For those of you who are interested in actively managing your investment portfolio, I’d like to cover an interesting trading tool that you may want to check out. Personally, I use this tool to improve my knowledge of the markets and to understand stock technical analysis concepts better. I actually use a combination of many strategies when managing my investments (from indexing to a little market timing), and technical analysis is simply just one of those strategies. While I mostly employ passive investing approaches and indexing methods, I have been open to occasional market timing and stock picking for a portion of my portfolio. Hence, I’ve found that a technical tool like MarketClub can assist me with understanding the market from a different angle from what I’ve been accustomed to.
View of the actual MarketClub application (Smart Scan tool)
Review Of The MarketClub Stock Trading System
So what can you expect from this trading system? MarketClub is a web based educational service for traders-in-training which was developed by a company called INO.com. They aim to make you a better market trader and they do this by providing you with trading tools, educational material and other resources to help you gain knowledge and experience in the markets. They offer an online subscription service for all these materials.
MarketClub Features
Here’s a rundown of the tools and functionality that you will find bundled in the MarketClub service which you’ll have access to once you subscribe. Here are some of my insights on MarketClub’s offerings and features:
1. Get your feet wet. Learn about the investment markets. I’m the kind of investor who likes to study stuff before I try something out. When it’s my money on the line, I prefer to learn as much as I can about the markets through reading, watching videos and keeping tabs on the market environment before I commit my funds to a new investment. MarketClub has several ways to help me achieve these goals:
Trade School is what they describe as your “personal trading university”. You can peruse an ongoing stream of educational audio seminars (MP3) and documentation that feature some of the world’s top professional traders. The coverage here includes topics on everything from futures and forex all the way to options, market psychology and indexing. I also enjoy Trade School for the highly informative training videos I get to watch, that show me how to use Market Club’s charting tools effectively. The training videos are very timely and discuss the current environment for various investment markets, and demonstrate strategies for how to capitalize on market trends. It’s awesome!
Aside from Trade School, your membership will also give you access to market news via the News Scan tool (featuring Associated Press, Real Time Trader News, Dow Jones News, etc.) and will provide you with a way to directly connect with the MarketClub team (the traders behind INO.com) via their Blog.
2. Develop your investment portfolio.
Once you’re ready to work on your investments, you can turn to several other MarketClub tools to help you out. The Smart Scan is a scanning or screening tool that allows you to find the “right” investments to sink your money in. The tool scans charting patterns to help you filter out stocks, mutual funds, ETFs, forex and precious metals to track or trade.
Then there’s the Chart Portfolio that allows you to build your own watchlist for the symbols and assets that you’d like to follow. Although this doesn’t sound like a big deal (since a lot of free tools already offer watchlists and such), you’ll also receive an email report each night that scores your portfolio symbols and gauges their market performance. And for historical reports and data, you can turn to the Data Central tool for downloadable historical information.
3. Manage your portfolio and trade!
We come to the coolest part of MarketClub: their Streaming Chart Tools. The charting tools are incorporated in an application that you can use to analyze any investment market. Here’s where you actually get to put your knowledge to action since the tool shows you how to use technical trading indicators and investment strategies to read and interpret charts and trends. MarketClub has developed a technology called “Trade Triangle” which supplies you with signals (green and red arrows) that attempt to interpret (or suggest) the kind of trades you should make.
This is a sample training video which demonstrates how to use MarketClub’s Streaming Chart Tools. Click on this link or the image below to watch the video on Euro vs the US Dollar:
There are a whole bunch of other indicators and tools that are built into the application that you could use to hone your analytical skills. I provide a few articles below which showcase some of these indicators: from candlestick charting to Fibonacci retracement, you’ll see these functions applied to various markets:
- Should You Trade Stocks Online?
- Gold Chart Update: Where Is The Gold Market Headed?
- Fibonacci Retracement: A Technical Stock Tool To Predict Market Direction
- Use Candlestick Charts, Trading Signals To Evaluate The Stock Market
And don’t forget the patented “Talking Chart” technology that has been folded into the Streaming Chart application. It certainly adds a slickness and polish to the charting application when you’re able to listen to actual audio commentary incorporated into the charts you’re evaluating.
And finally, no stock trading service is complete without the kind of feedback generated by Alerts. These Alerts work with the various technologies that have been described here to ensure that you receive the signals you need as they happen. Set alerts to tell you when price, trends, signals and indicators experience any changes.
Pricing
How much does this cost? The subscription fee is $150.00 a quarter or $449.00 a year which you’ll be charged once you sign up. However, you are entitled to a risk-free 30 day trial period that gives you a window within which to cancel your subscription for a full refund if you so choose.