Tradecision   

Tradecision is marketed as a stock analysis and management tool for professional traders and certainly contains key elements required for advanced strategies and analytics. It also functions on the basis of neural modals and networks being the most efficient tool for scanning and identifying potential opportunities. They have a very clear idea of how to build a successful strategy and then provide the tools to execute it. 

Tools 

NeatScan is a standalone program that can be added onto Tradecision to enable scanning across numerous exchanges looking for investment opportunities that meet the investor’s criteria. The scan can be set up very quickly and easily by using drop down option lists to choose pre-defined strategic scans such as MACDs (Moving Average Convergence Divergence) and Stochastics. It is also possible to script a scan based on the users own preferences very easily as using Improvian. Improvian is an easy to use programming language that is used throughout Tradecision to make personalization and changes simple to execute. All the scan results can be filtered on a variety of criteria to drill down to the best investment opportunities. 

It should be noted that Tradecision is founded on the idea that neural networks and establishing neural modules is the key to success. This is a relatively new approach and is aimed at identifying the key movements of the market and the current situation. The model element is that the evolution over time of testing methodology to be applied to data and thus to tweak the analytics. The real key is the ability then to back test a strategy to verify its validity and enhance the analytics as well as fine tune the strategy. 

Technical Indicators 

With over 100 of the standard indicators available Tradecision enables detailed analysis of the results from the scan. Different indicators are used depending on the market conditions and information required but Tradecision provides a good quick view of what each one is and when and why it is used. Examples of the options available are: Simple Moving Average, Median Price, Bollinger Bands and Elliot Wave Indicator. In addition there is the option to customize the analytics and charts using the Improvian language. However to make it easier Tradecision provides additional key elements of indicators in such a way that the user can build an indicator relatively quickly, e.g. the Coppock Curve and Keltner Bands. 

Charts and Analysis 

When it comes to charting Tradecision once again allows for maximum customization. The basic chart options are Line, Candlestick or Bar and then to that is added all the extras such as altering the timescales to minute, daily, weekly or monthly. It is then a very quick process to draw on elements such as trend lines, Fibonacci studies and Ellipses as well as to make notations on the chart. The next stage is then to add on the technical indicators of which all can be chosen and applied (depending on the data being reviewed as different analytics suit different markets and data). Any user defined chart can be saved as a standard template to then apply to new data scans as and when appropriate. The user can also adapt the screen display in terms of colors and look and feel 

One additional item to be noted here is that Tradecision offers a ‘Workspace’ in which all the studies and charts for a stock or group of stocks can be saved into one file. These files get saved on the local hard drive and can be added to, updated and reused as and when required. 

Trading Account Management 

Tradecision is limited in its portfolio management tools but does allow for some level of alerts and watch lists. In reality Tradecision is a stock selection and strategy management tool and any account management needs to be done via the brokerage where the trades are executed.  

However there is a feature called Money Management which provides the tools to verify the status of the investor’s portfolio, the overall risk and relative position sizes etc. From this the user can then establish and fine tune their stop-loss and profit-target rules. 

Pricing 

There are two versions of Tradecision to choose from. Tradecision Professional uses End-of-Day data and costs $1,495 and Tradecision Professional Realtime costs $1,995 and uses intra-day data. NeatScan Market Scanner is included for free with both versions. The user will also need to elect a data feed to associate with their account of which there six options for real time ranging from eSignal to Ameritrade and iQFeed. For the end of day feeds the options include eSignal End-of-Day, Yahoo Finance and MSN money, amongst others. 

Extra Features 

The main additional feature that Tradecision provides is what they have termed ‘Anti-Crisis’ Features. These are fundamentally additional management tools that aid analysis during times such as these with economic turbulence. The first feature is the ability to apply noise removal to the data and charts which ensure that a clear picture of the stock and the current trend is obtained. With too much market volatility it is hard to see the long-term perspective of the stock especially when trying to work out where the cycle is in relation to Elliot Waves etc.  

The next additional element is the ability to apply Lability Reversal and Lability Retracement to data to spot as soon as a trend is reversed. They are easily applied to a chart and give a much clearer perspective when doing medium or long term investment management. 

Finally there are two key built in trade options which help minimize risk and reduce losses. These are Stop Loss and Trailing Stop trades and are very quick and easy to set up based on the user’s overall risk strategy. An example would be to set a Stop Loss for a stock so that it executes an exit trade when 15% of the initial investment in a stock has been lost, or the overall portfolio has gone down by 25%.  

Summary 

Tradecision is clearly a strong tool for stock analysis and enabling an investor to have control of their data and application of their strategy in a way that should reduce their risks and enhance their profits. The use of neural networks and the analytics is excellent for being more responsive to significant changes in the markets. However it is not as user friendly as some of the alternatives and is best suited to someone who wants to develop their own analytics and strategies away from the standards.