CHART TOPPERS: THOUSANDS SEEK RICHES THROUGH INVESTMENT SOFTWARE PLOTTED BY WILMINGTON'S WORDEN BROTHERS.

• Author: Dykes, David

It's Friday morning in Wilmington, and men in shorts and sandals move around the office. A small sign outside announces the headquarters of Worden Brothers Inc.

But don't be deceived by the casual environment. The software firm on Boathouse Road is a hub of activity that influences thousands of daily financial investments across the world. Worden Brothers offers stock-market charting and analysis software, providing real-time data and functions to help investors track stocks, indexes and options contracts.

Since the three brothers' 25-employee business launched in 1988, it has issued more than a dozen versions of the TC2000 offering as software, which has evolved from a PC version to cloud-based platforms.

"I look at our software as another level from anything you're going to get from a Schwab or an E*TRADE or a TD Ameritrade," says Chris Worden, the company's president and the middle brother, referring to three leading brokerages for individual investors. "We're targeting people who are looking to organize the things they're looking at, keep them organized, have their own algorithms, filters and scans in there so they can watch things in smaller chunks and manage what they're monitoring in an easier way."

He wouldn't disclose the company's annual revenue or the number of subscribers willing to pay the $10 to $90 monthly fee for the service. No one confuses Worden with financial data giants such as Bloomberg LP or FactSet Research Systems Inc. But the company's longevity suggests it's found a solid niche, clients say.

A key element of the TC2000 platform is "the variety of ways that you can analyze the market," says Jim Rich, a retired auto-industry executive who co-founded an investment club in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. "Everybody has their own technique. That's what makes the platform so attractive."

Worden's TC2000 Version 18 added stock and option capabilities that provided almost instantaneous screening capabilities, Rich noted in a review on the Traders.com website. Alerts allow scanning of up to 10,000 options contracts "in the blink of an eye," he wrote.

Eric Wish, a director of a University of Maryland research center who writes a stock-market blog, says TC2000 "has done everything that I could imagine I wanted to do." One of the perks of TC2000 is the alerts clients receive to help monitor unusual stock moves. While markets move for many reasons, he says learning about technical analysis can help any trader's understanding on how...