Thanks to the advancement in computer engineering, the reliability and stability of modern laptops are now so impressive. Today, it is no longer surprising that many traders have stopped speculating on fixed trading stations (desktop computers). Intervening in the financial markets from their laptop now makes more sense.
For ergonomic, portability, power autonomy, performance, and reliability reasons, laptops are now the best stock trading machines. With carefully-chosen models, traders now take positions on the stock market by leaving the portable computer systems on for most of the day on the sector but also on battery.
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With laptops, it is possible to monitor the market even when you’re not behind your desk. It doesn’t matter if you’re in a public place, at work or on public transport. All you just need is a system with a WiFi, 3G, 4G or better connectivity, a high RAM, powerful processor, and long-lasting battery… and voila! With these in mind, here’s an in-depth review of the best laptops for stock trading. Check them out!
List of the 10 Best Laptops for Stock Trading
- Dell XPS 13 - best ultra-compact trading laptop for frequent travelers
- MacBook 13″ Pro - best Apple laptop for stock trading
- HP ENVY 13 - best stock trading machine with 4K screen
- Asus Vivobook S14 - best multifunctional laptop for trading
- MacBook Air -best MacOS laptop for stock trading
- Acer Swift 3 - best 8th generation laptop for stock traders
- Asus ROG Zephyrus - best gaming/trading laptop
- Asus Zenbook 14
- HP Pavilion 13
- Dell 15-3567 - best choice
Dell XPS 13 - best ultra-compact trading laptop for frequent travellers
Available in Intel Core i3, i5, and i7 processor, the Dell XPS 13 has 4 cores, 8 GB of RAM, and a 256 GB SSD. The laptop is light and very easy to transport. It will be the perfect companion if you would like to keep an eye peeled on the market even while traveling. It has a battery autonomy between 10 and 14 hours, depending on use.
Being an ultra-compact reference computer, it’s ideal for a digital nomad, a traveling trader, or simply for office automation.
Depending on the model, it can also prove to be the perfect companion for extra mounting. In the latter case, do not skimp on the amount of RAM onboard. Another significant point, the 2019 XPS version has 3 USB-C connectors, the new standard in terms of connectors. If you have peripherals with USB 3, it will be necessary to think of bringing an adapter.
With an impeccable finish, it has a bright screen for day and night trading. We can say the lessers of the XPS 13 are with its little small keyboard keys and an audio output which can leave nothing to be desired. But that is only a subjective opinion. In conclusion, the Dell XPS will be your best laptop for day trading if you want an easy-to-carry-about machine. It is almost the equivalent of the MacBook Pro.
Pros
- Excellent battery life
- Wide and bright screen
- High performance
- Ultra-compact and light
- Great for heavy tasks
Cons
- Poorly-positioned webcam
- Chunkier than its competitors
MacBook 13″ Pro - best Apple laptop for stock trading
The Apple MacBook 13″ Pro is the best laptop for stock trading for traders who love Apple products and can adjust to a budget of over 1k bucks. It has impeccable finishes, minimalist connectivity, and very satisfactory visual comfort. It is a laptop particularly suitable for stock traders, developers, gaming enthusiasts, and frequent travelers.
Equipped with a Core i5 chip, Apple’s product also has 8 GB of RAM and a 256 GB SSD. This gives it 16x more power and performance ability than normal hard drives. In terms of battery life, the MacBook Pro 13 is one of the most durable on the market today. And this will be a huge asset if you need to monitor the market where there’s no unlimited power supply. If you are a DJ, you can criticize the audio quality. However, for a stock trader, the audio remains very satisfactory.
Finally, it comes with a 7th Generation Intel i5 processor. This will give you the ability to make excessive multitasking.
Pros
- Great battery life
- Impressive display
- Smooth and fast performance
- Very light
- Sleek design
Cons
- Only two USB-C connectors
- The price
HP ENVY 13 - best stock trading machine with 4K screen
The standard-bearer of the HP brand, this model has many advantages over its competitors. Among these are the quality of a worked design, a Full HD or 4K resolution screen, and an impressive lightness. In addition, the screen is made of Corning Gorilla Glass, a material mostly used in smartphone screens. In addition to its metal build, this proves to offer equity professionals a reliable and durable companion.
The rapid recharging of the device is a real asset for this model. Not lacking in power and finesse, it also has sufficient memory/storage capacity of 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD. Depending on the version selected, you can also have a machine that can run games that consume little power.
On battery autonomy, this laptop can run for 13 hours on a full charge. This is efficient for traders who love to stay online for long hours.
Overall, this computer fulfills its initial role of a laptop and hybrid for entertainment and professional uses.
Pros
- Impressive memory and storage capacity
- Touchscreen
- Light and durable
- Affordable
- Many connectivity options
Cons
- Fingerprint reader issues
- Heats up during heavy usage
Asus Vivobook S14 - best multifunctional laptop for trading
Solidly built, the VivoBook can be particularly suitable for “daredevils” in the stock market. Quite original, the touchpad, called ScreenPad, incorporates a numeric keypad. Connectivity, meanwhile, offers the essentials for traders, compared to other brands that only offer USB-C. With the 5.65″ ScreenPad, you can put down some ideas or notes or control the functions of the MS Office. This multifunctional and advanced feature offers functions such as the Mode Switch, App Navigator, QuickKey, Handwriting, Slide Writing and Number Key.
Here you will have USB 3.0 type-A and Type-C but also USB 2.0. You can read your microSD cards and connect your computer to a screen or others via the HDMI socket. The 8 GB of RAM supports a 512GB-capacity SSD.
It is possible to use it outdoors or while traveling, thanks to its high-quality screen. Wide and thin, the 5.3mm thin screen measures 14 inches in size. It has a wide viewing angle of 178° and 88% screen-to-body ratio.
Pros
- Ultra-thin and light
- Complete connectivity
- Good autonomy
- Enhances productivity
- Affordable
Cons
- RAM soldered to the motherboard
MacBook Air -best MacOS laptop for stock trading
For those who like Apple products, Macbook Air and are willing to invest a little more, the MacBook Air can be a good option. The good news is that with the launch of the Macbook Pro, this preceding model became cheaper. It can now be found at more attractive prices.
The highlight of this model is, without a doubt, its Mac OS operating system, which is fully integrated with the hardware. This gives it good performance even after a few years of use. It also has a first-class design. For secondary uses, it does well in photo and video editing applications. So it is a good and versatile laptop for stock traders, designers, editors, and advertisers.
Being a high-performance laptop, it is backed by a 1.6GHz Intel Core i5 central processing unit. It has a storage capacity of 256GB and a memory space of 8GB. The display is fairly wide at 13.3 inches. With the IPS technology, the device can be your best companion in your sojourn in the market.
Finally, the laptop has a very long usage time without connectivity to the power socket. It will last for approximately 12 hours. Unsurprisingly (as is Apple’s distinct feature), the model is ultralight at 2.75lbs.
Pros
- Great brand
- Portable and versatile
- Sleek and incredibly light
- Long-lasting battery
- High-quality display
Cons
- High price
Acer Swift 3 - best 8th generation laptop for stock traders
If you would love to monitor the market on a very wide screen, then the Acer Swift 3 is probably the best laptop for stock traders in this aspect. The model has the standard connectivity options and light design at an unbeatable price.
The optimization work done by the Acer teams makes this portable computer transportable with incredible autonomy compared to its competitors and recent models. It is an 8th Generation laptop with an Intel i5 processor. In addition to its 8GB RAM, booting up the system and the overall performance of the software will be quick. With a long-lasting battery that can power up the system for up to 10 hours, get ready to make money on the go, at home, or in the office.
We can criticize it, however, for a rather weak configuration as well as the quality of the audio outputs. But at this price, we can understand.
Pros
- High-quality display
- Affordable
- Long-lasting battery
- Impressive design
- Small and light
Cons
- Memory isn’t upgradable
- Performance at half-mast
Asus ROG Zephyrus - best gaming/trading laptop
Power, finesse, and lightness are the watchwords of this Asus model. With a Core i7 processor and a formidable graphics card, the ROG Zephyrus is the perfect computer for stock traders who would also take time out gaming. Its large 16GB memory and 512GB capacity hard drive are also an asset. With the processor, this makes it one of the best laptops for multitasking.
The many hours spent playing will inevitably impact the battery for 3 to 4 hours of autonomy. So be careful and plan a nearby power outlet for when you’d need it for professional usage too.
With a super-wide 15.6″ Full HD display, the screen size is one of the largest in the market. Because it is a rugged gaming model, this machine is more than capable of running all your trading tasks and software.
Pros
- Great multitasker
- Also great for gaming
- Full HD screen
- Great design
- Very light and thin
Cons
- highly-priced
- Fan noise
Available in the i7 version, the Asus Zenbook has excellent performance. It has 8GB of RAM and a 128 GB SSD. With a 14-inch screen, you have a good compromise for an ultraportable computer. We appreciate its versatility and its suitable weight. These are criteria required by all-day laptop users such as stock traders. It weighs just 3.1lbs. The screen size is 14 inches, and it runs on Windows 10.
The Zenbook range appeared a few years ago with the aim of offering a PC equivalent of the Macbook Air. And it’s not doing any bad at it!
Pros
- Versatile
- Extensive connectivity
- Fast USB transfer speed
- Long-lasting battery
- Light and easily transportable
Cons
- Average sound quality
- Intel graphics card that limits games
A keyboard that can leave something to be desired; this is the first disappointment when you take in hand the HP Pavilion 13.
However, the HP model catches up with its connectivity.
Although the screen measures 13.3″ diagonally, the brightness is excellent if you wish to work outdoors.
The 8GB RAM and the Intel Core i5 processor allows professionals to work efficiently, moreover with the 256 GB SSD. However, this PC is not the most efficient in this range. The battery life is reasonable. With a possible 11-hour use, it can save you from carrying a bulky charger. The backlit keyboard will also ensure you can keep trading into the night.
Although it is one of the most affordable in this review of the best laptop for stock traders, this HP Pavilion remains average. It doesn’t really make a specific glow on a specific area. But it will be a considerably great device for starters and light users in the equity market.
Pros
- Many connectors
- Lasting battery
- Great screen brightness
- Thin and light
Cons
- Relatively average performance
- Memory not upgradeable
Dell 15-3567 - best choice
Investing in an intermediate computer can be the best choice. With the Dell Inspiron 15 3567 model, you have a 7th generation laptop with a 15.6″ screen. There’s also a considerable memory space and Windows 10 operating system. All these make it one of the best high-performance laptops for traders, although it is the cheapest laptop in this review.
If you are looking for a cheap notebook that can handle light to averagely heavy tasks as a trader, this is it.
Versatile too, it can effectively serve a programmer. It can efficiently run programming software, such as WEB servers. It can run software to manage databases, or even to work with Android Studio, which is a little heavier.
The processor here is a 7th generation Core i3, with 128GB of storage and 4GB of RAM. These are enough to keep several applications open at the same time.
Pros
- Versatile
- Very cheap
- High definition graphics
- Great design
- Wide display
Cons
- Low memory space
- Not for heavy users
Buying Guide
As you can see, choosing the best laptop depends primarily on your personal use. The low-end models allow you to perform office tasks, such as word processing, spreadsheets. At the same time, high-end PCs are more intended for professional and heavy usage such as stock trading, gaming, photo editing or video editing. With the latter range, you’ll find portable, versatile, high-performance computers, with a processor and battery powerful enough to absorb the needs of the user.
To help you as much as possible, we have drafted out some features to consider in choosing the best computer for trading stocks.
Features to consider
Processor
This is the heart of the system! A powerful processor will absorb several tasks and handle trading software. The more software you use simultaneously, the more your processor will be used. A large selection of laptops on the market runs on an Intel processor. Today there is the i3, i5, i7, and i9 chip, the latter being the most powerful. The i3 chip supports small office tasks. Meanwhile, the i9 allows you to simultaneously open more software while maintaining a reasonable speed of execution. Intel now dominates the processor market, but competitors like AMD, a recognized brand in the graphics card market, also offer processors.
Hard drive
For starters, the old hard drive can store basic data on your laptop. But today, it is becoming more and more difficult to get laptops with standard hard drives. HDDs, the old mechanical hard drives, take several minutes. Now it’s the SSD that is on the rise. This will launch your system in less than ten seconds. This new storage system is based on flash technology that offers reduced data access times. It is ideal for copying files, launching applications, or even opening more or less large documents. Despite its limited storage capacity, the SSD is less bulky and fragile than a standard hard drive. On the capacity, a laptop with 128 to 521GB will be sufficient.
RAM
For office use, 4 GB would have been enough since office time is more limited. However, for all-day activities such as stock market monitoring, the needs increase. Hence, a RAM of 8-16GB is the best to avoid having a “rowing PC”. We can now consider 8 GB of RAM as the norm. On the other hand, if you also plan to play recent games, make video editing, or further photo editing, we advise you to opt for 16 GB.
Screen
In general, we recommend using a laptop with at least a 13-inch screen for easy transport or 14 inches for static uses. This format is slightly larger than a large A4 sheet. You can, however, go for high-quality and larger-screen laptops with 15.6-inch diagonal screen sizes. This helps you keep a distance from the screen, reducing eye strain, and protecting your eyes. Also, ensure that the brightness is sufficient for outdoor use. This helps you avoid very annoying reflections during daytime use. As for the vertical and horizontal viewing angle, choose a screen with a wide-angle display.
Weight
If you plan to carry your laptop every day to work or if you wouldn’t like your frequent travels stop you from trading, you have to watch the weight and size of your laptop. Laptops between 2.5lbs and 4lbs are among the lightest on the market. Opt for this if you don’t have a home office and are always on the go.
Battery life
A laptop with a sufficient battery life will save you a lot. Stock trading involves all-day connectivity to the market for stock information. And if you need a device with more power independence, look for a model that can last on battery for 10 to 15 hours. The battery will tend to decrease in quality over time. So choose a sufficiently powerful battery from the start.
Connectivity
Having more connectors on a laptop can be useful today. Indeed, the variety of supports requires the use of adapters to be able to connect to any support. Before buying a laptop, make sure it is at least equipped with an HDMI jack and USB ports. Be careful with your USB ports. The new standard is USB-C, but for the moment, many devices are still on USB 3. You then have the choice to take a USB-C to USB 3 adapter or to choose a computer with both connectors. In any case, the future belongs to USB-C, both on PC and MAC. Finally, on the connection, an SD card reader is also a good point. A WiFi network card, 3G/4G or more, and sufficient Bluetooth connection are things to consider before buying a laptop.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is 8gb RAM enough for stock trading?
A laptop with an 8GB RAM can be regarded as the minimum memory capacity for stock trading. However, you can choose a laptop with this RAM size if only you’re on a tight budget, as this specification largely determines the price. Meanwhile, if you want to have the most high-performing laptop for trading or other heavy-use tasks, go for models with 16GB. Models with 4GB are however out of the question, except you’re just a greenhorn or a student trying to learn the ropes.
What kind of computer do I need for day trading?
The processing capacity is the most important attribute to watch out for. In this sense, you should only be considering laptops with a minimum of 2.8 GHz CPU. Although 3.3 GHz is more recommended if you can afford it.
Can you day trade with a laptop?
This is a yes! Day-trading, as we have it today, has been modernized. In other words, it is electronic. Day traders can have access to the Fintech market through the internet, which is possible with a laptop that has internet connectivity (WiFi or 3G-5G connectivities). However, remember you’ll need, in addition, a telephone as you may need to stay in contact with your broker.
Are gaming laptops good for stock trading?
Gaming laptops are specifically built, but their heavy-duty build makes them very ideal for stock trading. They have fast processors, high RAM and SSD, very powerful batteries, wide high definition or 4k screens, and more. These features are no less the most important features to watch out for in a stock trading laptop. So, definitely, good gaming laptops equals good stock trading laptops. A reference point in this review is the ASUS ROG Zephyrus.
Conclusion
To get the best laptops for stock trading, choose models from reputable brands. Apple, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, MSI are good examples of reliable brands. Also, choose a model equipped with a powerful processor: Intel i5 or Intel i7. Buy a model with high RAM to support broker platforms (8GB up to 16GB) and a suitable screen size: 13 or 15 inches. 17 inches is sometimes too large (does not fit in a backpack for example, and is difficult to transport). Finally, choose a model with a long-lasting battery that allows several hours of operation without mains.
Last update on 2020-09-29 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API