# What to use instead of Trade Ideas

Trade Ideas is 127 a month for the scanner and 254 to test a scan, Windows and US only. What covers its streaming scans elsewhere, and what you lose.

*https://stockmarketstack.com/alternatives/trade-ideas*

## The subject

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Product | Trade Ideas |
| Status | live |
| Website | https://www.trade-ideas.com |
| Category | Stock Charting Platforms & Screeners |

The real-time US stock scanner built on streaming alerts from 500-plus conditions, with the Holly AI signal engine, the OddsMaker backtester and auto trading on the 254-dollar Premium tier.

## Replacements

*Ordered by how much of the original’s job each one covers, closest first. Paid placement does not affect this order.*

1. [TrendSpider](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/trendspider.md) — Real-time scans, alerts and charts in a browser, plus backtests of the scan itself, which Trade Ideas sells only at 254; one-minute scans from 183.
2. [TC2000](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/tc2000.md) — Real-time EasyScan scans with a formula language, 100 alerts and paper trading at 49.99 a month, on US and Canadian stocks and options, Windows first.
3. [Finviz Elite](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/finviz-elite.md) — Real-time US screening with 10-second refresh, alerts and CSV export at 39.50, if a screen you re-run can stand in for a streaming alert window.
4. [TradingView](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/tradingview.md) — Charts, a screener and alerts that fire on the vendor's servers with the tab closed, on every platform and 50-plus markets, from a free plan up.
5. [StockCharts](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/stockcharts.md) — Saved and scheduled scans with alerts from 29.95, for end-of-day and swing scans rather than intraday ones; the included real-time is one exchange.
6. [Stock Rover](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/stock-rover.md) — Screening on 400 to 800 fundamental metrics with portfolio analytics, from 29 a month billed annually, for when the scan was about the company.
7. [Uncle Stock](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/uncle-stock.md) — Fundamental screens over listings in 79 countries, backtested over decades from Silver at 35 a month; end-of-day, and the non-US answer here.

## The product

We list Trade Ideas ourselves, and [its card](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/trade-ideas) is the full account of it:
plans, coverage, broker connections and limits, verified in September 2026. Its prices were
re-read on the vendor's pricing page on 9 October 2026 and had not moved. This page does not
replace the card. It answers the narrower question a Trade Ideas user asks once the bill or one
of its limits starts to bite: what else does this job, and what does the switch cost.

Trade Ideas is a real-time scanner for US stocks and ETFs, built around alerts that fire the
moment a condition triggers rather than a screen you re-run. Scans are composed from more than
500 data points and stream into alert windows, with charting and order entry in the same layout.
TI Standard, which the pricing page also calls Core, is 127 dollars a month or 1,068 a year and is
the scanner: real-time data, ten charts, scans and screeners, price alerts, paper trading, in-app
trading and the TI Wave overlay. TI Premium, also called Apex, is 254 a month or 2,136 a year
and adds the Holly AI signals, the OddsMaker backtester, smart risk levels and auto trading.

The reasons a holder looks elsewhere are the same few every time:

- **The price, with no free way in.** Both plans are paid, there is no functional free trial, and
  the vendor's way in is a paid Test Drive of one or two weeks at Premium level.
- **Testing a scan costs double.** At 127 you have the full scanner and no way to check whether a
  scan you built ever worked. The backtester is on the 254 tier.
- **The full product is Windows.** The vendor's advice for a Mac is Parallels or a cloud Windows
  machine; the browser build exists but is not the whole platform.
- **US stocks and ETFs only.** No non-US listings, no futures, forex or crypto, and no options
  chain or greeks behind the options orders it can route.
- **Nothing gets out.** No API, no webhooks, no scripting language. Alerts live inside the
  application.

**About Holly.** Holly is the part of Trade Ideas that issues named trades, and this catalogue
does not judge signals. What can be said is what it is built on: by the vendor's account, it
reselects its strategy set every night against simulated backtests of past US equity data, then
issues buy and sell alerts with suggested entry, stop, target and exit levels during the session.
No pick on this page replaces that module, and none is offered as a substitute for it. The picks
replace the scanner.

## What to use instead

For the same two products head to head, [Trade Ideas vs TrendSpider](https://stockmarketstack.com/compare/trade-ideas-vs-trendspider)
goes further than this page, and ends on which wins for which bar size.

**If what you use is the live scan.** [TrendSpider](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/trendspider) is the nearest in shape —
real-time scanning, alerts and charts in a browser, with phone apps — but it is priced by bar
size: Standard at 82 scans only on two-hour bars and up, five minutes needs Premium at 137, one
minute Enhanced at 183. [TC2000](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/tc2000) gives real-time EasyScan scans with PCF formulas
and 100 alerts at 49.99 a month, on a Windows client with paper trading; auto-refreshing sorts are
its 99.99 tier.

**If a refreshing screen will do.** [Finviz Elite](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/finviz-elite) at 39.50 a month is
real-time US screening with a 10-second refresh, screener alerts by email and browser push, and
CSV export. It is a filter grid rather than a stream of triggered conditions, which for swing
trading is often enough and for the open is not. [StockCharts](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/stockcharts) runs saved
scans on a schedule from 29.95, which suits end-of-day work.

**If what you need is to test the scan.** TrendSpider backtests the conditions it scans on, which
is the cheapest route here to a tested intraday scan. For fundamental screens rather than tape
conditions, [Uncle Stock](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/uncle-stock) backtests a screen over decades from 35 a month,
and [Portfolio123](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/portfolio123) does point-in-time ranked backtests at higher prices.

**If the scan was really about the company, or not about the US.** [Stock Rover](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/stock-rover)
screens US and Canadian stocks on 400 to 800 metrics with portfolio analytics; Uncle Stock covers
listings in 79 countries at end-of-day speed. [TradingView](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/tradingview) has a built-in
screener over 50-plus countries' listings on the way to its charts — the one pick here that is
both intraday and outside the US, with non-US exchange data bought separately.

The rest of the category is on the [charting platforms and screeners page](https://stockmarketstack.com/categories/charting-screeners),
and the screeners alone in the [stock screeners collection](https://stockmarketstack.com/collections/stock-screeners).

## What you give up

**Alerts that stream from 500-plus conditions.** That is the product, and nothing here matches it
one to one. TrendSpider streams scans but floors them by bar size by plan; TC2000 scans in real
time but with its own criteria and PCF; Finviz Elite and StockCharts refresh a screen. If your
edge was a particular combination of Trade Ideas alert types, check that each condition exists
on the other side before cancelling.

**Paper trading and broker routing in one window.** Trade Ideas Standard includes real-time paper
trading and sends orders to Interactive Brokers, TradeStation, E*TRADE and Alpaca by API. TrendSpider
offers no paper trading, and its broker connections run through SignalStack, with five free
orders a month and SignalStack's own pricing after that; TC2000 routes only to its own affiliated
brokerage; Finviz Elite is not an order ticket at all, and StockCharts connects one broker, Tradier.

**The signals, if you used them.** Nothing on this page issues named trades, and none of it is
offered as a replacement for Holly. If the Premium tier was bought for Holly rather than for the
scanner, this page has no answer for you, by design.

**The price comparison is closer than it looks.** Annual billing takes Standard to an effective
89 a month. Against that figure Finviz Elite and TC2000 Premium are cheaper, but TrendSpider's
one-minute plan at 183 is not, and that is the plan an intraday Trade Ideas user would need.

## Migration notes

**Rebuild scans from the condition list, not from memory.** Nothing exports from Trade Ideas — no
API, and alerts live inside the application — so write down every scan's conditions and
thresholds while you still have the platform open.

**Condition names do not travel.** A Trade Ideas alert type is the vendor's own definition of
"running up" or "new high". The nearest built-in on the other side can trigger on different
bars. Run the old and new scans side by side for a session and diff the symbols before trusting
the replacement.

**Check the bar-size floor before you pay.** On TrendSpider the plan decides the smallest bar a
scan or backtest can use. A scan that worked on one-minute bars in Trade Ideas needs Enhanced at
183, not Standard at 82.

**Real-time is included on most picks, but not all of it is the same tape.** TrendSpider and
Finviz Elite include real-time US equity data; StockCharts' included real-time is one exchange's
prints, without usable volume — wrong for a volume-based intraday scan.

## FAQ

### Is there a free alternative to Trade Ideas?

Not one that streams. Trade Ideas' own free account gets 15-minute delayed data on its browser dashboards, not the scanner. The free Finviz screener on delayed quotes, TradingView's Basic plan and StockCharts' no-account charts cost nothing, and each of them is a screen you re-run rather than alerts that arrive as conditions trigger.

### What replaces Holly?

Nothing on this page, and this catalogue does not judge signals. Holly is Trade Ideas' own engine. The vendor says it reselects its strategies every night against simulated backtests of past US equity data, then issues named buy and sell alerts with entry, stop and target levels during the session. Its record is the vendor's own and cannot be checked from outside a subscription.

### Is there a Trade Ideas alternative for a Mac?

TrendSpider, StockCharts and Finviz Elite all run in a browser, and TradingView runs natively on macOS as well. Trade Ideas itself has a browser version, but the vendor's advice for the full desktop product on a Mac is Parallels or a cloud Windows machine. TC2000 is in the same position, Windows first with a thinner browser platform.

### Can I backtest a scan without paying for Trade Ideas Premium?

Yes. TrendSpider tests the conditions you scan on from its 82-dollar Standard plan, on two-hour bars and up, and on one-minute bars from Enhanced at 183. For fundamental screens, Uncle Stock backtests from 35 a month. Finviz Elite no longer can, because Finviz ended its backtester on 26 March 2026.