It wasn't so long ago that day traders had to rely on a set of coloured pencils and a piece of paper and mental arithmetic to draw their charts. All that has changed now though. There are sophisticated day trading software programs for a very reasonable outlay that will steer you through the maze of systems that are available to help present a clear picture of and for your analysis.
1. Whatever timeframe suits you, whether by the minute, hour, day, week or longer term, there's a day trading software package to suit your needs.
2. Always try and get a free trial before you buy anything. This should be no problem. The only thing I would caution is that there may be a restriction or two on using the complete package to advantage. It shouldn't take too long for you to your liking.
3. Depending upon which markets you intend to trade, some packages may offer a better format than others. Professionals will likely trade many positions in multiple markets and use more than one software supplier.
4. If convenient, I would try and use a separate computer or laptop to do all your trading on. If you're a beginner, just one will suffice, and it also depends upon your budget of course. You may have more than one computer user in your household and if so, a computer or computers dedicated to your trading would be better if you can manage it.
5. You can never have too many screens for trading software! I use two, but will shortly upgrade to at least another one. This is because quality of clarity on your monitor really helps and the larger you can get the overall trading screen the better. This comes into its own for data feed too.
A far cry from drawing pencil and paper charts, not to mention the precious time you'd spend. There's some truly amazing software today, being improved and upgraded all the time. It's fun too, trying out all their tools to end up with a screen display you like. If you get bored of it, make a change. It's important to have pleasing visuals when day trading.