MotiveWave Review – Tools And Features For The Experienced Trader

About MotiveWave

MotiveWave is an all-inclusive desktop charting and stock analysis platform geared towards experienced day traders. The platform includes many tools beyond charts, including a full suite of technical analysis tools, a stock scanner, a trading simulator, and the ability to forward and backward test strategies. Overall, MotiveWave’s comprehensive platform is significantly more affordable than purchasing its full suite of tools individually from other sites.

MotiveWave Subscriptions and Pricing

MotiveWave is available in six different service tiers to provide options for traders of varying levels and strategies. The lowest tier “Charts” level costs $99 for a lifetime license and is limited compared to higher tiers in that it only offers a set of 40 of the most popular technical analyses and two charting templates. The “Charts+” level costs $195 and adds the full suite of nearly 300 available technical analyses and unlimited charting templates, as well as the ability to plot multiple time frames on a single chart.

More expensive tiers are targeted primarily towards very experienced traders in need of specific features such as simulated accounts, non-linear bars, and the ability to conduct forward and backward tests. The “Trade” plan, which costs $295, allows you to integrate MotiveWave with your brokerage account to place trades directly from the platform. The “Strategy” plan costs $595 and adds forward and backward strategy testing and the ability to define trading strategies for automatic execution. The “Professional” plan costs $995 and adds option chain information, multiple chart linking, and more advanced Fibonacci pattern information. The fully enable version of MotiveWave, “Ultimate,” costs $1595 for a lifetime license and is primarily for traders who need advanced Gann, Gurtley, and Elliot Wave analysis tools.

For traders who need only a few of these advanced features, there are more moderate software tiers and many features are available as individual add-ons for a fee. MotiveWave also offers a 14-day trial to allow traders to try out the platform.

MotiveWave Features

Charts

Charts are at the heart of MotiveWave and the platform delivers charts that are highly customizable and easy to use. The charting window can be customized to display numerous different types of bars and the time frame can be adjusted with a drop-down menu so traders can visualize a single stock over multiple time periods. In contrast to the charts available from many brokerages, MotiveWave offers time, momentum, and range charts in addition to standard candlestick, bar, and line plots.

Multiple charts can be loaded as tabs within the main platform window, while a second area of the platform allows for viewing multiple charts side-by-side. Technical studies can be applied from a drop-down menu at the top of the screen and appear directly on or below the chart so that they are straightforward to visualize. The cursor can be used to simply scroll back in time or zoom, or to plot trendlines, Fibonacci retracements, and other advanced technical analyses directly on a chart. These tools will auto-snap to the open, close, low, and high prices on bars when drawing on the chart, which makes annotating charts simple.

Technical Analysis

One of the advantages of MotiveWave over other charting platforms is that it comes with a number of built-in trading strategies as well as allows traders to design and implement their own strategies. The included strategies can be modified in a pop-up window to customize their implementation and can be easily activated and deactivated on the chart window to monitor profit and loss when trading a strategy. Another nice feature is the auto-analyzer, which automatically identifies Elliot Waves on a given chart.

The included list of technical analyses is exhaustive when opting for any version of MotiveWave from Charts+ and above. Studies are grouped according to type within a drop-down menu, but can also be searched by name. Multiple studies can be applied to a chart and modified individually – including options for colors and signals – for full customization.

Trading Panel

MotiveWave is able to integrate with a majority of brokerages to enable traders with a Trade-tier license or higher to place orders from within the platform. The trade panel can be popped out directly next to a chart and shows bid-ask spreads and gives options for limit and stop-loss trades. In addition, like many charting tools, MotiveWave offers simple alerts for traders who are keeping tabs on multiple stocks and placing orders within the platform.

Forward and Backwards Testing

MotiveWave allows advanced traders to test strategies on historical price data or simulated future price data. While backtesting a strategy is relatively straightforward within MotiveWave, generating simulated data to forward test a strategy can be confusing and the results difficult to interpret even for advanced traders. The backtesting panel offers two algorithms, one of which tests all possible parameters for a strategy and the other of which hones in on a set of optimal parameters to increase run speed.

Customization and Saved Layouts

MotiveWave is highly customizable thanks to the tab-style workspace functionality, which allows users to choose a page layout and save it to the workspace for fast access in the future. While layouts cannot be custom designed, the platform offers a sizable number of possible layouts to accommodate most visualization needs. In addition, any modifications to a page can be quickly saved to the workspace. User-defined studies and strategies are also saved to the workspace and can be further edited in the future.

MotiveWave is compatible with a large number of brokerages, including all of the large online brokerages. Users with a “Trade” license or higher can place trades through their brokerage from directly within the platform.

Platform and Ease of Use

MotiveWave offers excellent charting capabilities, but what sets this platform apart from its competitors is the addition of numerous advanced technical studies and strategies and wide-ranging customization (that you won’t find in platforms like Thinkorswim). Traders are able to build on existing trading strategies and save their work for future use, while the ability to layout workspaces however works best is a major advantage for traders who need to be able to see a lot of data at once in an organized fashion. In addition, the forward and backward testing capabilities are a major advantage for highly experience traders working out new trading strategies. Brokerage integration is also useful for day traders who want to use a single platform for all of their trading needs.

Final Thoughts

MotiveWave is designed for a wide variety of traders, ranging from day traders who simply need a user-friendly charting platform to highly experienced quants who want to scrutinize new trading strategies. Part of the reason for this range is the availability of numerous license tiers, which are attractively priced given that they are lifetime licenses. In general, more experienced traders will get more out of the advanced features available in MotiveWave, including advanced Fibonacci and Elliot Wave analyses and the ability to forward and backwards test trading strategies. The ability to place trades within the platform with the Trade license or higher is also extremely useful for day traders who need a single platform to make decisions and act on them in order to reduce lag time when trading.