Day traders can gain or lose thousands in a matter of minutes; it can be a rewarding game of chance with high earnings, but it can also be stressful and hand-wrenching, so finding powerful day trading software is pivotal to your success.

Day trading software provides a platform for fast trading and instant market research. Most day trading service providers also offer trading education, access to brokers, instant order execution, charting tools, mobile phone alerts and more.

Here are a few tools day trading software provides to help you maximize your gains:

Day Trading Platform

Day trading software platforms offer tools for testing out trading strategies, back testing, charting trends, creating watch lists and executing trades. Many programs also work with popular online trading services such as Scottrade, Fidelity, optionsXpress and TradeKing.

Real-Time Market Information

The best day trading software can connect you to the latest market news through live news feeds, commentary and articles from stock data feed services such as eSignal, Barchart, Bloomberg and Interactive Brokers.

Mobile Phone Apps and Alerts

Staying abreast of all trends and the status of your orders is absolutely critical; currently more day trading services are offering SMS alerts or mobile phone apps that can interact with their software.

Access to a Variety of Markets

Many day trading programs can provide you access to FOREX trading, stock and option trading and more.

A note on pricing, many programs offer pricing either per month or a full license for ownership. However, keep in mind that in order to utilize the software you may have to pay for a data service to populate your charts and provide you real-time stock information and news. In addition, many may also require that you have a separate broker or online broker to conduct trades. Some software providers offer these services themselves; others use services like eSignal for data and work with services such as MB Trading, Scottrade or E*Trade for executing trades.

Day trading requires quick yet educated decisions; day trading software can help you make fast choices regarding which orders to execute and when to back away. With a little luck, informed choices and a powerful day trading program, you have a chance at winning the fast-paced day trading game.

What to Look for in Day Trading Software

Day trading is, by nature, complex, so the programs that can execute them are also complex. Because trading platforms can provide volumes of analytic information, complex charting tools and can potentially help you make thousand dollar decisions, it is imperative that you find a trading tool that works best for you.

Below are the criteria I use to evaluate day trading software:

Charting/Tools

The best day trading programs provide powerful tools for creating charts, such as for charting the historical trend of a stock. We looked for trading software that provides helpful tools like watch lists, alerts, simulated trading, back testing, alerts and more.

Market Data Services Supported

Day trading software must be linked with either a free or subscription-based data service to provide up-to-date market information. Many offer limited free historical data and can sync with a variety of fee-based market data services for real-time stock market data.

Stock Trading Service Supported

This criterion refers to the selection of stock trading services that can either directly buy/sell stock through the software or compatible brokerages.

Mobile Tools

Day traders execute trades in less than a day or even in a few minutes, so it is essential to have on-the-spot information. To accomplish this, some trading services are starting to offer SMS alerts or mobile phone apps. In the future, we would like to see more mobile phone apps offered through day trading software.

Resources

Day trading is dicey; it is necessary that day trading software and services come with ample documentation for beginning traders as well as for trading pros. We looked for services that provide active forums, blogs, tax information, seminars and much more.

Help/Support

Trading software is complicated, so it is absolutely necessary that the software provider offer extensive support. We looked for providers that offer thorough help documentation, email support, chat/IM support and telephone support.