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Best Stock Trading Software For Mac of 2024

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While we can’t promise to turn you into the Wolf Of Wall Street, we can show you the best stock trading software for Mac of 2024 to set you on your way.

We’ve had years of experience trading on macOS and found that Macs are great for trading.

After hours of analysis and research we rated the best trading software for Mac is TradingView (Free).

TradingView has been the best stock charting tool out there for a long time but it now allows you to trade too by connecting it to brokers such as Oanda, Tradestation, FXCM, Dhan and more plus it works great on macOS Sonoma, Ventura, Monterey, Big Sur and Catalina.

TradingView is also one of the only stock trading tools that has a desktop app that works on the latest Apple Silicon Macs with the M1, M2 and M3 chips.

Trading Software vs Trading Platforms

The line between trading software and trading platforms is becoming increasingly blurred as trading tools like TradingView now allow you to trade as well by connecting them to brokers.

Similarly, many trading platforms now feature their own advanced technical analysis tools so that you don’t need additional trading apps.

However, as a general rule, Stock trading software are only used for analysis of markets and are sometimes referred to as stock charting software, stock screeners, stock scanners or day trading apps.

These are tools which are principally used to perform technical analysis of stocks and market trends using trendlines, shapes, moving averages, momentum oscillators etc.

Stock trading platforms on the other hand are provided by licensed brokers. They allow you to buy and sell stocks and other assets from your Mac but their technical analysis features are often not as good as dedicated stock charting software.

Trading platforms do however usually include their own charting tools for identifying things like technical indicators and fundamental analysis numbers plus they usually include integration with news feeds, offer automated or copy trading etc.

Note that due to strict US trading laws, some stock trading platforms such are not available in the USA.

Trading apps for Mac on the other hand can be used worldwide in any country including North America.

Using MetaTrader 4 On a Mac

If you want to trade Forex or foreign currencies on your Mac, you may be wondering whether you can run MT4 on Mac.

MetaTrader has never been available for Mac and since the release of macOS Catalina, it’s become even harder to run MT4 on a Mac using Windows emulation software.

The reason is because MT4 is an ageing 32 bit application and macOS Catalina, Big Sur, Monterey, Ventura and Sonoma no longer support 32 bit apps.

There are still ways to run MT4 on a Mac (and also MT5) but it’s becoming increasingly complicated, restrictive and in our opinion, not worth the hassle or expense anymore.

Our advice is use TradingView instead of MetaTrader for day trading on a Mac because it offers many advantages that MT4 and MT5 do not.

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With this in mind, here are what we found to be the best stock charting software for Mac users in order of ranking.

1. TradingView (Free)

TradingView is an amazingly powerful yet easy to use community driven stock charting software that combines user knowledge with sophisticated analysis to make you a better trader.

The remarkable thing about TradingView is that most of the features are free to use including for those in the USA making it easily the best free trading software for Mac users.

You only have to upgrade to the paid plans if you want to remove some time frame limitations and get faster, real-time information although this is essential if you’re going to trade seriously.

Even better, TradingView now allows you to trade on the stock market in real time by connecting it to selected stock trading platforms such as Oanda, TradeStation, Gemini and FXCM.

tradingview brokers

Usually trading software falls into two categories – those for experienced traders and those for novices.

What we like so much about TradingView is that it’s powerful enough to satisfy any seasoned trader and yet it’s also easy enough for those new to trading to get into.

TradingView is highly respected and utilized across the stock trading industry illustrated by the fact that leading sites like Investopedia have integrated it into their services.

best stock trading software mac - tradingview

TradingView has rapidly risen from just a few thousand users in 2012 to almost seven million users today and is a very visual based stock tracking platform which is all about charts, charts and more charts.

It covers almost every asset class including stocks, forex, currencies, cryptos, futures and CFDs.

If you want to trade forex, we even recommend using TradingView as a better alternative to MT4 because it offers far more than MetaTrader and works on any platform.

Here are some of the outstanding factors that make TradingView our top pick:

  • The range of charts and analysis it provides is exceptional. By default the charts load a candlestick price and volume chart but there are many others including Spread, Renko, Kagi, Line Break and PNF charts. They not only look good but they include professional drawing tools such as Gann squares and fanns, Fibonacci retracements and circles, Elliott Waves and other technical indicators to help analyze price actions. You can embed any of these charts in a website and it will update in real-time or share them to Twitter, Facebook etc. TradingView even has its own Pine Script programming language which you can use to create your own signals and custom technical analysis.

stock trading software mac - tradingview

  • It’s a highly effective mix of both social networking and stock trading. There are a seemingly endless numbers of charts in TradingView, many of which are generated by users and genuinely help you trade better. From simple basic price charts to plotting complex spread symbols with overlayed strategy backtesting, you can do it all in TradingView. This makes it extremely accessible for beginners to stock charting on Mac but also provides in-depth analysis that professional traders will value.
  • Stock trading can be a lonely business and TradingView makes you feel less alone when taking big trading decisions. It’s all about harnessing the knowledge of its users, connecting traders and exchanging ideas on trades and market movements. Every user has their own TradingView profile where you can publish ideas, thoughts, tips and interact with other traders.

stock charting software mac - tradingview

  • The information shared in TradingView is genuine because it comes from grassroots users. Often with trading sites or publications the content is paid for and therefore biased in favor of companies promoting their stocks or PR blurbs. The tips shared across TradingView are based on the analysis and experience of real traders.
  • You can setup automatic movement alerts so that you will be notified when a stock falls or rises beyond a certain level or goes beyond things like Bollinger Bands channel. This includes email and SMS alerts.
  • Because it works in any browser, it also works on any platform including Mac desktop and PC. There’s also a native iOS app for iPhone and iPad which is pretty good too.
  • You can make trades in real time without ever leaving TradingView by connecting it to a stock broker platform. TradingView works with Oanda, TradeStation, Gemini and FXCM brokers to make trades. This also works for users in the USA unlike many of the tools featured here. TradingView also recently added support for the Indian broker Dhan making it the best trading stock trading software for India too.
  • Possibly the most impressive thing is that most of TradingView is free to use. In fact you can start using it immediately in your browser. The free version of TradingView is ad-supported although they’re not intrusive and the platform is extremely quick as it’s based on the highly responsive HTML5 language. You can easily get everything you want in the free version of TradingView although if you’re going to trade seriously, the paid plans are well worth it.
  • TradingView is one of the only stock trading tools that has a desktop app that works on the latest Apple Silicon Macs. It also works on the latest version of macOS Sonoma. 
  • The Essential, Plus and Premium plans start at $14.95 per month and the main advantage is that they provide faster real-time information, more intraday reports and no limits on time frames. Any trader will tell you that information is power when it comes to trading and the faster you have it, the better your chances at making money. The paid plans also remove all ads, allow you to have multiple charts open per tab and add feeds for NASDAQ, NYSE and NYMEX.

All paid plans allow you to try a fully functional 30 day free trial and we like the fact that unlike many stock trading apps, no credit card is needed to use the trial.

You also get 16% off TradingView paid plans if you pay annually rather than monthly.

If you want to maximize your profits and become a better trader on your Mac, TradingView is powerful yet accessible for all abilities.

You can get started using TradingView for free now to judge for yourself.

You can also check out our full TradingView review for more.

2. eToro (Best For Beginners)

***Below content does not apply to users in the USA

Disclaimer: 74% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

eToro has rapidly become one of the biggest stock trading platforms out there with an estimated 5 million users and covers just about every major trading asset including Currencies, Indices and Commodities (CFDs).

eToro has been available in most countries since 2007 but not in the USA or Canada until recently.

The good news is that eToro USA has been rolled out.

However, the US version of eToro is only available for cryptocurrency trading – it does not support CFDs.

What makes eToro different to most stock trading platforms is that it focuses on connecting successful traders in order to harness collective experiences and knowledge in stock trading.

 

stock trading etoro watchlist

eToro could therefore be described as a “social network stock trading tool” which aims to pool the experience of traders so that everyone wins.

If you imagine what would happen if you mixed Facebook with a stock trading platform, then you get a good idea of what eToro is like.

eToro is a secure trading platform as it has bases worldwide and is subject to strict European and US banking laws.

eToro’s biggest selling point is the eToro CopyTrader system that allows you to copy the trades of expert traders, known as Popular Investors.

It’s an excellent starting point for anyone new to trading as you learn more about trading at the same time. You can copy just individual trades or entire portfolios of the most successful traders.

stock trading etoro copytrader
Past performance is not an indication of future results. Trading history presented is less than 5 complete years and may not suffice as basis for investment decision.

This social trading network doesn’t mean you are guaranteed to make money but it does mean that your trades are more likely to succeed and provides a guiding hand for beginners.

In fact some of eToro’s Popular Investors even managed to:

  • Perform better than some of the most successful Wall Street wealth managers
  • Ride through setbacks and turn a profit with a comprehensive, long-term strategy

You can only use a maximum of 40% of your capital on copy trades but you can set limits on when to stop copying if losses exceed a certain amount.

So even though professional traders may look at eToro and think it’s too lightweight, if you’re good enough to become a Popular Investor you also earn a commission on the trades of those users that copy you.

While this may all sound like money for nothing but it’s also not that straightforward.

You must also be careful when selecting a trader to copy on eToro however as some may appear more successful than they actually are or are using very little capital in the hope that others will copy them and they’ll earn commission off it.

Many of the traders on eToro appear to be quite high risk traders which carries with it high potential returns but obvious risks too.

Another tip is to look for Verified Traders as those traders use their real identities ad verified by eToro and therefore you reduce the risk of following “fake” profiles.

eToro is however still the best trading platform for beginners as the CopyTrader system makes it unbelievably easy for trading novices.

Trading costs for eToro vary on a daily basis and depend on what type of asset you’re trading.

You can open an account with as little as $50 although this can vary from region to region.

Users in most countries can sign up here for an eToro demo account which allows you to paper trade with $100,000 in order to see if it’s for you or not.

Disclaimer: 74% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money. Copy Trading does not amount to investment advice. The value of your investments may go up or down. Your capital is at risk.

Users in the USA can also check out our eToro USA review.

We also recommended reading our full international eToro review which showcases all the features that eToro has to offer.

3. IQ Option (Best For Europe)

Not Available In The USA, Canada, UK, Belgium or Czech Republic

What we really like about IQ Option is that not only does it have an excellent Mac app, it’s incredibly user friendly but has powerful technical analysis tools.

Disclaimer: 76% of retail CFD accounts lose money when trading CFDs

IQ Option is an online broker and the best European stock trading software that is available in most EU countries including Germany, Spain, Italy and Portugal.

Note that IQ Option is not open to users in the USA or Canada or Belgium and the Czech and Republic in Europe.

IQ Option finds a perfect balance between feeling professional but also being extremely easy to use and intuitive.

IQ Option has been in the trading game since 2013 and now allows you to trade in over 300 assets including forex, stocks via CFDs (Contract For Differences), ETFs and cryptocurrencies.

IQ Option can be accessed online via your browser but the Mac desktop client is faster and more convenient.

iq option for mac

The interface on IQ Option is clean and logical providing time-history data and important technical indicators such as RSI and Bollinger bands.

iq option interface

IQ Option is relatively easy for newcomers to learn and there’s a very active community of professional, knowledgeable traders that you can chat directly with and share trading tips.

The online platform is updated on a regular basis although it’s not clear if all updates are applied to the Mac desktop app as well.

IQ Option only requires a minimum deposit of €20 to get started which is less than most other trading platforms and you can trade with a minimum of $1.

The maximum deposit possible is $1,000,000 per day and the maximum investment you can make in a trade is $20,000.

There’s no minimum withdrawal requirement although if you deposit through a credit card, you can only withdraw the same amount that that you invested via the card.

Withdrawals by bank transfer are also limited to  a minimum of €100.

However, you can also use an eWallet for withdrawals for which there are no limits.

There’s also an IQ Option mobile app for both iOS and Android. Unfortunately, Options are not available on the iOS app but they are on Android.

iq option for mac

If you have any problems with withdrawing funds or technical problems with the platform itself, support is available 24/7.

We also like the fact that there’s no hard sell with IQ Option like there is with some platforms.

It’s quite common to find that when you open an account with a trading platform but don’t deposit anything, you receive cold calls asking why.

This doesn’t seem to be the policy with IQ Option which is a refreshing change and maybe a sign of a company that believes in a product that sells itself.

You can open a free $10,000 demo account with IQ Option to find out for yourself.

Disclaimer: 76% of retail CFD accounts lose money when trading CFDs

You can also check out our full IQ Option review for more.

4. Market Gear (Best For Pros & Options)

Market Gear is an incredibly powerful and comprehensive stock trading tool to help make you a better trader.

Market Gear is a relatively new stock trading software from iVest+ which is a big player in the world of trading platforms for educators and retail investors.

Among the many things we really like about Market Gear is that it’s one of the few with a Mac desktop client even though it can be used online in any browser too.

It has an incredibly comprehensive set of technical analysis and tools and clever integration of them all across the board.

market gear charts

In particular, the Options trading features in Market Gear are one of the most advanced we’ve seen on any stock trading app.

For example, if you want to put on a bull call spread, Market Gear can analyze where you will make and lose money and make quick changes, but you can’t break the concept of the bull call spread.

It’s also one of the only stock trading software that allows you to trade multiple brokers within the app. So if you’re experiencing problems with one brokers, you can switch to another trading account instantly.

We also really like the trade journal which automatically documents your best trades so that you can learn which strategies work and which don’t.

Market Gear might be a bit overwhelming for beginners to stock trading but it’s powerful enough to impress any seasoned stock trader.

You can try Market Gear for free and get an exclusive 50% discount here.

You can also read our full Market Gear review for more.

5. MotiveWave (Best For Mac Desktops)

MotiveWave is a professional multi-asset trading software for Mac that not only does powerful technical analysis but is integrated with multiple brokers and financial data delivery services.

If you’re looking for a Mac desktop app that allows you to both analyze and trade at the same time, MotiveWave is the perfect solution.

You can even trade from MotiveWave on your Mac as its integrated with selected major brokers such as Oanda, TD Ameritrade and Forex.com.

If your broker isn’t supported, it may also be possible to connect it via a Gateway Connector such as Rithmic or CQG which MotiveWave will advise you on.

What we really like about MotiveWave is that you can download a native Mac app that’s highly customizable and allows you to both analyze stocks and trade from your Mac desktop.

The app is optimized for High Resolution 4K displays and looks really good on macOS. It’s also frequently updated for each release of macOS and is compatible with the latest versions of macOS Sonoma and Ventura.

stock app for mac - motivewave

MotiveWave is extremely powerful and can analyze massive amounts of market data to reveal trends, issues and other things that you might ordinarily miss.

For example, MotiveWave automatically looks for complex patterns such as Elliott Wave Patterns and Gartley Harmonic Shapes in order to identify trading opportunities.

Other advanced features include Replay Mode, Advanced Alerts based on multiple market signals, Component Alerts and Multiple Monitor Support. MotiveWave is backed by some pretty powerful algorithms that you can even modify to customize according to your own needs.

Note that MotiveWave is firmly aimed at professionals and those with considerable experience in stock trading so it’s less accessible than TradingView for beginners.

If you know what you’re doing when it comes to stock trading and are looking for a professional trading tool on your Mac, then MotiveWave is definitely a contender worth checking.

MotiveWave pricing starts at $24/month for the Standard Charts plan with 3 other plans available depending on your needs.

You can also sign-up for a free trial of MotiveWave to see what you think for yourself.

You can check out our full MotiveWave review for more.

6. Interactive Investor (Best For UK Traders)

Not Available In The USA

If you’re a UK based trader then look no further than Interactive Investor.

Interactive Investor is an award winning online investment platform and only open to UK residents but it does allow you to buy shares in other foreign exchanges including the US.

Interactive Investor has some easy to use charting tools with stock quotes, price charts, watch lists and there are plenty of useful education resources for becoming a better trader.

Interactive Investor offers a very competitive flat rate of £12.99 per month for SIPPs and it also offers ISA, Ethical and General Investment Accounts (GIAs).

If you have a SIPP plus an ISA or GIA there is an additional £7 fee which costs £19.99 overall for the Service Plan.

Alternatively, you can have just an ISA or GIA for £9.99 per month.

At the moment Interactive Investor is also waiving its monthly SIPP fee for 6 months.

interactive investor

If you trade frequently, Interactive Investor works out extremely good value as the flat fee allows you to trade as much as you want.

You can start trading immediately with Interactive Investor as long as you have a UK address, debit card and National Insurance number.

7. TrendSpider

TrendSpider is all about automating market analysis and from market scanners to heat-maps and alerts, it does it very well indeed.

TrendSpider has a range of powerful tools that are constantly analyzing multiple market conditions at one time and then alert you when the time is right to buy or sell.

Some of the features that make TrendSpider so useful are automated trendline detection, automated heatmaps, market scanner, strategy tester and customizable alerts.

trendspider market scanner

In particular the multi time frame analysis and dynamic price alerts help spot profitable trades far more easily than manually analyzing the market yourself.

The dynamic price alerts are also superb at detecting Bounces and Breakthroughs.

The multi time frame analyzer allows you to visualize more than one time frame in the same chart which is extremely useful when assessing historical data and performance of stocks and currencies.

Although we think that TradingView is better for charting, TrendSpider is the best automated technical scanner for stocks and forex we’ve seen.

TrendSpider starts at $149 per month (however you can get a 50% discount if you pay annually) and you can also try TrendSpider for free to see what you think for yourself.

You can also read our full TrendSpider review for more.

8. TC2000

Until recently the incredibly popular TC2000 was only available for Windows but you can now download TC2000 for Mac too.

TC2000 has been around for over 25 years and is a powerful stock charting, option screening and trading tool.

TC2000 now works on Mac thanks to the free Parallels Client tool which connects to a TC2000 remotely so that you can use it as a Mac desktop application. This also works for iPad, iPhone and other mobile devices.

Alternatively, you can also use TC2000 in any web browser on a Mac.

TC2000 is well thought out with a comprehensive dashboard that gives you charts, all US stocks & options, indicators, streaming data, option chains, trading windows, notepad and favorites watchlist.

tc2000 for mac

Although you can’t connect TC2000 to external brokers, you can open a brokerage account with TC2000.

TC2000 is one of the few trading platforms that still charges commissions on trades but it also has some of the lowest margin rates out there.

There is also a monthly fee for use of the desktop trading tool. TC2000 is available in Silver, Gold or Platinum versions starting at $9.99 per month for the Silver version.

If you’re looking for a truly professional stock trading software and platform on your Mac desktop, TC2000 is about as established and powerful as it gets although it doesn’t come cheap.

You can try TC2000 on Mac for free with no need for a credit card.

9. Trade Ideas

Trade Ideas is an online stock scanner that makes the difficult task of picking profitable trades easier.

If you’re looking for something powerful for intraday stock scanning, Trade Ideas has many different powerful built-in preset scans to help identify profitable trades.

Trade Ideas is aimed particularly at intraday traders, momentum traders, swing traders and scalpers. It excels at finding fast moving stocks and then taking trades on the first or second pullbacks.

The basic version of Trade Ideas is free although to unlock its best features, you’ll need to upgrade to one of the full versions.

trade ideas oddsmaker

Trade Ideas is quite complex to get to grips with for beginners and you need to invest some serious time learning the basics to get the best out of it.

The main features of Trade Ideas that stand out are:

  • Artificial Intelligence which can test up to a million different trading scenarios at once
  • Brokerage Plus which allows you to create scans and then trade in real time with an Interactive Brokers account
  • Odds Maker Window which uses event based backtesting to score how well scans, entry signals and trading plans perform
  • Alert Windows which support multiple time frames and tell you when certain parameters have been met
  • Chart Windows allows you to visually confirm an alert without leaving the Trade Ideas Pro platform
  • Full Quote Windows gives you an instant overview of a stock’s fundamentals with performance over time
  • Top List Windows which dynamically ranks market data every 30 seconds
  • Channel Bar which are per-configured layouts such as Premarket, After Hours, Social, Crypto, Volume and more
  • Compare Count Windows which compare any two strategies with real time updates

It’s important to be aware however that Trade Ideas doesn’t specialize in charting such as tools like TradingView does.

This means there aren’t many indicators but the automated scanning features are still surprisingly powerful and insightful.

You can sign-up and try Trade Ideas free to judge for yourself.

You can also checkout our full Trade Ideas review.

10. ProTA

ProTA is one of the most established technical analysis software packages for Mac and has been around for over 20 years.

ProTA is designed specifically for Mac and it shows because it’s certainly has one of the best looking interfaces of any trading software for macOS.

ProTA is aimed both at beginners and seasoned traders and among the many features are more than 100 indicators, line studies, smartlists, chart templates and trading systems.

You can even customize ProTA using something called ProTAscript which allows you to create your own customized screens, analytics and trading systems. trading software mac - prota

Like Mastock, ProTA uses Yahoo Finance to extract end of day financial data and continuously updates data automatically to make sure you’re making trading decisions based on the latest figures.

You can import your own Excel data, drill-down tickers to analyze market data and create your own rules for data tracking although you’ll need to read the 200 page ProTA user guide to get a grip on how ProTA’s own formula based programming language works.

A lot of thought has gone into both the design and features of ProTA and it’s a trading software that will definitely appeal to those that like their software fully tailored for macOS without skimping on power and features.

You can download a free trial of ProTA which is unlimited in use but is limited to a certain number of tickers.

You can unlock everything by upgrading to a full one year license for $99 or $299 for a four-year license.

11. Vestinda

Vestinda is a relative newcomer to stock trading but has a fresh, modern template based approach that make it very easy for beginners to stock trading to use.

Vestinda has become popular with cryptotraders although it can be used for Forex, Stocks, Indices, ETFs and Commodities too.

It is designed to automatically generate and back-test trading strategies. The app is designed to “set and forget” meaning once you’ve set it up, there’s no need to keep logging-in and check on how your stocks are doing.

It will simply send you emails or alerts when trades have closed or certain thresholds have been met if you want it to.

You can also customize the frequency of these alerts if you don’t want to get bombarded all the time.

vestinda desktop

 

Vestinda offers a choice of trading strategy templates that it will apply to your stocks. These include common strategies like Golden Cross, Breakout and Moving Momentum Trend templates.

If you find that one template isn’t working so well, you can simply switch in a few clicks.

Alternatively, you can create your own customized trading strategy based on a few simple questions about your risk appetite, investment time scale and other factors.

Vestinda is very easy to setup and use with lots of useful trading resources, video and tutorials to get you started.

You can try a 14 day free trial of the Vestinda Pro plan and pricing starts at $5 per month for the Explorer plan.

12. Latinum

Latinum is a professional trading and technical analysis software for Mac and PC.

If you’re going to be trading Stocks, Cryptocurrencies Forex and CFDs (Contract for Difference) then Latinum is a good choice as it supports streaming quotes for Forex and CFDs.

It also supports stocks although there’s a slightly cheaper version called Latinum Stocks ($64.99) if that’s all you want to analyze.

Latinum is designed for discretionary (non-automated) traders and quickly enables you to determine risk, make orders quickly via a Mini Order Ticket feature and more easily manage order and positions with a Mini Blotter.

You can even trade Forex on Latinum by linking it to FXCM Trading Station and Marketscope broker accounts although unfortunately it no longer supports OANDA for stock trading.

Latinum also has a trading simulator which you can practice paper trades on.

You can try the free demo of Latinum but to unlock all features, the full version is $99.99.

latinum for mac

How To Run Windows Stock Trading Software On Mac

If none of the apps reviewed here meet your trading needs and you want to run a popular PC or Windows-based software NinjaTrader or X-TRADER on your Mac, you can run Windows 10 for free on a Mac.

This isn’t an ideal solution because it’s very demanding on your Mac’s RAM and it involves the extra cost of buying virtualization software. But if you can’t live without your Windows trading software, it’s the best solution.

You can read more about how to use virtualization software to run NinjaTrader on Mac here.

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