Public free wifi hotspots are all over the place now and from time to time one needs to connect to one of them so it can check what the markets are doing or just browsing when away from the office.

Is the safest way to use a public wifi hotspot through a VPN service? Paying for such service just to access a couple of times per month don't seem viable.

Two possible solutions:

A) Just connect on mobile data (versus wifi) Most quoting software don't use very much data anyways so you won't be burning through your data plan.

B) Have demo accounts that you use to check your quotes over public wifi, that way even if the security gets compromised, if you're doing is checking quotes, your demo account is the only account that gets compromised.

Or possibly a combination of the two, you check the feed over the demo account, and if it looks like you absolutely need to adjust a position, then log on over cellular data to put int the order.

Seems that there is no longer any safe way to connect to a wifi, weather it is public or private.

The world-wide used WPA-2 algorithm seems to have a flow and has been compromised by Belgian researchers.

https://innovation-village.com/threat-alert-knack-hits-wifi-connections-globally/

Updates to the firmware software will be issues, but not necessary for all devices
and as always with software vulnerabilities, people are reluctant to install updates
so the issue will be around for some time...