If you already own trading software, or are using other trading tools (charting or scanning tools on your broker’s web site, subscription to a "guru’s" newsletter, etc.), you’re probably wondering how OmniTrader can help you be more successful.

First, you have to understand that OmniTrader is very different than the trading tools you’re used to. There are basically two types of trading tools available to individual investors: toolbox products and black box products.

Toolbox products approach the trading problem from the basis of traders have ideas of how to pick winning trades, they just need a way of organizing the market data (e.g. charts and quote screens) and testing their theories (e.g. system testing and development). And for years, these were the only software products available to traders.

There are many toolbox programs on the market today, including MetaStockÒ from Equis International, SuperChartsÒ and TradeStationÒ from Omega Research, and Window On Wall StreetÒ and DayTraderÒ from Window On Wall Street. All of these programs let you pull up charts, draw trendlines, apply technical indicators to your charts and write and test your own trading systems.

To determine if a toolbox product is right for you, you need to ask yourself these simple questions:

1. What trading ideas do you currently have that you want to test?
2. How much time do you want to spend at your computer to find good trading candidates?

If you don’t have any trading ideas you really want to test, and don’t want to spend a lot of time at your computer, then toolbox programs may not be for you.

If the idea of developing a trading system from scratch appeals to you, we recommend MetaStock over the other toolbox products available. MetaStock has been on the market for many years, is a stable product, and the support provided by Equis International is top rate. We even sell MetaStock here at Nirvana and offer a MetaStock + OmniTrader Bundle. Call our Sales Dept. for details!

A "black box" product is one that makes trading recommendations without revealing how the buy or sell signal was generated. Some people refer to these as "gray box" products if they tell you a little about where the signals come from (e.g. a type of moving average system), but not exactly how they are generated. There have always been black box products, going all the way back to "Snake Oil", but as any seasoned trader will tell you, no has ever found one that consistently works. So black box products are usually hot for a while until the markets change personality (see Personality of Markets) and the system stops working. Ironically, black box products are usually rather expensive because of the "perceived value" a high price product carries. Some black box products that are currently on the market are TradingExpertÒ from AIQ, IndigoÒ by MicroStar and Advanced GETÒ by Trading Techniques.

To be successful trading, you need to do three things:

1. Consistently have good buy and sell candidates to prospect from each day.
2. Confirm those buy/sell signals in order to pick the best trades.
3. Manage your trades to maximize your profits, and limit your losses.

OmniTrader helps you do all these things… automatically!

Only OmniTrader does all the testing and analysis for you. For every security in your list, OmniTrader automatically:

• Retrieves the necessary data
• Tests its 120 built-in trading systems
• Selects only the best performing systems in the test period to generate buy and sell signals for you to review.

After OmniTrader has done the analysis and generated its signals, it provides powerful confirmation tools so you can isolate the best opportunities to trade. Again, much of the confirmation process is automated for you:

• Trendlines, support & resistance levels, Fibonacci’s automatically drawn on your charts
• Comprehensive test results for every security in your list are automatically displayed on-screen
• The exact trading systems that fired to form the trading signals are automatically displayed below your charts

Once you’ve reviewed the candidates, confirmed the signals, and placed your trades, OmniTrader automatically updates all your positions with its built-in Portfolio Manager. Profit-Loss stops are automatically displayed graphically on your charts.. Maintain multiple brokerage accounts and even print out Schedule D reports at the end of the year for your taxes.

Finally, OmniTrader is the only product with tow trading simulators to help you improve your skills and gain confidence. The Trading Game lets you trade an individual security while the Lab Mode simulates trading a portfolio of securities. This is extremely helpful if you have not been trading for very long!