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As recently as the early 1980s, brokers, and traders charted the movement of currency prices by hand with nothing but a legal pad and a pencil. In less than four decades, the charting industry has been revamped several times over, which has led to intricate, complex tables that traders decode today before executing currency trades. Charting software allows those in any market to see price moves, observe changes over various stretches of time, and combine this information to conduct market analysis and predictions. It’s an absolute necessity for carrying out intelligent trades; without it, trading currencies would be a lot more like gambling: highly dictated by chance. 1. NinjaTrader This award-winning trading platform offers forex traders FREE access to its advanced charting, strategy backtesting, and trade simulation. It’s well known for its sophisticated charting software, which has been enough to persuade many traders to switch from other trading platforms to NinjaTrader. If you are looking for a forex platform that offers both strong charts and the ability to make trades, this could be a great choice for you. NinjaTrader advanced forex charting capabilities offer comprehensive tools customizable for your particular focus. It offers dozens of indicators for gaps, news, trends, swings, volume, reversal, volatility, value area, Elliot wave, and more. Charts have multi-timeframe and multi-tool analysis with hundreds of add-ons available from third parties. While charting on NinjaTrader’s sleek interface can be incredibly informative, there is a learning curve for new traders. NinjaTrader does have a wide range of useful educational materials are available including daily training webinars designed to educate new users on the powerful tools available, hundreds of on-demand training videos, and an informative YouTube channel. The NinjaTrader User Guide offers copious details on how to use each chart feature. In terms of payment, NinjaTrader offers a range of options: NinjaTrader is always free to use for advanced charting and trade simulation. As an added bonus, you can get unlimited free real-time and historical forex data trials without a brokerage account! For live trading, you can use a free live trading license if opening an account through NinjaTrader Brokerage. You can also lease the program quarterly for $180, a half-year for $330 or one full year for $600. A Lifetime lease is also available for $999 which includes free software upgrades for life. NinjaTrader itself does not offer smartphones or tablet options, but there are several plug-ins on the market that you can set up within your devices to be notified of trade updates. For U.S. customers trading through NinjaTrader Brokerage, they can choose to trade through FP markets and Oanda. 2. TradingView Without a doubt, TradingView comes in at the number one spot on this list. It is a favorite among a multitude of traders, thanks to the fact that its free version offers more features than several paid packages on the market. For the forex market, in particular, TradingView offers a view of all currency pairs, cross rates on the most commonly traded pairs, as well as currency indices and an economic calendar for major macroeconomic events. It also serves as a trading community; Thousands of traders and analysts publish their ideas and forecasts as well as comments and assessments of trade patterns. This can be a great tool for a new trader or someone who wants to become more familiar with the intricacies of trading a certain currency pair. A lot of TradingView users also noted that its option to make its trade histories public – even if only to friends or family members – gave them more accountability and improved their decision-making tactics. TradingView is available on your desktop, tablet, and smartphone, all of which can be synced and saved in a cloud, which offers a seamless transition between devices. TradingView Fees Free: Use on one device, up to one saved chart layout, no customer support Pro: $9.95/month (use on one device, intraday time frames, up to five saved chart layouts, regular customer support, and more) Pro Plus: $19.95/month (sync up to two devices, intraday time frames, up to 10 saved chart layouts, fast-version customer support, and more) Premium: $39.95/month (SMS alerts, sync up to five devices, intraday time frames, unlimited saved chart layouts, priority customer support, and more) Please note that you’ll need to get set up on a trading platform in order to execute any actual trades, like Forex.com, Oanda, and others. 3. FinViz This platform is another winner among investors across the world and is utilized by millions of traders, whether their focus is forex, stocks or commodities. This web-based platform offers not just charts, but also heat maps, portfolio management tools and a host of news and blog links to keep you informed about what’s to come in the currency world and the international market at large. Heat maps are a favorite feature of FinViz, where traders can quickly analyze the health of certain currency pairs based on a color scheme from green (healthy) to red (unhealthy). There are also a host of free filters that can allow traders to narrow in on information geared towards their preferred currency pair(s). The downsides of the platform are that it is solely web-based, without mobile chart viewing. Traders also complained that its interface is somewhat dated. Lastly, while the free version offers lots of information, it also crowded with numerous pop-ups. In terms of pricing, charts on FinViz are free, however, they are not all in real time, and some are even delayed as much as 15 minutes — a big delay in the world of currency trading. An upgrade to FinViz Elite may be worth your money, as all features are given in real time, and the upgraded version also comes with access to advanced charting features like technical studies and performance tracking correlation charts comparing currency pairs or any commodity or stock. The Elite version also offers the ability to do backtests and will give you email notifications about important market events in real time. The price for an Elite subscription is $39.50/month, or $299.50/year. A general note on using charts: Trading experts advise not using more than two different applications, including your trading platform, when it comes to looking at charts. Dancing across too many platforms can lead to more confusion, and may make executing trades more stressful than need be. Final Thoughts on the Best Forex Charts Expect to use a good chunk of time reading trading charts, which is much like learning to read a new language. Once you’ve put in the work to be able to fluently interpret the information on the screen, you’ll be one step closer to executing lucrative trades. Many newbie traders ask which chart setup is the best of the best, and experienced traders say that such a panacea simply does not exist. Also read: Compare Now | Demo Trading Vs. Live Trading