a lightweight laptop (< 3lbs), min 12" screen (the bigger the better), min i5 processor (i7 would be better), 8 GB RAM, min 500GB storage (SSD would be great) and around the $1,000 price point?

Touch screen is absolutely not necessary.

I will be using it to simultaneously run a stock market streamer as well as about 10-15 streaming stock charts + MS Outlook + about 3 different browsers

So far I have looked at the Lenovo T460p with an i5 processor that seems to fit my budget whereas a Dell Inspiron 13 7000 series is about $850 with an i7 processor. Is it fair to compare these two models? Are there any others that I should be looking at?

Your comments and suggestions would be much appreciated...thanks