Charts Grade: C
Overview:
In February of 2010, Zecco revamped their charts but the results can best be described as a mixed bag. The new chart design is an improvement over the previous effort, with larger and cleaner looking charts. There are a respectable number of technical indicators that are very customizable and should satisfy the needs of most chartists. The data download feature is a good idea but is not very useful because of poor execution. Some broker charts allow for the customization of colors, the saving of chart settings and drawing tools such as lines and notes. Zecco charts do not have any of these features, which is somewhat surprising considering that Zecco has no doubt spent a great deal of time developing a brand new charting engine. In the end, the Zecco charts are an improvement over the previous effort but are still lacking when compared to the charts offered at the top brokers.
Details:
Here is a one year mountain chart for Intel (INTC) (click on images for larger views):
Here is a 5 year mountain chart comparing INTC, MSFT, CSCO and AMD:
Next we have a ConocoPhillips (COP) five year candlestick chart with dividends, earnings, and stock split events. The candlesticks are slightly mashed together so the clarity is less than we would have expected:
Zecco charts allow for the display of over thirty different technical indicators. Here is a three month candlestick chart for ConocoPhillips with bollinger bands, MACD and RSI. The lower indicators are too condensed so as you can see below, it is hard to make out trend changes in MACD and RSI. The height of these indicators are not adjustable which is a shame:
All charts feature a "download historical data" button, which generates an Excel file with date, open, day low, day high, close and volume columns. Data begins on 12/1/1980 and is displayed for the first of the month up to the current month. This is a decent feature to have but we would expect to be able to generate data based on the current chart settings. For example, if we have a three month chart that shows daily candles, we would expect to be able to download three months worth of daily data. This feature ends up as a missed opportunity and is not very useful.
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