Worden TC2000 Software Review

Deciding on a charting platform is a big deal for a trader. It’s where you spend 90% of your time analyzing and watching markets so it’s an important decision to get right. In this post, we explore and review Worden TC2000, one of our preferred platforms for technical analysis.

It’s no secret TC2000 has been a longtime favorite of ours. We’ve published over 600 educational and market analysis videos using the software and we’ve worked with hundreds of traders building custom scans based on their goals.

Given the release of version 20 of TC2000, we figured it was about time to do a walkthrough and review of some of our favorite features of the software. And just because we’re big fans of the platform, that doesn’t mean we won’t be critical. There are a few wishlist items and areas where we think it could improve, which we’ll discuss below.

Would you prefer to watch along as we tour and review the platform on video? You can watch our review here:

Time flies! Version 23 of the software is now out and we published an updated feature review video right here in case you prefer to jump to that. 


Worden TC2000 layouts and workspace

Rating – 5/5

Unlike many other charting platforms, your layout is completely customizable. What you start with in Worden TC2000 only scratches the surface of what’s available.

  • Want to look at 12 charts at once?
  • How about 10 different watch-lists?
  • Seven different WatchLists with scan results?
  • Five WatchLists, two charts, and three scans?

Worden TC2000 Software Review - Image of Layouts
TC2000 layout with four different chart time frames and 3 WatchLists.

You get the point.

You have the power to move and manipulate pretty much anything you see on your screen. Creating a workspace and then using layouts within a workspace helps you easily tab between different views depending on what you’re doing.

For instance, maybe one of your layouts is for research and another layout is for real-time trading. The data and timeframes you care about when you are researching probably aren’t the same as when you are trying to place a trade and get the best fill possible during market hours. Changing entire layouts at a click of a button is quite nice.

Pro Tip: You can link WatchLists, charts, and columns together so the time frame and/or the symbol you are looking at updates everywhere.

Worden TC2000 Software Review - Symbol TimeFrame Linking.
Example of symbol and time frame linking in TC2000.

Worden TC2000 charts

Rating – 5/5

When I’m scrolling through charts and running through my analysis I want a chart that feels snappy when I zoom in or scroll through price data. I want it to be responsive as I quickly move through tickers and TC2000 has nailed this. Their charts are clear, crisp, and respond naturally to scrolling and clicking+dragging.

As you get more experienced with the platform, there are dozens of keyboard shortcuts to streamline your analysis and boost your productivity. For instance, want to change the symbol you’re currently looking at? Just start typing the company name or ticker.

Want to quickly add a stock to a WatchList? Try Ctrl+M

The full list of shortcuts can be found here.

Pro Tip: Click, hold, and move your mouse across the chart to bring up a data box that will show you how much time has passed in between your selection, the % price difference, indicator values, etc.

Worden TC2000 WatchLists

Rating – 5/5

Every platform has some type of WatchList grid where you can add stocks and track the companies and ETFs you care about. What makes Worden TC2000 WatchLists powerful are the actual columns you can choose to track.

There are standard column headers like: performance, volume, indicator values, etc., but then you can go one step further and create your own custom column such as: how far is this stock away from its 200-day simple moving average?

TC2000 WatchList with 3 custom column headers.

Better yet, you can go another step further and write an entire set of conditions. Want to see when your favorite stocks in your WatchList are in your favorite formations? Just look for that green check mark in the WatchList column.

Pro Tip: Click the hamburger icon while you have an ETF active to bring up a WatchList containing all of the components in that ETF.

Worden TC2000 Software Review - ETF Components

Worden TC2000 stock scans

Rating – 5/5

Scanning is hands down our favorite part of the platform. This is what’s kept us a Worden TC2000 subscriber for so long and it’s also what inspired us to create an entire scan store to help traders curate important trade setups and unique market patterns.

If we start with the basics, TC2000 allows you to create scan conditions with just a few clicks of the mouse. No coding is required.

However, if you have more advanced scans and requirements then you’ll want to tap into their Personal Criteria Formula (PCF) language. This is a lightweight scripting language that you can use to build more complex scans, indicators, and WatchList columns.

We have two guides on PCF language:

We’ve got a handful of free scans you can download and try, as well as a set of premium scans.

Note: TC2000 is not a full programming language, so very complex indicators or scans that require data across multiple stocks, time-frames, etc. are not possible to build. TC2000 has been slowly expanding its PCF language and this is one of our wish list items of ours for their development team – a deeper language in order to create even more elaborate scans/indicators.

Worden TC2000 alerts

Rating – 5/5

We’re big fans of maximizing your screen time adjusted returns, which basically means letting tools and technology like TC2000 do the hard and boring work for you. Besides, you don’t want to miss out on a breakout that you’ve been waiting on for days just because you have to step outside to let the dog out.

You can set TC2000 alerts up for just about anything you can think of.

  • Stock crossing above a price level?
  • A particular indicator crossing over some value?
  • A whole set of conditions (a scan) occurring?
Worden TC2000 Software Review - Alerts Image.

All of these can be programmed to send you a text message and email notification when they occur in real time.

Worden TC2000 version 20 pre-market & post-market data

Rating – 5/5

One of the most common coding requests we received for years was the ability to scan and sort the pre-market trading session and finally, we have that capability in version 20.

Worden TC2000 now has dedicated pre-market and post-market WatchLists that appear during those hours and are automatically populated with stocks that are trading during that time. 

What makes this great is that you can run scans against these lists to help prepare and curate interesting ideas, like unusual high-volume movers, large gaps, and just about anything else you can think of. 

Worden TC2000 data feeds and instruments

Rating – 3/5

Here’s where I get critical of the platform and hope that they will expand and invest in this area in the future. TC2000 is amazing for individual stocks and options data but I would really like to see their offerings expand into other markets.

Here’s a wish list of markets and data feeds I hope they’ll consider adding over time:

  • Total return stock market price history
  • More market index data – both US and global
  • Cryptocurrency assets
  • More fundamental and economic data (FRED)

In addition to the extra data sets, I’d also like to see their charts have the option to display more historic data. I’d love to be able to look at 10+ years of daily data at a time. Maybe there can be an “offline” mode added where we can get more data during non-market hours to help on server load?

Worden TC2000 is such a powerful piece of software for analyzing stocks and I’d like to bring those capabilities to research and analyze more data sets.

Worden TC2000 browser review

Rating – 4/5

Worden TC2000 was originally developed as a desktop application and that meant that for a long time that they lacked a strong browser-enabled option like many other 2.0 charting platforms.

To be perfectly honest, this has never bothered me. When I’m sitting down to trade or research, I’m on my desktop or laptop and I’m happy to have specialized software to work within – but I know for many others this can be a sticking point.

The good news is – around the release of Worden TC2000 Version 20 they launched their best “on the go” experience yet. They’ve designed a clever way to essentially run your TC2000 workspace on their machines and serve up the entire platform to you through your browser.

Worden TC2000 Software Review - Web Platform Image
Log in to TC2000 from your browser at: webplatform.tc2000.com

It’s impressive because you’re now using all of their servers and resources to crunch your scans and display your layouts and you can simply log in and access your workspace easily through the browser, anytime you want.

The downside, however, is that this experience loses some of the smooth looks and feel we discussed earlier. Scrolling through charts is much more choppy, there are slight delays when navigating around, and overall you just know it’s ultimately not your machine.

Worden TC2000 version 20 scan plots

Rating – 5/5

Version 20 came with some great updates for the platform and really gave a lot of love to the high-end platinum subscribers. The introduction of scan plots and scan plot summaries is an excellent step in the right direction and helps reinforce the reasons why we’ve been such big fans of the software in the first place.

New Scan Plots in Worden Version 20 allows you to see % stocks passing your conditions over time.

With scan plots, you get an “at a glance” visual of how many stocks pass the conditions that you create.

Adding to their functionality of scans and PCF language is exactly what I enjoy seeing and this update hit the nail on the head. We’ll be doing a couple of separate guide/review videos on this specific function and how you can get the most out of it.

Worden TC2000 costs

Rating – 5/5

TC2000 offers three different subscriptions depending on your needs. They range from $9.99 to $89.98 (discounts available if you choose annual subscriptions) and then there are a handful of add-on, real-time data feeds you can choose to include.

Because costs, packages, and features change over time, it’s best to just review everything on their website. We do have a referral program with TC2000, so if you’re thinking of subscribing use this link here to ensure any active discounts or promotions available are applied to your order.

The gold package seems to be a sweet spot for lots of traders and it unlocks the powerful custom PCF language. So if you do want to take advantage of more complex scans including those in our store, you’ll want to subscribe to gold or higher.

Worden TC2000 software review version 20 conclusion

Despite this lengthy review, we still only touched on a small highlight reel of the TC2000 platform. We didn’t even mention that they are now a licensed broker-dealer, which means you can place trades with TC2000 Brokerage directly from your charts manually yourself or with the power of PCF language and custom conditions.

The bottom line – Worden TC2000 is one of the longest-running charting platforms out there with a great reputation and commitment to producing a constantly improving product. Other tools and platforms come and go from our everyday routine but TC2000 always seems to remain.

If you’re an active stocks or options trader, you should seriously consider test-driving the platform to find out for yourself what you’re missing.

  1. Sign up here to get any available discounts.
  2. After you subscribe, head over to our scan store and download some free scans.
  3. Finally, here are some TC2000 guides to get you started with scanning.

Thanks for reading and happy trading!

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Evan Medeiros

Evan is the founder of the Trade Risk. With 25 years of coding experience and a B.S. in computer science, Evan brings a systematic discipline to investing in the stock market.

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