The options market trades around 40 million contracts each day, up from less than two million in 1999. ^[1]

Options allow for potential profit regardless of which direction the market is moving since they can be traded in anticipation of market appreciation or depreciation. Day and swing traders are looking to exploit price movements in many securities, including options, and need robust software solutions that can alert them to market activity that can result in a rapid price change.

This platform provider of analytic software tools for day and swing traders has a fully automated algorithm-based system that scans thousands of securities multiple times per second to find volatility and unusual market activity that can signal price movements. Members of the development team wanted to enhance their mobile and web applications with an advanced charting experience that would provide users with modern data visualization and technical analysis tools. As options trading continues to boom, they also wanted specific capabilities to support this trend. The founder said, “Options trading has exploded over the last few years and a large contingent of our members trade options. The more tools we can give our members to help them make informed trading decisions, the more successful they will be."

The team weighed the pros and cons of a build versus buy decision and decided that tapping into external resources was the best way to proceed.

“Being able to see the story within the numbers makes data visualization an extremely powerful tool, uncovering insights that might be missed otherwise.” – Founder

Pain Points

Members of the development team did not have the resources to build a complex charting library in-house. They decided to minimize their own risk and save time on development by working with a professional charting provider who had a pre-built solution with a full suite of tools that was scalable as needs grew. In particular, they sought:

• A high-performance charting solution that was easy to customize, implement, and upgrade.
• An extensive charting library that would work well with their alert system and volatility indicator, and integrate well with their desktop and mobile applications.
• A solution that could support multiple languages.

The Solution

ChartIQ specialists from Market Intelligence discussed the advanced out-of-the-box functionality of ChartIQ and how it would enable the development team to focus their time on building a unique experience on top of the charting library. This strategic use of ChartIQ aligns with the solution's overarching goal of empowering product and development teams to prioritize innovation over continual maintenance. Using ChartIQ’s HTML5 toolkit, team members would be able to get high-quality charting for their users without requiring numerous dedicated resources for implementation and maintenance. Furthermore, only one license is required to maintain both web and mobile applications. The Software Development Kit (SDK) comprises comprehensive APIs, ready-to-use production-grade user interface (UI) templates, sample implementations, optional add-on modules, extensive documentation, and industry-leading technical support. By leveraging the HTML5 Charting Library, the development team would gain the ability to:

	Quickly get to market	Drop-in user interface (UI) templates let clients differentiate their platforms. They can easily add interactive financial charts to their applications with a purpose-built SDK injection API and extensive documentation to create a fully customized platform to fit business-specific needs. The UI templates make it easy to install a financial chart in a matter of hours, and light customization, such as specific brand requirements, can be accomplished with minimal effort. Guidance from a client success team includes advice on implementation directly from the professionals who create and maintain the product.
	Easily modify the initiative over time	Every visualization initiative is treated like a living project that can be adjusted over time, whether it is expanding into options analytics or building out a post-trade visualization solution.
	Offer a world-class experience for traders	ChartIQ's data visualization and charting brings any financial dataset to life with interactive graphic displays. There are solutions for both time series and cross-sectional data, enabling users to understand an array of related instruments using a term structure, options volatility curve or scatter plot. Multiple graphics can be linked together to create dynamic workflows.
	Work seamlessly on any platform	ChartIQ's professional grade HTML5 Charting Library works seamlessly on any platform (i.e., mobile, web and desktop) or framework (e.g., Angular and React) using a single library. It is pure JavaScript and runs entirely within the browser. Companies often have at least one financial charting library for each platform or application they target, which means that developers have multiple code bases to maintain. With ChartIQ, users can write their code once and use it everywhere.
	Source data from any vendor	ChartIQ can source data from any feed or vendor. This simplifies the data access process and brings all valuable data into one central interface and display.
	Satisfy traders on the go	ChartIQ for mobile features everything users like about the web and desktop charting solution in an easy-to-install application optimized for iOS and Android. This includes 125 technical indicators, customizable drawing tools, an array of chart styles and more.
	Join a renowned set of clients	Tier 1 banks and buy-side institutions, along with world-renowned financial service providers, use ChartIQ to deliver best-in-class financial charts for their clients. With security top of mind, and the technology stack to scale, ChartIQ has 350+ global clients and is found on millions of screens around the world.

Key Benefits

Members of the development team saw that ChartIQ could provide them with advanced functionality out-of-the-box, enabling them to focus their time on building a unique experience inside the charting user interface. After comparing multiple charting software providers, the client decided to go with ChartIQ. The founder of the firm explained, “We went with ChartIQ after looking at each platform and weighing the costs and features and have been very pleased with both the ability to implement the charts into our platform and all the professional features that ChartIQ provides. One very impressive feature was the ease at which we could implement the charts in Chinese.” The team is now benefiting from: 

• A quick, two-month implementation of the charting library using only one developer.
• A custom look that matches the brand and unique experience different from their users.
• A more engaged trading community through their various social and education channels.
• A full suite of tools and features that stock and options traders can utilize to make better trading decisions.
• The ability to translate the charts into numerous languages, including Chinese.
• Enhanced accessibility features, including the addition of hotkeys.

The company anticipates substantial usage of the trading tool given the implementation of the Charting Library. The founder added, "ChartIQ continues to be a leader and innovator of trading tools, and this makes them a perfect technology partner for us."

Click here for more information on ChartIQ.

^[1] "What's driving the growth in options trading?", NASDAQ, April 13, 2023.