Traders are in the business of taking on board vast amounts of information every day. That’s their job. But that information comes to them in the form of undigested prices. There’s no theory to back anything up. No discussion of the fundamentals. And certainly no hint as to whether prices are going to go up or down.
Thus, traders need to go well beyond the raw data. They have to have working models in their minds about how their trades are going to play out. And, in order to do this, they need to have the best tools.
Whether you’re just starting out, or whether you’re a pro, here are some of the resources you’ll need.
Investopedia Dictionary
The world of trading is full of jargon. Traders have developed their own language in order to speed along their work. But that new language takes a little while to learn. Even people who have been in the business for a while still come across new terms.
Investopedia Dictionary is a famous and great resource. It has detailed and fully explained articles on thousands of investment topics. And it’s a great, free resource for investors looking to brush up on their knowledge.
Trading Video Collection
A lot of people don’t learn very well by reading. Not to worry. Not there are online video collections that cover all sorts of trading topics.
What’s more, these videos are actually high quality. Sites like freeonlinetradingeducation.com offer free tuition. They go through entire series of topics from the simplest to more advanced.
Stock Screeners
A stock screener is essentially a program that allows you to find the stocks that interest you. You can filter by price-earnings ratio if you’re interested in fundamentals. Or you can use moving average values if you are interested in trends.
The whole point of stock screeners is to filter information. If you’re a trader who doesn’t have favorites, stock screeners are a great way to buy based on current information. You can get straight to the stocks that interest you, without having to wade through thousands of irrelevant metrics.
News Services
Everyday conditions in the world of trading change. And everyday traders need to be aware of what exactly is going on out there. That’s why most traders will use some type of news service to funnel all the relevant information to their desk. Tools like Newsmap allow traders to see the stories that affect them. These tools are able to gather headlines that affect traders and organise them in one place.
If you’re doing research, you can also scan for relevant topics. Over time, you’ll get a sense of how a market is developing, just from the sheer number of related news articles. Plus, if conditions change, you’ll be able to react quickly, having already built up substantial knowledge.
Nasdaq US Economic Calendar
Keeping track of the market timetable can be difficult. But thanks to tools like the Nasdaq economic calendar, it’s now simple. You can keep track of events in the stock market as easily as you would TV listings. Just log on to a site like nasdaq.com to see what events are coming down the pipe.
