This four-part series on getting to better use your online trading software is designed to give you both insight into the inner workings of the companies which provide you your day trading software as well as how this knowledge can benefit you directly. While not all of the suggestions may be relevant to you, consider learning about them as they may help your friends and trading colleagues.
The first suggestion is to properly report bugs to your online trading broker, who should then report the bug to the trading software firm. "Bugs" are glitches in the online trading software which prevent the platform from working 100% properly. While the day trading software firms have various levels of "beta-testing" to minimize bugs from occurring, sometimes they do happen.
One not so obvious example is something which already tested (and more than likely taken for granted) which may be overlooked at the time of a new release (version) of the software. For example, if your day trading software firm comes out with new charting functions such as new indicators, it may not occur to the beta testers to go back and check to make sure that Simple Moving Averages (a basic, industry-standard technical indicator which was probably released in the very first version of the software) are calculating correctly to three decimal places.
If you note any bugs, especially during the first few days after a release, take the time to properly document them. This will help you get the bug corrected as quickly as possible since all online trading software firms want to keep customers satisfied with their current releases. Here are the steps necessary:
1) Take a screen capture of the "bug" in question. If you do not have screen capture software on your computer then you can simply hit the "Alt" button and the "Prt Scr" (Print Screen) buttons at the same time. Then open up your "Paint" application or word processing software, and paste the screen shot in the document. If possible, draw arrows and/or highlight what you believe the bug is.
2) Note the date, time, symbol(s) you are trading, and the version of the software you are running. Surprisingly, many people never update their trading software and are sometimes running two versions behind. This can cause compatibility problems, so be sure to include the version you are running. Most day trading software firms list the version of their software under the "Help" menu in the main toolbar, but check your user's manual for the location on your specific software.
3) Send the screenshot via e-mail to your online trading brokerage firm contact. Have your contact send it to the software firm, assuming that the software firm and online trading broker are two different companies.
What you may not know is that the bug may be a glitch on your computer due to compatibility with other software running or due to another outside concern. Sometimes the software firm will work with you directly to get this handled. Other times they will send the bug report to their programmers who specifically work on bugs. Bugs usually are a priority over new development, so that is why your help in documenting the bug will go a long way toward resolving the issue.
The reason you benefit is twofold:
1) Chances are you will be among the first to get a better-functioning piece of software
2) Your future requests will be more likely to be listened with respect since you took the first step to help out your day trading software firm.
Most people can understand that new development may take a while, but virtually everyone wants their current versions to work properly. Helping the firm by properly reporting a bug hopefully will go a long way toward giving you a solid, working piece of software.