explorer tool where you can apply your favorites trading system to your securities database you have on your computer. You have the capability to specify which subset or all the data you have as well as how far behind you want testing to take place. It can also be used for already optimized trading system to scan your database and give you the latest trading signals. It is also giving access to fundamental informations.
Ease of use
Because of it's multiple capabilities it is a more complex software to use. It will definitely take more time to master this excellent trading software.
Availables Add-On
Metastock offers 13 different add-ons which are trading systems developped by third party companies. They come at a fee (see pricing structure below). Those add-ons are also under the 30 day refund policy. Don't take for granted that those add-ons are good. Test them carefully.
Pricing structure
Metastock end-of-day (standard package) cost 499$ USD if you buy or 59$ per month (600$ a year) if you rent.
Metastock professionnal (day trading) cost 1695$USD if you buy or 199$ per month if you rent.
Each add-on cost 299$ USD for buying only.
This page briefly outilned the main characteristics of metastock trading software. It is widely used in the world because it was one of the first software of it's kind. We hoped we have been of some help to help you understand better what metastock trading software has to offer.
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