4 best laptops for stock trading and finance in 2024

You may not be able to compete with investment banks, which are physically moving their headquarters closer and closer to stock exchanges to achieve the fastest response times, but at least you can get faster hardware. It is important to use a suitable laptop for stock trading. Because seconds can be the difference between making a big profit or not, and you don’t want your laptop to lag or slow down when every second is precious. That is why we have done our best to collect some of the best laptops for trading so that you can focus on trading and not worry about how well your laptop is doing.

Best laptop for stock trading

• If you want the best overall laptop for stock trading, buy the Dell XPS 15
• If you want the best Apple laptop for stock trading, buy the M2 MacBook Air 15
• If you want the best dual-screen laptop for stock trading, buy the Zenbook Pro Duo 15
• If you need a thin and light laptop for stock trading, buy the LG Gram 17.

Dell XPS 15

Best overall laptop for stock trading

This Dell XPS 15 does a great job of ticking all the boxes when it comes to stock trading hardware while being relatively affordable. For example, it comes with 32 GB of DDR5 RAM. This is very important if you have a lot of different windows, apps, graphs, etc. open. It’s also much faster than DDR4, giving you a slight performance boost, but RAM capacity is more important than speed for stock trading applications.

CPU isn’t that important, especially since most stock trading apps aren’t all that CPU intensive other than keeping things running smoothly. To that end, the Dell XPS 15 includes: The Intel Core i7-13700H is a mid- to high-end CPU that is sufficient to handle most stock trading apps smoothly. It’s also great for general productivity tasks, so if you want to use it for other more business-oriented tasks, it works perfectly too.

Another important aspect is the screen. It’s a 15.6-inch screen running a 1920 x 1200 resolution, which is perfectly fine for most use cases, but you can upgrade to the 3.5k OLED version if you want something more user-friendly. eye. If you choose a resolution of 1920 x 1200, the peak brightness can reach 500 nits, making it ideal if you work in very bright environments. It also has a nice keyboard to type on, and the touchpad isn’t too bad either, but you’ll likely be using an external mouse anyway.

Apple MacBook Air 15 (M2)

Best Apple laptops for stock trading

If you are an Apple user, M2 MacBook Air 15 is one of your best options. There’s also a higher-end MacBook Pro 16 for him with a larger screen and more RAM, but that easily costs him $1,000 more. I don’t think the extra inches and RAM are worth it. On the other hand, if you want 18GB of RAM and a bigger screen, you should definitely check out the M3 Pro MacBook Pro 16, which offers a high-end experience.

On the other hand, if you want to stick with your MacBook Air 15, you’ll be happy with 16GB of RAM. There is no problem with having different apps and windows open at the same time. time. Similarly, the 15-inch screen is reasonably large and, as it’s a Liquid Retina display, the color reproduction is excellent, making it ideal for long periods of staring. It also operates at a resolution of 2880 x 1864 and reaches an impressive peak brightness of 500 nits.

Of course, one of the best things about the MacBook Air 15 is that it’s extremely thin and extremely light. It’s only 0.44 inches thick, so you can easily slip it into your bag or under your armpit. The Touch ID sensor is also ideal for anyone working with sensitive documents that require some form of authentication. This is a unique feature that some other laptops don’t have. One thing to note, though, is that not all apps are compatible with macOS, so before dropping the big bucks on a MacBook Air 15, make sure the apps you rely on will work on his MacO. please confirm.

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ASUS Zenbook Pro Duo 15

Dual screen laptop perfect for stock trading

It’s not often you see dual-screen laptops in action, but the Zenbook Pro Duo 15 is quite unique and offers many interesting opportunities for stock trading. The main screen is a 15-inch 3840 x 2160 resolution OLED display, which is definitely one of the best out there, especially since it’s made for graphics work. When it comes to smaller screens, the 14-inch 4K touchscreen pops up diagonally so you can draw, place additional stock trading apps, tickers, charts, or whatever you want without having to carry around a second screen. You can You and.

When it comes to performance, it comes with an Intel i7-12700H that can easily handle productivity and stock trading tasks without slowing down. 16GB of DDR5 RAM is also plenty for most applications, but it’s always worth double-checking if you feel you need more. You might also be interested to know that it has an RTX 3070 Ti GPU. This isn’t very useful for stock trading, but if you want a laptop that can also play games, it does.

Of course, I would like to point out that there are some drawbacks to this very unique laptop. First, the smaller screen takes up more of the usual keyboard space, meaning both the screen and the touchpad are cramped, so be sure to take that into account. Also, trying to run two screens will drain your battery life, especially if you also want to play games. Therefore, please note that it cannot run for more than 5 hours or so. This is the best situation. -Case scenario. Still, this is a pretty unique laptop and worth considering if you feel you need an extra screen.

LG Gram 17

Thin portable laptop perfect for stock trading

For some people, portability is one of the most important things, and the LG Gram 17 certainly delivers on that. At just 0.7 inches thick, it’s pretty close to the MacBook Air in terms of thickness, which is pretty impressive for a product with these specs and a GPU inside. Admittedly, the RTX 3050 is an entry-level card that can only do light gaming, but it definitely gives you more versatility, especially if you also need to do things like graphics and photo editing. It also makes it easier to support his second screen for work, especially when working with high resolutions.

It’s also very light at 3.2 pounds, making it very easy to carry around, assuming you don’t mind the huge 17-inch screen and large size. It runs at WQXGA resolution and provides plenty of space for apps, charts, browser pages, and anything else you can think of. It’s not exactly the same as just having a big 24-inch or 27-inch screen, but it’s as close as you can get to being portable. That said, one downside to such a lightweight and large laptop is that it feels a bit flimsy and flexible. Therefore, please be careful when using it.

In terms of processing power, it’s running an Intel Core i7 Evo, the same kind of mid- to high-end CPU we’ve seen so far, making it perfect for most stock trading tasks. On the other hand, the LG Gram 17 in this configuration comes with a whopping 32GB of RAM, which should be more than enough to open as much as you want. Finally, since most of your stock trading is done online, 2 TB of storage probably isn’t a big deal, but it’s a little extra, especially if you’re storing shows, movies, music, and even games. It’s convenient.

How I chose these laptops for stock trading

CPU and RAM

When it comes to stock trading, both CPU and RAM are important for related reasons. When it comes to CPU, you need something that can handle your stock trading app without causing lag or slowdowns, especially when every second counts. I just want something that really works, but at the same time, there’s no point in investing in a high-end CPU with very little and diminishing returns. Therefore, a mid- to high-end Intel i7 is preferred. This uses his Ryzen R7 CPU. Most of the options listed above have an Intel i7 under the hood, except for the Apple option, which runs the equivalent M2 chip.

When it comes to RAM, stock trading often requires many apps and browser tabs, which are notorious for hogging RAM. For this, it is important to have a sufficient amount of RAM, and for this, the ideal minimum is 16 GB, 32 GB is even better, although it is not necessary. We’ve provided several options for each, but Apple’s selection has higher-end, more expensive options with more RAM.

screen

If you have too many tabs or apps open, you can also view them. You’ll also need to keep track of some information, so the more screen space you have, the better. So anything less than 15 inches is probably too small to handle. That’s why none of our picks go below that, and we include at least one 17-inch pick in case you feel you need more screen space.

GPU

GPUs are actually completely useless for stock trading, but that’s not good news for stock traders who also like gaming. On the other hand, it can be useful for running a second screen, especially if you’re running higher resolutions like 2k or 4k that the integrated or onboard GPU may not be able to handle. Therefore, if you want to use one or more additional displays, choosing a laptop with a graphics card can be very helpful.

battery life

This can go either way. Some stock traders are always close to an office space or outlet, while others move around frequently. The problem is that longer battery life always comes with compromises, such as lower specs or smaller screens. So it’s good to have a solid understanding of your usage and how much battery life you actually need and what you’re getting if you choose a worse battery.

This article is managed and created separately from the Digital Trends Editorial Department.

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