Trading Lab

Educational software · no real money

Learn to trade with paper money.

Trading Lab is a desktop app with charts, a simulated brokerage account, a portfolio planner, a trading journal, a library of strategy lessons, and a Claude assistant that can see the chart you are looking at and teach from it.

Download View on GitHub

Windows, macOS and Linux.

The Trading Lab window: a candlestick chart with moving averages and volume, and the Claude panel on the right

Everything you need to practise, in one window

Real market data, a simulated account and a teacher who can read your screen.

Charts that keep up

Candlestick, bar, line, area and Heikin Ashi charts from 1-minute to monthly, with 20+ studies, drawing tools, and live order lines you can drag. The chart refreshes itself while the market is open.

A paper brokerage account

Market, limit, stop, stop-limit and trailing orders, brackets and OCO, from a Think-or-Swim-style ticket. Fills come from real 1-minute bars. Keep several accounts that mirror your real ones.

A portfolio planner

Give each stock, ETF or mutual fund a target percentage and see how many shares your money buys. Track value and drift, link it to a paper account, and plan a partial sale to take profits.

Size trades from risk

A position calculator turns your risk, your own limits and the live price and ATR into a share count. A journal records the plan, your reasoning and the real result.

Lessons built in

40+ strategy lessons on candlesticks, chart patterns, trend, breakouts, day trading, long-term investing and trading psychology, with 60+ candlestick patterns and one-click chart setups.

Research screens

Quotes, analyst ratings, fundamentals, delayed options chains, symbol and market news, sector performance, a stock screener, and Senate and House trade disclosures.

A Claude assistant

Ask about your chart, your account, your journal or your portfolio. Claude can read the chart, draw on it and set up an order ticket for you to review. It can never place, change or cancel an order.

Yours to keep

Everything is stored on your computer in one database, with one-click backup and restore. A full Help library, a built-in update check and a choice of default AI model are included.

A look around

The Portfolio screen: five holdings with target percentages, prices and the shares the plan would buy
Portfolio. Turn target percentages into shares, track value, and link it to a paper account.
The Trading Strategies library with a lesson open
Strategy library. Lessons with rules, practice, quizzes and one-click chart setups.
An options chain with calls and puts, strikes and greeks
Options. Delayed chains, greeks and the expected move, for learning.
A trading journal entry with plan, reasoning and outcome
Journal. Plan, reasoning and the real outcome, computed from your fills.

Download

Looking up the latest version…

What you need

  • A Financial Modeling Prep API key for live market data. Without one the app runs on sample data and trading is switched off. Intraday history and some screens need a paid FMP plan.
  • An Anthropic API key for the Claude panel. It is optional: everything else works without it.
  • On Linux, a running keyring (gnome-keyring or KWallet) so the keys can be stored encrypted.

Installing

  • Windows: run the installer. The app is not code-signed yet, so SmartScreen may warn: choose More info, then Run anyway.
  • macOS: open the .dmg and drag the app to Applications. It is not notarized yet, so the first time, right-click it and choose Open. Choose Apple Silicon for an M-series Mac, Intel otherwise.
  • Linux: make the AppImage executable and run it, or install the .deb with sudo apt install ./file.deb.

The app checks GitHub for updates (you can turn that off in About) and never installs anything by itself. The Windows and macOS builds are newer than the Linux one; if something does not work, please open an issue.

Your data stays on your computer

Accounts, orders, the journal, watchlists, portfolios and settings live in a single local database. Your API keys are stored encrypted in your system keyring when one is available, and your market data key is only ever sent to the data provider.

The app talks to Financial Modeling Prep (market data), Cboe (delayed options), Anthropic (the assistant, only when you chat) and GitHub (the update check). When you chat, your message, a summary of what is on screen and any tool results Claude asks for are sent to Anthropic.

Honest limits

  • Educational software, not investment advice. Nothing in the app or on this page tells you what to buy or sell.
  • Paper trading is simpler than real trading. Fills come from 1-minute bars, with no commissions, slippage, partial fills, extended hours or market holidays, so paper results look better than real ones would. Real money also changes how people behave.
  • Data has limits. Prices may be delayed depending on your data plan, options data is delayed and unofficial, and congressional trades are disclosed up to 45 days late.
  • There is no live brokerage connection. The app never trades real money.
  • AI can be wrong. Claude reads the same data you see and can still make mistakes. You make every decision.