Category: Trading Tools

Hi friends:

Just to share my continuing adventure and journey at Block Trading from June 1997 to 2000, which later became Online Trading Academy (OTA), out of the 1st class of 30 students, only 3 survived, which means that 27 students lost it all, whatever trading $ they had, it is all gone, ouch! I was fortunate enough to survive, and with all the newbies coming in to take the courses, we were now the experts. I started helping develop OTA with content and selling the classes, which then comprised of 1 week Beginner and 1 week Advanced, $3000 per class. A few months later, I went from customer to VP of Sales and Marketing, and started to develop a sales team to meet up with the demands for our classes. Here are some additional tools to help you, feel free to try them out.

CALCULATORS

Try a number of financial calculators here.

Interactive calculations, dynamic graphs, and fully customizable reports are just a few of the features that make these calculators stand out.

College Planning and Student Loan Calculators

College Savings Calculator

Use this calculator to help develop or fine-tune your education savings plan.

Student Loan Consolidation Calculator

The Student Loan Consolidation and Debt Payoff calculator applies two simple principles to paying off high-interest debt.

Credit Cards and Debt Management

Credit Card Minimum Payment Calculator

Use this calculator to determine how long it will take you to payoff your credit cards if you only make the minimum payments.

Credit Card Pay Off Calculator

Use this calculator to see what it will take to pay off your credit card balance, and what you can change to meet your repayment goals.

Snowball Debt Elimination Calculator

This debt calculator applies two simple principles to paying off all your debt that can cut years off of your repayment schedule.

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Investment Calculators

Compare Investment Fees

Even a small difference in the fees you pay on your investments can add up over time.

Use this calculator to see how different fees impact your investment strategy and save you money.

Present Value Calculator

Use this PV calculator to determine the present value of a stream of deposits plus a known final future value.

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Investment Questionnaire

Investment Questionnaire

Learn how to create a balanced portfolio of investments.

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Retirement Savings and Planning

Retirement Planner

Quickly determine if your retirement plan is on track – and learn how to keep it there.

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Personal Finance

Home Budget Analysis

Analyze your budget, see where your money goes and find out where you can improve!

Rent Vs. Buy Analysis

Should you rent or should you buy your home? This calculator helps you weed through the fees, taxes and monthly payments to help you make a decision between these two options.

Reverse Mortgage Analysis

This calculator is designed to show you how the outstanding balance of a reverse mortgage can rapidly grow over a period of time.

Mortgage Required Income

This calculator collects these important variables and determines your required income to qualify for your desired mortgage amount.

Mortgage Tax Savings Calculator

Use this calculator to see how this deduction can create a significant tax savings.

Maximum Mortgage Calculator

This calculator collects these important variables and determines your maximum monthly housing payment and the resulting mortgage amount.

Buy vs. Lease Analysis

Should you lease or buy your car? Use this calculator to find out! Calculate your monthly payments and your total net cost. By comparing these amounts, you can determine which is the better value for you.Insurance Calculators

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Insurance Calculators

Life Insurance Calculator

Find out how much life insurance you really need.

 

As you may have read on my “About” page, I was one of the first daytraders (guinea pigs) in the world, June 1997, I was at the age of 49 then, very excited and definitely a newbie. I really understand the phrase now, “Learning is a lifelong experience” and when it comes to losing and winning a lot of money, you will learn fast. The pleasant part of the adventure and journey of learning how to trade, was all the friends I made through the years and the camaraderie we have developed. Students from Europe and Asia that I have become friends with and actually met up with them while traveling is another highlight. I wanted to share some of the sites I used to become a better trader, hope you make use of them.

Charts and Research- TradingView

TradingView.com is a site providing real-time prices on stocks, ETFs, and forex pairs. It also provides delayed data on futures markets.

If you are new to trading and want to practice watching the market in real time, this site allows you to do that.

If you’re an experienced trader, it’s quick and easy to pull up site to do research, as it works well while on the road or if not near your normal trading platform. TradingView also works well as a “backup” data feed, in case you lose quotes or get disconnected from your trading platform.

The chart themselves are of high quality, providing a lot of indicators, comparison tools and various chart types, i.e. candlesticks and Heiken Ashi.

Other features include a stock screener, watch lists, “paper trading,” alerts for when an asset meets specific requirements, strategy testing, and see/share trading ideas with the large TradingView community.

Analysis Website: StockCharts

StockCharts.com offers tons of free resources, and you’ll likely find yourself spending a fair bit of time on the site as you explore the high-quality trading articles as well.

The Sector Summary shows which sectors are hot, and which aren’t, over various time frames. Many day traders like to focus on buying strong stocks in strong sectors in a bull market (rising prices), and short selling weak stocks in weak sectors in a bear market (falling prices). This tool can help you easily find such stocks. Click on the sectors, and then the sub-sectors within, to get a list of stocks ranked by performance.
The StockCharts SCTR Report lists large capitalization stocks from strongest to weakest, so you have a quick list of stocks moving well to the upside or downside at either end of the list.

The DecisionPoint Market Analysis Gallery (DP Chart Gallery) breaks down how the stock market is performing by showing various charts and technical indicators on different time frames. It’s a quick way to learn about analyzing price action and get an overall (uses daily charts) snapshot of market direction and potential turning points.

Normal price charts can be changed to “seasonality charts,” which show how a particular asset performs during particular months of the year.

Trading Research Tools: Finviz

The homepage of Finviz.com offers a host of stocks which are potential day trading candidates. Quickly see the day’s top gainers and losers, stocks breaking out of technical patterns and the day’s most volatile stocks.

Use the other pages to dig up more data on stocks, forex pairs or futures. The News page provides timely reports and analysis from major news vendors. The Screener allows you to find stocks that match your exact criteria for trading. The Map shows which stocks are performing well and poorly during the trading day.

Price data is delayed on the free version of the site, which is still useful for research, but as a day trader, you may want more timely information, especially if using the home page for trade ideas. Finviz Elite offers real-time quotes and pre-market data so you can see what stocks are moving well and breaking out in real-time.

Free Trade Ideas Tool: StockTwits

If you’re an active trader and want a constant stream of stocks (or other assets) that are moving well or breaking out, then this social media platform is one of the best free resources out there.

Search for day traders on StockTwits, and follow them if they provide timely information on stocks (or other assets) that are moving well for day trading purposes. Utilize your own strategy for trading the assets mentioned. StockTwits is just an idea generator not a trade signal service, or at least it isn’t recommended for that.

StockTwits can be distracting, so while day trading keeps the focus on market research related to your specific trade parameters and market.

Trading Tools: Demo Accounts

For traders starting out, the demo account is the best free resource out there. While a demo account won’t replicate the emotional ups and downs of making and losing real money, it will let you know if your trading methods are sound or not. If money can’t be made consistently in a demo account, then money certainly won’t be made trading real capital (which is much tougher).

There are loads of demo accounts available, but try to open a demo account with a broker that you would consider using if you do opt to start trading real capital. That way, you get familiarized with the broker, their fees, and their platform while also working on/assessing your trading skills.

Final Word on Free Trading Websites

Whether for research or generating trade ideas, these free trading websites offer tools to help in your day trading endeavors. Ultimately, these are resources to help you find stocks, forex pairs or futures that suit your strategy. That means you still need your own strategy, and shouldn’t just buy or sell assets blindly based on what you see on these websites. These are tools to be used in conjunction with your own knowledge and thorough analysis. Demo trading accounts help you find, hone and practice a strategy that is right for you.