There are lots of places you can go to research investments. All of them claim to be the best and many are nearly identical in what they offer.
You’ll get information about past market performance. You might even get predictions about the future. The information might come from investing pros or people who think they’re pros.
The similarities between investment research services can make it hard to choose one. You might be tempted to just pick the cheapest option and hope everything shakes out in the end.
Or, you might want to dig deeper. Look at the platform’s past ratings and see how their highest-rated investments have performed over time.
Either way, you’re looking for information. In other words, you’re a “look before you leap” type of person. You want to build your portfolio and grow your investments, but you’re not here for taking unnecessary chances.
Before you put any of your hard-earned money into paying for research, you want to know what makes a research platform unique. What have they got to offer that nobody else does–and why should you trust them to give you the resources you need?
Said another way, what does TradingView offer that makes them special? Is it worthwhile to pay to access their research?
What Is TradingView?
TradingView was founded back in 2011 by Konstantin Ivanov, Stan Bokov, and Denis Globa. Their HQ is in New York and their European HQ is in London.
Their big value proposition is that they’re an investment social media network. Users have access to TradingView’s forum, where they can discuss stocks, bounce ideas off each other, and post articles to share with the community.
They’re also an investment analysis platform and they have a mobile app for traders and investors.
Since the company was started, TradingView has been impressing the right people. It was chosen for Techstars, the startup accelerator, in 2013, and signed contracts with CME and Microsoft.
In 2017, TradingView received Best Analytical Platform at the Benzinga Global Fintech Awards.
Pro Tip:
TradingView lets you analyze stocks using charts, screeners, and market data, as well as take part in an investing community that shares trading tips and strategies. When you sign up for TradingView using this link, you’ll receive $15 off your first subscription!
TradingView Features
TradingView has some interesting features that set it apart from the competition. The primary thing that differentiates them from other stock research servers is the social aspect of their platform.
News and Market Updates
TradingView has a huge selection of news stories and market updates on their homepage. Even with the basic account, you can check out market summaries, including indices, stocks, crypto, forex, and more.
There are editors’ picks to view, plus livestreams and top news stories. Scroll down the page to see stock gainers and losers and trade ideas for U.S. and world markets.
Some articles come from respected publications like Kiplinger or the Wall Street Journal. Others come from community members, so make sure to verify the source before acting on what you read.
Supercharts
Supercharts show the movement of a stock over time. You can choose from the featured stocks or search for any stock symbol to view the chart, and you can zoom in or out to add months or hone in on a shorter period.
Heatmaps are there to provide an overview of stock performance within a chosen sector. They’re super useful if you’re looking to diversify your holdings.
Screeners
Screeners offer a ton of ways to view stocks. All stock filters are available at the top of the screen, making it easy to toggle them off and on to suit your needs.
You can filter by the following parameters:
- Index
- Price change (one day)
- Change %
- Market cap
- Price-to-earnings (PE) ratio
- EPS diluted growth percentage
- Dividend yield %
- Sector
- Analyst rating
- Performance % YTD
- PEG (Price/earnings-to-growth) ratio
- Return on equity
What we really love about TradingView’s screener is that under each parameter, there’s a useful (and funny) guide to what the numbers mean. Under price change, their comment for 30%+ and above is, “Is that you, GameStop?”
Enter your parameters and even with the basic plan, you can see TradingView’s recommendation for each stock. (Strong Buy, Buy, Neutral, Sell, Strong Sell.) You’ll also have the option to customize your settings.
Pro Tip:
TradingView lets you analyze stocks using charts, screeners, and market data, as well as take part in an investing community that shares trading tips and strategies. When you sign up for TradingView using this link, you’ll receive $15 off your first subscription!
Economic Calendar
The Economic Calendar is a cool feature we haven’t seen anywhere else. It’s a collection of every significant global event that might impact the markets. It includes stock openings and closings, holidays, consumer confidence ratings, and more.
Clicking the arrow next to an event will add it to your personal calendar. It’s an easy way to keep track of events that could impact your investments.
Community
TradingView’s community offers subscribers the opportunity to be part of an ever-growing hive mind of ideas and advice. You can access the community by clicking the hamburger menu at the top left of the home page.
As a basic member, you can access the overview, livestreams, trade ideas, educational ideas, and more. Under educational ideas, you’ll find trading tools and information about trading psychology. We think the education aspect is especially useful for beginning traders.
Even as a beginner, you can post content to the community. It’s for that reason we’d recommend being cautious with community posts. Some may be stellar and others may be best ignored.
Paid Plan Access and Limitations
If you upgrade to a paid plan, you’ll get access to a slew of additional features depending on which tier you choose. One way Trading View differentiates between plans is by imposing limitations, so here’s how they break down.
Essential Plan
The Essential Plan is the lowest tier paid plan. You’ll get access to the features above with some limitations:
- 2 charts per tab
- 5 indicators per chart
- 10K historical bars
- 20 price alerts
- 20 technical alerts
- 10 parallel chart connections
You’ll also see no ads and get access to these features that aren’t accessible with the Basic Plan:
- Volume profile
- Custom timeframes
- Custom range bars
- Multiple watchlists
- Bar replay
- Indicators on indicators
Plus Plan
The Plus Plan is the mid-tier paid option. You’ll get access to all features included with the Essential Plan, plus:
- Intraday Renko, Kagi, Line Break, Point & Figure charts
- Charts based on custom formulas
- Chart data export
The limitations change as follows:
- 4 charts per tab
- 10 indicators per chart
- 10K historical bars
- 100 price alerts
- 100 technical alerts
- 20 parallel chart connections
Premium Plan
The Premium Plan comes with all of the features of the Plus Plan, in addition to:
- Auto chart patterns
- Second-based alerts
- Alerts that don’t expire
- Publishing invite-only scripts
- Second-based intervals
The limitations offer the most flexibility for a non-professional plan:
- 8 charts per tab
- 25 indicators per chart
- 20K historical bars
- 400 price alerts
- 400 technical alerts
- 50 parallel chart connections
The only way to get more than what’s offered with the Premium Plan is to upgrade to one of the (significantly more expensive) professional plan options. Unless you’re a professional trader, we don’t think that it’s worthwhile to pay that much for TradingView.
Pro Tip:
TradingView lets you analyze stocks using charts, screeners, and market data, as well as take part in an investing community that shares trading tips and strategies. When you sign up for TradingView using this link, you’ll receive $15 off your first subscription!
The TradingView Mobile Experience
Like many stock screeners, TradingView has a free mobile app to allow for easy access when you’re not at the computer.
As you’d probably expect, the home screen is a simplified version of what you’ll find on the website. Once you’ve added stocks to your watchlist, they’ll be the first thing you see on mobile.
You can view charts (and expand them) the same way you can with the web version. You’ll need to scroll horizontally if you want to expand the data. Charts will auto-rotate to allow for a better view.
The design and interface are clean. That said, the app offers only a fraction of the features you can get with the full browser experience.
Our takeaway is that the app works but its only real use is to get a quick market update or view your watchlist. It’s not what you need if you’re looking for in-depth research or access to TradingView’s most robust features.
How Much Does TradingView Cost?
Trading view offers a total of 7 plan options, including both the free plan and 3 professional options. Here’s how the pricing works out.
Non-Professional Plan Prices
There are four plans that fall into the non-professional category.
- Basic free plan
- Essential Plan: $14.95/mo
- Plus Plan: $29.95/mo
- Premium Plan: $59.95/mo
In all cases, you can save some money (16%) by paying annually in advance. The paid plans all come with a 30-day free trial. We suggest going for the trial first, so you can check out TradingView’s features and see whether a plan is a good fit for you.
Professional Plan Prices
Here are the professional plan tiers and the cost of each.
- Expert Plan: $239.95/mo
- Elite Plan: $419.95/mo
- Ultimate Plan: $599.95/mo
Each of these represents a major jump in price from the other plans. The professional plans don’t come with a free trial, so keep that in mind. The same deal with paying monthly vs. annually applies here: you can save 16% by paying in advance.
The Basic Plan is totally free. You can sign up for any of the non-professional plans with a free 30-day trial and cancel at any time.
Conclusion
TradingView is a mixed bag when compared to other stock research and screening options.
We like the clean interface of the browser option. They’ve got some nice-looking charts and we appreciate the ability to view both historical data and projections.
That said, there’s no real way to determine how TradingView’s picks have performed over time–especially in the long run. You can see stock performance over time, but ratings aren’t attached to those charts.
It may also be telling that TradingView isn’t touting its picks at all. Their performance isn’t mentioned on their website or in their explainer video.
Our take here is that TradingView gives traders a lot of information, but leaves them to their own devices when it comes to interpreting it. Experienced investors are likely to get more out of the platform than newbies.
We’d recommend taking the free Basic plan for a spin before committing to anything else. If you find the features and ratings to be useful, you can upgrade at any time.
Sign up for any non-professional paid plan with a 30-day free trial to decide which plan is right for you.
If you’d like to compare TradingView to other stock research platforms, check out our Stock Rover review or Zacks Premium review.
