When searching for the best laptop for trading, really only one thing is important. That one thing is other trader’s experience with using a laptop for trading.

We at the Bullish Bears are very serious (while having a lot of fun) about trading. The Bullish Bears trade from our home offices, we trade from the road, as well as trading from remote locations. We require well spec’d, well-built technology to keep up with our busy lives and demands.

Here at the Bullish Bears, we recommend devices that we have actually used or currently use. We keep in mind several things; quality, performance as well as price.

We don’t think you should spend thousands on equipment you don’t need, but we do think you should get slightly more than you may need today. You may find that your technological needs evolve as you progress as a trader.

Price

We wanted as much power as we could get while not breaking the bank when searching for a trading laptop. In fact, this laptop fits the bill coming in at $1394.00!

Battery Life

Its battery life is decent. We’ve gone an entire 6 hours (trading, social media, recording) all without needing a charge; thanks to its very light 4 cell lithium-ion battery.

If we need more portable juice, we simply use the high-quality Omnicharge portable power bank. Not only does it have enough juice to charge our laptop from 0-100%, but we can also charge our cellphones as well!

Ram

When it comes to RAM – this laptop has enough for trading and multitasking! 24 GB allows us to push the limits of our trading software. We have run ThinkOrSwim, DAS Trader, AND Interactive Brokers at the same time without any lag. It is pushing the limits of this laptop, but it handled it with gusto!

The laptop has the popular NVIDIA GeForce chip series (150) with dedicated 2GB GDDR5 video memory to quickly render high-quality images.

Our charting software looks perfect on it when we connect to our 34″ LG monitor as well as a ASUS USB monitor. We highly recommend this if you’re looking for some extra screens to connect to if you wish to work at your trading desk.

Mouse

One of the very important things for traders to have is a GOOD touchpad for mouse movements. It HAS to be smooth, responsive, and feel effortless. I have been building computers my whole life, using many laptops, and have never used a better mouse touchpad.  However, if you are looking for an excellent mouse that works on any service and has ridiculous battery life, I am using and highly recommend this Logitech MX anywhere mouse.

Keyboard

Is utter perfection. The keyboard keys are fairly quiet, back-lit nicely, and are a full keyboard with a number pad. The back-lit keys are to be used in low light situations and are dim-able.

You can also simply turn them off to save power.

Light and Durable

We have found that the build quality on this machine is fantastic. It’s incredibly light at 6 pounds, but very strong.

There are no plastic parts here in the case. And you can flip it around into tablet mode.

To sum it up, this is the kind of “best laptop for trading” that will withstand the test of time. Take the screen, for example, it won’t crack or loosen up with daily use, and it stays put where you adjust it.

It doesn’t wiggle in an annoying way like my other expensive laptop does when I use it on the couch or desk. In fact, it actually requires a bit of effort to open or close the laptop lid.

We move this laptop around from place to place. Sometimes we like to trade on the road or on vacation (in essence, we actually do take vacations without trading but it’s hard!). We use this backpack to move it.

It holds the laptop and charging cable. There is room for plenty of other tech goodies you may need to carry as well as being TSA friendly.

What You Need to Save Money

The bottom line is you need a good laptop to trade and you don’t want to break the bank. If we can push this laptop to the limit while trading AND doing some streaming with social media, chances are you will be more than good using your trading software on this laptop.

Check out our Day Trading Computer Setup post to see the big picture when it comes to the technological demands of day trading and our Adjustable Stand Up Desk post to pair with your best laptop for trading.