https://therobusttrader.com/trading-forums/
A trading forum is a great place to find more trading ideas. Read our guide to find out the 20 best trading forums!
Trading and Investing can often be a lonely endeavor. Although the actual number of individual investors is huge, the nature of the job makes it so that it is rare for active investors to have the time or the opportunity to meet like-minded individuals. Even Wall Street firms are known for their grueling hours and detachment from ‘normal’ life.
A trading forum can be a great place where you can discuss your ideas with other traders a well as give or receive pointers on strategy. However, the financial market communities are all spread out and there is no one forum that is the ‘be-all, end-all’ for investors.
Before we dive into the best trading forums, let’s go over some of the basics of trading forums, what they are useful for, and what their limitations are.
Trading Forums: The Purpose and Limitations
A trading forum is a place where traders of everything from stocks to futures can come together and discuss ideas. Normally, trading forums target a specific market such as Forex, Cryptocurrency, or stocks.
Trading Forums are quite beneficial to the individual trader who might be struggling to come up with new ideas. Some of the forums are frequented by high-level traders who occasionally share their market research with the general public. On top of that, trading forums are probably the best place for learning an incredibly obscure concept, since there are bound to be only a few resources on the internet which explain it properly.
However, one important thing to remember when using a trading forum, is that everybody on the trading forum is human. Thus, the trading strategies or research you find may be flawed. As such, any trading tip that you receive on an internet trading forum must be taken with a grain of salt. In the words of Benjamin Graham, “Perform your own research”.
Technical Analysis v.s Fundamental Analysis
It is also important to remember that the vast majority of trading forums are based on technical analysis of the stocks as opposed to fundamental analysis. Although there are a few communities specializing in the latter, value investors will probably have to face a much higher level of difficulty when trying to find a trading forum that is suited to their interests.
Day traders, however, should have a field day when it comes to trading forums. There is a ton of users who offer advice on trading forums as well as brag about their winnings. Remember that exaggeration is the norm on any internet messaging board, so do not fall for everything anyone says.
While keeping the information mentioned above in mind, we have sorted the following trading forums based on their popularity, ease of use, and utility to the investor.
Top Trading Forums
FXGears
FXGears is a trading forum that has been around since 2011 and covers various aspects of professional trading. You will find different sections devoted not only to the intricacies of professional trading, but also other key aspects of trading, such as trading psychology, brokers, and execution platforms. In other words, FXGears is the perfect choice for somebody who is starting out in the forex, crypto, stock, or futures markets and wishes to explore not only the process of placing trades, but also other aspects of trading that are key to success.
In addition to all this, FXGears has a special live trading chat room where you may discuss live setups with other members! It is very active averaging 500+ users during the New York trading session!
Trade2Win Trading Forum
The Trade2Win trading forum is one of the most popular forums in the world. Since its inception in 2001, it has been one of the most active as well as one of the most visited trading forums. The trading forum is divided into various sections, such as Algorithmic Trading and Index Futures.
On top of that, the trading forum covers everything from Forex to Cryptocurrency, although there are better Cryptocurrency alternatives available elsewhere on the web. For everything else, Trade2Win can be of immense help to the novice as well as the intermediate trader.
EliteTrader Trading Forum
EliteTrader is known for its extremely active user base. If you want to follow a trading forum which seems alive, with people posting new threads every single day, then look no further. EliteTrader is a place where people discuss everything from trading strategies to the challenges facing the modern investor. Just like Trade2Win, Elite Trader also has a plethora of sections for you to browse, and you should be able to find people trading in a similar niche as you with ease.
Optimus Futures Trading Community
While Optimus Futures is not a trading forum in the traditional sense, it is a place where members of the trading community can learn something new every day. Rather than having many different posts by random people every day, the trading forum instead has experts making forum posts which are educational. After that, users can discuss what is mentioned in the post and ask relevant questions to understand the concept better. However, do remember that this trading forum is not fit for beginners due to the advanced nature of the content.
The Lion Trading Forum
The Lion is one of the most informative as well as one of the busiest trading forums currently available. Not only can it be used for educational purposes, but The Lion also covers areas such as Penny Stocks which you cannot find in most trading forums.
The worst thing about The Lion is that it has an extremely complicated user interface. Once you get used to it, it’s not a huge problem. However, any person who views the trading forum for the first time is bound to be dumbstruck with the massive amount of information that is immediately available and the terrible formatting.
Traderji Trading Forum
The Traderji trading forum is a reasonably active forum primarily dealing with the Indian stock market. It is important to include Traderji here since India is a rapidly developing country with a market that is gaining clout in the financial world day by day.
If you are someone who is looking to invest in a rapidly developing country like India, Traderji might very well be the perfect trading forum for you to acquaint yourself with the basics of the market.
futures.io
If you are someone who is an absolute believer in technical analysis, then futures.io trading forum is the place for you. Not only is the community extremely helpful, but you have a site-wide chat feature which is fairly active and can be used to get help immediately.
Futures.io has one of the most active user bases of any website with many new members joining their already 100,000+ strong community every day. However, beginners should once again be wary of this trading forum due to its technical nature.
BabyPips Trading Forum
The Babypips forex trading forum may not be as active as some of the other entries on its list. Still, it is a great place where both beginners, as well as intermediate traders, can discuss ideas and strategies.
Babypips is a particularly great trading forum for beginners due to its extremely helpful community. It also has a low amount of spam content and a brilliant user interface.
TradingQnA Trading Forum
The TradingQnA trading forum is a platform by Zerodha which works a little different than your usual trading forum. Users of the platform can ask any question related to trading that they wish and other users, as well as experts, will be able to help.
The questions on this website range from trading strategy to ergonomics (e.g working from home v.s working in a co-office space). If you have any question related to trading and the web is unable to satisfy your needs, this is the place to ask!
SeekingAlpha
Although SeekingAlpha may seem like a standard stock-market website which has articles as well as market data like Yahoo Finance, it is important to remember that most of the articles on the website are user-generated and can be used to form an opinion on the stock with relative ease.
This is also one of the few places where you will be able to read the opinions of value investors. Many investors also include their valuation models in the analysis and comparing differing opinions can be a great way to arrive at a conclusion regarding the stock.
The only negative when it comes to SeekingAlpha is that you can only read a few articles for free, after which you need to pay a small subscription fee. However, this seems like a worthy investment considering the wealth of content available on the website!
StockRants Trading Forum
The StockRants trading forum, just like the name suggests, is a trading forum that is dedicated to stocks. Although there is a small forex section, there are other forex forums out there far better suited to the currency exchange markets than this one.
StockRants covers stock exchanges across the world and is a great place has a ton of new stocks pitched by users every day. Of course, you need to be careful and verify any information you find here. Still, StockRants can be a great place to discover stocks which have flown under the Wall Street radar.
Stockaholics Trading Forum
Stockaholics is another place for potential traders to go to. This is an active trading forum where people can participate in the chat, as questions, keep trade journals, and discuss everything related to every single market there is.
Aussie Stock Forums
The Aussie Stock Forums is your go-to place for Australian stocks. If you live in Australia or want to invest in the only country which has not had a proper recession in decades, then this is the place where you can discuss everything from the stocks to the general state of the market.
Traders Laboratory
The Traders Laboratory encompasses almost every single market there is. However, this is a trading forum that is best suited to day-traders and those who indulge in forex. The vast majority of the people on the trading forums are interested in technical analysis and you will find ample educational as well as informational material here.
StockHideout
StockHideout is a live chat room for stock enthusiasts which also has dedicated the space to sharing interesting stocks. Here users can share particular stocks that they have come upon. Do remember that using this chat room is fairly risky since most people here are pitching stocks rather than strategies. Remember that you should never purchase a stock without performing adequate research.
StockAdda
For those who are interested in Indian stocks and want to supplement Traderji, StockAdda (Translation: Stock Station) is the place to be. Although this is not a pure trading forum, people post their stock pitches as well as articles. These can be viewed by everyone else. On top of this, you have access to user-made presentations, research reports, and social groups.
SteadyOptions
SteadyOptions trading forum, simply put, is heaven for the day-trader. You do not only find specific sections dedicated to different kinds of trades (volatility, anchor). You also have an active community who is constantly advising and discussing the world of options.
Binary Options
Binary Options is a really good trading forum with a lot of intelligent traders. Like the previous forum, Binary Options is specifically dedicated to Options trading. However, the main point against Binary Options is that activity on it is much less when compared to some of the other forums in this list.
My Pivots
My Pivots is another great trading forum that is let down by its inactivity. The main reason for including it on this list is the fact that it has a ton of educational content that budding day traders can use to their advantage. Consider this trading forum as more of a learning resource than a place where you can discuss technical analysis.
Investors Hub Board
This trading forum is great for investors who are looking for trending stocks. Remember that this place is just a way for you to find some of the ‘hot stocks’ in the market. You must do your own research before you take a position on any of the stocks listed here.
The trading forum itself is incredibly easy to use. The stocks are sorted by industry, which are in turn sorted by the exchange that they are sold in. This means that it is very easy for a potential investor to narrow their search to their area of expertise.
USA Stock Forum
This is an active trading forum that can be an incredibly accommodating place for new investors. Most of the strategies and ideas discussed here do not utilize advanced concepts. Instead, you will be able to find tips for trading various different commodities and trading journals. You will also find various opinions on the current state of the market.
Summary
We have listed some of the top trading forums for individual traders to check out. These trading forums can be of immense help to both beginners as well as advanced traders. As friendly communities, they can provide a lot of help to those who are new to trading. For advanced traders, there instead is the possibility of bouncing ideas off of each other to potentially increase their returns.
Just remember to be mindful of the limitations of these trading forums. Use the suggestions of the people there to help you in your decision making rather than basing it entirely on the opinions of strangers on the internet.