At first, it may seem silly to think that you should use a separate PC for trading. However, it takes real focus and dedication to be a successful trader, and there are certain benefits to having a separate, properly-configured computer dedicated to your trading and investing.

Trading stocks, options, forex, and futures is not like paying your bills, where you just log on and pull up a screen and follow the prompts. Instead, it involves using a lot of complex tools while simultaneously formulating and adapting multiple trading strategies. Small delays and distractions can result in missed opportunities, especially for spread traders and intra-day traders. Having a computer that has only been loaded with the applications you need for trading can actually result in a better trading or analysis session for two reasons.

2 Great Articles on High-Frequency Trading and Gold Prices

The May issue of Futures Magazine arrived in our mailbox yesterday. This month's issue sports a new look, including sturdier paper, higher quality photographs and charts, and a fresh new page layout. It's really beautiful. However, it's the content of a few articles that really stood out this month. They clearly have a finger on the pulse of the financial industry.

In fact, we're starting to wonder if the staff at Futures Mag has a crystal ball in their office. Today (May 6, 2010) we saw massive price action and volatility as the DJIA swung down nearly 1,000 points before recovering to end the day down ~350 points. High frequency trading (HFT) and gold were the topics of the day, and in this month's issue, Futures Mag offered some great articles that are exceptionally relevant considering today's developments.

There are a lot of good online tools out there that can be used to analyze the market. These web-based analysis tools can be used to gain insight into where the money is flowing and what types of trends and strategies are working at the moment. If you, as the buyer or seller, are better informed than your counter-part, you increase your chances of success. This is the real difference between an average trader and an elite trader.

Truth be told, web-based tools are not our favorites. Desktop tools tend to run faster and provide a more stable and efficient working environment. Then again, we don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Despite their weaknesses, web-based tools tend to innovate more quickly and they can still be tremendously helpful for doing stock market analysis.

Be careful though. It's easy to get overwhelmed by so much data. Before you start clicking around on all of the analysis tools, it might help to have a question or thesis in mind before you start doing your analysis. That way, you can either attempt to answer the question or prove/disprove the thesis by looking at the evidence (news, price action, volume trends, sector trends, implied volatility, etc).

We recommend starting with the macro picture (the economy at-large, broad indices), then researching particular sectors and industries (SPDR's, other specific indexes), and finally digging into specific stock and options plays based on favorable value, upcoming announcements, dividend payouts, historical volatility, and other traits that make up a good, opportunistic profile.

Of the many online trading tools out there, here are a few of our favorites:

Online Market Trading

Have real-time stock charts and real-time quotes displayed on multiple monitors always been available for online trading? Was it always easy to track hundreds of stock and options symbols at the same time, in real time? Of course not. The entire world of online trading barely existed 15 years ago, and at that time it was almost entirely limited to professional stock traders. Brokerage platforms and websites delivering real-time streaming stock quotes and stock charts were simply not available yet for the average Joe.

Besides, it didn't really matter because the computer hardware available to the average person at the time was just not capable of running the types of modern trading applications that feature real-time stock quotes, real-time charts, real-time news, and the long list of "real-time" things that we have come to know and enjoy. So, how exactly did we get here?

Also see the Full Power E-Trade Pro Review.

Some Great New Features

Shortly after the Power E-Trade Pro review was written, E-Trade released a new update that included some great new features that are definitely worth mentioning. When I entered my E-Trade login and saw that there was a new version available, I didn't expect much at first. However, after digging in further to see what changes had been made, I was really impressed with the new functionality. Besides a minor overhaul to the layout of the core menus (which offers the user more screen real-estate to work with), there were 2 major additions.

Streaming CNBC Video Feed

The biggest and most noticeable new feature is the introduction of a live streaming CNBC video feed. The feed seems to work all the time and there is no stuttering or delay. In addition to a live feed, they offer a library of recent clips from other CNBC programs (Fast Money, Mad Money, The Kudlow Report, etc...). The clips are arranged in categories, including U.S., Europe, Asia, CEO's, and Analysts.

The live CNBC feed is really impressive. In fact, it's so fast that the image actually comes in about 2 seconds faster than the signal from my Cable TV, which is plugged directly into the wall (not even a cable box to slow down the signal). Launching it is fast too. When I click the "CNBC Live TV" icon, a small disclaimer pops up. When I click that, the picture shows up immediately. My TV takes about 3 seconds to actually pop up the picture. Not only that, but the picture actually looks better than on my TV. On a side note, It looks like I need a new TV!

UI Improvements

Another great new feature is the ability to move individual windows outside of the boundaries of your application window. This means that if you have the window reduced to less than full-screen, you can move your sub-windows out of the program to an area above your visible desktop area (or above a web page or another visible program window you may have open). This is very useful if you utilize the desktop for commonly-used shortcuts and recently downloaded files and therefore don't want to run the program in full-screen mode.

If you have multiple monitors, it's even better. You can run the Power E-Trade Pro application in full-screen mode on one monitor, and then drag your sub-windows onto the other monitor. You can even open the sub-window in full-screen mode on the second monitor, which is useful for large watchlists. Obviously if you have more than 2 monitors set up, you can spread out and organize your data even more. This functionality applies to all Power E-Trade Pro sub-windows, including watchlists, chart views, options chains, level 2 quotes, time and sales, news, and more.

Investors Appreciate New Functionality

ThinkOrSwim has offered CNBC streaming video for quite some time now, so it's great to see that the leading brokerage platforms are continually innovating and adding new functionality in order to provide better tools for the active investor and day trader communities. Impressive functionality like this is greatly appreciated by the customer.

The Power of the PC

Thanks to the geniuses in Silicon Valley and other spots around the globe, the power of the personal computer has grown exponentially over the past 20 years. Despite this, very few day-traders and active investors actually use the full power of their personal computer systems.

Most day-traders run a single piece of software on a mid-level computing machine which, at this point, means a computer more than 2 years old. This software is usually a brokerage-provided trading application that combines a brokerage service (i.e. a way to actually execute trades) with tools for news, charting, and analysis.

Usually, these applications are fairly comprehensive and are a great starting point for any trader. Besides using a single piece of software, most stock market traders get all of their information and analysis from the internet. However, the internet is not always the best method for gathering data.

Also see the Update to the Power ETrade Pro Review.

Review Summary:

OK, we've all seen the E-Trade baby commercials and you're probably wondering if that E-Trade baby knows what he's talking about when he hypes their trading platform so much. So we set out to answer the following question - Is Power E-Trade Pro just an average day trading tool with a cute, well-funded marketing campaign or can it seriously be considered one of the best day trading tools on the market today?

Power E-Trade Pro is the advanced trading software offered by E-Trade for day-traders and other active investors. The software is tied directly to the well-established E-Trade brokerage service, which allows individuals to trade and manage their own money using either the E-Trade web site or a number of dedicated sofware trading tools. The Power E-Trade Pro software is a stand-alone Java application and is therefore much quicker and more responsive than a web-based trading application. Being Java-based, it also provides a much safer experience from a computer security standpoint than do web-based programs (all things relative of course). As a bonus it's compatible with Windows and Mac.

Using the Power E-Trade Pro application, you can trade stocks, options, ETF's, ADR's, and mutual funds (I probably left something out, but you get the idea). On the E-Trade web site, you can trade in additional markets as well, including commodity futures contracts (e.g. gold, oil, soybeans) as well as stock markets in other countries (Canada, Hong Kong, etc...). E-Trade also offers a separate stand-alone application for trading futures called TT_Trader, but I won't be covering that in this review.

Overall, I found the Power E-Trade Pro application to be a highly technical, highly powerful, and user-friendly equity and options trading platform. Stock market trading does not feel like a game when you're using Power E-Trade Pro. It feels like serious business. Instead of pretty borders, pretty icons, and other frills, you get a lot of sub-windows and numbers rendered in green, red, black, and white. Sometimes I feel like I'm in the 1960's NASA mission control center when I'm using Power E-Trade Pro, and I like it that way. This is a serious stock market software program intended for serious traders who know how to use a tool like this and who can interpret an avalanche of data in both a strategic and tactical way.

And with the added benefit of a single E-Trade login to manage your savings, brokerage, and investment accounts, there's a tremendous amount to like about this platform.

So, without further ado, here's the Power E-Trade Pro review.

Big Stock Market Tips in a Small Package.

I recently read Joel Greenblatt’s The Little Book That Beats the Market and I am quite pleased with how much information Joel was able to condense into such a small book. Written like a fairy-tale, plenty of financial heroes and villains emerge and in parables of lessons that last ages.