Trade Ideas Review

Trade Ideas is the best-in-class stock scanner for day traders with outstanding features and tools.

Alexander Voigt

By Alexander Voigt | Updated September 22, 2023

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Key Takeaways: Trade Ideas is the most powerful tool for day traders to scan the stock market. The stock scanner helps traders to identify the best stocks based on over 500 different alert and filter types. The mix of pre-configured screeners and the flexibility with customization options make the software an excellent choice for beginners.

Advanced analytical tools like charts and indicators, combined with broker integration, automated trading, backtesting, artificial intelligence scanner features, a trading chat room and excellent support, set Trade Ideas positively apart from the competition.

Sale: Trade Ideas 15% Off (Use coupon code DAYTRADINGZ)

trade ideas review

Trade Ideas Review – Insights

How do active investors succeed in the stock market? To succeed, they need an edge, a way to beat their peers to the good trades so they can get in at a better price and stay in the trades longer for higher profits. Excellent stock scanning and screening software can help investors gain an advantage by quickly and reliably identifying trade opportunities long before other traders recognize the opportunities.

Trade Ideas uses cloud-based server technology and processing power to analyze all stock trades as they take place in real-time and report interesting or statistically unusual behavior to their subscribers. Think of Trade Ideas as the card counter in Las Vegas who wants an edge over the casino while playing blackjack.

I have been using and seeing the progress of this technology for well over the course of the last 10 years. One of the main reasons I like this trading software is that Trade Ideas continues to innovate with features like streaming alerts, trade automation and simulated trading. They continually release improvements and offer one of the best AI stock trading software solutions for retail traders.

Also, having a clear trading strategy with a defined entry and exit is one of the keys to success for all types of trading activities, be it the own trading account or a prop account from a funded trader program.

Trade Ideas help subscribers understand how the stock market works and how trading strategies can be developed by offering webinars, trading courses and great tutorials.

I wrote this comprehensive Trade Ideas review to provide real-life examples of how to use it most efficiently. I will guide you through all functionalities and provide in-depth platform insights based on over ten years of experience with this stock screener.


What Is Trade Ideas?

High-speed trade ideas generation and order execution are crucial for long-term success as a day trader. Broker-integrated market scanners provide some basic stock screener functionalities but lack in terms of speed and customization options.

Trade Ideas is the best stock screener designed for day traders and provides unique functionalities and features. But are the benefits significant enough to justify the cost?

The company was started in 2003 by a group of financial technology veterans who have been pioneers in the active day trading space since the 1990s. After Interactive Brokerage acquired their previous FinTech venture, they founded Trade Ideas and have never looked back.

Trade Ideas Features

Below you will find all features and functionalities of the Trade Ideas platform with screenshots, insights and descriptions. Later in the review, we will explain the pricing model and show you how you can save money on your subscription.

Let’s get started!

Idea Surfing

When you first open Trade Ideas, the highlighted stocks in any of the channels will start to change by themselves. What is going on? This is called “idea surfing” – Trade Ideas is helping investors take the first step. The founders know how hard it is to just get started, so the software automatically starts to look through different stocks in the channel.

This means that without needing to do anything, Trade Ideas is already showing you stocks and situations that you probably would have otherwise not seen. Mousing over to a chart pauses idea surfing to let you investigate the chart further.

trade idea surfing


Real-Time Streaming Alerts

Imagine Twitter but on steroids and with a purpose. Trade Ideas streaming alerts showcase ideas right as they happen in real-time. Streaming real-time alerts are the foundational technology of Trade Ideas. While Trade Ideas has been around for over 20 years, there are still no real competitors to this technology. You can see the timestamp on each new event.

One window can be set up to see a stock on extremely high volume that is making a new 20 day high while crossing the 50 day moving average and a stock that just traded below its last week’s low after earrings. The platform is customizable. Users can set windows up to look for anything that they choose.

This streaming technology is the power behind the scenes that makes Trade Ideas a game changer, not just for the seasoned investor but also for the beginner. Now you won’t only be watching what everyone else is watching—you are going to be seeing information before the competition notices.

my idea live stream


Stock Racing

How do you catch moves the others are missing? What if you were able to watch 10 or 20 stocks simultaneously, being able to compare their performance visually from a point in time when you started to watch them? Now you have a big advantage!

You really have to see this in action to truly get the full picture and power of this data visualization innovation!

trade ideas stock race


Chart Based Halt Notification

Sometimes stocks move so quickly that it overwhelms the exchange computer systems. This triggers a halt, and that halt notification immediately appears at the top of the Trade Ideas charts, as well as an alert window that is set to notify you of stocks that have become halted. In the stock market, it is about being aware of what is happening before your competition, and this is where Trade Ideas excels.


Chart Based Trading

Chart Based Trading is one of the features showing how the designers of Trade Ideas are active in the financial markets. Every time a new chart comes up, the Trade Ideas software assumes you might want to buy or sell the stock. So, it provides visual risk guidelines based on your typical behavior. There are visual Risk and Reward levels for every stock. Chart Based Trading Buttons are located right next to the customization menu for each chart. These buttons are linked to your Simulated Trading Account. When you click on a button, you send an order to buy or sell based on the chart levels. See how a stop loss is automatically generated for you once you press buy:

trade ideas chart trading


Event Based Backtesting

While some products like TradeStation and MetaStock have types of backtesting, only Trade Ideas lets subscribers backtest a strategy by having them ask questions. For example, is the 200 day moving average cross on stocks that you like a good stock market strategy right now? Is it systematic? Maybe, it is a better stock investment strategy to play the downside or shorting. In addition, unlike all alternatives today, trying to find what indicator works as a signal for a given stock, Trade Ideas tells investors what real-time event turns out to be a good Buy or Sell signal.

The feature is called OddsMaker. It enables users to visualize the strategy trade performance for every trading strategy and its variations in seconds without programming or coding knowledge.

trade ideas oddsmaker


Trade Ideas Holly Review – AI Powered Entry and Exit Signals

The Artificial Intelligence Trade Ideas named Holly is what truly separates Trade Ideas from the competition. The feature is available with the Premium subscription. Holly studies the trades of every stock, looking for statistical patterns that are repeating in the recent past. The Trade Ideas Oddsmaker backtesting technology is the foundation of the Trade Ideas Artificial Intelligence. Once Holly finds patterns, they are published as Signals in the AI Channel. These stock patterns become either Buy or Short Sell Signals.

trade ideas artificial intellgience trading

After Hours, Holly runs the number crunching. She prepares like a professional fighter by studying the trading tape of all stocks, seeking a statistical advantage. She looks at the history of breakouts and breakdowns, moving average crosses, and earnings reports, examining countless scenarios and outcomes of whether you had bought and sold.

When the bell rings at the open, Holly is ready with strategies in hand. As charts start to set up, Holly gives you the signal to Get Long or Get Short. Trade Ideas subscribers follow the signals using a fully functional Simulated Trading inside Trade Ideas Pro. This way, subscribers identify what is and is not working without risking actual capital.

Trade Ideas Simulated Trading is identical in terms of software to actual trading via Trade Ideas Brokerage Plus. That means there is virtually nothing new to learn when switching from Trade Ideas simulated to actual trading. This combination of AI and Simulated trading is only available to Trade Ideas Premium subscribers.


Trade Ideas Brokerage Plus

The Trade Ideas Brokerage Plus functionality currently includes a free integrated paper trading account and connections to E-Trade and Interactive Brokers. More brokers like TD Ameritrade will follow soon. With Brokerage Plus, traders can trade from a chart, alert window or by using the customizable buy and sell buttons. It is also possible to use it as a trading robot for automated trade execution and management. In addition, users see the performance graphs and statistics.

brokerage plus


Charts

Trade Ideas comes with a complete charting package that allows users to do pretty much everything that they need to do with charts, indicators, trendlines, and much more.

trade ideas charts


Alerts via Email

Strategy Trading can also be delivered via email. Any alert strategy can be set to send you the notifications by email. There are lots of smart features integrated, so don’t worry about information overload. One of the simplest ways to get instant value and get started is to allow one of the Trade Ideas support staff experts to help tailor a special kind of strategy that comes to you via email.


Trade Ideas Scanner Filters

To get the real power out of the Trade Ideas scanner settings, you can limit the universe of stocks via filters. Let us show you some examples of filtering power: here, we are configuring a Top List window. We right click in the window and select Configure. Then we start from scratch to remove anything that might be in the window beforehand. Users can customize any aspect of the window. Trade Ideas has the broadest array of filters out of any vendor in FinTech. The search tab helps you find the exact filters you are looking to change.

trade ideas filters


Channel Bar

Like Hulu, Netflix, and other streaming services, Trade Ideas has themed channels to easily view any type of market environment. There’s a Channel Bar on the left of the screen where these market views are located. Clicking on any channel changes the layout to reflect what you selected, showing an “ON” in the selected channel icon.

trade ideas channel bar


Stocks I Like

Inside every chart in Trade Ideas there is a Heart Icon. This is exactly like a thumbs up on Facebook or a heart on Twitter. When you click on that Heart Icon, it tells the software that “You Like The Stock .” These liked stocks are automatically added to a different Channel in the Channel Bar named “Stocks I Like.”

This Channel is your custom fingerprint of the stock market experience. It is like your personal stock DNA. The software is learning to help you keep track of the things that you like!

stocks i like feature


Risk and Reward

When you look up any stock inside a Trade Ideas chart, the software assumes you may want to buy it at that moment in time. It then places risk and reward levels based on the amount you typically buy. These profit targets and stop loss levels are visualized based on your settings, such as %-risk, $-amount or fixed number of shares traded. Of course, you can always adjust these settings to your personal preferences.

risk reward levels visualized


Stocks Like This

One of the most powerful features of the Single Stock Window is the ability to instantly see either the industry competitors or stocks that are trading in a similar trading pattern to the stock you are viewing. This is the easiest way to see the Trade Ideas pattern recognition engine at work.

stocks like this similar to


Market Pulse (Compare Count)

No other vendor in finance can track positive market events and negative market events while visually showing investors which side is winning.

This type of window is essential in guiding a trader as they pull the trigger on a trade because it conveys the odds. Are you trading against the wind or with the trading winds at your back? Trade Ideas subscribers are successful because they have access to this type of “high touch” information which gives them a feel for the tape. Feel is one of the more important components of excellence in any competitive endeavor!

market pulse compare count


MarketScope 360

The MarketScope 360 dashboard is the latest innovation by Trade Ideas. It features the biggest gainers, leading stock indices, intraday charts, information about the advancers & decliners distribution, and other features within the newly-developed app that runs on any internet browser.

trade ideas marketscope 360


Trade Ideas Plans, Costs, Pricing

Trade Ideas Premium is available for $1,999 per year, which equals $167 per month, and Trade Ideas Standard costs $999 per year, which equals $84 per month.

The month-by-month subscription comes with more flexibility in terms of contract duration but higher costs per month. Traders who pay monthly will be charged $228 for Premium and $118 per month for the Standard subscription.

As an official Trade Ideas Partner, we provide 100% verified Trade Ideas coupon codes. Also, we have put together a helpful, step-by-step guide that shows you how to apply the discount.

  1. Click here to reveal the newest Trade Ideas coupon code.
  2. Choose between the Standard and Premium subscription.
  3. Once you have selected your Trade Ideas product, click on the button Purchase.
  4. Now you see the price for the subscription and a field called “Enter Coupon Code.” Enter the provided coupon code into the field and hit the button with the little arrow next to it.
  5. Now, the Trade Ideas discount is applied. Finally, click on proceed to checkout to subscribe for the discounted rate.

Trade Ideas Standard vs Premium

Trade Ideas Standard vs Premium: Trade Ideas Standard and Premium include real-time trading ideas, price alerts, curated workspaces, charts, access to the live trading room and simulated trading. The premium subscription unlocks access to the AI virtual trading analyst Holly, chart based AI trade assistance, risk assessment, the OddsMaker backtest engine and the automated trading API.

Here is a direct comparison of Trade Ideas Standard and Premium:

trade ideas standard vs premium

Trade Ideas Free Trial

The Trade Ideas Test Drive takes place 5 times a year where users can test Trade Ideas Premium for two weeks for $11.11. Here you can check if the Test Drive is active. Alternatively, here you can register for an email notification from Trade Ideas about the next Test Drive. A direct Trade Ideas free trial for $0 is not available, so the Test Drive for $11.11 is lowest possible price for testing.

Trade Ideas Pro Support

A great way to introduce yourself to Trade Ideas is by watching the getting started videos on their YouTube channel. These video resources are very helpful in giving people answers to 95% of their questions.

Education and training are provided for an optimal user experience. The help section explains every feature in detail, supplemented by pictures and videos. Subscribers can learn any aspect of the software, including how to create and set up custom windows and how to program their own formulas for those that have that interest.

The outstanding support is one of the reasons Trade Ideas has been on the Inc, 5000 fastest growing privately held US-based companies for the last 5 years in a row.


Trade Ideas Review Summary

Trade Ideas offers the best choice for beginners and seasoned market technicians as the platform meets all needs for trade alerts, brokerage connectivity, strategy development, strategy testing, data visualization, charting, and streaming information.

New subscribers make use of the Trade Ideas promo codes and find more information about Trade Ideas and the platform’s technology on its website trade-ideas.com. In my opinion, it is the better choice to invest in Trade Ideas utilizing the full power of the platform with features like simulated trading compared to the alternative of opening a trading account and putting all hard-earned money at risk with trial and error trading.

Pros

  • Scans over 8,000 stocks and ETFs in real-time
  • Trading room with real-time day trading desk sharing
  • Broker integration, backtesting, and trade automation

Cons

  • Only supports NYSE, Nasdaq and OTC markets
  • Higher price segment
  • Features can feel overwhelming for beginners

Trade Ideas Comparisons and Guides:

Rating

Alexander Voigt
Alexander Voigt is the founder of DAYTRADINGz, was a regular contributor to Benzinga and has been featured and quoted on leading financial websites such as Business Insider, Investors, Capital and Forbes.