Trade Ideas

Trade Ideas is a real-time stock scanning and market-discovery platform, not a broker: it surfaces trading candidates as they meet configured conditions, and any resulting order is placed through a separately connected brokerage account. Trade Ideas describes itself legally as “a publisher,” not an investment adviser, and states that its content is not a personalized recommendation.

What Trade Ideas is

At its core, Trade Ideas watches the US stock (and ETF) market in real time and alerts a trader the moment a defined condition is met — a volume spike, a price move, a technical pattern, or one of over 500 available data points used as filter criteria. On top of that rule-based scanning sits an optional AI layer (Holly, on the Premium plan) that generates its own stock suggestions, and an optional broker connection (Brokerage Plus) that lets a trader act on a candidate without leaving the platform. It is not a broad multi-asset charting platform, not a futures or options-chain platform, and not a long-term portfolio-research tool — its structure is built around short-horizon, real-time discovery in US equities specifically.

Discovery: real-time scanners and alerts

The core workflow is discovery-first: customizable scans and screeners run continuously against live market data, and “Streaming Alerts” notify a trader the instant a configured condition triggers, rather than requiring a manual refresh of a static list. This extends to specific documented use cases like premarket scanning. Configurable layouts and charting (including Picture-in-Picture) let a trader inspect a surfaced candidate before deciding anything — the scanner surfaces the candidate, it doesn’t replace the trader’s own analysis of it.

Holly: the AI suggestion layer

Holly is Trade Ideas’ AI/Virtual Trade Assistant, available on the Premium plan. It re-evaluates itself nightly, running simulated backtests across a documented set of dozens of named strategies (Trade Ideas’ own material notes the exact count can change over time), and surfaces real-time stock suggestions with specific entry and exit levels directly on the chart. Acting on a Holly suggestion is, in Trade Ideas’ documented baseline workflow, a manual decision — a trader still clicks to trade, typically through a connected broker. This is distinct from Auto Trading, a separate Premium feature for more automated execution. Trade Ideas’ own disclosure page is explicit that none of this content is a personalized recommendation and that actual results may differ from the performance it reports for its portfolios, and Holly’s nightly re-evaluation is itself based on simulated backtesting rather than executed trades — worth understanding before treating any shown “results” as a track record.

Backtesting with OddsMaker

OddsMaker, also Premium-only, lets a trader score how a scan, entry signal, or trading plan would have performed against recent history — historical backtesting of scan and strategy logic, not a claim of institutional-grade quantitative research or a guarantee that past performance predicts future results.

Paper trading and broker-connected execution

Real-Time Paper Trading is included on the Standard plan, so testing the scanning workflow without live capital doesn’t require the higher tier. For live execution, Trade Ideas connects to a trader’s own broker account rather than executing trades itself — confirmed direct integrations include E*TRADE, TradeStation, and Interactive Brokers, via the Brokerage Plus module, with one-click order entry from a chart or scanner. Alpaca also connects through Brokerage Plus, but Trade Ideas describes that connection as paper-trading access; live trading through Alpaca isn’t established in its current materials. Trade Ideas does not hold a trader’s brokerage funds and does not independently clear trades; the connected broker does.

What “options support” actually means — and what isn’t supported at all

Trade Ideas is not an options-chain analysis tool. Its own support documentation is direct about this: it’s “geared more towards stock trading” and offers only “a limited set of filters for options, related to total options volumes” — meaning a trader can filter for stocks that crossed an options-volume threshold, not analyze specific options contracts or chains. Separately, order execution for options is documented through the TradeStation integration specifically, which is a different thing from options discovery. Trade Ideas is fundamentally centered on US equities; current first-party product documentation does not establish support for futures, forex, or crypto markets — that’s an absence in what’s documented, not a claim that these could never be supported.

Pricing: Standard vs. Premium

Trade Ideas runs two plans. TI Standard (“The Core”) is $127/month, or $1,068 billed annually — equivalent to $89/month, an official $456/year saving over paying monthly. TI Premium (“The Apex”) is $254/month, or $2,136 billed annually — equivalent to $178/month, an official $912/year saving. The annual figures are a billing choice, not a separate cheaper plan: $89 and $178 only apply when paying for the full year upfront. Standard covers the core workflow — real-time data, up to 10 charts, customizable layouts/scans/screeners, 500+ alert and filter data points, price alerts, real-time paper trading, and in-app trading. Premium adds Holly’s AI signals, OddsMaker backtesting, Auto Trading, Smart Risk Levels, and several other advanced windows and tools, along with unlimited watchlists. The practical split for a buyer: Standard is the scanning and execution workflow on its own; Premium is that workflow plus the AI and backtesting layer.

No standard free trial — and what the Test Drive actually is

Trade Ideas does not offer a standard free trial; its own support material states plainly that it doesn’t give free fully-functional trials, citing exchange requirements around live real-time data. What exists instead is a periodic, paid “Test Drive” — a temporary window of Premium-level access, running for one or two weeks, that isn’t continuously available and isn’t currently open as of this review’s verification date. It ends automatically with no cancellation required, sales are described as final, and continuing afterward means actively subscribing to Standard or Premium. Subscriptions themselves are non-refundable under Trade Ideas’ EULA, with no early termination. A separate, permanently free account exists but is limited to delayed data on a browser dashboard — it doesn’t provide the real-time scanning that is the actual point of the product.

Platform access

Trade Ideas is available as Windows desktop software and as a browser-based web version; the web version is how Mac, Linux, and tablet users access the platform, since there’s no official downloadable iOS app. Feature parity between the desktop download and the web version isn’t documented, so it shouldn’t be assumed to be identical.

Where Trade Ideas falls short

The clearest limitation is scope: this is a US-equities (plus ETF) tool, with no documented futures, forex, or crypto support, and options capability limited to a volume filter rather than real chain analysis. The two most distinctive features — Holly’s AI suggestions and OddsMaker backtesting — both require the notably more expensive Premium tier. There’s no standing free trial, only an occasional paid preview window. And with no native mobile app, a trader wanting phone- or tablet-first access is limited to the browser version rather than a dedicated app experience.

Who Trade Ideas is best for

Trade Ideas fits active US stock traders — especially premarket and momentum traders — who want real-time, condition-driven discovery rather than a static or delayed screener, and who are willing to pay for Premium if Holly’s AI suggestions or OddsMaker backtesting are part of what they’re looking for.

Who should look elsewhere

Futures, forex, and crypto traders should look elsewhere, since none of those markets are established in Trade Ideas’ current documentation. Options traders wanting contract-level chain analysis won’t find it here either — only a volume-based stock filter. Traders looking for a simple, low-cost screener, a native mobile app, or long-term portfolio/fundamental research tools are also better served by something else.