Title kinda says it all, what are some good tools for retail traders? Whether it be actual physical tools to help you trade or virtual tools that will really help. Any information is greatly appreciated!

I'm relatively new to the stock market (about 3 to 5 years of experience) and I'm finding myself in a bit of a tough spot with this current market downturn. I've been watching the free fall, and I'm struggling to figure out how long it might last.

I understand market cycles can be unpredictable, but I'm hoping to get some perspective from more experienced traders. Are there any indicators or patterns that you look for when determining how long these kinds of downturns last?

Are you just doing DCA ?

I've seen a lot of discussion here about why Trump is doing these tariffs. For example, I've seen:

1. He is doing this to bring manufacturing back to the U.S.A.
   
2. He is doing this to "punish" countries for their tariffs and trade imbalances on and with the U.S.A.
   
3. He doesn't know what he's doing, and is dumb and/or short-sighted.
   

While I see where the logic for these explanations is coming from, I think there is a very real chance that the true explanation is that Trump's tariffs are a political weapon, designed to give him leverage over nearly every country, industry, and company. By instituting tariffs, rather than just threatening them, now the clock is ticking: countries, industries, and companies are frantically trying to figure out what to do.

Think about it: first, Trump went after universities, threatening to withhold funding unless they caved to his demands about diversity and pro-Palestinian protestors. This has already forced major institutions, like Columbia, to bend the knee to him.

Then, Trump went after big law firms and their clients, threatening through Executive Orders to cut off their access and intimidate them. This has already resulted in major law firms (Paul Weiss and Skadden) to forge "settlements" to do free pro bono work to the President's bidding, though luckily some of these firms (Perkins Coie) have had the integrity to fight back and sue.

Following this logic, it follows that Trump with his tariffs doesn't legitimately believe what he is telling the public about his intentions. Far more likely, I think, that he is using these tariffs to force pledges of loyalty, concessions, and "deals" with countries, industries, and companies.

This is not my original idea, to be fair; I heard it from U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D - Connecticut). He has pointed out that democratically-elected leaders turned despot/authoritarian/fascist will use tools like this to maintain power. Trump knows he cannot be reelected due to term limits, so how does he hold on to power? Like this. It is a slippery slope towards becoming a dictator.

I can only hope that some countries/industries/companies see through this B.S. and fight back, but it is likely that many—now that their finances are being hurt—will bend the knee.

Going back to the common explanations for Trump's tariffs, here are my counterarguments:

1. If this was intended to bring manufacturing back to the U.S.A., that doesn't make a lot of sense. Companies aren't just going to upend decades of supply chains to invest billions into a country whose people don't want a lot of dirty, hard-work manufacturing jobs, especially when everything could (likely) revert back when Trump is out of office in 4 years.
   
2. I won't pretend to be an economist, but a big reason for the trade imbalances is because Americans like buying stuff from XYZ countries. That isn't those countries' fault, necessarily. And moreover, the chart Trump showed at the White House Rose Garden this week did not accurately reflect the actual tariff rates that foreign countries place on the U.S.A—it included trade imbalances, which makes zero sense and is highly misleading, if not an outright lie.
   
3. Trump may appear dumb, but he has scores of well-planned sycophants from groups like the Heritage Foundation (Project 2025 authors) that are advising him. It is highly unlikely that they planned so much of his presidency, but the tariffs themselves were an afterthought.
   

Now granted, we have heard rumors that the tariffs were hastily put together, and that Trump's team may have used ChatGPT to write some of the policy out. At first, this appears to support explanation no. 3. However, I think the hasty nature of these tariff policies actually supports the idea that they are purely intended as political weapons: it doesn't matter what exactly the tariffs are, what matters is creating immediate leverage.

Curious for the community's thoughts.

Disclosure: I have divested heavily from the U.S. markets and gone into EU stocks, especially defense. I am also short TSLA, DJT, and Air Canada.

EDIT: As seeming proof of this theory, American journalist Kara Swisher reported on BlueSky today that "Several sources tell me a passel of high profile tech and also finance leaders is making a trip to Mar-a-Lago to read Trump the riot act — um talk common sense — to him on the tariffs. Their million dollar donations to the inauguration is turning into billions in losses."

Translation, I think: executives are bending over backwards to try and get concessions from Trump. This shows he has leverage over them already.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/china-files-complaint-wto-over-124325157.html

GENEVA (Reuters) - China said it had opened a formal complaint against the new U.S. tariffs with the World Trade Organization on Friday, saying the measures violate WTO rules and requesting consultations.

Earlier, China announced retaliatory additional tariffs of 34% on U.S. goods, the most serious escalation in a trade war with President Donald Trump that has fed fears of a recession and touched off a global stock market rout.

"China has filed the WTO complaint with respect to the United States' measures," the Permanent Mission of China to the World Trade Organization said in a statement.

The new tariffs blatantly violate WTO rules, it added.

In the standoff between the world's top two economies, Beijing also announced controls on exports of some rare earths which it dominates, potentially cutting the U.S. off from critical minerals vital to everything from smartphones to electric car batteries and defence.

Trump on Wednesday announced China would be hit with a 34% tariff, on top of the 20% he previously imposed earlier this year, bringing the total new levies to 54% and close to the 60% figure he had threatened while on the campaign trail.

Chinese exporters, like those from other economies around the world, will face a 10% baseline tariff, as part of the new 34% levy, on almost all goods shipped to the world's largest consumer economy from Saturday before the remaining, higher "reciprocal tariffs" take effect from April 9.

China on Thursday urged the United States to immediately cancel its latest tariffs.

The WTO Secretariat confirmed to Reuters on Friday that it had received the request for consultations from China.

Bilateral consultations are the first stage of formal dispute settlement. If no solution is found within 60 days, China could request adjudication by the Geneva-based organisation's Dispute Settlement Body.

I get that most people are doom and gloom right now, and everyone is predicting the market is going to drop further. That's totally fair, and is probably true, but I would love to get people's take on companies they've been eyeing that they would recommend/consider at current prices. Thank you!

Here are a couple I was looking at w current valuations:

• UBER
• SNAP
• HIMS
• FSLY
• GOOGL
• BLK

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-04/retail-traders-keep-plowing-into-us-stocks-but-pace-is-slowing

The first signs of capitulation among normally bullish retail traders are showing up in data at JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Fidelity Investments.

JPMorgan reported retail orders amount to net selling of $1.5 billion as of noon Friday, the most in the first 2.5 hours of trading in its history. That came a day after the firm’s figures showed individuals were net buyers of $4.7 billion of shares, the biggest day over the past decade.

At Fidelity’s brokerage unit, individual investors were still buying their favorite stocks and exchange-traded funds Friday, but the level of purchasing relative to sale orders showed a slowdown from the prior day.

Retail investors have for years been reliable buyers of any meaningful pullback in American equities. The bet this week was that the market rout triggered by President Donald Trump’s trade war would present a buying opportunity in the long run.

Was that foolish of me? If the public knew about "Liberation Day" then wouldn't the stock market respond accordingly before then? And not wait to tumble when the tariffs were announced? I've heard that the tariffs were announced at 10% but ultimately they were much higher than that. Is that why the markets went down?

Also, was I naive AGAIN for thinking we may have bottomed out YESTERDAY and then still free-falling today?

Just trying to cope here. Unfortunately it's too late to sell at this point 😒

I went through a list of stocks this morning and almost everything was red but most of the green stocks represented some sort of clothing apparel company. Why? Examples include Nike (which is down about 26% in the past month), Abercrombie and Fitch, Under Armour, Guess, Footlocker, American Apparel, Lululemon, Sketchers, Adidas etc. Considering their reliance on Asian countries, I’m trying to understand why the market responded this way on 4/4/25

There was the Dot Com Bubble, Great Recession, Covid Recession, Great Depression of course. Are there any names that stick with today’s love of naming things?

I think Reddit should be tasked with naming this bear market before the media gets its hands on it.

Try to take into all factors! Get creative!

They normally say "don't time the market", but these are abnormal times.

With the current instability of the market and Trump policies, is it better to withold 401k contributions until later or keep on doing my normal contributions (and DCA the current market)? Either way, I plan on having my contributions maxed out by the end of the year anyways.

I don’t get why people are panicking. This is a self inflicted crash, literally “artificial”. It’s based on decisions and not catastrophic unavoidable events.

This means, it won’t last. It’s a switch. If turned off, we’ll see so much green that our eyes will turn blue.

People in this group kept asking which stocks to buy, and asking for advice as most stocks were very expensive. Literally so many stocks even value stocks like $MKC who is a value stock, was priced 6 years out with growth. $MKC had a P/E of 28 and growth rate of 1-3% yearly.

Finally; this creates an opportunity for cheap stocks. If you even dare, buy call options 1-2 years out.

I purchased $CLF $10 call options, that are out till 2027. Many other call options will be added Monday. This opportunity is one I’ll be telling my kids about when they ask me how we got so rich.

If you’re a similar thinker like me, I’d love to hear some names you’re going to buy. Drop them in the comments, and a very short DD would be appreciated. I have lots of cash on the sidelines, would love to start utilizing it.

Buy buy buy.

My current names I’ll be adding:

$CLF $XIFR $CVE $LIF $NVDA $GOOG $AMZN $HOOD $LULU $SHOP $DIS

Like all prices, supply and demand are the key variable to watch.

With inflation in particular everyone understands inflation to be the increase in prices. No argument. However, I would like to provide an alternative definition, the devaluation of money. It’s important to remember this distinction because it plates a crucial role in pricing that we have seen in this violent 2 day sell off.

Tariffs came in higher than expected leading to the sell off. This has second and 3rd order consequences. More revenue expectations for the US which means lower deficit which means lower debt which means less money printed which means less debasement of the currency which means a stronger currency which means less inflation!

Think I’m nuts, look at where the market is moving:

Treasuries are outperforming TIPs during the last month (tariff talk escalations)

Commodities are falling which are the raw inputs into goods (lower input costs in competitive markets can lead to lower prices)

There is a multiplicative effect here too. The lower yields lead to less future interest payments and therefore less money debasement and therefore stronger currencies and less inflation…

Remember only bad investors and sith lords believe in absolutes.

With all these countries now competing for better deals, some will see the plain fact that if they simply cut a deal with the US they will be one of the few countries with no tariffs leading to outsize growth of imports in the US. If the US cuts a meaningful amount of deals, we will still have a large base to import items not subject to tariffs. These will bring competition with tariffed nations making it difficult to pass on the full tariff to customers and instead they will have to eat it on a margin basis or risk losing possibly a top customer.

The belief that inflation will rise because countries will retaliate is clearly a real risk. It’s just that when markets have alternatives, prices generally can’t increase as much as we generally think.

TLDR: the increase of prices on goods from tariffs is going to be partially offset by a stronger currency in the US. A handful of countries that are able to cut deals with the US will be able to supply without tariffs or minimal tariffs leading to alternatives without price hikes.

I welcome your critiques

US equities are not looking great. Global equities are not looking great. The USD doesn’t look all that safe…neither does the credit market. Precious metals and natural resources seem like a contender as does real estate. There’s one obvious category that I haven’t mentioned - and won’t.

A couple of weeks after Trump was elected, I liquidated a 7-figure account and figured I would sit in cash. In January, I started buying things like EUAD and CLOZ because I was trying to figure out where some modest returns could be had while the US equity market adjusts. We’re all here trying to do our best, so what are everyone’s plays?

I’m looking at precious metals and real estate. Slowly moving back into specific equities (Costco, Goldman, etc) once the waters seem a little safer.

31 years old… lives through the 2020 pandemic scare and now the new tariff scare and I finally understand the meaning of “time in the market” I remember in 2020 when COVID was at its peak and all we saw was the increased deaths; global shut downs and peak uncertainty. Everyday turning on the TV was a scare; going to work at the hospital was a nightmare.

All I can say is ; seeing the stock market survive that and rebound to new highs reassured me that all will be ok. Now I now a lot of people will comment here… but this is different.. tARrifs … but it’s really not just another form of fear which humans will adapt too and overcome.

To all the young ones; I’m not a financial adviser but worse thing to do is panic sell. Find good companies with high profit margins low debt lots of cash on hand to wether the storm. If it’s too much work you can DCA into ETFs. You’ll be happy in 3-5 years.

Good luck and peace all; spreading positivity in a bloody environment :)

P.S I love the dips… give me more

The market open down big today, rallied a bit, then continues to deteriorate further today (Friday). Today is worse than yesterday so far and we have another hour and a half. What do you guys think will happen at Monday's open, down or up? People will have time to hear more (bad) news over the weekend. And think about it. Wonder if it will tank more.

I really haven't read any good news from all this tariff action.

(Disclosure: I am long a silver stock I have been holding long-term and short Tesla via TSLQ. Gotta decide if I will stay in TSLQ into Monday.)

I'm not some expert, nor do I have a crystal ball.

But I fear a lot of people but particularly newer investors aren't seeing the real potential crash here.

We are just now after this news pulling past where the market was in November.

So this tarrif chaos wiped out all the hype bullshit AI/trump/doge weird spike that happened. That's gone.

That's not even really necessarily a crash unless you somehow were duped into buying all these stocks at record highs.

It's not like there is some cap on how low these prices can go (other than 0 obviously - which I'm not suggesting will happen). You think just reading the last bull market's worth of gains is what they are talking about when they are warning you of a recession? Some even saying a depression?

You could be looking at another massive tank before this is over. And there's no covid like recovery "guaranteed" just because it happened then.

Obviously hopefully that is what happens, in which case it'll be a historic buying opportunity. But hard to believe that's the case when it all seems as though the country itself is failing.

Part 1 Feb 20. Positions: Spy puts, short.

Part 2 March 17. Positions: Cash + protectionist plays (INTC, X, etc).

Well, this ended up becoming a little trilogy. The market has went down, a lot, and the big question is:

Is this time to buy?

I think so. I have been, over Thursday and Friday.

Why?

1. Because these tariffs are bad. They are so bad that, if unchanged, they will cause not only a recession, but I think there will be riots on the streets within 6 months.

2. Trump -- and the republican party -- are on a timer. Midterms are next year. They need to show results, not a crashing economy. Republicans are already starting to voice discontent. Ted Cruz openly stated this could be a "political bloodbath". If tariffs stay on, republicans will break ranks. Anything else is political suicide.

3. This leads me to conclude that tariffs will be removed. Either via Trump or through congressional action. Maybe even impeachment. The result? Markets moon.

This leads me to 3 scenarios:

1. Tariffs end quickly via renegotiation or Trump just backing down. I mean, islands with penguins? Seriously? Trump declares victory.

2. Some tariffs (China) stay, many others are removed. Certain industries benefit, others feel pain.

3. Tariffs stay on long enough to necessitate public/congressional intervention. Political chaos, recession, Maga goose cooked.

In scenario 1 and 2, damage is limited and markets ascend quickly. Remember, most gains come from certain days. In scenario 3, damage includes a recession. Earnings go down and valuations may retreat to ~16, which is ~4400 on the S&P. We are at 5070 now.

I'm deploying 80% of cash to buy. Keeping 20% safe, just in case.

So far, I've bought financials (KRE, WAL), tech (INTC, NVDA, META), retailers (NKE, RH) and SPY. Also, some LCID and RKLB for funsies.

Is this the low? I don't know. China and the EU can wait Trump out, I think. Standing up to Trump and tariffs will be domestically popular for them. Which means they will not renegotiate. Which means action must come from the US.

But, sitting on cash for too long is foolish, unless you live in Omaha. Spy has already fallen from 613 in Feb when I went short; and from 560 in March when I went cash. Things are now a lot more attractive.

To summarize my theory, I hope that the adults in Washington step up, stop executive overreach, and we all benefit. It might take some time. I suggest writing to your representatives in Congress. I have.

What do you guys think?

I 22m have an investment account with about 30k invested in the s&p. With all the uncertainty given the tariffs, should i just hold course or something else? Think about using this money mostly as a long term investment 20-40 years, and maybe using some a downpayment for a house in 5-10 hopefully.

Clearly a massive sell off is happening, are traders (big and small) just sitting on cash once they sell? Gold, the bastion of safe heavens, is also getting hit.

Bonds? Simple interest? Are any sectors up in this mess?

https://www.nasdaq.com/market-activity/stocks/msft/option-chain/call-put-options/msft--250417c00400000

Bought two of these at 3:58pm Friday and they both executed at $0.80

Might just be a full blown regard but my brain can’t comprehend how this work. 31 bids at $1.34, if I chose to sell would it have executed at $1.34?

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On April 3, 2025, President Donald Trump indicated a willingness to reduce tariffs if other nations offer “something phenomenal” in return, suggesting openness to negotiations despite recent tariff implementations. Speaking aboard Air Force One, he defended the tariff strategy, asserting that the economic turbulence would settle and expressing satisfaction with falling interest rates. This stance follows the administration’s imposition of a 10% minimum tariff on all U.S. trading partners, with higher rates for specific countries, aiming to address perceived trade imbalances. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-03/trump-says-he-s-open-to-reducing-tariffs-for-phenomenal-offers?embedded-checkout=true