Best stock charting software

Looking for the best stock charting software? Let’s see the important factors, how to choose it!

Types of stock charts

There are multiple kinds of stock charts:

some show the stock price in different ways, like line charts, area charts, OHLC charts or candlestick charts (maybe with moving averages, dividend data or with patterns, like symmetrical triangle etc.)
some show technical indicators, like MACD
and there may be charts for the trading volume

There are also comparison charts. You can compare a stock’s price

There may be other factors, that may be important besides the supported chart types:

platform: some charting softwares work in a browser (which is more or less platform independent), some are desktop application (meaning, it may matter, if you are using Windows, Mac or Linux), some are working on mobile devices, too – it is up to you, if you want to use it on mobile devices.
if you want to share the chart, is it important
- how you can export a chart as image from the software
- what license applies to sharing the exported chart
price: there are multiple ways for providing a charting software for free, and there are some that require a monthly or annual, subscription, some have a one-time fee
supported countries: it is obviously a problem, if no charts are provided for your targeted country.
other analysis capabilities, like technical indicators, or fundamental data.

It depends on you actual needs, which charting software will be the best for you. Maybe the best way to choose is:

deciding, which features are important from the ones above
check the features of a couple charting softwares, whether they have it or not
and try the promising ones