5 Powerful Tools of Trading Most Traders Don't Know About (2026)
The tools of trading have come a long way. Today, traders have access to advanced charting platforms, economic calendars, financial news, market data and software that can help them analyse almost every aspect of the financial markets.
But not all trading tools do the same thing. Some help you analyse price, others track economic releases, and some reveal information about how different market participants are positioned.
We've put together five trading tools worth knowing about in 2026, including one that takes a particularly interesting approach to understanding what's actually moving the markets.
1. Echelon: Discover What's Moving the Market, Directly on Your Chart
Imagine opening your trading chart and being able to see the actual world events influencing price, as they happen.
That's what makes Echelon different.
Most trading platforms show you price movements. You can see a currency pair suddenly spike, gold drop hundreds of points, or an index experience an enormous move. But the chart itself doesn't necessarily tell you what caused it.
Was there an unexpected central-bank statement? A geopolitical escalation? A Trump announcement? A development in another market that changed the outlook?
Usually, finding out means leaving your chart, searching through financial news websites, checking economic calendars and trying to piece together what happened.
Echelon is designed to connect those missing pieces.
It monitors incoming financial and world developments, analyses their potential implications for the markets, and connects relevant events directly to trading charts.
Instead of just seeing that price moved, you can investigate what happened, why it matters and which markets could be affected.
How does it actually work?
The easiest way to understand Echelon is to follow what happens when a major market movement occurs.
Step 1. See something unusual on your chart.
Imagine you're watching the chart and suddenly a massive bearish candle appears.
Price has dropped sharply. Your technical indicators show the movement, but they don't necessarily explain what triggered it.
Step 2. Discover the breaking event.
Echelon connects relevant breaking developments to the chart using event markers.
Open the marker and investigate what happened. It might be an unexpected political statement, a central-bank development, a geopolitical escalation or another important world event.
You're no longer limited to scheduled announcements on a traditional economic calendar.
Step 3. Bring it into your existing trading strategy.
You don't have to throw away your technical analysis, change your indicators or completely reinvent how you trade.
Continue identifying your support and resistance levels, chart patterns, trends and entries.
Echelon adds another layer of information around those decisions.
Your technical analysis helps you understand what price is doing. Echelon helps you investigate the wider developments influencing it.
That's the difference between simply watching a chart and understanding more of what's happening around it.
Built around how institutional macro traders analyse markets
Institutional global macro investors, including well-known investors such as George Soros, have historically examined the relationships between currencies, interest rates, economic conditions and geopolitical developments.
The idea is to understand how developments across the world can influence financial markets, rather than treating every asset as an isolated chart.
Echelon brings this style of interconnected market analysis into a practical environment for individual traders.
It combines breaking event intelligence, potential market implications and cross-market context in a way that can complement the trading strategies people already use.
And you don't need to spend hours researching every development yourself.
You can explore the event, investigate its potential impact and see how other markets are responding, all from within your trading workflow.
See Echelon in action
The best way to understand the difference is to see it working on an actual chart.
Try Echelon free for 24 hours. No credit card required.
Explore Echelon and start your free access →
2. TradingView: Advanced Charting and Technical Analysis
TradingView is one of the most widely recognised charting platforms among retail traders.
It provides interactive charts across financial markets, with a large collection of technical indicators, drawing tools, chart layouts and customisable analysis features.
Traders can use it to examine price trends, identify support and resistance, compare different timeframes and build their own technical strategies.
It also has a large community where users publish trading ideas, chart analyses and custom indicators.
For someone who relies heavily on technical analysis, TradingView can serve as the central place to monitor markets and develop trading setups.
Its main strength is its charting environment. It gives traders an extensive collection of tools for studying price behaviour and organising their technical analysis.
Website: TradingView
3. Forex Factory: Economic Calendar and Forex News
Forex Factory is a familiar name among forex traders, particularly because of its economic calendar.
The calendar displays scheduled economic releases, allowing traders to see upcoming announcements, their expected impact, previous results, forecasts and actual figures once released.
This is particularly useful when preparing for major events such as inflation reports, employment figures, GDP releases and central-bank decisions.
Forex Factory also provides a forex news section and an active trading forum where users discuss market developments, strategies and trading experiences.
For traders who want a straightforward way to keep track of scheduled economic announcements, it's a useful resource to have available.
Its economic calendar is particularly popular because traders can adjust the displayed time to their own time zone and filter events according to currency and importance.
Website: Forex Factory
4. Trading Economics: Global Economic Data and Indicators
Trading Economics is a useful resource for traders who want to investigate economic conditions across different countries.
Its platform provides access to a large collection of economic indicators, historical data, forecasts and an economic calendar covering markets around the world.
You can investigate information such as:
Inflation and consumer prices.
Interest rates and central-bank decisions.
Employment and unemployment.
GDP and economic growth.
Government bond yields.
Currency exchange rates.
Commodity prices.
One particularly useful aspect is the ability to compare economic indicators between countries.
For example, a forex trader analysing the US dollar against the euro might want to compare inflation, employment and interest-rate conditions in the United States and the Eurozone.
Trading Economics brings much of that information together, making it easier to investigate the wider economic environment influencing financial markets.
Website: Trading Economics
5. Myfxbook: Trading Statistics and Market Sentiment
Myfxbook is another established name in the forex trading community.
It is particularly known for its account analytics, allowing traders to connect supported trading accounts and examine their performance statistics.
This can help traders evaluate their trading history, including profitability, drawdown, risk, trading activity and other performance measurements.
Myfxbook also offers additional resources, including its Community Outlook, which provides information about the positioning of participating traders across supported markets.
This can be useful when investigating how a particular section of the retail trading community is positioned.
For example, traders may examine whether the community is predominantly long or short on a currency pair and compare that information with current price action.
It's important to remember that community positioning is not representative of the entire market, and account statistics do not guarantee future performance.
Nevertheless, Myfxbook provides a useful collection of tools for traders who want to examine their own performance and explore additional market information.
Website: Myfxbook
Which Trading Tools Should You Use?
Each of these platforms serves a different purpose.
TradingView helps you analyse price. Forex Factory helps you prepare for scheduled economic releases. Trading Economics gives you access to global economic information. Myfxbook provides account analytics and community positioning.
But there's another question worth asking:
What happens when you want to understand why a market is moving right now?
A scheduled economic calendar won't necessarily show an unexpected geopolitical development. A chart won't automatically explain why a massive candle just appeared. And a collection of separate websites can leave you trying to connect all the information yourself.
This is the problem Echelon is designed to solve.
Instead of treating breaking news, economic developments, market relationships and price action as separate pieces of information, Echelon connects them.
You can investigate the developments surrounding a price movement, explore their potential market implications and examine whether related markets are confirming the wider picture.
And you can do this while continuing to use the technical trading strategy you already know.
Your chart shows you the movement. Echelon helps you understand the world influencing it.
Discover Echelon. Try it free for 24 hours →
No credit card required.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the best tools of trading?
The best tools depend on what you want to achieve. TradingView is widely used for charting and technical analysis, Forex Factory provides an economic calendar, Trading Economics offers global economic data, and Myfxbook provides trading analytics and community information. Echelon offers a different approach by connecting breaking developments and their potential market implications directly to trading charts.
What tools do forex traders use?
Forex traders commonly use charting platforms, economic calendars, financial news services, sentiment tools, trading calculators and account analytics. Many also investigate interest-rate expectations, economic data and developments affecting the currencies they trade.
What is Echelon?
Echelon is a trading intelligence platform that connects breaking world events and financial developments to price movements. It helps traders investigate why markets are moving, explore the potential implications of new developments and examine how related markets are responding.
Can Echelon explain why a trading chart suddenly moves?
Echelon connects relevant breaking developments to trading charts so users can investigate events surrounding particular price movements. It also presents potential market implications and related-market context. Not every movement has an identifiable news explanation, and its analysis should be treated as research rather than a guaranteed prediction.
Can I use Echelon with TradingView or my existing trading strategy?
Echelon is designed to add fundamental and event context to an existing trading workflow. You can continue using your preferred charting platform, technical indicators and trading methods while using Echelon to investigate the wider developments influencing the markets.
Is Echelon free to try?
Yes. Echelon offers 24-hour access without requiring credit card details. You can explore the platform before deciding whether to subscribe.