photo credit: nDevilTV

There was a time when most folk’s investment portfolios where handled by a professional stock broker or brokerage house.  Not so today.  Due to certain catastrophic market events, like the tech bubble bursting and the current economic crisis, many people have woken up to the need to have more direct control of their accounts, and by extension, their futures.  But this new found wisdom doesn’t come without required action.  Much of the minutia that the wall street broker used to abstract is now being dealt with directly and the investor is quite obviously overwhelmed.  In order to make sense of all of the market indicators, press releases, and acquisitions, numerous software applications have been developed to assist the independant investor in his quest for financial security.  But these software packages are not all equal, and not all worth it, so how does one know which ones excel and which are poor?

What you should Know

1.  Price doesn’t always indicate Quality

If you are just beginning to discover the immense benefits a good software package can add to your investing toolkit, you might be tempted to equate price with quality.  It’s natural, especially considering that is how many investors view stocks.  But don’t be fooled by the hefty price tag.  There are many tools available online these days for little or no cost, which work as good or better than any $500 package.  Many online trading sites offer tools for free, and so do many independent sites which are simply looking for traffic and ad revenue.  Ignore the price, look for results.

2.  Features aren’t always necessary

You may compare one software suite to another, judging them mainly on the feature set.  This would be a mistake.  It is an obvious trick software developers use to increase the perceived value of the application.  The truth is that many of those features are so insignificant that you will likely never need them, and thus never miss them if you went with a cheaper package.  Also, feature creep tends to clutter up the interface obscuring the data you really need and making something simply seem complicated.  Go with just the features you need and grow from there.

The best stock trading software available today may be the one you may least expect.  Consider all angles before you make you purchase decision, and when it doubt, go with the free software first and follow up with any paid apps that will give you a free trial period.