TC2000 vs. TradingView
There are many excellent trading platforms that offer both technical and fundamental stock analysis. But not many of them pair strong analysis features with outstanding visualization tools. Two top contenders in this category are TC2000 and TradingView.
TC2000 is a self-contained trading system for stocks and options, with order routing through Interactive Brokers. The platform offers one of the industry’s best scanners, highly flexible charts, and best-in-class live trading tools. TradingView provides similarly powerful scanning capabilities and expands coverage to the bond, forex, commodity, and cryptocurrency markets. It’s not a standalone broker, though, so it is more suitable for charting and generating trade ideas than actively trading.
Which of these platforms is the best choice for you? We’ll compare TC2000 vs. TradingView head to head to help you decide.
About TC2000 and TradingView
TC2000, created by Worden Brothers, has been around for more than 25 years. When it launched in the mid-1990s, it was one of the only trading platforms that gave traders access to interactive charts and advanced visualizations. The software has undergone many changes over the years and the latest version is v.23.0. TC2000 has been voted the “Best Stock Software under $500” for 27 years in a row by Stocks & Commodities Magazine.
TradingView launched in 2011 as a web platform designed to bring together multi-asset scanning, comprehensive visualizations, and a social network of traders. The platform has gained momentum quickly thanks to the fact that many of its tools, including its social network, are offered for free. In fact, TradingView charts are integrated into many other trading platforms in lieu of proprietary charting interfaces. TradingView recently announced that it surpassed more than 50 million active monthly users.
TC2000 vs. TradingView: Assets and Trading
One of the biggest differences between TC200 and TradingView is in what assets you can use them to evaluate and trade.
TC2000 only supports real-time market data for stocks, indices, and options. That said, you can place trades directly from your charts through an integration with the brokerage firm Interactive Brokers. Trades cost $1 + $0.005 per share for stocks and ETFs and $1 + $0.65 per contract for options.
TradingView has a wider scope. You can view real-time charts and develop screens for stocks, bonds, forex, commodities, indices, and cryptocurrencies. The platform does integrate with a few different brokers for live trading, but none of them are particularly popular – by far the best-known brokerage that TradingView supports is TradeStation.
TC2000 vs. TradingView: Screeners
A huge draw to both TC2000 and TradingView is the platforms’ screening capabilities. They approach screening in very different ways, but each offers an incredibly powerful and customizable scanning interface.
TC2000’s EasyScan module is relatively easy to use. The stock screener can be parameterized using any of the platform’s hundreds of built-in technical and fundamental indicators, or you can use any of your own custom metrics for scanning. What really sets this tool apart is that you can benchmark the scan results against an individual stock, an index, or all US stocks. That means, for example, that when running a performance-based scan, you can view only those stocks that have outperformed the broader market or a company on your watchlist. This dramatically cuts down on noise and makes your scans more actionable.
TradingView doesn’t have the same benchmarking option, but the stock screener is nonetheless extremely strong. The list of parameters is highly visual, which makes it easy to see how changes to your conditions affect your scan results. You also have the ability to sort scan results according to any combination of technical and fundamental indicators that you choose. Notably, TradingView has separate scanners for forex and cryptocurrency trading with parameters that are more specific to those assets.
TC2000 vs. TradingView: Indicators
TC2000 and TradingView are very comparable in terms of the technical indicators they offer. Both trading software platforms come stocked with more than 200 built-in technical studies. There are also formulaic coding languages built into each platform that enable you to create your own custom indicators.
Another excellent feature that both TC2000 and TradingView share is the ability to apply indicators on indicators. Both platforms are also packed with drawing tools and enable you to make annotations directly on your charts.
One thing that sets TradingView apart when it comes to indicators is the platform’s built-in social network. Traders are able to share any indicators and screens that they create on TradingView and all of them are available for free. Custom indicators are categorized by asset class and type to make it easier to browse the entire catalog of ideas. TradingView also has a list of ‘Editor’s Picks’ to help you quickly find the most unique and trustworthy crowdsourced indicators.
Another plus for TradingView is that it offers candlestick patterns as indicators. The charting software will automatically identify more than 30 common candlestick patterns and highlight them on any price chart. This can be really useful for swing trading.
TC2000 vs. TradingView: Backtesting
One feature that TC2000 entirely lacks is backtesting. That’s unfortunate since this would be an extremely powerful feature for evaluating custom indicators and building actionable stock screens.
TradingView provides a backtesting tool with access to up to 15 years’ worth of historical price data. Backtesting is available inside the standard charting interface, so you can test out a strategy without moving to another module.
TC2000 vs. TradingView: Charting and Live Trading
TC2000’s biggest advantage over TradingView is in its support for live trading from a price chart. Put simply, there are few platforms that can rival TC2000 in this respect. TC2000 enables you to plot all of your existing positions on a price chart as well as create limit orders from drawn support and resistance lines. The options chain for a given stock is displayed alongside the price chart by default, and you can set up single-leg or multi-leg options orders directly from the charting interface. Even better, TC2000 will display the profit/loss target area for dozens of popular options strategies right on your chart.
TradingView’s charting tools are good, but they don’t offer live trading at all unless you use one of the platform’s broker integrations. Even then, only the most expensive plan comes with second-based chart intervals and the charts don’t support any of the visual ordering features that TC2000 boasts.
TC2000 vs. TradingView Paper Trading
Both TC2000 and TradingView offer paper trading. This is a nice feature in both platforms since you can test out new strategies without risking real money. It feels a little more useful in TC2000, however, since you can switch to live trading at any time without changing platforms. If you want to move from paper trading to live trading with TradingView, you’ll likely have to change platforms to execute trades.
TC2000 vs. TradingView: Pricing Options
Both TC2000 and TradingView are competitively priced, although which is more affordable comes down to what you need.
TradingView enables you to access multi-asset charts, crowdsourced indicators, and most screener functions for free without even requiring you to create an account. However, there are strict limits on how many indicators you can apply to a single chart and you can only have one alert at a time. You can unlock a fair number of features with an Essential plan for $14.95 per month or $155.40 per year. If you want indicators on indicators, you’ll need a Plus plan for $29.95 per month or $299.40 per year. Second-based intervals are restricted to the Premium plan, which costs $59.95 per month or $599.40 per year.
TC2000 starts at $9.99 per month or $99.84 per year for the Silver plan, which includes the features that most traders need. The main things missing from the Silver plan are the EasyScan screener module and the ability to draw trendlines and retracements on your charts. The Gold plan, which costs $29.99 per month or $299.88 per year, adds EasyScan and custom formulas. The Platinum plan, which costs $59.99 per month or $599.88 per year, is valuable if you plan to trade from charts since it includes a $300 discount on trade commissions.
One thing to note is that you have to buy real-time data for TC2000. Real-time data costs $14.99 per month for US stocks and $9.99 per month for US options.
Which Trading Software Is Better?
TC2000 and TradingView each have strengths for different types of traders. We think TC2000 is the best analytical software for intraday stock and options traders. It provides tick-by-tick price data with every plan and the live trading features are extremely helpful when making quick trading decisions. For the price of the Silver plan, TC2000 is a pretty strong value for stock traders who want serious technical and fundamental analysis tools.
TradingView isn’t as suitable for day trading stocks given its limited broker integrations and restricted second-based charts. However, it’s an excellent choice for multi-asset traders and swing traders who want access to highly advanced charts and the ability to create custom trading strategies. The backtesting feature within TradingView is a major advantage, while less advanced traders can leverage the crowdsourced indicators to develop their own strategies.
TC2000 And TradingView Alternatives
One alternative to TC2000 and TradingView that may be worth considering is Thinkorswim. Thinkorswim is free to use with a TD Ameritrade brokerage account, which itself comes with commission-free stock trading.
Thinkorswim supports stocks, options, forex, indices, and commodities. The live trading from charts isn’t quite as adept as what TC2000 offers, but Thinkorswim has a robust backtesting feature and enables traders to create fully custom indicators and scans. The only significant drawback to Thinkorswim is that it’s more focused on technical analysis than fundamental analysis and does not include much financial data for stocks.
Check out our TradingView vs Thinkorswim comparison for more details on how these two platforms differ.
Conclusion: TC2000 vs. TradingView
TC2000 and TradingView are both powerful trading platforms that combine customization, visualization, and proprietary analysis tools. Both platforms offer robust asset screeners and the ability to create custom trading strategies. TC2000 is the better choice for many day traders, while TradingView provides advanced tools like strategy backtesting for medium-term traders.
