Wednesday, October 31, 2007

The India Street’s Top 10 web sites for stock analysis

Here at The India Street our endeavour is to bring transparency to India Real Estate and Stock Markets. Some of our readers have asked us which software we use for analysis, where from we get data etc. We think that such information should be shared with our visitors.

The top 10 web sites we use for stock analysis are discussed below.

1. National Stock Exchange of India

All our price data are provided by this site unless otherwise mentioned. It is very user friendly and one can download price/volume data for free from 1994 to till date. The intraday charts, Futures & Options contract charts, historical data, company name changes, trading symbol changes, IPO details like price bands, when the stock was listed, etc. are available at this site. What we do not get of course, is the candlestick charts. The site also provides details about option calculations, margin value estimations etc.

2. Bombay Stock Exchange

Our readers may have noticed that we mention BSE group and Scrip code in the articles. Some brokerage houses do not allow scrips other than A or B1 of BSE and it is for this reason we give this information. This web site provides candlestick charting for historical data. However, the End of the Day (EOD) file provided the site is not all that user friendly and there is no date field. When a stock that is already traded at BSE gets listed at NSE we might visit this site for historical price/volume data.

3. Yahoo! India Finance

The site provides delayed quotes as well as historical data. For downloading Sensex values this is a good source. Yahoo! Finance provides historical data for Indian ADRs which we discuss occasionally. It provides data about other world indices like Dow Jones, Hong Kong, Singapore etc.

4. Google

Everyone knows about this site. It is possible to search anything under the sun with Google. We do visit this site to search for stock splits, bonus, rights, news, etc.

5. Spacejock Software

This site is the home of FCharts Pro, which we use for analyzing stocks. It is an excellent program which displays the price/volume data in graphical formats like OHLC, Candlesticks etc. It is a “white box” program in the sense it does not tell the user to buy at some point and sell somewhere else. The judgement is left to the analyst.

Simon Haynes, the author of this program is modest in admitting that he is only a programmer and not an investment specialist. He has also authored “Hal Spacejock” a science fiction novel series. There is a support forum for registered users. Neil McPhee is a senior member and moderator for the forum and he has done plenty of good work in compiling a User Manual. Both Simon Haynes and Neil McPhee are very helpful in replying to users’ queries.

Some users have found the FCharts formula language to be a little complicated. But this is true for other programs as well. Furthermore, there is no annual subscription or hidden charges – which is the best thing one can expect from a software vendor. The site also provides several free programs.

6. Lit Wick

Readers may have noticed that we use candlestick charts and patterns in our analysis. This site provides comprehensive details about candlesticks and candlestick patterns. Candlesticks originated in Japan and it is one of the most powerful charting techniques available today.

7. Stock Charts

This is a highly recommended site which gives an excellent insight into various charting techniques, chart pattern analysis, Elliott wave theory, indicators/overlays, trading strategies etc. It is useful for both beginners and advanced users.


8. Trading Day

This is another excellent site that discusses not only the educational aspects of technical analysis but also the psychology behind investment and trading. This site will be a good start to all those who would like to perform technical analysis on their own. It also discusses some golden rules for traders, pitfalls in trading systems etc.

9. The Hindu Business Line

This site provides plenty of financial information like opinions, news, quotes, surveys, etc.

10. Money Control

This is a popular web site that offers stock quotes, financials, opinions, news, videos, complete market statistics and possibly everything related to India stock markets.