Stock trading is not easy – neither is it cheap. Of course, this can be a stumbling block especially for beginner investors who do not have the funds to spend on premium tools.
The good news is that there are free stock charts in the market that such investors can take advantage of. Of course, these do not come with all the features an investor may want or need, but they are certainly worth trying.
Here then, are some of the best free stock charts that you need to try.
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Top Stock Charts For Free in 2023
1. FinViz
Introducing FinViz.com – perhaps the best free stock charts in the world!
FinViz is a financial stock charting website that allows you to view up to 50 years of historical data for more than 8,000 companies.
The company is on a mission to build the best free stock charts in the world, and has come a long way since Finviz inception.
The site is used by professional stock traders, analysts, journalists and individual investors to find investment ideas, do fundamental analysis, and get detailed company information.
With FinViz, you can easily search through thousands of stocks using our powerful filtering tools like Quick Quote and Chart Builder. You can then create and save your own free stock charts so you can always see how your stocks are performing at a glance.
FinViz makes it easy for anyone to do their own fundamental analysis and make informed investment decisions. Get started by investing with us today!
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2. TradingView
TradingView is a charting platform for traders. It's free, simple and very powerful. It is one of the best free stock charting websites in our opinion because of its clean UI and advanced features.
There are tons of charting platforms out there, but you will like Trading View because it's free and simple, making it great for all levels of traders.
The best thing about Trading View is that it doesn't require any installation or account creation before you can use the product. Simply head to the site, sign up with your email address, and you're good to go!
TradingView makes it easy to do technical analysis on stocks in an intuitive way. The platform offers more than 70 technical indicators and over 500 different drawing tools so users can build complex charts of any type.
In addition to technical analysis tools, you can use TradingView to create automated alerts that notify you when certain conditions are met in the stock market.
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3. TD Ameritrade
TD Ameritrade offers free stock charts online. In addition to the free stock charts, investors can purchase real-time quotes and access research reports on stocks. To use the charts, a TD Ameritrade account is not required.
Applying for an account is as easy as filling out a few fields on the website with personal information. However, when applying for an account, investors can also link their existing accounts from other financial institutions to increase their investing options.
TD Ameritrade's education resources are available through its Learning Center, where videos and articles are available to help investors learn about trading stocks online and in-person.
The site also provides market news, including up-to-date business news and information about the economy.
A helpful feature of TD Ameritrade's online trading platform is the "Watch" feature that enables users to track particular stocks in real time and receive email alerts when new developments occur with those stocks.
Users can also find out all of the latest information about specific companies through the "Investor Relations" page of their website.
Investors can also search for current financial news using the company's stock screener to explore trends in the market and find news related to specific industries.
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4. StocksCharts.com
Stockcharts.com offers a wide selection of stock charts, providing a wealth of information that can help investors make well-informed investment decisions.
The site offers access to more than 300 different stock charts, including bar charts, candlestick charts, high-low charts, trendlines and indicators.
Ticker symbols are also included with each chart. Users can set the chart to display daily or weekly changes in the stock's price, its 52-week high and low prices and its closing price for the past 10 days.
The basic stock chart includes an area where the investor can enter the stock symbol and view how it has performed over time.
A user can also create a custom chart by entering the stock symbol and other information such as the number of days to display on the chart, daily price change and shares traded in thousands.
Other features of Stockcharts.com include real-time quotes from Yahoo! Finance, streaming news from MarketWatch and a search feature that allows users to find individual stocks or compare multiple stocks against each other by category. Another feature is a glossary that explains terms used in creating charts.
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5. Yahoo! Finance
Free stock charts on Yahoo Finance can make it easy to track the performance of your favorite companies, but if you want to do more than glance at their prices, you're going to need a premium membership.
However, because Yahoo Finance is so well known, many investors choose to use it for free.
While the website provides some features for free, most of these tools can be used only occasionally and with limitations. Here's what you get with a free Yahoo Finance account:
- Free company news - You will be able to check out an unlimited number of stories that cover the companies that interest you, including earnings reports and financial results from conferences and events. However, in order to read these articles, you'll need to click through advertisements for other products on Yahoo's site.
- Free portfolio tracker - You can keep tabs on the value of your portfolio without paying a monthly fee or having to pay extra fees each time you add new stocks or funds.
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6. Trade Ideas
TradeIdeas is a cheap stock charting software that is ideal for people who want to use technical analysis without spending a lot of money.
You can get started with TradeIdeas for free. The only investment you need to make is your time. Once you get used to this tool, it will become an indispensable part of your trading experience.
Just like other stock charting platforms, TradeIdeas allows you to create custom charts and watch lists. It also has a variety of technical indicators that are available for free.
You can add as many indicators as you want without paying any extra fees. What's even better is that the indicators update in real-time so that you'll always be aware of price movements and changes in momentum.
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How to Read Stock Charts
Although it may seem complicated, once you understand how to read stock charts, you'll be able to make more informed decisions on the future stock price.
Here are some tips for reading stock charts:
- The vertical axis may represent different measurements such as price or market value. It's important to know what measurement is being used before drawing any conclusions from that particular stock chart.
- The horizontal axis usually contains years or months and indicates when specific events occurred such as business expansions or acquisitions.
Sometimes only dates with major events like splits and dividends will be listed in stock charts so it's important to reference a company's earnings press release if you have questions regarding events that aren't clearly marked on a stock chart.
- The line connecting each bar represents the opening and closing prices for that period; however, some brokerages will not show closing prices so it's important to make sure this information is included on your security chart.
What Makes a Good Stock Chart?
Essentially, a good stock chart should be easy to read. You should be able to glance at the chart and immediately know what's going on.
What constitutes "easy to read"? Here are some simple rules of thumb:
- Any major trend, such as a long period of falling or rising prices, should consist of three or more distinct swings in the price action.
- The chart's time scale should permit you to distinguish the individual swings in a trend from each other. For example, a daily chart shouldn't lump several weeks' worth of price swings into one bar. And it shouldn't show multiple years' worth of price action on one page.
- The chart's vertical scale shouldn't exaggerate or minimize short-term price movements. If the vertical axis represents thousands of dollars (such as with an hourly stock chart), then an increase from $60 to $62 shouldn't register as anything more than a minor fluctuation.
However, if the vertical axis represents only tens of dollars (such as with a daily stock chart), then that same $2 increase is significant because it represents 10 times more money.
Conclusion
Stocks are not like other investments. They are riskier and there is no guarantee that you will make a profit. In fact, you could lose all of the money you invest.
As such, you may want to make use of free stock charts to see how they work before deciding to pay for membership. All the ones we have discussed are great options so go ahead and pick one.
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