TC2000 earns a 4.4 out of 5: one of the strongest charting-and-scanning packages a US stock or options trader can run, at $24.99–$99.99 a month with real-time data included on every paid plan. The trade-offs are structural rather than quality problems: the desktop app is built for Windows, the iPhone app is still listed as coming soon, and the documented universe is US stocks and options.
Verdict at a glance
Rating: 4.4 / 5 (see the five sub-scores in the verdict below)
Best for: technical day and swing traders in US stocks and options who build their day around scans, watchlists and chart-flipping speed.
NOT for: futures, forex or crypto traders, or anyone whose process depends on full strategy backtesting or automated order execution.
Price: Basic $24.99/mo is charting plus real-time US stock data, with no scanning. Premium $49.99/mo adds EasyScan, custom PCF formulas, drawing tools and 100 alerts; this is the tier active traders actually need. Premium Plus $99.99/mo adds auto-refreshing scans, market-pulse gauges and 1,000 alerts. Annual billing cuts each price by roughly 17%.
Pros: Real-time US stock data included on every paid plan. 30-day money-back guarantee plus pro-rated refunds on prepaid terms.
Cons: Desktop download is Windows; Mac runs the streamed version. No iPhone app yet; the App Store listing says coming soon.
What TC2000 is and who makes it
TC2000 is desktop charting and screening software for US stocks and options, sold by Worden Brothers, a North Carolina firm that has been shipping versions of this platform for decades (the trademark list still includes TeleChart 2000, the 1990s ancestor). The current release is Version 25. A sister firm, TC2000 Brokerage, is a registered broker-dealer and FINRA/SIPC member, so you can route live orders from the same charts; the software subscription and the brokerage are separate businesses under common ownership.
That lineage matters in one practical way: this platform was built around a single job, flipping through charts and filtering watchlists fast, and it has been sanding down that workflow since before most scanners existed. It’s a focused tool, not a terminal that tries to do everything. This review is part of our day trading software coverage, and everything below comes from the official pricing, feature and policy pages, checked in June 2026.
Charting: the part nobody argues about
The charting feature set runs deep by any standard. The official feature pages document a large indicator library, indicators plotted on other indicators, trendline and Fibonacci drawing tools, saved chart templates mapped to function keys, multi-pane layouts you can drag across monitors, and up to 1,500 bars of visible history in any timeframe. Layouts snap together as tool windows and tab groups, save instantly, and sync across devices.
Options get unusual depth for a charting package. You can chart an option contract against its underlying stock, plot the option on last-trade or bid/ask data so thin contracts still draw a usable line, and shade the underlying’s price history to show when the contract was in the money. A patent-pending strategy tool overlays multi-leg option positions directly on the chart, with profit, loss and breakeven zones that update as you drag strikes and expirations. Option chains cover over 100,000 contracts.
For a day trader the headline is responsiveness. The platform is built for keyboard-speed review: load a watchlist, sort it, and space-bar through the charts. If your nightly routine is grinding through a few hundred names to build tomorrow’s list, that loop is the product.
EasyScan and PCFs: the scanner
Scanning lives on the Premium tier and up. The pricing page draws the line plainly: Basic includes charts, streaming watchlists, news and paper trading, while real-time scanning and sorting starts at Premium. If you came for the scanner, your real entry price is $49.99 a month.
Two tools do the work. EasyScan is the wizard: pick conditions from a prebuilt library or build them step by step from indicators and chart data, then filter any watchlist down to the names that pass. Personal Criteria Formulas (PCFs) are the power-user layer, a formula language for writing your own conditions, custom indicators and sortable columns. The help site documents the connective tissue in detail: AND/OR condition sets, flex conditions, conditions created straight from a chart, and filters applied as true/false watchlist columns.
The watchlist is really the scan surface. Columns can hold values, conditions, fundamentals and custom formulas; you can stack, group and hide them, sort by any of them, and (on Premium Plus) pull up history columns that show how the same scan looked last night or on January 2nd. Premarket coverage is real: the pre/post-market mode and the Morning Pre-Buzz list surface names with unusual early activity, and the help site documents live scanning and sorting during pre- and post-market hours. For gappers and stocks in play before the open, the pieces are there.
One tier distinction matters more to day traders than any other line on the pricing page. Premium scans run in real time when you run them. Premium Plus is where filters and sorts refresh themselves, live or at set intervals, without you re-triggering them. If your style is “set the momentum scan at 9:25 and let it repopulate all morning,” that hands-off behavior is a Premium Plus feature, and the streaming tools behind it run a maximum of five concurrent server-side scans (extras are sold as add-ons). That isn’t a flaw; it’s the question that decides your tier. Manual re-scans between trades: Premium. A self-updating radar: Premium Plus.
Alerts and the rest of the day trading workflow
Alerts scale with tier: 100 tracked alerts on Premium, 1,000 on Premium Plus, with extra blocks of 100 ($10/mo) or 500 ($25/mo) available as add-ons. The help site documents price alerts, trendline alerts, condition alerts and reminder alerts, with delivery to email or text. Condition alerts across a whole watchlist effectively turn any scan into a tripwire, which is how most active users stretch attention past the handful of names anyone can genuinely watch.
Paper trading is unlimited: create as many simulated accounts as you want and place limit orders, brackets with targets and stops, OCA groups and multi-leg option orders against real-time data. You can also stack multiple exit orders on one position (indicator cross, profit target, max stop) and the platform cancels the rest when one fills. Trade journaling is built in; notes save with the chart attached.
Now the gap. The lookback tools on the official feature list are condition tests: history columns, past intraday columns, and point-in-time filters, all on Premium Plus. Nothing on that list simulates a complete strategy with entries, exits and performance statistics. If backtesting drives your process, plan on pairing these charts with software built for it; our Trade Ideas review covers OddsMaker, which does exactly that job. There’s also no AI signal layer here, which is either a missing feature or a mercy, depending on your tastes.
Premium Plus tools: market gauges and breadth
The top tier’s signature features are the Market-Pulse tools. A gauge continuously scans a watchlist and shows, on a live dial, how many names currently meet your conditions; the needle swings to extremes when the list gets stretched in either direction. The companion indicators plot those counts historically, so you can chart your own breadth reading (say, percentage of your universe above VWAP) like any other study, intraday or higher timeframe. You can also build unweighted price indexes from any watchlist. These are genuinely uncommon tools at this price, and they’re the honest reason to pay $99.99 instead of $49.99, alongside the auto-refreshing scans and the bigger alert pool.
Platforms: Windows first, everything else streams
Be clear-eyed about how the platform reaches your screen. The native desktop app is the Windows download. On a Mac or in any browser, you run the complete Windows version streamed live to your screen; the official line is same features, same data, same workflow, and the feature set is identical because it is literally the same program. Android has a native app on Google Play, free with a desktop subscription. The iPhone app’s App Store badge reads coming soon as of June 2026, so iPhone users are on the mobile browser for now.
One license term worth knowing before you buy: you can install on as many machines as you like, but only one device can run the software at a time, and signing in on a second device automatically disconnects the first. Desk-plus-laptop traders, that’s your setup tax; the workflow is sign out, sign in, not both at once.
There’s also a genuinely free way in. Without giving a name, address or card number, you can run the web platform or the Windows download with delayed streaming data, all US stocks and options, dozens of indicators, option chains and unlimited paper trading. It’s a real evaluation copy, not a screenshot tour, and it’s the right first step before any money moves.
Data feeds and add-ons
Every paid plan includes real-time US stocks on the NYSE, Amex and Nasdaq via the Nasdaq Basic feed, which is unusual at the $24.99 entry point; plenty of competitors price real-time data separately from day one. The rest of the data menu is à la carte, billed monthly: real-time US indexes $9.99, real-time US options $9.99, Dow Jones news delayed $1.50 or real-time $2.50, and consolidated tape $14.99.
Two of those deserve a stakes check. Options traders should note that while option charting is included everywhere, the real-time options data feed is its own $9.99 line. And the included stock feed is Nasdaq Basic; the consolidated tape, covering the full official record of prints, is the $14.99 add-on. If your edge keys off total printed volume rather than the Nasdaq Basic view, budget for it.
The whole data menu is US equities, US indexes, US options and Dow Jones news. That is the universe. Futures, forex and crypto aren’t on the order form, which settles the question of whether this is your all-in-one platform if you trade any of them.
Pricing and plans
Prices below are from the official pricing page, June 2026. Monthly, annual and biennial billing are offered; annual works out to roughly 17% off.
| Plan | Monthly | Annual (effective per month) | What it adds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $24.99 | $20.82 (~$250/yr) | Real-time US stock data, stock and option charting, streaming watchlists, layouts, MT Newswires news, paper trading |
| Premium | $49.99 | $41.65 (~$500/yr) | EasyScan, PCF formulas, condition library, drawing tools, pre/post-market mode with Morning Pre-Buzz, multi-monitor layouts, sector drill-down, fundamentals plotting, 100 alerts |
| Premium Plus | $99.99 | $83.32 (~$1,000/yr) | Auto-refreshing filters and sorts, Market-Pulse gauges and indicators, history and past intraday columns, point-in-time filters, watchlist price indexes, 1,000 alerts |
The annual math: Premium at $49.99 monthly is $599.88 a year; paid annually it’s $499.80, saving $100.08. Premium Plus saves $200.04 the same way. A realistic day trading stack (Premium annual plus the real-time index and options feeds) lands around $61.63 a month, about $740 a year.
One more line item: the pricing page lists a brokerage discount under the top tier of $25 off every month you place a trade or hold an account value above $30,000 at TC2000 Brokerage, up to $300 a year, applied automatically at renewal. For an active Premium Plus trader with the account anyway, that’s the top tier at an effective $74.99 monthly.
Billing, refunds and cancellation: better than the norm
Here’s where the category usually stings, so set the baseline first: monthly scanner and charting subscriptions are effectively non-refundable across this market, and annual-plan refund windows are short where they exist at all; TradingView’s policy pages, checked June 2026, allow annual-plan refunds within 14 days and state that monthly plans are in principle not refunded.
Against that norm, the TC2000 terms of use are unusually friendly, on three counts. First, a 30-day money-back guarantee: cancel within 30 days of purchasing a data package, for any reason, and the stated policy is a prompt, 100%, no-questions refund. It’s reserved for new users or accounts inactive at least a year, limited to one per household per year, and you claim it by phone (1-800-776-4940). Second, prepaid terms are refunded pro rata: the terms’ own worked example is a buy-10-get-2-months deal cancelled after six months, refunding the four unused paid months (the free bonus months are forfeited). Third, cancellation is self-serve. The help site documents cancelling inside the program in five clicks (My Services, uncheck, checkout), service then runs to the end of the paid period, and monthly customers can leave and come back later without penalty.
The protection play is still worth running, because the subscription does auto-renew on your activation date and fee increases need only 30 days’ written notice: start monthly inside the 30-day guarantee window, and switch to annual only after the platform has survived a month of your actual routine. But this is one of the few products in the category where a forgotten renewal isn’t a write-off.
The built-in brokerage
You can trade straight from the charts through TC2000 Brokerage. The commissions page lists two plans. The default Small Trader Plan charges $1 + $0.005 per share on stocks ($1.50 for 100 shares) and $1 + $0.65 per option contract. The optional Active Trader Plan charges $5 + $0.001 per share and $5 + $0.35 per contract, with eight dark pools added to the routing logic on large orders. Run the numbers and the two plans cross at exactly 1,000 shares per trade: below that, stay on Small Trader; above it, Active Trader is cheaper every time. Both plans route through IB SmartRouting, and the commissions page states flatly that orders are not sold.
Margin terms are standard Reg T as documented: 4:1 intraday buying power, 2:1 overnight, $2,000 minimum to hold a margin account, with tier-one margin interest at 6.12% as of June 8, 2026. How intraday buying power interacts with the current rules is its own topic; our intraday margin requirements explainer covers the regime now in force. Accounts are open to US residents only.
Should you use it? The honest answer is that it’s a convenience play: the chart-to-order integration is the draw, including dragging limit and stop orders directly on the chart. Per-share pricing means cost scales with size, so compare against your current broker’s all-in cost at your typical share size before moving an account for the integration alone.
Learning curve and support
This is one of the easier professional platforms to start on. The wizard-based EasyScan builder means you can construct real conditions before you ever write a PCF, the free delayed version lets you learn the layout system without a subscription, and the default workspace is usable out of the box. PCF formula writing is the one genuine learning investment, and it’s optional until your scans outgrow the prebuilt library; the help site carries step-by-step articles for nearly every function, plus hotkey references.
Support runs through a North Carolina-based team by phone, live chat, and the help site, alongside an official tutorial video library. The cancellation and refund paths above are documented and self-serve where it counts, which says more about a software firm than any support-page promise.
Who should buy TC2000, and who shouldn’t
Buy it if you’re a technical trader in US stocks or options whose process is scan, sort, flip charts, set alerts, repeat. Day traders who build premarket watchlists, swing traders who grind through hundreds of charts at night, and options traders who want strategy legs drawn on the chart all sit in the sweet spot. At $49.99 for Premium with real-time data included, the price is honest for what it does. Most people on Premium will never need Premium Plus; pay up only when you specifically want self-refreshing scans, the breadth gauges, or more than 100 alerts.
Skip it if you trade futures, forex or crypto (the data menu is US equities and options, full stop), if strategy backtesting with entries and exits is central to how you validate ideas, or if you need a native Mac or iPhone experience rather than the streamed and browser versions. And a standing reality check that has nothing to do with software: most day traders lose money, and a faster scanner changes what you see, not whether your edge exists.
Alternatives
The closest decision most readers face is against an AI-signal scanner, and that’s a genuine style fork: TC2000 hands you fast tools and assumes you bring the setups, while Trade Ideas generates the trade candidates itself. We break that down head to head in Trade Ideas vs TC2000. On a budget, Finviz covers screening at a lower price point with a very different (browser-table) workflow, and Scanz is the news-plus-momentum-scanner route. For a wider look at desktop platforms as a class, start with our day trading platform rankings.
Verdict
Core capability, 4.4 / 5 (40%). Charting and scanning are excellent and fast, with real depth in options charting and watchlist filtering. The automation side of the ledger is thinner: documented lookback is condition testing rather than full strategy backtesting, and self-refreshing scans sit on the top tier with a five-concurrent-scan cap.
Value, 4.5 / 5 (20%). Scored for its intended user, the active US stock and options technician: real-time data bundled from $24.99, the working tier at $49.99, and a 17% annual discount make this one of the cheaper serious platforms running. The à la carte feeds add up, but the individual prices are small.
Ease of use, 4.5 / 5 (15%). Wizard-built scans, a free hands-on version, drag-and-drop everything. The streamed Mac/browser route and the one-device-at-a-time rule are the friction points.
Support & education, 4.0 / 5 (10%). US-based phone and chat support, an unusually thorough help site, and official video tutorials. Education about markets (rather than the software) isn’t the focus.
Trust & transparency, 5.0 / 5 (15%). A 30-day no-questions refund, pro-rated refunds on prepaid terms, in-app self-serve cancellation, 30 days’ notice before fee increases, and a stated no-order-selling policy at the brokerage. Verifiably the friendliest billing terms among the peers we checked.
Weighted overall: 4.4 / 5. Excellent with real trade-offs, per our rating methodology. TC2000 wins on speed, price honesty and billing fairness, and concedes ground on platform coverage and strategy automation. If you’re deciding between bringing your own setups and buying machine-generated ones, read Trade Ideas vs TC2000 next; if you’re still mapping the field, the stock scanner rankings show where it sits among its direct rivals.
FAQ
Is TC2000 worth it for day trading?
At $49.99 a month for Premium, yes, for traders whose process runs on scans and chart review. Real-time US stock data is included, the EasyScan and PCF tools cover most scanning needs without extra software, and annual billing drops the effective cost to $41.65 a month. Casual traders checking the market a few times a week can do the same job with the free delayed version or a cheaper screener.
Does TC2000 have a free version or a free trial?
There’s a free way to evaluate it: run the web platform or Windows download with delayed data, all US stocks and options, indicators, option chains and unlimited paper trading, with no name, address or card required. Paid plans carry a 30-day money-back guarantee for new users (or accounts inactive a year or more), one per household per year, claimed by phone.
How do you cancel TC2000?
Inside the program: open My Services, go to the Services tab, uncheck the services or data feeds you want to drop, and check out; service then runs to the end of the paid period. Phone cancellation (1-800-776-4940) works too. Monthly subscribers can cancel and later reinstate without penalty, and prepaid terms are refunded for unused full months, with any bonus months forfeited.
Does TC2000 work on a Mac?
Yes, by streaming: the complete Windows version runs live in a browser or on a Mac with the same features, data and saved layouts as the desktop download. The native installable client is Windows-only.
Is there a TC2000 iPhone app?
Not yet as of June 2026. The App Store badge on the official site reads coming soon. Android has a native app on Google Play, included free with a desktop subscription, and iPhone users can reach the web platform through a browser.
Can you place trades directly through TC2000?
Yes. TC2000 Brokerage, a FINRA/SIPC member firm, executes stock and option orders from the charts, including chart-dragged limit and stop orders and multi-leg option tickets. Default pricing is $1 + $0.005 per share for stocks; an Active Trader Plan at $5 + $0.001 per share is cheaper once trades exceed 1,000 shares. Accounts are limited to US residents.