What is TradingView and is it free?
A charting and market-data site that gives you professional-grade charts, a stock screener and price alerts without paying anything. The free account covers what most traders need for research and watching the market. It is one of the better free financial tools available.
Key takeaways
- The market summary bar loads immediately — S&P 500, NASDAQ and the rest, before you have signed in or done anything.
- The charting is the main draw. Genuinely professional tools in a browser, at no cost.
- A free account adds price alerts, which is what turns it from a reference site into something you actually use daily.
- The stock screener filters the market on your own criteria rather than someone else's list.
- It covers more than stocks — futures, forex, crypto and indices in the same interface.
- It is a research and monitoring tool, not an order-entry platform. Keep it alongside your broker's software rather than in place of it.
- Because it runs in a browser, it is a good candidate for a desktop shortcut so it opens in its own window rather than competing with research tabs.
- Not sure where your machine stands? The free benchmark test takes about two minutes.
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In this video, I want to introduce you to a website you might not be familiar with, which I think is very, very cool. The name of the website is called tradingview.com. So just put tradingview.com into your browser. And this is like one of the coolest free trading platforms because it gives you charts… It gives you information… It’s one of the best free financial sites out there.Market Summary Bar
Right when you bring up the website, it gives you great information and a market summary right out of the gate. Right on the upper bar, I have the S&P500… the NASDAQ. You can see the S&P today is down 2.36%. NASDAQ 100 is down 2.78. The Euro versus the dollar… So Forex… It’s got crude oil, gold, Bitcoin… Just about every market that someone could follow is right here on this top bar.Charting Software
The next thing I love about TradingView is that it’s got great charting software. And this is web-based. You don’t even need a trading platform. So if I go ahead and click Launch Chart, I get a really great trading platform. So here is a daily chart on Apple. Today happens to be one of the days after the correction in the Coronavirus episode in 2020 where we had the huge rally yesterday, the Fed cut rates today, and now the market’s coming down. That’s why you see this big correction in Apple. And it’s trying to bounce back, but we’re down big again. But this is a great piece of charting software. You can use candlesticks, hollow candles, a line chart… This has the full functionality of some of the best charting software that’s out there, believe it or not.Free Account Setup + Alerts
You can even put indicators on here. You can set an alert. So if you sign up for a free account, you can have TradingView send you an alert when a stock hits a certain price. You can even put together a watch list. And it has headlines for the stock, so it even has news. So no matter what stock you’re watching, this is a great piece of charting software. They also have tools here on the left for whatever types of charts you’re interested in. Another cool thing about TradingView, which I failed to mention, is that the charts are actually in real-time, meaning the prices are in real-time. Totally free.Stock Screener Feature
Going back to the main page, another great area of trading view is the Stock Screener. So if you go up here to Screeners and click Stock Screener… today’s a tough day. Right now the market’s down 600 points. But if I were to pull up this Stock Screener and go over here to Filters… I can go into the filters here and I could actually select something like stocks making a New All Time Low. But what might be interesting is stocks making a New All-Time High or even a New 52 Week High. Let’s do that one… New 52 Week High today. So these are going to be stocks that are within the vicinity of a new 52-week high. And look at this list. We see Netflix; we see Clorox. Let’s pull up Clorox. We can see Clorox just made a new high here at the beginning of March. So that’s a really cool feature. So the Stock Screener has dozens and dozens and dozens of different indicators that you can change. So you can filter for the types of stocks that you like.Different Markets Available
Another cool feature of TradingView is right up here in markets. You can literally follow every single market out there right through this free platform. And believe it or not, my understanding is that the quotes are real-time. You can watch different markets. So if you’re into cryptocurrencies and you want to see Bitcoin… You want to see Ethereum… You want to follow the different currencies, stocks, indexes, futures, and bonds. There’s so much in here. It would probably take me an hour to show you everything. But when you get a chance, definitely check out TradingView. It’s a very, very, very cool tool.* * * * * *
Thanks for watching, and if you haven’t already, please feel free to download our Complete Guide to Trading Computers by clicking the link. This guide is packed with great tips so you can totally optimize your trading experience. Lastly, be sure to check out our latest trading computer sale by clicking the button at the top or clicking here. My name’s Eddie Z. Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you in the next video.Frequently Asked Questions
Is TradingView free?
Yes, with a free tier that covers charting, a market overview, a stock screener and a limited number of price alerts. Paid tiers add more alerts, more indicators per chart, and multiple charts in one layout. For most traders using it for research and monitoring alongside a broker platform, the free account is enough.
What is TradingView used for?
Charting and market research, primarily. Traders use it to watch several markets at once, run screeners to find candidates, set price alerts, and study charts with a better set of drawing and indicator tools than most broker platforms provide. It is generally used beside a broker's platform rather than instead of it.
Can you trade directly on TradingView?
Through connected brokers, yes — it integrates with a number of them so you can place orders from the chart. Whether that is a good idea depends on your broker and your strategy; the routing goes through the integration rather than through your broker's own platform. Most traders use it for analysis and place orders in the platform their broker provides.
Is TradingView good for beginners?
It is one of the better places to start, because the free tier gives real charting without a subscription and the interface is more approachable than most professional platforms. It also has a paper trading feature, so you can practise without money at risk — which is where any beginner should spend their first months.
What is the best free trading platform for charts?
TradingView is the one most traders settle on, largely because the free tier is genuinely usable rather than a trial. Broker platforms often provide capable charting at no cost too, and are worth checking before paying for anything — the charts you already have access to are frequently better than people assume.
