The internet is brimming with free information and tools for all types of trading. A lot of it seems to serve as a hook to get you to buy this seminar or that membership special access. That’s fine by me. People put a lot of effort into creating these things and then give them away for free, some even without automatic sign-up to newsletters that’ll spam your inbox.
Below are some sites I have come across; by no means an exhaustive list. Also, I have stopped following some of those by now, but wanted to list them anyway because I got some value out of them.
General
Ace resource for all sorts of topics around money. They also offer free educational newsletters. I still receive them. The headlines give you a good overview so you can decide quickly whether you want to read or delete.
An absolute must-listen for every early-stage trader; more experienced ones can probably get something out of it as well. It’s a podcast run by an Aussie trader who interviews other traders from all sorts of backgrounds. No hype, no sales pitches, just life and experiences. Many of the interviewees are also on Twitter or have their own blogs. So, it’s a great starting point to find more resources.
It’s got it all. However, I use it only occasionally to find news on a ticker to understand why the price has moved.
Extensive info sources that probably complement Yahoo.
Twitter for traders. The feeds focus on trading (as you’d expect). People share charts, comments on price moves etc. I’ve created an account early on but found it too distracting and misleading for an impressionable newbie. So, I’ve taken a break.
Twitter itself is actually quite a good way to connect with other traders as well. It also feels less formal than StockTwits, as it seems more accepted to share non-trading stuff.
Options
There’s more than options to this, a lot of general advice, too (similar to the day trading section below). However, I used it to learn about options and got the feeling that this is their focus. They are affiliated with the brokerage Tasty Works.
This is a binary options exchange. I had tried it out before starting on stocks. My account is closed now, but I would go back if binary options took my fancy again.
Day trading
Quite an intense guy. Loads of youtube footage explaining trades etc.
Initially I thought Cameron is a sort of alternative, not-so-salesy guy in the scene until I sat through one of his free live webinars with a heavy sales pitch at the end and started receiving marketing emails. But hey, there’s always the unsubscribe link. Anyway, I got his e-book for free as a reward for enduring the sales pitch in the webinar. It’s really informative for a newbie. I’ll probably write about it another time. Their Twitter feed is quite good, too, as they frequently share links to their blog posts. The posts are very educational, pitched at the same level as the beginner’s book, I’d say.
I gave away my email to go through one of his recorded webinar series, which consisted of several episodes and was quite informative. It was a bit slow-moving at times, but hey ho, it was free. He shared some interesting nuggets about the penny stock market.
While there is always the obligatory message across Sykes’ material that it’s not about the big money, it doesn’t really ring true. Not sure I like the vibe.
Sykes also runs a social trading platform called Profitly. You can follow others, get feedback, discuss in chatrooms etc. Haven’t really looked into it though.
Finding stocks
I use the Screener to identify stocks that I want to shortlist for potential trades in the next few days. After creating a free account, you can save different searches, which is dead handy. Another convenient feature is the little pop-up image of the chart when you hover over a ticker in the list. It allows you to make a quick decision whether you want to look at the stock in more detail in your charting software or elsewhere.
Loads of info on here. I’ve only occasionally used it to find pre-market movers.
In one webinar it was recommended to confirm your day trading shortlist against their ‘Stocks to Watch’ list. I did that for a short while whilst I was interested in day trading. I haven’t actually explored the site any further.
Charting
I use this one. Someone once mentioned it to me, and I just got stuck there. Didn’t shop around. It has loads of drawing tools of which I only use very few. I’m still on the free account, which limits the number of indicators you can use and probably some other features. I get some data delayed even though it says “realtime”, but maybe that’s due to the free account. It doesn’t matter much to me because I don’t day trade.
Check out my review of TradingView and Technician.
I tried this one when I was wanting to apply more indicators on top of the ones I used in Trading View. I really like the look of the website and that you can customise views and chart templates. However, it froze quite frequently when I switched between timeframes. That’s so annoying! I’ve stopped using it.
Brokers
This one was my first choice. I tried to open an account, but they were asking for trading experience. Ooops! So, that’s the one for grown-ups. I have come across a lot of positive feedback on various occasions whilst strolling through the www. Apparently their pricing is very reasonable, even for day traders. They also offer a demo account.
At the moment I use this one. It offers competitive pricing for a broker that charges a flat fee per trade. You can even buy trades in advance in bulk to get them cheaper. Opening a cash account is easy. There is no PDT limitation either. Sometimes I can’t get a stock through them, but it hasn’t been a major headache yet.
By the way, when I signed up I received 3 free trades for UK markets because my account is run in GBP. However, I wanted to trade US stocks. It was no problem for the customer service to transfer the free trades to the US markets. Ace service!
From what I gather, a flat fee broker could kill your profits if you day trade because you are likely to get in and out of positions a lot. In that instance, a broker with a charge per share would be better apparently.
I’ve heard about this one a few times on Chat with Traders because some of the interviewees as well as the host seem to use it and because it has sponsored the odd episode. Looking back at my early notes, Trade Station had been on my radar before due to an article I had found. I cannot remember why I put this broker on hold … maybe the pricing at the time or because GetStocks just seemed simpler for a newbie.