Brief Overview

Market Gear is a trading, investment education, and social networking platform. The company succeeds in delivering many useful tools that both traders and investors commonly need. Here’s the rundown:

Services Offered

At the heart of Market Gear is a trading platform with many advanced resources. Although Market Gear itself is not a broker, its software can be connected to multiple firms. This will permit order submission. Compatible brokers include:

• E*Trade
• Ally Invest
• TD Ameritrade
• ChoiceTrade

Despite compatibility with brokers that offer futures and forex, Market Gear cannot be used to trade those products. It currently offers trading only in stocks, ETFs, and options. Cryptocurrencies are unavailable.

Trading is just one piece of the puzzle at Market Gear. After you place a trade, Market Gear has a trade journal where you’ll be able to track your performance. And you can share your trades as well.

With a Market Gear account, there’s no need to conduct research with a third party. There are several tools on the Market Gear platform for stock research and analysis.

Software

Market Gear essentially has one platform. It’s compatible with Mac and Windows. It can be used either as a desktop program or as a web browser platform. It also functions on Android and Apple phones and tablets. In all cases, the interface and tools are the same.

Computer Platform

The best experience of course will be on a computer with a large screen. The software does have a lot of tools, and a computer monitor makes it easier to manage them.

The main menu is in the top-right corner. A drop-down menu exists underneath your name. Here, there are many color themes to choose from. There’s also a Tour widget if you want an overview of the platform.

The Home icon is a good place to start on the platform. Here, you’ll find a heat map of the day’s trading activity, which is also available in bar-chart format.

The Watch icon is where the software’s watchlist is located. There are many pre-installed watchlists, and it’s possible to create your own. Some of the pre-installed lists I found include:

• $ Losers
• 52  Week Low
• ETFs
• Large Cap 

If you ever get lost on the platform, a Help Center link appears at the top of the screen.

 

Mobile app 

Amazingly, Market Gear manages to pack all of its software’s great features into its mobile app. On my iPhone, I was able to:

• Trade option spreads
• Look over the same heat maps
• Review my journal entries
• Scroll through watchlists (these sync with the computer platform)
• Analyze upcoming corporate events on a calendar

 

Stock and ETF Research

Both the mobile app and computer platform can be used for stock research. A good place to begin is with the software’s scanner, found under the Find tile. There are several pre-installed equity screens. During my probing, I used Technical Score Positive Change Today and got lots of results.

Results can be displayed as a list or as a group of tiles with small charts. Clicking on an entry pulls up the asset’s profile. Clicking on an arrow produces a drop-down menu with trade links.

Profiles on the Market Gear platform have a good amount of information. I found details on buying and selling pressure, institutional ownership, and financial statements in graphical format.

Unfortunately, Market Gear does not provide stock reports from third-party analysts.

 

Charting

On any trading platform, a stock’s profile has a Chart tab in the top row of choices. Clicking on this brings up a chart with four graph styles (candlestick, line, OHLC, and seasonality).

Default colors can be changed to almost any imaginable color. A graph can be expanded the full width of the computer screen. To get a chart to fill the height of the monitor, you have to pull down on a down arrow. It’s located at the bottom of the chart. During my investigation, I found roughly 50 technical studies.

Although there is no right-click trading, a green B button and a red S button appear on a chart. They can be used to quickly bring up the software’s order ticket.

 

Trading Stocks

Speaking of the order ticket, it can be used to trade stocks, ETFs, and options. The widget’s capability is dependent on which broker you use. Potential trade types include: 

• Limit or market on close or open
• Trailing stop ($ or %)
• Market
• Limit

There are many duration choices, including:

• Day + Extended
• FOK
• IOC

Market Gear offers a simulated trading mode through Choice Trade. Just click on the bottom-left icon, then select the plus (+) sign. Next, select ChoiceTrade Virtual as your broker and you’ll get $100,000 of practice money for order submission.

 

Trading Options

Option chains are on the computer platform and mobile app. During my trading, I found several spreads, including:

• Diagonal Call Calendar
• Long Butterfly
• Collar
• Short Condor

Other useful option tools include Greek values, a profit-loss diagram, a volatility chart, and spread explanations.

Leverage and Day Trading

One of Market Gear’s weaknesses is in the realm of day trading. During my test drive of its software, I did not find any tools typically used by day traders. There is no direct-access routing on the order ticket, and Level II quotes are completely missing.

Leverage is available and will be determined by the brokerage account linked to the Market Gear platform. Unfortunately, margin details are not shown on Market Gear’s software.

Journaling and Social Networking

One of the features I really like about Market Gear is the journaling tool. Any trade you place will automatically go into the journal. The software produces a pop-up window after every trade. You can add tags to a trade, make comments, and select sentiment.

Inside the Journal tab (located under the Portfolio tile), all notes will be found in a list. It’s easy to search through these entries by various search criteria. Examples include trade date, tags, and text in notes.

It’s also possible to share your trades and follow other traders. This is a good way to see what other users on the platform are doing. Copy trading is not possible, though.

Customer Support

Market Gear has a Support Center on its website. This resource can also be accessed through the platform (click on your name and then select Support Ticket). During a trial of this system, I received a response in 18 minutes—not bad.

However, the company does not post its phone number online. And an email to its support address ([email protected]) bounced back to me.

Pricing

Market Gear is generous enough to offer a 14-day free trial. When you sign up for that trial, you do have to pick a subscription plan. It will kick in after two weeks.

 

The major downside of Market Gear’s pricing is that both simulated and live trading are unavailable on the cheapest plan. The best derivative tools will be found on the Signature Kit. And real-time streaming quotes can only be accessed on the Master Kit.

Bottom Line

Market Gear has good resources for equity and option traders. But its pricing is rather steep, and day traders will be left wanting more.