I am just trying to learn and look at charts and practice my technical analysis and backtest some strategies without actually opening an account with a brokerage and risking any money. I am 20 years old and just need some decent charting software to test some ideas and get familiar with the markets. Any help?
Medved Trader has a free mode, free data and a deep set of chart indicators to experiment with: https://www.medvedtrader.com/www/frontend
https://ninjatrader.com/GetStarted Ninja trader is ok but can't trade options through it, and you have to make your own indicator to trade spreads. I think Trade station is free if you open an account, it is decent for automation if you don't want to build from scratch. Trading view, don't know if data is reliable but is free. I not tried any of high end apps, good traders eventually can trade by hearing price and knowing speed by sight. Wish you the best.
Tradingview is free but if you wanna zoom in on the 1m charts you will need to make a purchase and add nasdaq/nyse data. Unless, the ticker has a ton of liquidity like SPY or AAPL the candles on the 1m are only partially filled. Have you thought about a trading simulator instead? There is no use looking at charts with hindsight.