We all want the best charting platforms, but who provides the best free stock analysis software? I’d suffice to say, if you are relatively new to trading the stock market, you are probably looking around for the analysis software that is cheap or free before you drop big money into it.
You want or should want to experiment with technical analysis and plotting stock chart indicators if you want to have a fighting chance at winning in this game. Anyone who’s ever bought stock off a random piece of advise is nodding their head right now realizing that there are better ways to trade…
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What Is the Best Free Stock Analysis Software?
- ThinkorSwim has a great free paper trading platform.
- TradingView has all the tools you need to trade the market.
- StockCharts.com is a great teaching tool.
- Yahoo Finance has great fundamentals.
- Google Finance has up to date market news.
Who doesn’t want free stock analysis software? Free is always a great price right? However, make sure your free stock analysis software is good software.
Luckily for you, T.D. Ameritrade’s ThinkorSwim platform gives you all the powerful features you need and for free! What’s the catch?
You need to open an account and fund it. Once you do that, you don’t need to trade or spend a dime. Open an account with at least 50 or 100 bucks! That’s it! It also works great for Mac computers.
Capabilities
With capabilities like backtesting, forecasting and screening, scanning the market live, news, fundamentals, everything you need is in one spot. What more can a person want? ( A private island with an internet connection..maybe?)
Overall, ThinkorSwim is our favorite and most recommended platform. In fact, you’ll see ThinkorSwim in our live streams we do each day in our trade room.
And our trading alerts setups are set up through our ThinkorSwim platform as well as our watch lists.
What I Love About ThinkorSwim
The reason ThinkorSwim stands head and shoulders above competitors is that their platform was built by traders for traders. Because of this, ThinkorSwim undoubtedly has the most sophisticated platform for charting, tools and trading.
We like to think they are the gold standard when it comes to trading software. Unlike using a website based trading platform, ThinkorSwim is a software package specifically designed for traders who need to get lightning-fast prices and metrics and then execute orders as fast as possible.
At Bullish Bears trading service, we love ThinkorSwim as a free stock analysis software because it gives you access to over 400,000 economic data points from six continents. And if that wasn’t enough, it has some of the most advanced trading tools you can find.
Furthermore, the scanners for stocks, currencies and options are completely customizable as well.
Typically to get access to trading software you need to sign up for an account through a brokerage firm. Of course, their hope is that you will eventually turn into a paying customer but that doesn’t have to be the case.
What may surprise you is that you don’t need a brokerage account to sign up for ThinkorSwim; a bonus as there’s no pressure. Furthermore, when you open a with T.D. Ameritrade, you’re automatically registered for the paper money account.
Registration is simple – input your email address, download and open up the platform. And if you need help setting up your platform, we have both a TOS Course and blog that shows how to get set up.
The Platform for Traders on Their a Game
With pro-grade tools and resources, the ThinkorSwim trading platform delivers a holistic, live level II advantage when trading U.S. stocks and options.
And the benefits don’t stop there as ThinkorSwim has four different trading platforms to fit various lifestyles. If you want to trade from your home office, you can.
What about a cyber cafe? What about on a hammock stretched between palm trees? With think desktop, web-based trading, think anywhere and think mobile, your trading locals are endless.
Like I mentioned above, ThinkorSwim has different platform options to suit your trading style. First is Think Desktop with charts, quotes and alerts -this is the one to install on your home office computer or laptop.
Second is their Web Platform. Luckily it has the same powerful features of think desktop and is available from any computer with an internet connection.
Thirdly is the Think Anywhere platform for handheld devices, which allows you to trade from anywhere you have a cell phone signal.
Finally, Think Mobile is the wireless platform for mini web browsers that lets you monitor quotes and orders, create buy/sell orders or cancel any working order from your cell phone.
What Stock Analysis Software Is the Best?
- TradingView gives you screeners, news, watch lists and more.
- MetaStock has state of the art software along with a news feed service.
- Stock Rover is an incredible fundamnetal research platform.
- TC2000 is a software proving technical analysis.
- TrendSpider offers fantastic AI software for perfect trend lines.
What Stock Analysis Software Is the Best?
The best place to make all your rookie trading mistakes – think mistyping ticker symbols (for the record, Coca-Cola is not CC) or misunderstanding order types (market order vs. limit order), is the place where you’ll suffer the least financial damage. And that place is the simulator.
I feel strongly that regardless of the stock analysis software you use, you need to test your strategies.
You want a safe space to learn the inner workings of placing trades and experiencing the emotions of losing trades.
There’s a reason new drivers head to abandoned parking lots and not busy malls to drive for the first time.
Most simulators are free, but the majority require you to set up an account. The best simulators give you access to a fully functioning setup with the same tools that active traders use: watch lists, stock screens, research and live, or slightly delayed data feeds.
ThinkorSwim Scanners
Considering the vast functionality of the platform, its no surprise the list of stock scanners is endless. There truly is something for everyone. Based on your search criteria, you can filter through tens of thousands of stock, option, futures and Forex products.
Here are just of a few of the scanners available:
- Pre-market gappers
- Low-float scan
- RSI 25/75 scan
- MACD or an RSI scan
The Fees to Trade
One shining feature with this broker is that they don’t have tiered commission rates. For those of you with a smaller account or don’t trade that much, you pay the same.
If it’s one trade or 100, it will cost you $9.95 per trade. On the flip side, you can conduct trades at $.015 per share with a $5 minimum. For those of you who trade options, they are $.95 to $2.95 per contract.
And with respect to mutual funds, your first three trades per month are free; after that, it will cost you $15 per trade. Now I know some of you trade futures and they will cost $3.50 per contract.
The Minimum Account Requirement
Unfortunately, ThinkorSwim does have a minimum account requirement for access to live data but it’s more affordable than most at only $500 for U.S. citizens.
For those of you from Canada, it will set you back $5,000 USD for access to live data. Click here to learn more about stock market trading.
What’s the Best Stock Analysis Website?
- Motley Fool is a stock and investing advice service.
- Yahoo! Finance give financial advice on the markets
- Zacks is an investment research service.
- FinViz is a fantastic free scanner service.
- YCharts is another investement research service.
Quick Points on This Free Stock Analysis Software
- A fully customizable trading platform
- Free, real-time streaming U.S. equity and option level I and II data
- Ability to trade multi-leg option strategies with up to four legs
- ThinkoSwim app lets you keep an eye on your trades and positions
- Test with no risk using a paperMoney® account (also available on the app)
- Live CNBC news feeds to stay on top of the markets around the clock and the world.
- Free access to chat rooms with other pro-level traders
- Real-time streaming updates on analyst up/downgrades, block trades, trade imbalances, events on the trading floor through the Trade Flash gauge
- Obtain company statistics in the fundamental data tab, including earnings, probability analysis, and ratios
- You can apply 400+ technical studies and 50+ patterns to nail your entry and exit points
- Replay recorded market data and trade it in real-time with thinkOnDemand
- View an option’s theoretical price, implied volatility or probability of hitting the strike or expiring
- Use the Sizzle Index™ to see the current day’s option volume and compare it to the past five-day average
Some of the Tools You Can Use With the Free Stock Analysis Software
- In-platform webcasts, virtual accounts and immersive courses.
- paperMoney®
- A virtual account to test your strategies risk-free. Which means you can run through scenarios with up to $100,000 virtual dollars before putting them in to practice for real
- Learning Center.
- Daily live lessons give you a deep dive into ThinkorSwim. Demos and individual tutorials focus on each of the main platform sections
- Wading Pool.
Final Thoughts
One thing I know for sure is this: Trading stock markets is a tricky business. Rarely is there a single trader – beginner or otherwise – who is widely successful out of the gate.
But, your chances of success increase exponentially with the right software and training to back it up.
Unless you’re trading prodigy, you must use a simulator to practice the art of trading while you learn the game. And most importantly, have the right community behind you to pick you up when you fall.
