Choosing the best Spread Trading Software

February 2nd, 2010

To be successful at spread trading, a trader must have software that is also successful. Since spread trading is so complex and requires a trader to have a vast amount of knowledge, it is imperative to use software to analyse trades. With market prices moving so quickly, a trader doesn’t have time to perform technical analysis of all the markets in order to spread trade. Software can do this much more quickly and efficiently.

Choosing the best spread trading software isn’t very difficult. There are key features in spread trading software that one should look for. It should obviously have an automated spread trading model which distinguishes the price difference between pairs of a security. These securities are indices, futures, options, commodities, and stocks.

A spread trading system should include three main indicators. These are exponential moving averages, Percentage Price Oscillator, and Donchian Channels. The exponential moving averages are important because these will give an average of market moving prices in relation to how long the prices took to move. This is an important part of technical analysis since these averages are used in conjunction with other tools to determine market trends.

A percentage price oscillator (PPO) is a momentum indicator which measures and shows the relationship between two moving averages. The PPO and the exponential moving averages are used in combination in technical analysis of trading markets. The software is programmed to compute these instead of wasting precious time by having the trader complete this calculation.

The last indicator a system should have is the Donchian Channels. This is an indicator which plots the highest and lowest price over a period of intervals. Using this, the system will generate signals based on where the actual market prices are in relation to the Donchian Channels.

A good spread trading software should have these three indicators as these have been proven to be part of successful spread trading software. Other components that may enhance particular spread trading software are the benefits associated with the software. Software tutorials, easy to read guides, and downloadable online data are other benefits.

Depending on one’s level of technical and computer knowledge, the ability to create spread trading software is available. These systems come with PDF guides on how to create the system in MS Excel and may be a possibility for certain traders. The benefit of creating your own spread trading software is that it is unique to your trading needs.

Whether one decides to create a system or download a spread trading system, the best spread trading software must have the mentioned key components. Spread trading software that can’t analyse the market correctly is useless.

2 Responses to “Choosing the best Spread Trading Software”