We are by no means experts in stocks or finance, but you will also find software and tools in this category here on our website. For example, right here you can learn more about Chart Geany, which is 100% free and open source. With this tool, you can pull stock data and study their charts to understand how they have changed with overall market movements. You can also use Chart Geany to manage your own holdings with its portfolio feature.
We ran a quick test of Chart Geany on a PC with Windows 11 installed, and on this page you can read how the program works based on our experience. As already mentioned, we are by no means experts in this field, but it still was not difficult to get the program up and running.
Installing Chart Geany
To use Chart Geany, you will of course need to install it first. The program is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, so it works on most computers. To get the installer for your platform, simply click the download button on this page, which will take you to the tool’s SourceForge page where all installers can be found.
Since we tested the Windows edition of Chart Geany ourselves, the installation process was similar to what you know from most programs: download an EXE file and double-click it, and the setup will start.
You can choose where on your computer Chart Geany is installed, and if you want a desktop shortcut, you can opt in during setup. Alternatively, you can of course find the program in the Start menu, where you can always create a desktop shortcut later.
How to use Chart Geany
When you open Chart Geany, you are presented with the main window where the different features are available. It is largely up to each user to figure out how everything works, since there is no built-in guide or manual. It actually looks like there was supposed to be one. If you click the information icon, there is a button for the program manual, but it did not work for us.
We did find that Chart Geany fortunately has a small YouTube channel that demonstrates some of the program’s features. You can visit the YouTube channel by clicking right here.
To be fair, if you have a basic understanding of stocks, Chart Geany is not super hard to use. For brand-new users in the stock market, though, we think an in-app introduction would have been helpful.
Creating stock charts
If you want to create a chart for a specific stock, start by clicking the ‘Data Manager’ button in the upper-left corner of the program window. Here you can import XLS and CSV files, but the easiest way is simply to click ‘Download Data’ and pull the information from the internet.
As shown in the GIF below, you can choose Yahoo in the drop-down menu and, for example, download information about Microsoft’s stock by typing ‘MSFT’ in the Symbol field. When this process is finished, just double-click the stock to display a chart of its performance.
The chart can be adjusted and customized in different ways. For example, at the top of the program you can choose whether the chart should display by day, week, month, or year. If you click the settings button, you can also choose between the following chart types: Line Chart, Candle Chart, Heikin-Ashi, or Bar Chart. Other elements such as colors can likewise be tailored to your preferences, and with the drawing tool you can add your own notes to the chart.
If you want to save an image of a specific chart, that is no problem, as Chart Geany has a built-in screenshot feature. These screenshots are saved in PNG format.
Creating a personal stock portfolio
Chart Geany also has a portfolio feature that you can use to manage your various stocks and investments. You can find this feature by clicking ‘Portfolio Manager’ at the top of the program.
You can quickly create your own portfolio, and our impression is that you can create as many as you like. On our PC, a sample portfolio was already set up from the start, which you can see illustrated in the following GIF.
With the portfolio, you can monitor how your finances and the different stocks you want to track are doing. At the bottom of the program, you can see whether you are overall in the green or the red. To add new entries to the portfolio, click ‘Show Transactions’ and then press the plus button.
Our assessment of the program
Since we are not experts in stock software ourselves, we will leave the final evaluation of Chart Geany to our users. Based on our own impressions, we think it is a big plus that the program is open source and available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It is also easy to create charts and save screenshots of them.
As for the downsides, we can mention the user interface, which in our opinion could use a major upgrade. It looks rather old-fashioned and a bit dull. In addition, it is also annoying that the program does not come with a guide or manual, although there is a YouTube channel, which we linked to higher up on the page.
All things considered, it is important to remember that Chart Geany is completely free. Therefore, you probably should not expect too much from the program, and if it is not to your taste, you can always just uninstall it again. If you choose to try the program, we hope you enjoy it!
Use Chart Geany to study stock charts and manage your personal investment portfolio. The tool is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux and can be downloaded for free!