It goes without saying that Trade Ideas is one of the most popular stock scanners available to retail traders. However, it is by no means for everyone. Some dislike the charts, some the user experience, and others are purely put off by the price tag. If this describes you, then look no further, as this review rounds up every Trade Ideas alternative under the sun.
As a former hedge fund manager, I am uniquely placed to give a professional insight on each platform’s merits and shortcomings, including who each is best suited for. The information presented below is the culmination of my extensive research and testing, so sit back and enjoy.
For those looking for the short answer, Scanz is the best alternative to Trade Ideas, which we are currently offering a 14-day free trial on.
Trade Ideas Alternatives Overview
| Trade Ideas Alternative | Best For | Review | Discount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scanz | News Scanning & Level II Data | Scanz Review | -50% Off First Month |
| TradingView | Global Market Coverage | TradingView Review | -50% Off Early Bird Offer |
| TrendSpider | Automated Technical Analysis | TrendSpider Review | -20% Discount With Code "SOV20" |
| TC2000 | Options Traders | TC2000 Review | -25% Discount with Bi-Annual Subscription |
| Finviz | Best Free Alternative | Finviz Review | -40% With Annual Subscription |
Trade Ideas Competitors Comparison
| Feature | Trade Ideas | Scanz | TradingView | TrendSpider | TC2000 | Finviz |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Real-Time Scanning |  | | | | |  |
| AI Assistant | | | | | | |
| Backtesting | | | | | | |
| Automated Technical Analysis | | | | | | |
| Fundamental Data | | | | | | |
| Extended Hours Data | | | | | | Available With Finviz Elite |
| OTC Data | | Available For Extra Fee | | Delayed | | |
| Trading | Interactive Brokers & E*Trade | Interactive Brokers & TD Ameritrade | 40+ Stock, FX & Crypto Brokers | | TC2000 Brokerage | |
| Regions | US, Canada | US | Global | US | US, Canada | US |
| Asset Classes | Stocks, ETFs | Stocks, ETFs, Warrants, Convertibles | Stocks, ETFs, Futures, FX, Crypto | Stocks, ETFs, Futures, Crypto | Stocks, ETFs, Options | Stocks, ETFs, Futures, FX, Crypto |
| Charts | Basic candlestick charts, handful of technical indicators, basic drawing tools | 14 chart styles, more than 100 technical indicators, around 30 drawing tools | 16 chart styles, 100+ technical indicators, 90+ drawing tools | 6 chart styles, 190+ technical indicators, 20+ drawing tools | 7 chart styles, 100+ technical indicators, 20 drawing tools | 5 chart styles, 30 technical indicators, 15+ drawing tools |
| Free Trial | Sign Up For "Test Drive" Notifications | 14-day Free Trial | 30-day Free Trial | 7-day Free Trial | 30-day Money Back Guarantee | 30-day Money Back Guarantee |
| Price | Trade Ideas Current Prices | Scanz Current Prices | TradingView Current Prices | TrendSpider Current Prices | TC2000 Current Prices | Finviz Current Prices |
Best Alternative to Trade Ideas
After some lengthy testing of countless stock screeners, the following make my shortlist for best Trade Ideas alternatives.
Scanz: Best Alternative for News Scanning & Level 2 Data
Out of all of the platforms mentioned, I would say that Scanz is the closest competitor of Trade Ideas. The reason being that both target a specific user: day traders.
Like Trade Ideas, real-time market scanning is the cornerstone of Scanz; helping traders detect intraday trading opportunities with speed and precision. To do this, they provide you with 4 different scanners:
- Easy Scanner: Create quick, easy scans based on basic price and liquidity parameters
- Pro Scanner: Lets you create more complex scans using over 100 filters
- Breakout Scanner: Catch momentum trading signals as they happen in real-time, including new highs/lows, volume spikes, and moving average breakout stocks
- News Scanner: A constant, uninterrupted real-time stream of press releases, news, and SEC filings for all U.S. public companies
The fact that Scanz packages every scanning tool you need into these 4 modules, means that the user experience is extremely fluid. In contrast, Trade Ideas is organized into 48 different “Channels”, which can get quite cluttered with different pop-up windows. As such, I found Scanz far more intuitive to grasp initially. I would say it is better-suited to beginners for that reason.
The News Scanner is especially unique. Not only can you live-stream news articles from over 100 different sources, but you can also set specific news alerts for stocks on your watchlist. Whether that’s earnings releases, partnership agreements, or M&A rumours, you’ll be the first to know about any market-moving events. This isn’t something you can do with Trade Ideas.
Another unique feature to Scanz is level II data, which shows you incoming orders for a stock at various market makers. This gives you a top-level view of a stock’s liquidity, which is a must-have tool for day traders.
The charts aren’t bad either. This isn’t to say Scanz is a top-of-the range charting software, however it is surprisingly advanced for a stock scanning platform. This is definitely an area that Scanz has improved in recent years and handily beats Trade Ideas on. For more information, you can check out my Scanz vs Trade Ideas comparison.
Lastly, while Scanz supports broker integrations with Interactive Brokers and TD Ameritrade, it doesn’t come with the same AI stock trading tools that Trade Ideas offers.
Trade Ideas Pro integrates an artificial intelligence (AI) bot called “Holly”, which suggests algorithmic trading strategies based on the millions of backtests it runs each day. Moreover, autotrading allows you to execute any automated trading strategy through the “Brokerage Plus” module.
TradingView: Best Trade Ideas Alternative for Global Market Data
TradingView is the best alternative to Trade Ideas for those wishing to access global market data.
As well as providing stock market data for 70+ global exchanges in over 50 countries, it also provides data for many other asset classes. This includes futures, FX, and cryptocurrencies. It even has separate Forex and cryptocurrency screeners that include specific filters for those asset classes. In fact, I would go as far as to say that TradingView is the ultimate forex charting software.
Broad data coverage is just the start, however. Indeed, TradingView is one of the most well-equipped platforms in terms of its analytical tools.
Firstly, TradingView’s charts set the industry standard. If you’ve ever read an article with third-party stock charts in it, they most likely come from TradingView. With so many customizable features, it’s easy to see why:
- 16 chart styles
- Custom time intervals
- 100+ technical indicators
- 90+ drawing tools
They also come with numerous automated features like multi timeframe charts, candlestick recognition, and chart pattern recognition.
The stock screener also comes packed with more than 220 descriptive, technical, and fundamental metrics. As such, whether you’re a fundamental investor looking for cheap stocks, or a technical trader looking for major market reversal patterns, TradingView likely has you covered. However, bear in mind that the fastest you can refresh your screener results is every 10 seconds, as opposed to real-time with Trade Ideas. This is something I go into more detail about in my Trade Ideas vs TradingView comparison.
Backtesting is also included in TradingView, which allows users to create their own sophisticated trading system. You can test any of the 23 in-built strategies from TradingView, the thousands of strategies shared by fellow users, or you can program your own from scratch using the Pine Editor.
In addition to these technical analysis features, there are also some handy fundamental analysis tools worth mentioning. In particular, you can access all sorts of historical fundamental data, including 7 years of financial statements, valuation and profitability ratios, and dividends.
What’s more, you can plot more than 100 fundamental fields on your stock charts. In many cases, this data stretches back 20 years.
However, the real linchpin of TradingView is its 50 million-strong community, which provides a whole host of pooled resources and an open forum to bounce trading ideas off each other. This includes a community-built library of over 100,000 custom indicators and strategies shared by fellow users.
The network effects from having so many people sharing their thoughts – whether that be investment ideas, trading strategies, or educational content – brings so many benefits that you just can’t find anywhere else.
If you like the sound of TradingView, you should check out these TradingView alternatives as well.
TrendSpider: Best for Automated Technical Analysis
Before we delve into TrendSpider’s functionality, I thought you should know that they are currently offering up to 71% off their annual plans for Xmas! Prices never get cheaper than this, so hurry and bag it before it expires at midnight on Sunday 22nd December.
TrendSpider is best known for its advanced technical analysis tools, supporting over 55,000 US stocks, ETFs, indices, futures, FX, and cryptocurrencies.
In particular, it uses AI algorithms to automatically plot trendlines, chart patterns, Fibonacci retracements, and candlestick patterns on charts. As such, TrendSpider makes a great alternative to Trade Ideas for anyone wanting assistance with technical analysis.
Moreover, it integrates multi time frame analysis (MTFA) into its charting tools, allowing you to plot trendlines and indicators from different time frames onto a single chart.
TrendSpider is more than just a charting platform, however. It is also a great stock scanner alternative to Trade Ideas.
What’s great about it is that you can create conditions across multiple time frames, from 1-minute to 1-month. For example, if you want to find stocks where the 36-period hourly EMA has crossed above the 136-period daily SMA in the last 10 trading days, while RSI is overbought on the 30 minute chart, you can do this quite easily.
The scanning criteria follows a “point-and-click” procedure, so no coding knowledge is required. Everything is completely visual and beginner-friendly.
There are also dozens of pre-built screens for you to use “out of the box” or to build on top of, including, but not limited to:
- MACD Cross Scanner
- Golden Cross/Cross of Death Scanner
- Intraday Volume Rush Scanners
- RSI Breakdown and Breakout Scanners
- TTM Squeeze Breakout and Breakdown Scanners
- Ichimoku Cloud Scanners
- And many, many more…
TrendSpider also has a powerful backtester that lets you test numerous technical trading scenarios. You can backtest over 3000, 5000, or 7000 historical candles depending on your subscription level, from 1-minute intraday bars to yearly bars.
What’s more, it is extremely easy to use.
The “point-and-click” rule builder means you don’t need any coding experience. Plus, there are dozens of popular algorithmic trading strategies already pre-configured for you. However, while you don’t need any coding knowledge to use this backtester, you still have the option to program complex or simplified trading strategies if you wish.
The other standout feature in TrendSpider is dynamic alerts, which give you far more flexibility than standard price alerts. For example, there are 3 different trigger conditions: break through, touch, and bounce, which lets you tailor your alerts to your individual trading style. You can also adjust the sensitivity of your alerts and base them on multiple technical signals (as opposed to just one).
On the downside, TrendSpider doesn’t support broker integrations. Therefore, it can’t be used as a trading platform like Trade Ideas can.
If TrendSpider floats your boat, you should consider these TrendSpider alternatives too.
TC2000: Best Options Trading Software
TC2000 wins my pick for the best Trade Ideas alternative alternative for options traders.
Firstly, it includes a pre-configured “Options” tab, where you can see complete options chain data for any stock. Here is where you’ll find information on strike prices, expiry dates, and “Greeks” metrics (Delta, Vega, Implied Vol, etc.), so you can perform in-depth options analysis.
There is also an options screener, which lets you screen across 11 different options variables including:
- Premium (%)
- Intrinsic Value
- Time Value
- Black-Scholes Value
- Greeks (Delta, Gamma, Rho, Theta, Vega)
However, TC2000 is much more than just an options platform. In fact, it covers more than 100,000 stocks, ETFs, and options in the US & Canada.
It also comes with advanced charting features including over 100 technical indicators and 20 drawing tools. Not to mention the ability to display multiple time frames on the same screen, as well as multiple securities on the same chart (otherwise known as comparison charts).
You can also chart around 80 different fundamental indicators on your charts, which lets you see how a company’s fundamentals have evolved over time.
In addition, its EasyScan stock screener comes packed with over 70 fundamental metrics, 80+ technical indicators, and 11 options variables. Alternatively, you can use any of the 90 pre-built scans as they come, or as inspiration for your own scans. Experienced users can even program their own screening conditions using TC2000’s Personal Criteria Formulas (PCFs).
“Gappers” scans are always popular with day traders, as they identify stocks making explosive moves. Interestingly, this is one of many pre-configured day trading scans in TC2000, which puts it in direct competition with Trade Ideas as a day trading platform. However, while TC2000 is more than capable of detecting short-term trading opportunities, you will have to purchase the Platinum subscription to enjoy real-time results.
Also, while Trade Ideas facilitates trading through external broker integrations, TC2000 requires a separate TC2000 brokerage account for in-platform trading. Unfortunately, this is the only way you can trade stocks and options from your charts in TC2000.
Having said that, it offers very competitive margin rates and enormous flexibility in terms of trade execution. There are even a whole host of pre-configured options strategies, which you can implement at a click of a few buttons.
Finviz: Best Trade Ideas Free Alternative
Finviz is the best Trade Ideas free alternative.
As a free user of Finviz, you have access to delayed charts, stock screening, heatmaps, and 3 quarters/years of financial statements.
The charts come with automated trend line analysis, which are surprisingly accurate and very useful if your eyes aren’t “trained” to spot chart patterns yet. However, be aware that drawing tools and technical indicators require a paid subscription to Finviz Elite.
In addition, the stock screener comes with 67 fundamental and technical metrics, which gives you plenty of choice for building screening criteria. Included in this are candlestick and chart pattern recognition, which I found to be highly accurate during my testing.
Unfortunately, the fastest you can update scan result is 3 minutes as a free user, which means it can’t compete with Trade Ideas on speed. However, this reduces to 10 seconds if you upgrade to Finviz Elite. Still slower than Trade Ideas, but perhaps a trade off worth considering for the price difference.
In fact, I show you how to run a “gap up” scan with Finviz Elite in my best premarket scanners review.
And of course, I would be remiss not to mention its data visualization tools. It’s where it gets its name from, after all (Finviz = “Financial Visualization”).
Essentially, the “Heatmaps” and “Groups” features give users a birds-eye view of where the value and momentum lie in markets – across geographies, asset classes, and sectors. This is great for those looking to build a top-down investment process.
As mentioned, for those who want to unlock more functionality, there is the option to upgrade to Finviz Elite. For a small price, you gain access to more advanced features, such as real-time data, interactive charts, backtesting, and more.
Trade Ideas Alternative Summary
Trade Ideas is one of the most popular stock scanning platform for day traders. However, depending on your individual needs, it may not be the best choice for you. For example, it falls short on charts, fundamental screening, and long-range backtesting.
The closest competitor to Trade Ideas is Scanz, which specializes in real-time stock scanning, news scanning, advanced charts, and level 2 data. As such, Scanz offers the best day trading alternative to Trade Ideas.
If you want a platform equipped with better technical analysis tools than Trade Ideas, then you should consider either TradingView, TrendSpider, or TC2000. Each are capable of real-time scanning, however TradingView offers global data coverage, TrendSpider specializes in automated technical analysis, while TC2000 is best for options traders.
Lastly, Finviz is a great free competitor to Trade Ideas, however functionality is obviously limited. Upgrading to Finviz Elite will bring you closer to real-time scanning, though not as instant as Trade Ideas.
If you’re still unsure which platform is right for you, I always recommend using the free trials on offer in this article.