TRADE-IDEAS.COM
Looking for trading ideas? Maybe www.Trade-Ideas.com can help. A look at the updating intraday chart on the homepage and the window displaying alerts will give you a good idea of what this site features (Figure 1). Whenever a pattern forms on the chart, the alert window displays the pattern and gives a short description. This alert window is the most popular feature on the site.
Figure 1: www.trade-ideas.com
Creating an alert is quite simple: You can either create an alert window or use one of the preconfigured ones listed (Figure 2). These alert windows can be saved to your browser's "Favorites" list, eliminating the need to recreate them. You'll have an extensive list of preconfigured windows to select from. Once you choose one, you can configure it to meet your specific needs. You will need to deselect any of the default settings that you don't want, or you may decide to change the parameters. In addition to the settings, you can select filters, exchanges, symbol lists, viewing options, and alert sounds.
Figure 2: Preconfigured alert window for futures watcher. Here's a partial list of the alerts and alerts specific filters.
An extensive list of settings applies to intraday price movements and to longer-term ones. Similarly, there are many options available for filters, including minimum price, maximum price, maximum spread, volume, bid, and ask sizes, to name only a few. One that is very useful is the minimum current volume, which compares current volume for today to the average volume for this time of day.
With the many settings and filters available, how can you determine the reliability of your configurations? Fortunately, Trade-Ideas.com features backtesting for each alert of your selected configuration. This is something you might do at your leisure after the markets have closed, considering the long list of alerts you have to analyze. I imagine that going through each alert and seeing how it performed will be time-consuming, since the alerts are on an intraday basis and go as far back as a couple of days (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Alert window. In less than one minute I received 16 alerts (indicated by the counter on the upper right-hand corner).
Suppose that after receiving alerts, viewing charts, and going through the past performances, you have decided to place a trade. Initially, I thought you'd have to open up another browser window to log on to your brokerage account, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that Trade Ideas has integrated its product with several online brokers. When I clicked on the "Advanced Features" link on the homepage, it displayed a list of brokerages and service providers. All you have to do is select a brokerage and integrate the alert window. It's a diverse list, including sites from Austria and market commentaries in Chinese. And if that list doesn't contain a site you need, you can enter any URL followed by a stock symbol and be transported to that website.
The Help section is well documented and easily accessible. In fact, whenever you are selecting your alert settings or filters, you'll see a link to the Help file, making it easy to clarify any concerns you may have.
The alert windows are targeted to both individual and institutional traders. The cost for the real-time alerts is $45 per month. Other products are available, and these are listed on the site along with their prices. I was impressed with the features available on the real-time alerts. The various options for screening as well as the integration make Trade-Ideas.com useful indeed for active traders.
--Jayanthi Gopalakrishnan, Editor
STOCKS & COMMODITIES
Originally published in the November 2003 issue of Technical Analysis of STOCKS & COMMODITIES magazine. All rights reserved. © Copyright 2003, Technical Analysis, Inc.