Trade Ideas Review · 2026

Trade Ideas Review: Is It Worth It in 2026?

Trade Ideas covers US equities and options, and it is worth buying if you trade them and will put in the time to use it. It's for traders and investors who want to see setups across the whole market as they happen, test them before risking money, and act on them in the same place.

Holly AI Signals fire during the trading day, when stocks have normal intraday movement. You choose whether to exit that day or stay in based on your risk, so a signal can become a long-term position.

How traders use it

  1. Spot it live
  2. Test it
  3. Get Holly's signals
  4. Trade it
See Trade Ideas plans Open a free account

We are one of few companies to hit Inc. 5000 fastest growing privately held companies list 4 years IN A ROW (2017–2020)!

Is Trade Ideas worth it?

It depends on how you trade. Ask yourself four questions:

  1. Can you act while the market is open? Streaming Alerts and Holly AI Signals fire during the session, as setups happen. After the entry, whether you exit that day or hold the position is your call.
  2. Do you trade US stocks or options? Trade Ideas covers equities and options. Options coverage is the unusual options activity channel in TI Pro and the Dashboard.
  3. Will you test before you trade? OddsMaker is where most of the edge-finding happens, and it takes setup time.
  4. Is the subscription small relative to the account you trade? If it isn't, start with a lower tier, the free account, or a cheaper tool.

Four yeses: Trade Ideas is very likely worth it, and Premium is the plan that includes Holly and OddsMaker. One or more noes: read who it is not for first.

How much does Trade Ideas cost?

Prices from the live pricing page, checked October 5, 2026:

Plan Monthly billing Annual billing What it adds
TI Standard $127/monthcancel anytime $1,068/yearequal to $89/month; the pricing page says this saves $456/year Real-time data, Streaming Alerts and Top Lists you can customize (500+ alerts and filters), 10 charts on screen, custom layouts, TI Wave, price alerts, real-time paper trading, in-app trading
TI Premium $254/monthcancel anytime $2,136/yearequal to $178/month; the pricing page says this saves $912/year Everything in Standard, plus AI Signals (Holly), backtesting (OddsMaker), Smart Risk Levels, RBI/GBI windows, Auto Trading, Compare Count windows, multi-strategy windows, Stock Races, unlimited watchlists

Older reviews quote Trade Ideas at $118 and $228 a month. Those figures are out of date, so always check the pricing page.

Can I use Trade Ideas for free?

Yes, with a free account. As of October 5, 2026, the pricing page shows paid plans only. You can open a free account from the Free Account link (also in the Free Trade Ideas menu). It gives you the Trade Ideas web dashboards from day one, so you can see how the market data and scanning work before you pay.

It is not a free version of TI Standard or TI Premium. Holly AI Signals, OddsMaker backtesting and the full TI Pro desktop app require a paid plan.

What Trade Ideas does well

Streaming Alerts across the whole market

An alert is an event that just happened, like a new high on a given timeframe, a jump in relative volume adjusted for time of day, or a cross of an opening range. A filter is a condition a stock must already meet, like price, float, volume or distance from the open. You combine events with filters, and Trade Ideas pushes every match to your window as it fires, across the market, all session. The Top List uses the same filters to rank which stocks qualify right now. Streaming Alerts are the Trade Ideas scanner; the Top List is the screener. Under both is the Super Feed, Trade Ideas' real-time data, tracking thousands of stocks tick by tick. There are 500+ alerts and filters, and the Formula Editor lets you build your own.

Unusual options activity

Trade Ideas covers options as well as equities. It monitors unusual options activity across all stocks and has a dedicated channel for it in both TI Pro and the web Dashboard, so you can see where options traders are putting money next to the stock alerts you already run.

Holly AI Signals

Holly AI Signals come from a bank of strategies that is backtested and reselected every day, so the strategies trading on a given day are the ones that held up in recent conditions. Signals fire during the trading day with entry and exit levels. You decide whether to exit during the day or hold the position based on your risk, and the Holly signals highlighted on the Trade Ideas homepage are examples that became large long-term winners. The Holly AI Assistant takes plain English, like "stocks up from the open on heavy relative volume", and builds a live Alert or Top List window on the same real-time data. Holly AI Signals are part of TI Premium.

Backtesting with OddsMaker

OddsMaker is event-based. Right-click an Alert window and run Backtest Strategy. It replays every time that alert fired over recent regular sessions, with your entry window, timed exit and stops. Then it breaks the results down by time of day, price, symbol and every Trade Ideas filter as it stood at each alert. You keep the slice that held up, add it to the scan, and run the test again. You can also flip an alert from long to short and test both sides.

Entry and exit signals, then execution

Holly AI Signals give entry and exit, and Smart Risk Levels on charts (Premium) show where the risk sits. When you're ready to trade, TI Standard includes in-app trading and real-time paper trading. Brokerage Plus connects your broker accounts, or TI simulated trading, inside Trade Ideas, and TI Premium adds Auto Trading. Supported brokers are on the brokers page.

Learning and support

Trade Ideas runs the free Trade Ideas Trading Room, hosted by Barrie Einarson Monday to Friday, 8:00am–3:30pm ET. There is also a Learning Center and a full User Guide. Several of the testimonials below are about the support team.

What Trade Ideas does not do

  • It has a real learning curve. TI Pro is dense. You get the most from it after you've built and tested your own windows, and that takes hours, not minutes.
  • It is not cheap. See the plan table above. If you trade a small account, the subscription is a real cost, and you should weigh it before buying.
  • The full desktop app runs on Windows. TI Pro is built for Windows. Mac users can use web access in a browser, or run TI Pro through Parallels Desktop or a cloud Windows machine.
  • It covers US equities and options. If you mainly trade crypto, forex, futures or international markets, look elsewhere.
  • It is not a research or fundamentals tool. You can filter on things like float and market cap, but there are no analyst reports, Congress-trade or 13F tracking, or valuation models.
  • OddsMaker has known limits. Per the User Guide, it uses one-minute bars, not ticks. It does not account for the bid-ask spread. It covers recent regular-session days only, never the current day and never pre-market or after-hours. Use it to find an edge, and size trades knowing it is a simulation.
  • It can't promise results. No scan, signal or backtest can.

Is Trade Ideas for day traders or long-term investors?

Both. Holly AI Signals and Streaming Alerts fire during the trading day, when stocks have normal intraday movement, and the same signal serves either style.

Same session

Day traders

Take the entry, manage it with Smart Risk Levels and the exit levels, and close out in the same session. OddsMaker shows which alerts, holding times and times of day have held up before you risk money.

Hold while the risk fits

Investors

Take the same entry and hold the position as long as the risk still fits. Holly AI Signals are designed to find stocks with large long-term upside, and the Holly signals highlighted on the Trade Ideas homepage are examples that became large long-term winners.

How long you hold is your risk choice, not a limit of the software. Getting in when the signal fires, instead of after the move shows up on a daily chart, matters for both.

Who is Trade Ideas for, and who is it not for?

Trade Ideas is for

  • Day traders in US stocks who want market-wide setups as they happen, proof from OddsMaker, and an exit in the same session
  • Investors in US stocks who want to get into Holly AI Signals' potential long-term winners at the moment they fire, and hold them as long as the risk fits
  • Traders who want to build and test their own scans, not just follow a list
  • Traders who watch unusual options activity alongside stock setups
  • Traders who want Holly AI Signals and backtesting in the same workflow as their charts and broker
  • Traders on Windows, or on a Mac who are happy using the web version or Parallels

Trade Ideas is not for

  • Anyone who only wants a short daily pick list with levels and no setup. A low-cost daily-signal tool will suit you better
  • If you are okay with static non-refreshing data, Trade Ideas is probably not your best choice.
  • Traders whose main market is crypto, forex or futures
  • Anyone who wants to be told what to buy without learning the tool
  • Anyone for whom the subscription would be a large share of their trading account

Comparing Trade Ideas with a specific tool? See all Trade Ideas comparisons.

What customers say

I would've never learned if I didn't have the scans showing the range setups each day. Appreciate what you and your software do 100%.

Taylor, 07/2024

I LOVE the fact I can program my own alerts and greatly appreciate everyone's help at TI. I have a very specific strategy I go by so building scans focused around this has been huge time saver. The fact I can backtest scans along the way helps with conviction.

Bullish_bob, 04/2023

It's quick on the draw, scanning the market in real-time and tossing alerts my way when it sniffs out potential trades.

teddbe

Stocks that I may not even know exists could be presented as a possible trade that w/o TI I would miss out.

Ricky G.

I just want to say thank you for everything you guys do at Trade Ideas. Your software is helping me tremendously as a beginner in the stock market.

Fausto M., 09/2022

TI support is seriously some of the best software support I have ever encountered. I may have said this before but it bears repeating.

Mark

I can't say enough good things about your service. Stefanie provided a timely, thorough, and easy to understand response to my question. Your team is awesome - thank you!

Mike

Been with TI for 3+ years - Awesome team and great service. Continuing my subscription for year another year !!!

Stocktrade, 12/2022

Outside recognition

Inc. 5000

Inc. 5000: We are one of few companies to hit Inc. 5000 fastest growing privately held companies list 4 years IN A ROW (2017–2020)!

StockBrokers.com award

StockBrokers.com: Trade Ideas review.

Next step

Start with the plan that matches how you trade. Choose TI Standard for real-time Streaming Alerts, charts and trading, or TI Premium to add Holly AI Signals and OddsMaker. If you're not ready to pay, open a free account and try the web dashboards first.

See Trade Ideas plans and pricing Open a free account

Trade Ideas publishes this review of its own product, and we've tried to say plainly what it does not do. Prices were checked on the publish date and can change; the pricing page is current. Trading involves risk. Nothing on this page is investment advice or a promise of results.