- 2002: Volume 11, No. 2 Barchart.com ... the ULTIMATE Trading Tool

Ask any trader—what is the one trading tool you cannot do without? Invariably the reply will be "information." The same information that drives the markets can also make or break your trading performance.

In 1981, Market Research, Inc. was formed as a consulting group specializing in creating electronic publishing systems for the financial community. Many of these systems are still used today by daily and weekly stock and commodity magazines.

In the following years, there were a number of opportunities to publish chartbooks and technical trading magazines under the Market Research name, but the price of entry was always too high—a minimum of $5,000 per week to print and distribute a traditional magazine.

By 1995, the Internet had become a viable alternative to the old media, and with the Mid America Commodities Exchange as the first customer, Market Research ventured into cyberspace and re-emerged as Barchart.com, and the MIDAM became the first commodity exchange with charts and data on the Internet.

At first, the new technology allowed publication and instant delivery of all commodities and contracts on a daily basis—a vast improvement on the weekly publications of the paper era. Over the next few years, the interval dropped to every 10 minutes, and has finally become instant streaming quotes and charts.

During the early Internet years, it was becoming apparent that there was a market for Internet-based delivery of market information to institutional, professional and casual investors, as well as for the position trader who was the traditional buyer for the chartbooks.

Another group was emerging from somewhere and becoming known as the "day traders" in the equities markets. Another group of commodities traders began trading the e-mini electronically, and could receive free real time quotes from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Internet site at cme.com.

To cater to all these various groups of users, Barchart.com added technical content and grew to become one of the prominent Internet suppliers of commodities charts and data. Since those early days, additional sections have been added to include the U.S. stock markets and mutual funds. The site has grown to the point where Barchart.com is one of the top 20 Internet financial sites.

For basic market information, Barchart.com provides a wealth of information at no charge. The easy-to-navigate Web site gives you access to quotes on equities, futures and mutual funds. Market quotes can be obtained on either a streaming or refreshing basis, but quotes are just the tip of this iceberg. You can analyze buy/sell signals, perform a sector analysis of the equities markets or configure your own custom reports. For equities, you can digest layers of fundamental and technical information, which are organized in an easy to read and logical format. For example, once you have selected a stock, you can access earnings information, historical highs and lows, a current chart, technical recaps of moving average analysis, stochastics, relative strength and volatility, sector information, and a vast array of analytics.

For the futures markets, Barchart.com covers all North American exchanges to include all energies, financials, grains, indexes, meats, metals, softs and exchange-traded spreads that are uniquely inherent to these markets.

Advanced Services
For the trader who wants a little (or a lot) more, Barchart.com offers advanced services on a subscription basis. Subscribers can choose from Advanced Commodities Services, Equities Service, or Realtime Commodities Services.

The Advanced Commodities service is the most comprehensive futures and futures options site on the Web, and covers all major commodities markets on a worldwide basis. You'll find quotes, charts, statistics and trend analysis on every active contract. Subscribers can take advantage of advanced charting, portfolio management, and unlimited downloading of historical data.

The Equities service site is designed for the technical trader with tools for selecting, analyzing, charting, and comparing stock and commodity contracts.

Realtime Services
The Realtime Commodities service delivers realtime streaming quotes which feature direct connections with the exchanges at a very competitive price. Again, quotes are just the beginning. Realtime dynamic charting offers a choice of over 40 studies including point-and-figure and tick-by-tick charting. You are in complete control of your charting with the ability to select one-, two-, three-, five-, 10-, 15-, 30- and 90-minute increments as well as daily, weekly and 25-year monthly charts. Users are able to display up to 30 quotes per screen with unlimited screens. In addition, you can enjoy a portfolio view feature that allows viewing and monitoring of your entire portfolio at a glance.

Still looking for more? Barchart.com offers the ability to track exchange-traded spreads by allowing you to view all realtime prices for any commodity. Technical analysis will become a breeze with the realtime technical opinions pages. Using this feature, you can view the results of 13 selected technical analytics in multiple time frames. The program will calculate an overall buy or sell rating based on the results of the conventional interpretation of the study.

Service and Support
Providing all of these services is one thing, but supporting them is really the key to the success of Barchart.com. A comprehensive set of support pages detailing all of the pages found on the site is constantly at the users' fingertips. An easy-to-navigate online Learning Center has been designed to provide help with any of the technical analytics used within the site. In addition, a helpful FAQ's page covers the most commonly asked questions. To take advantage of the free services offered through Barchart.com or to subscribe to the advanced services, just log on to Barchart.com and follow the links. They say the markets move on information—Barchart.com will keep you ahead of the information curve.