When you commit to trading, you commit to the launch of a small business.
And in the beginning, you want to keep expenses low while your ability to be consistently profitable is still unproven. Keep business costs low until consistent revenue is assured, and then scale up and reinvest back into the business.
To help out those trading on a budget, check out this list of free trading websites to help you thrive as a trader:
1. Tradingview.com
Every trader needs charting sotware. Tradingview is an amazing resource for free charting. It not only gives you free live quotes to the stock market, but also to many other markets. They have live Forex, crypto, futures, and bond quotes as well. You can get access to their charting software and live quotes with a free account, unlike with most charting software.
They have a nice selection of indicators, and you can customize your layout to your liking. Tradingview also has a strong community of people who share their trade ideas on all the different markets, which you get access to with a free account as well. It’s a great tool if you’re a swing trader on a budget.
2. Market Chameleon
Market Chameleon is a site with a free pre-market stock scanner. The site will give you a list of all the stock’s gapping up and down during the pre-market. This helps you build your watchlist before the market opens. For active day traders, this is an awesome resource.
Their screener has a ton of other capabilities also, but that’s what our students use it for most. If you don’t want to pay for Trade Ideas, this is a worse, but usable alternative. They have useful filters to get rid of a lot of the illiquid and junk gappers you don’t want to be trading.
3. Finviz.com
Finviz gives a great bang for your buck. This site is great for running free scans to filter and sort stocks and help you build a great stock watch list. The image above is a screenshot of their screener.
You can filter by market cap, volume, short float, and just about every metric you can think of. Company profiles are very in-depth also, and they show you a snapshot of the daily chart from the last several months.
4. Earnings Whispers
This will be your best friend during earnings season. This is especially important if you are a swing trader or a longer-term investor. You should always know the dates of quarterly earnings are going to be released for all of the stocks you are holding. Check this trading website regularly during Earnings season.
NEVER try to guess what the reaction to the earnings release will be. That is pure gambling. We’ve seen stocks tank after great reports, and skyrocket after terrible releases. Focus on reacting to the price action AFTER the report has been released. During earnings season, I recommend checking this site multiple times a week. (Click here to learn some of Earnings Trading Strategies)
5. Shortsqueeze.com
Want to quickly check out a stock’s float and short interest? This is a great website to do it. Finviz, Yahoo Finance, and charting software will also have this data as well, but this is another site to reference, as estimates will often vary.
6. Yahoo Finance
Still one of the best sites out there for getting stock news quickly. Always one of the quickest to update company press releases, and grab quick metrics on stocks. When a company drops a press release, Yahoo Finance is one of the first places to have the full PR. They have a ton of other useful features as well.
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