The best trading podcasts in 2026 are Chat With Traders, B The Trader, Confessions Of A Market Maker, the TraderLion Podcast, Desire To Trade and Smarter Trading by Trade Risk. I have been a guest on five of those six. I have been a full-time trader since 2007, I founded Bulls on Wall Street in 2008, and I have taught 7,000+ students. So this list comes from the guest chair and the trading desk, not from an aggregator scraping the Apple charts.
One warning before the list. A podcast will not teach you to trade. It can make you a better trader in other ways, and I will show you exactly where that line is.
TL;DR
- Best overall: Chat With Traders. The granddaddy, over 330 episodes, no sales pitch.
- Best podcast that now shows charts: B The Trader.
- Best for personality and war stories: Confessions Of A Market Maker.
- Best for veteran traders and fund managers: the TraderLion Podcast.
- Best for forex and a deep archive: Desire To Trade.
- Best focused momentum and catalyst conversation: Smarter Trading by Trade Risk.
- When you need actual strategy, switch to video. Chart Fanatics on YouTube, filtered hard by your style.
- Podcasts give you mindset, stories and a feel for how real traders think. Edge lives on a chart.
Quick Facts: The 6 Shows at a Glance
- Chat With Traders: long-form interviews, 335 episodes as of late October 2026, new episodes every two weeks. I was episode 20 in 2015.
- B The Trader: hosted by Alex B, over 360 episodes, every two weeks, newer episodes put charts on screen. I have been on a couple of times.
- Confessions Of A Market Maker: two hosts, a former market maker and a poker pro turned trader, plus guests. I was episode 37 in July 2020. Start in the back catalog.
- The TraderLion Podcast: interviews with veteran traders and fund managers, close to 100 episodes, still publishing in 2026.
- Desire To Trade: hosted by Etienne Crete, over 590 episodes, weekly, forex leaning. I was episode 83 in March 2017.
- Smarter Trading by Trade Risk: interview show. I was episode 16 in December 2021. Treat it as a back catalog.
Why You Can't Really Learn to Trade From a Podcast
People think about trading podcasts the way they think about business podcasts. Somebody tells you to buy a sleep ring, take ice baths and wake up at five, you nod along on the treadmill, and you feel like you got better.
Trading does not work like that.
A day trader needs edge and a strategy. Edge is a specific pattern, at a specific price, on a specific kind of stock, with a specific stop. You cannot hear a pullback into the 9 and 20 EMA. You have to see it. That is why I teach the Bone Zone with a shaded chart on screen and never over audio. There is a whole subset of charts and edge that just works better on video.
So what is a podcast actually for? Three things.
- Mindset. Hearing how a pro handles a losing month is worth more than any motivational quote.
- Stories. War stories stick. You will remember the guy who blew up on a halt long after you forget a rule list.
- Filtering. An hour with a trader tells you whether their style fits you before you spend a dollar on their course, or anyone else's.
Here is how I actually pick. I like people and personalities. I give a show the first few minutes, and if the host has a real personality and the guest is a fun storyteller, I am glued. If it is two people reading a script, I am gone.
The New Podcast Problem: Same Guests, Same Three Strategies
There are more trading podcasts in 2026 than ever. A lot of them sound identical.
The guest pool is shallow. Many of the newer shows book the same kind of guest: a very young trader, usually in futures, usually trading a funded account from a prop firm evaluation. Nothing wrong with any of that. But when every guest trades the same instrument with the same three strategies, episode 40 sounds like episode 4, and you learn nothing new.
There is a bigger issue under it. Social media rewards whoever gets attention, not whoever is right. A Swiss Finance Institute study of finance influencers found the ones with negative skill had more followers and more influence on retail traders than the skilled ones (Kakhbod, Kazempour, Livdan and Schuerhoff, Finfluencers). The SEC puts it in plainer words: never make an investment decision based only on social media, and remember that some promoters are paid to promote (Investor.gov, Social Media and Investment Fraud).
Podcasts are social media with a microphone. Same rules apply.
The 6 Best Trading Podcasts in 2026
1. Chat With Traders
The granddaddy of trading podcasts, and still the one I would start with. Long-form interviews with working traders across every style, running since 2015, with 335 episodes as of late October 2026 and still publishing every two weeks.
I was episode 20, back in 2015, talking about my go-to setups, trading explosive momentum, how to fight FOMO, and how I talked my mentor Paul Singh into teaching me after years of struggling. Listen to my Chat With Traders episode here.
Why it is number one: no sales pitch. The show is about the guest, not about funneling you into something. Use it to find your style before you buy a course.
Start here: episode 335 with Alex Temiz and Bao Nguyen, on why your trading strategy might be wrong for you. It is the filter-by-style idea in one episode.
Best for: new traders figuring out which kind of trader they are.
2. B The Trader
Hosted by Alex B, with over 360 episodes and a new one every two weeks. I have been on a couple of times.
What moved it up my list is the newer format. The recent episodes put charts on screen, which fixes the biggest weakness of the whole podcast category. Watch the video version on YouTube instead of only listening and you get the story and the chart together.
Start here: the newest sit-down episodes on the B The Trader YouTube channel, so you get the chart version. B The Trader on Apple Podcasts.
Best for: traders who want interviews but also want to see the setup.
3. Confessions Of A Market Maker
My personal favorite for pure entertainment. JJ is a former market maker and Ray is a poker pro turned trader, and they mix trading talk with stories from on and off Wall Street. More personality and war stories than a straight educational interview, which is exactly why I liked it.
If you are the kind of trader who likes the old tigers talking trash and going over war stories like you would with your high school buddies, these are your guys.
I was on episode 37 in July 2020, talking about starting in college during the dotcom boom and what it took to build an edge after that. Listen to my Confessions episode on Apple Podcasts.
Start here: episode 51 with Jack Schwager from December 2020, on past Market Wizards versus the unknown ones.
Best for: listening on the drive when you want stories, not homework.
4. The TraderLion Podcast
Deep interviews with veteran traders and hedge fund managers, close to 100 episodes and still going in 2026. This is a show I rate.
One note on bias: TraderLion also sells paid trading education, so treat it like any other company's podcast. Great interviews, and you will hear about their products.
Start here: the June 2026 episode with Jack Schwager and George Coyle on the next generation of Market Wizards.
Best for: hearing from traders with long track records, not a few good months.
5. Desire To Trade
Hosted by Etienne Crete, over 590 episodes and still weekly. It leans forex, so stock traders should filter the episode list by guest.
I was on episode 83 in March 2017. We covered using volatility to pick what to trade, why a profitable trade is not always a good trade, building big accounts and losing them, combining news with technical analysis, and why mentorship matters for any skill. That last one is still true.
Start here: episode 583 with Yvan Byeajee on why most traders quit before they understand the game. It is a mindset episode, which is exactly what podcasts do well.
Best for: forex traders, and anyone who wants a huge archive to dig through.
6. Smarter Trading by Trade Risk
Interview show from Trade Risk. I was episode 16 in December 2021, covering momentum day trading, mentors and accountability, combining fundamental catalysts with technical patterns, swing trading off market internals, the risk in small caps and how the Fed moves everything.
Listen to my Smarter Trading episode. The newest episode I could find is mine, so treat it as a back catalog.
Best for: one focused momentum and catalyst conversation.
Which Trading Podcast Fits Your Style
Filter by style or you waste hours. A futures scalper and a stock swing trader are playing different games, and the same episode can be gold for one and noise for the other.
- Stock day trader, momentum and catalysts: Chat With Traders and B The Trader, filtered by guest. Smarter Trading for a catalyst conversation.
- Swing trader: the TraderLion Podcast. Most of its guests hold for days and weeks, not minutes.
- Forex trader: Desire To Trade, by a mile.
- Futures and prop-firm traders: you will find plenty on the newer shows. Just remember they all start to sound the same.
- Brand new and not sure yet: Chat With Traders. Listen to five very different guests and notice which one you want to be.
- Just want to be entertained: Confessions Of A Market Maker.
Red Flags: When a Podcast Is Really a Sales Funnel
A good show sells the guest. A funnel sells you. Here is how to tell the difference fast.
- Every episode ends at the same link. If the call to action is the point of the show, the interview is the ad.
- Results talk with no losses. Real traders talk about their bad months. A guest who only talks about big wins is a commercial. The FTC has gone after trading education companies over exactly this kind of earnings pitch.
- Promo codes for prop evaluations every few minutes. Nothing wrong with a sponsor, but if the whole show orbits the discount code, know who is paying for the microphone.
- No personality. If the first few minutes feel like a script, it probably is one.
- The same three strategies in every episode. You are not learning anymore. You are just listening.
When You Need Charts, Go to Video
If you want to binge something that actually covers strategy, go to video. My pick is Chart Fanatics on YouTube: free weekly classes where a trader walks through a full strategy on the chart.
The catch is the same one from above. A lot of the guests trade futures in prop-firm evaluation accounts, and the channel runs prop-firm promos. So filter it hard by the style you want to trade. If you are a stock day trader, skip the futures scalping episodes and look for the stock momentum and swing guests.
For my own free lessons and chart breakdowns, the Kunal Desai YouTube channel is where I put them.
What Changed Since My First Podcast in 2015
The biggest change since I sat down with Chat With Traders is the kind of stock you can trade.
In 2015, if you wanted a stock that could go on a huge trend, you mostly needed a low float. Even a higher-priced name had to have a small float to really run. So the edge was in the hunt. You spent hours charting and digging for obscure names that were just starting to get picked up and nobody was talking about yet. If float is new to you, start with what float means in stocks.
That subset still exists. But algos and HFT, plus how big the market has gotten, changed the game. Now high-float, super-liquid names can run too. Look at AMD this year. It closed around $200 in February and traded above $630 by early October. That is a high-float stock moving like a momentum name.
The options market poured gas on it. Zero-day and weekly options mean more volume in everything. In August 2025, zero-day options hit a record 62.4% of all SPX options volume, with retail traders estimated at roughly half of that flow (Cboe).
Since COVID, a lot of the best stocks have simply been the big, well-known names. The Mag 7 can lead the whole tape.
Why this matters for podcasts: a great episode from 2017 is still great for mindset. Its stock-selection advice may be out of date. Listen for the psychology, then check the setups against today's market. I still scan every day in TC2000, and the way I scan for explosive stocks now includes names I would have ignored in 2015.
Where Podcasts Fit in a Real Learning Path
Podcasts are the ramp, not the road. Here is the order I teach every student, and where listening actually belongs in it.
- Learn the structure. One setup, one risk rule, one scanner. For my students that is the First Pullback into the Bone Zone and the 1% Rule, which I got from Paul Singh. Podcasts help you stay motivated here. They do not replace it.
- Simulate. Take the setup to a simulator and grade every trade. My bootcamp students do not trade at all for the first five weeks. This is where a podcast episode about a guest's worst losing streak hits hardest, because you are living a small version of it.
- Write a business plan. Your hours, your setups, your max loss per day. Trading is a business, not a casino. That is the first thing Paul told me.
- Watch a pro trade live. Hearing a trader describe a setup after the fact and watching one take it in real time are two different educations. The second one is where the pattern finally clicks.
- Go live when your data says so. Not when a podcast fires you up.
Most consistently profitable traders take three to seven years to get there. It took me seven, from my first trade in 1999 to my first consistently profitable year in 2006. I break down that path in how long it takes to learn day trading. A good podcast library makes those years less lonely. It does not make them shorter on its own.
How to Actually Use Trading Podcasts
- Use them for the drive, the gym and the dog walk. Not at the desk during market hours.
- Give a show five minutes. No personality, no storytelling, move on.
- Filter guests by your style before you hit play.
- When a guest mentions a setup, go find it on a real chart that night. If you cannot find it, it was entertainment.
- Keep a running note of one idea per episode. One. Ten ideas you never test are worth nothing.
- Pair the listening with real reading. My list of the best trading books and the best free trading courses are good next steps.
Still comparing? Here are my rankings of the best day trading chatrooms and the best day trading mentorship programs.
FAQ: Best Trading Podcasts
What is the best trading podcast in 2026?
Chat With Traders. It has 335 episodes of long-form interviews with working traders, it still publishes every two weeks, and it does not push a product on you.
Can you learn day trading from podcasts?
Not on their own. Podcasts are great for mindset, stories and figuring out what style fits you. Edge is a pattern on a chart with an entry and a stop, and that has to be seen. Use video, charts and simulator practice for the strategy part.
What is the best day trading podcast for beginners?
Start with Chat With Traders to find your style, then add B The Trader for episodes that show charts on screen.
Which trading podcasts show charts?
B The Trader now puts charts on screen in its newer episodes. For strategy breakdowns on video, Chart Fanatics on YouTube is built around full chart walkthroughs.
What is the most entertaining trading podcast?
Confessions Of A Market Maker. A former market maker and a poker pro turned trader swapping war stories. More personality than a straight interview.
What is the best podcast for swing traders?
The TraderLion Podcast. Most of its guests are swing and position traders with long track records.
What is the best forex trading podcast?
Desire To Trade, hosted by Etienne Crete. Over 590 episodes, weekly, and it leans forex.
Why do so many trading podcasts sound the same?
Many newer shows book from the same guest pool: young futures traders in prop-firm funded accounts running a handful of similar strategies. It is not wrong, but it repeats.
Are old trading podcast episodes still worth listening to?
For mindset and psychology, yes. For stock selection, check it against today's market. Since 2015, algos, HFT and zero-day options have made liquid large caps tradable for momentum in a way they were not back then.
Has Kunal Desai been on trading podcasts?
Yes. Chat With Traders episode 20 (2015), Desire To Trade episode 83 (2017), Confessions Of A Market Maker episode 37 (2020), Smarter Trading by Trade Risk episode 16 (2021), and B The Trader more than once.
How do you tell if a trading podcast is worth your time?
Give it the first few minutes. If the host has a real personality and the guest tells a good story, stay. If it feels like a script that ends at a sales link, move on.
Are trading podcasts biased?
Some are. Shows run by education companies or prop firms will mention their own products. That does not make the interviews bad. Just know who is paying for the microphone.
What should I do after listening to a trading podcast?
Take one setup the guest described and find it on a real chart that night. If you want structure, the 60-Day Trading Bootcamp teaches the chart side live.
About the Author
Kunal Desai is the CEO and founder of Bulls on Wall Street. A professional trader since 2007, he has navigated every major market cycle -- from the 2008 financial crisis to today's high-volatility environments. Having mentored 7,000+ students through his live trading bootcamps, Kunal trades live every morning in the Bulls on Wall Street Trading Chatroom, where a full-access 7-day trial costs $7. He is dedicated to teaching real-world execution and high-probability strategies. Based in Miramar Beach, Florida.
Connect with Kunal: Read his full story | Instagram | YouTube
