Stock trading tools such as scanners, charting platforms, journaling, simulators, and trading apps can be useful as a trader. They are great for finding stocks to trade, charting, and giving you a trader’s edge. It’s important to understand that tools are meant to assist you as a trader rather than making trading decisions for you. We’ve provided you with a list of some of the most popular trading tools and companies. Just click any of the links to read our reviews.
Chart by TradingView.
Table of Contents
List of Stock Trading Tools
There are a lot of tools that stock traders use to help them make trading decisions. Some popular stock trading tools include:
Stock charts: These are graphical representations of a securities price over periods such as 1 hr, daily, weekly, and monthly. They show traders candlesticks and support and resistance levels, which helps them determine entries and exits on trades.
Indicators: Technical indicators such as moving average lines, rsi, macd, and fibonacci can help traders locate potential buying and selling opportunities based on the security’s history.
Fundamental analysis: Traders may use tools such as earnings statements, financial reports, and news articles to do fundamental analysis. This process involves evaluating a stock’s overall financial health and trends to determine its value.
Trading platforms: These software tools allow traders to buy and sell stocks. They offer a variety of benefits, such as real-time data, charting software, and stock news.
Mobile apps: Many trading platforms offer mobile apps which allow traders to place trades from their phones or tablet devices.
Stock scanners: These tools allow traders to search for trade setups based on specific criteria, such as volume, price, or technical indicators. They can help traders find potential stocks to trade.
Portfolio management software: This tool allows traders to track their current stock positions and analyze the risk/reward in their portfolios.
The Bullish Bears team uses stock trading tools such as charting platforms, scanners, and news websites to help us make informed trading decisions. If you’re new to trading, it’s important not to jump in and buy any tools until you have a proven trading strategy. We want you to save your money. StockCharts.com, Finviz, and Barchart have really good free trading tools. Our team shows how to use tools on our daily live streams within our trading service and community.
Why Do Traders Use Trading Tools?
There are several reasons why people use trading tools:
Make informed trading decisions: They can provide data to help traders make more informed decisions about which stocks to buy or sell.
Save time: Trading tools can help traders analyze a lot of data in short periods, saving them time and energy.
Identify patterns: They can help traders identify popular candlestick patterns and reversals, which could indicate possible entry and exit signals.
Reduce risk: Trading tools can help traders provide information to help manage their risk by showing a stock’s historical performance and potential future volatility.
Increase efficiency: They can help traders execute trades via high-speed execution, which is essential when trading low-float stocks.
Technical Analysis as a Trading Tool
Technical analysis tools evaluate a security’s historical performance and trends to identify potential trade setups. Traders use tools like charting and technical indicators to analyze a stock’s volume and price data.
Here are some tips for using technical analysis:
Become familiar with different indicators: There are a lot of different indicators that traders can use when finding trade setups. While there are many to choose from, select the few you like best.
Confirmation: Sometimes, looking at multiple indicators for confirmation can be helpful. While indicators can be helpful, they aren’t perfect.
Don’t use it as a crutch: Sometimes, looking at too many indicators or patterns can create analysis paralysis. This is common at times when trading.
The Bullish Bears can’t stress enough the importance of learning technical analysis as a trader. It’s the absolute foundation of everything. Buy low and sell high, right?! Well, how do you do that? Patterns are formed from all of the buying and selling of traders around the world. These important clues help you determine buy and sell zones. All of the buying and selling can’t be hidden from the charts. Candlesticks are known as price action, the most reliable trading indicator above all else. Download our free candlesticks eBook.
Stock Scanners as Trading Tools
Scanners are a type of stock trading tool that allows traders to search for stocks to trade based on criteria such as volume, price, price, and technical data. Here are some tips for using scanners effectively:
Define your criteria: It’s important to set the criteria you want to use when searching for trade setups. This could include criteria such as price range, stock volume, market capitalization, or popular indicators.
Try different settings: Many scanners allow you to tweak or customize their out-of-the-box settings. Customizing the settings to find your specific trade criteria might take some time.
Keep your mind open: Sometimes, you won’t find trades that fit your criteria, but they could still be good trade setups. It’s important to be flexible and adjust your criteria at times.
Use different scanners: Not all scanners use the same data or algorithms, so it can be beneficial to use multiple ones to get a better perspective on what’s running.
Trade Ideas is our favorite paid scanner. They have customized settings for any trading style that you’re looking for. ThinkorSwim is our favorite free scanning platform. They allow you to set up many different scanner settings if you have an account with them. We share our scanner settings for both within our community.
Charting Software as a Tool
Charting software is a trading tool that allows traders to view a stock’s history and patterns. Here are some tips for using charting platforms effectively:
Get familiar with different chart types: Charting tools can offer a variety of types, including candlestick charts, bar charts, and line charts. Candlesticks are the most popular. However, becoming familiar with the other types is important because some tools use them as their default settings.
Look at the different time frames: Charting tools allow you to view different time frames, such as 1 min, 5 min, daily, weekly, or monthly. This allows you to look at the stock on both a macro and micro level.
Indicators: It’s very common for charting tools to allow you to add technical indicators to your charts to help you identify important support and resistance levels.
ThinkorSwim is still one of the best charting platforms in the industry. You can set up an account with them for around $500 and get access to all of their charting features, which are incredible. TrendSpider is a really good tool if you’re looking to have trendlines drawn for you automatically, which can be helpful if you’re starting as a trader or if you want to get a quick overview of a stock’s overall trend.
Fundamental Analysis as a Tool
Fundamental analysis is a trading tool that evaluates a company’s financials and historical data to determine the value of the stock. Fundamentalists use tools such as earnings statements and financial reports to analyze a company’s financial health.
Here are some tips for using fundamental research effectively:
Get familiar with financial statements: Income and balance statements provide important information about a company’s historical performance and financial health. These reports contribute to traders overall buying and selling decisions.
Be aware of the market: It’s important to be aware of the bigger picture when using fundamental analysis. Stocks typically run with the overall market.
Trade companies with solid financials: Companies with solid financials, such as a healthy balance sheet, and are profitable are generally considered to be better trades or investments. They are typically large-cap stocks.
Stock Rover is a solid paid fundamental analysis tool. Their platform is built around the demand from real investors. Fidelity offers a lot of free fundamental analysis tools on their website. Their research and quotes section provides a lot of great information on the fundamentals of a stock. Other good tools are Zack’s and Investors Business Daily.
Journaling as a Tool
Journaling is a trading tool that involves recording and tracking your trades, including your reasons why you entered and exited the trade. Here are helpful tips for using journaling as a trading tool:
Consistency is key: Make sure to track every trade you make, including why you entered and exited your positions. This will help with trading your progress and identifying what you did well and what you need improvement on.
Reflecting on your trades: Take the time to reflect on your trades and see what you could have done better or differently. This will help you to refine your trading strategy.
Use as a learning tool: It’s important to review your journal regularly. This information can help you to make changes to your trading strategy and improve your overall trading performance.
Be honest: It’s important, to be honest about what you put in your journal. Be realistic about both your wins and losses. This will allow you to learn from mistakes and refine your trading style.
We can’t stress enough how important it is to track your trades. If you are a new trader or on a budget, you don’t need to use a paid trading tool. You can use an excel or word document to track your trades. TraderSync, TraderVue, and Edgewonk are good trading tools if you want to use a paid service.
Simulators as Trading Tools
Simulators are tools that allow traders to practice buying and selling stocks without using real money in a virtual account. Here are some tips for using simulators effectively as a trading tool:
Use a reputable simulator: Make sure to research and choose a simulator that is reputable and has a proven track history in the trading industry. Do a Google search and read their reviews before purchasing.
Get familiar with it: Take the time to familiarize yourself with its tools and features, including how to make trades and access news and real-time data.
Practice different strategies: Simulators allow you to practice different strategies and see how they would work in a real-world trading environment. This can be a helpful learning experience and teach you how to develop your skills as a trader.
Tracking your trades: Many simulators track your trades and show your historical performance on trades. This can be a helpful tool to identify what you are doing well and what you need to work on when trading.
It’s important to always use a simulator before trading with real money. It’s the best way to get comfortable practicing your trading strategy before using real money. Yes, it’s different from using a real account; however, if you aren’t able to discipline yourself in a virtual account first, then it’s going to be even harder in a real account. ThinkorSwim, TradeStation, and NinjaTrader are good free platforms if you have an account with them. TradingSim is a reliable paid service.
Apps as a Tool
Trading apps allow traders to place trades from their smartphones or tablet devices. Here are some tips for using apps effectively as a tool:
Choose a reputable app: Make sure to search on Google to see which apps are reputable and offer the features you’re looking for.
Familiarize yourself with the app: Take the time to get familiar with the app’s tools and features, including how to access data, quotes, news, and place trades.
Use the app’s features to your advantage: Many apps offer a variety of benefits, such as charting tools, real-time data, and live news feeds. These features can help you with making informed trading decisions.
Setting up alerts: Many apps allow you to set alerts for when a stock breaks critical support and resistance levels. You can set up text or email alerts for when they trigger.
Investing.com is a really good app for trading research. They are simple to use and offer a lot of features. Webull and Robinhood are popular apps for placing trades.
Portfolio Management Software as a Tool
Portfolio management tools allow traders to track their portfolio’s performance and analyze overall risk and return. Here are some tips for using them effectively as a tool:
Choose reputable software: Be sure to research and choose reputable software that offers the features and tools you need. You can do this by reading our reviews or doing a Google search.
Familiarize yourself with their platform: Take the time to familiarize yourself with the tools and features, including how to input your trades and track your performance.
Track your holdings and performance: This software allows you to track your positions and see how they perform. This gives you important information on making trading decisions.
Analyze your portfolio’s risk and return: Many programs offer tools to help you analyze the risk and return in your overall portfolio. This is helpful when managing risk and maximizing returns.
Seeking Alpha and StockRover are popular software tools for managing your portfolio.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Stock Scanners
- Trading Journals
- Charting Software
- Fundamental Analysis Research
- Technical Analysis Research
- Stock Simulators
- Trading Apps
- Portfolio Management Software
- High-speed Internet - needed to execute orders
- Broker - Choose a broker with high-speed order executions
- Stock Scanners - day traders use scanners to find gap and go and momentum stocks
- Breaking News - News tools are helpful to confirm why a stock is breaking out
- Simulator - Stock simulators are helpful for day traders to practice their trading strategies
- Trade Ideas - best stock trading scanner
- Benzinga - best stock news tool
- TradingView - best charting tool
- Stock Rover - best fundamental analysis tool
- TraderSync - best trading journal tool
Please do your research before purchasing any tools. The ratings above are our opinions and do not constitute a recommendation to go with any of these companies.
