Let's start with a simple premise: If you are going to trade securities, you need a system. This truth may not seem self-evident to the novice, but I think most experienced traders have, at one time or another, tried to trade on intuition, hunches, rumors, advice or any of the other non-systematic methods for deciding which securities to buy and when to buy or sell them. Experience quickly teaches one that this is not a consistently profitable activity. The "pros" don't guess. They use combinations of fundamental and technical indicators to achieve profits.

OmniTrader from Nirvana Systems, Inc. takes a unique and powerful approach to the systematic use of technical indicators.

Once you realize that you need a system, the obvious next question becomes "which one?" There are dozens of well-known indicators, and an infinite number of possible combinations. Some computerized trading programs allow you to experiment with, and test the effectiveness of your own custom system. These programs allow you to create and then trade with your own system. Other programs have a fixed trading system that was created by the author or programmer of the system.

OmniTrader takes a unique and different approach to the problem. It uses brute force to test 120 trading systems on each of the securities you choose. Then it gives you the consensus of trading signals generated by the various systems. You end up with a few unambiguous trading signals each day.

OmniTrader is fast enough that you can have dozens or even hundreds of stocks in your "watch list," the group of stock that the program analyses each day. It is sufficiently automated that you can update the data and analyze the stocks in the watch list with a few mouse clicks. The program is even smart enough to check to see which of the tested indicators has historically been most accurate in predicting the movement of each particular stock in the watch list. It then gives greater weight to those indicators when it generates the consensus.

The designers at Nirvana have even taken into consideration the fact that your trading strategy is probably going to be much different if you are trading commodity futures or buying and selling mutual funds. Your time frames and the signal you are looking for are going to be quite different. So, OmniTrader allows you to specify what kind of securities you are trading, how aggressively you are, whether you are looking for trends or reversals, and how long or short your time frame is.

There are dozens of other helpful and convenient features. A "to-do list" and "portfolio manager" automate various recurring activities. The securities in your watch list can be organized into chart "books" to make them easier to use. If OmniTrader gave you a buy (or sell) signal for a particular stock a few days ago, it shows you today whether the position is long or short and how many days into the trade you are.

Technically speaking, this is a powerful, sophisticated and well-engineered piece of software. To get the most out of this program you definitely should expect to put a fair amount of time into learning the features and how to make them work. But, that is true of every charting and trading program I have tested. Overall, I found the program to be pretty stable, the features accessible and understandable. Data acquisition is straight forward, as long as you use Telescan or have other access to data in the MetaStock format. Some of the icons on the desktop are a bit cryptic until you get used to them. But, for the most part, the folks at Nirvana have done a good job with OmniTrader.

So, how well does it work in trading? I make it a policy not to discuss my trading results using any of the software I test. In the first place, your results would vary based on your own experience and style. And second, as we all know, historical performance using any trading system is no
guarantee of future results. But, I will say that I like being able to trade a particular stock or future when the majority of the technical indicators are aligned in my favor.

OmniTrader takes the guesswork out of choosing your trades, and it does so quickly and simply. Unless you are into creating and testing your own custom systems, there is not a lot more that you can ask of a charting and trading program.

OmniTrader Ratings:
Ease of Installation: B
Documentation: A
User Interface: B-
Features: A
Implementation: B
Help Screens: B
Ease of Use: B
Downloader: C
Overall Rating: B+

Would I recommend this software to a close friend for purchase? Yes.

About the Reviewer
Richard Crites is a financial services consultant and registered securities representative who lives and works in Clearwater, Florida. He has a master's degree in engineering from Stanford University, and over thirty years of sales and marketing experience. Richard is a free-lance reviewer who specializes in stock market charting and analysis, financial and small office-home office (SOHO) software. He can be reached at rickcrites@usa.net.

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