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Updated February 2026 · Independently Researched

Trade Ideas Review (2026):
Is Holly AI Worth It?

The platform has a reputation in active trading communities going back to 2003. Here's the honest version, including the frustrating parts most reviews skip.

Visit Trade Ideas → Read Full Review ↓
Best For
Active Day Traders
Starting Price
$89/mo (annual)
Real-Time Data
✓ Yes (Both Plans)
Holly AI
Premium Only
Mobile App
✕ None
Paper Trading
✓ Both Plans
TRADE IDEAS: REAL-TIME SCANNER SIMULATION LIVE SIGNALS
HOLLY AI SIGNAL FEED · PREMIUM PLAN
NVDA ▲ LONG $134.80 ★ 72% conf.
TSLA ▼ SHORT $329.40 ★ 68% conf.
MARA ▲ LONG $14.55 ★★ 75% conf.
SOFI ▲ LONG $13.21 ★ 61% conf.
SPY ▼ SHORT $592.15 ★★ 78% conf.

* Illustrative simulation only. Not financial advice. Signals shown for visualization purposes.

Scanner Speed
9.4
Holly AI
8.5
Features
9.0
Value
7.9
Ease of Use
7.5
The Honest Take

What Most Trade Ideas Reviews Skip

If you're a day trader who's been piecing together scans in Finviz, waiting on your broker platform's delayed alerts, or manually watching 20 tickers before the open, you've probably heard of Trade Ideas. The platform has a reputation in active trading communities that goes back to 2003 (which is ancient in retail trading software terms).

But here's what most reviews skip: Trade Ideas is not for everyone, and the people pushing it hardest are usually affiliates. This review is going to give you the honest version, including the frustrating parts.

The price alone ($127/month for Basic monthly, or $89/month on annual billing) puts it in a category where you genuinely need to ask whether the tool justifies the cost. From what I've seen analyzing this platform and following community feedback across Reddit, Trustpilot, and Capterra, the answer is often yes, but only for a specific type of trader.

"The short version: Trade Ideas is the most capable AI-powered stock scanner built specifically for active day traders. It's expensive, the learning curve will frustrate beginners, and it genuinely won't help you if you don't already have a defined trading strategy. But for experienced, active traders running momentum plays daily? It's probably the best tool in its class."

What Is Trade Ideas?

Trade Ideas is a real-time stock scanner and AI trading signal platform designed specifically for day trading opportunities in US markets. Founded in 2003, it's continuously updated to the point where it now functions as a complete trading ecosystem: scanning, charting, backtesting, paper trading simulation, live trading room, and AI-generated trade alerts.

What separates this platform from other stock screeners is the AI system. Most screeners show you a filtered table of stocks. Trade Ideas actively surfaces trading ideas in real time, fires alerts the moment a setup develops, and, on the Premium plan, runs AI trading signals through its Holly engine without you needing to configure anything.

Holly AI isn't a feature you build. It's a feature you turn on. That changes the workflow considerably for active traders who are tired of manually watching for every setup.

Platform Features

What You Actually Get

⚡
Tick-Level Real-Time Scanner
Runs on institutional-grade servers and processes every single tick in real-time. When a stock crosses your filter criteria, you hear about it in milliseconds, not the 1-3 minute delays from broker-level scanners.
Basic + Premium
🤖
Holly AI Signal Engine
Runs 70+ distinct trading algorithms nightly, evaluates which strategies have the highest probability given that day's specific market conditions, and fires real-time buy and short sell signals with defined entry prices, stop levels, and profit targets.
Premium Only
📊
OddsMaker Backtesting
Take any custom scanner setup you've built and run it against historical data to see how that specific combination of criteria performed. Rare at the retail level. Keeps you honest about whether your "strategy" actually has edge.
Premium Only
📄
Paper Trading Simulator
Run your custom scanner setups, see Holly's signals fire in real time, and simulate trades in a live market environment, without risking capital. Runs in real market conditions during market hours, not delayed or synthetic data.
Basic + Premium
🎯
500+ Screening Criteria
Layer technical triggers (high RVOL above 2x average, price crossing above VWAP, new 60-minute high) with fundamental filters and price action conditions to build custom strategies matching exactly how you trade.
Basic + Premium
🎓
Live Trading Room
Active during market hours with professional traders sharing scans, discussing conditions, and walking through setups in real time. Watching experienced traders explain why they're taking or passing on setups provides context documentation simply can't replicate.
Basic + Premium
The AI Engine

Holly AI: The Reason Most Traders Pay for Premium

Holly isn't a chatbot or a screener with an AI label slapped on the marketing. The Trade Ideas AI system runs 70+ distinct trading algorithms nightly, evaluates which strategies have the highest statistical probability of success given that day's market conditions, and fires real-time signals during market hours.

The idea behind this is genuinely smart. What works in a trending bull market may destroy you during choppy consolidation. Holly re-evaluates its own strategies every single day using updated backtesting rather than running static rules you set and forget.

The shared AI signals problem is real. When Holly fires, it fires to every Premium subscriber simultaneously. Popular signals can get crowded quickly; the edge diminishes fast in small-cap and low-float stocks where supply is thin.

Multiple Trustpilot reviewers mention Holly generating short sell signals in stocks that simply aren't available on their broker platforms. If you're using Tasty Trade or IG, certain short ideas Holly generates will be untradeable for you. That's a real frustration worth factoring in before upgrading.

Holly AI System

Three Versions.
Different Risk Profiles.

The platform's AI alert system only includes strategies with a success rate above 60%, a meaningful filter. But success rate is one metric. Position sizing, stop management, and execution quality all determine real-world results.

Holly Grail
Original, most conservative. Best for new Holly users.
~55-60%
Holly 2.0
More aggressive: bigger moves, faster losses when wrong.
Higher vol.
Holly Neo
Real-time chart patterns, pullbacks, mid-session setups.
Mid-session
Holly Coverage
8,000+
stocks analyzed continuously during market hours across 300+ pre-built strategies
Feature Availability: Trade Ideas vs Competitors
Feature Trade Ideas Finviz TradingView TrendSpider
Real-time scanning ✓ Elite only ✓ ✓
AI signal engine ✓ ✕ ✕ ✕
Strategy backtesting Premium ✕ Paid ✓
Paper trading ✓ ✕ ✓ ✕
Pre-market scanning ✓ Elite only ✓ ✓
Broker integration ✓ ✕ ✓ ✕
Mobile app ✕ ✓ ✓ ✓
Free tier Delayed ✓ ✓ ✕

Based on published feature documentation. Verify current availability directly with each platform.

Trade Ideas Pricing

Plans That Get Confusing Fast

The monthly vs. annual pricing gap is significant, and there are optional add-ons that can push costs higher. The plan names have also changed over time, which doesn't help. Here's the current breakdown.

🏷️
Reader Exclusive: 15% Off Any Paid Plan Apply at checkout · Works on Basic and Premium · Annual or monthly
STOCKAPP15
Par Plan
Free
Limited access · Delayed data
  • ✓Stock Racing visualizations
  • ✓PiP Charts
  • ✓Predefined alerts & indicators
  • ✕Real-time market data
  • ✕Custom scanner access
  • ✕Holly AI
  • ✕Paper trading
Get Free Access

Delayed data makes this useless for active trading. Think of it as an extended demo.

Best Start
Basic / Birdie Bundle
$89/mo
Billed annually · $1,068/yr · ($127/mo monthly)
  • ✓Real-time market data
  • ✓Full custom scanner access
  • ✓Paper trading simulator
  • ✓Pre-market scanning
  • ✓Broker integration (IBKR, E*TRADE)
  • ✓500+ screening data points
  • ✕Holly AI signals
  • ✕OddsMaker backtesting
Start with Basic →

Seriously, start here before jumping to Premium. The scanning engine is the same.

Premium / Eagle Elite
$178/mo
Billed annually · $2,136/yr · ($254/mo monthly)
  • ✓Everything in Basic
  • ✓Holly AI signals (all 3 versions)
  • ✓The Money Machine
  • ✓OddsMaker backtesting
  • ✓Brokerage Plus auto-trading
  • ✓Full Channel Bar + templates
  • + 2 optional add-ons available at $49/mo each
Get Premium →

The ~$1,068/yr jump over Basic. Only justifiable if Holly's signals genuinely fit your approach.

Annual subscriptions save roughly 30% vs monthly. The math is straightforward if you're serious about this tool. Check current pricing →

Pros and Cons

✓ What Works
  • Scanner speed is genuinely faster than broker platforms. Traders describe the difference as meaningful, not marginal; in momentum trading, that millisecond gap is the entire trade.
  • Holly AI signal quality is impressive when market conditions are right. The transparency about Holly's strategy methodology is more honest than most AI trading tools on the market.
  • Paper trading in live market conditions is a real differentiator. You're testing against actual intraday price action, not backtested replays or synthetic data.
  • OddsMaker backtesting is rare at this price point. The ability to validate whether your setups have actual statistical edge before risking capital is genuinely valuable.
  • Live trading room is underrated. Watching professional traders make real-time decisions during a volatile session builds intuition that documentation never can.
  • Pre-market scanning available on both paid plans. This matters if you're building your watchlist before the 9:30 AM open.
✕ What Doesn't
  • No dedicated mobile app in 2026 is genuinely hard to defend at this pricing level. The web version on mobile is functional but not usable for active trading.
  • Holly's signal volume is inconsistent. On slow days or in choppy markets, you might see only 2-4 ideas. That can feel underwhelming for $178/month.
  • The shared signals problem: when Holly fires, it fires to every Premium subscriber simultaneously. Crowded signals lose edge fast in low-float stocks.
  • Interface density will frustrate new traders. Getting the Channel Bar working properly is a genuine multi-week project. It's learnable, but it requires commitment.
  • OddsMaker locked behind Premium is a product decision that seems arbitrary. Helping traders validate their strategies at the Basic tier makes sense, I still can't figure out why they don't.
  • Holly sometimes generates short sell signals in stocks unavailable on popular broker platforms (Tasty Trade, IG). Multiple Trustpilot reviews mention this specific frustration.
How It Stacks Up

Trade Ideas vs. The Competition

Real talk: Trade Ideas and TradingView actually complement each other. Plenty of active traders use Trade Ideas for scanning and TradingView for charting. These are different categories of tool.

Feature Trade Ideas Finviz Elite TradingView Pro TrendSpider
Starting Price (Annual) $89/mo $39.50/mo $14.95/mo $33/mo
Real-Time Data ✓ Tick-level ✓ Yes (Elite) ✓ Yes ✓ Yes
AI Signal Generation ✓ Holly AI ✕ None ✕ None ✕ None
Scanner Speed Fastest (ms) Fast (Elite) Fast Fast
Paper Trading ✓ Live conditions ✕ No ✓ Yes ✕ No
Backtesting ✓ OddsMaker (Premium) ✕ No ✓ Strategy tester ✓ Deep (all plans)
Charting Quality Functional Basic Best in class Excellent (technical)
Mobile App ✕ None Limited ✓ Full app ✓ Yes
Best For Day trading, momentum Swing/research Charting, scripting Technical analysis
vs. Finviz

Finviz is cheaper, cleaner, and has a gentler learning curve. For end-of-day research and swing setups, it's competitive. For real-time day trading? Trade Ideas wins by a significant margin. Different category of tool for intraday momentum.

vs. TradingView

TradingView has better charts, a stronger Pine Script ecosystem, and a cleaner interface. Trade Ideas wins on scanning speed and Holly AI. These tools actually complement each other; plenty of traders use both.

vs. TrendSpider

TrendSpider is stronger on automated trendline detection and multi-timeframe chart analysis. Trade Ideas wins on real-time momentum scanning and AI signals. Different platforms for somewhat different trading styles.

Trader Fit

Who Should (and Shouldn't) Use Trade Ideas

Trade Ideas rewards traders who already know what they're looking for. It doesn't teach you what to look for. That distinction matters a lot before you commit $89-$178/month.

⚡
Active Day Traders (Momentum)
This is the core use case. High-RVOL scanning, gap plays, opening range breakouts, low float setups. Trade Ideas was built for this workflow. Active traders executing multiple trades per week will get more value out of this than any other trader type.
💰
Pattern Day Traders ($25K+ Accounts)
The economics work. At $178/month annualized, you're paying roughly $8/trading day. Active traders who are already profitable and need better tools to find setups faster will typically recover that cost quickly.
📈
Swing Traders Who Also Trade Intraday
Pre-market scanning, Tradewave indicator for multi-day momentum, and customizable scan filters serve swing traders building daily watchlists. Swing strategies that depend on identifying technical breakouts ahead of volume surges are well-served.
🔬
Serious Strategy Developers
OddsMaker is genuinely useful for anyone who takes strategy development seriously and wants data rather than intuition telling them whether a setup has edge. This alone justifies Premium for certain traders.
⚠️
New Traders or Casual Investors: Skip This
Honestly, hard pass. The steep learning curve, interface complexity, and subscription cost make this the wrong starting point for anyone still figuring out their trading style. Start with TradingView or Finviz, develop a consistent approach, then evaluate whether Trade Ideas fills a real gap in your workflow.
📋
Long-Term Fundamental Investors: Also Skip
This isn't the tool. Trade Ideas has fundamental filters, but it's not Stock Rover. If you're screening for P/E ratios, dividend yield trends, and earnings growth for long-term holds, other tools serve that use case better and more cheaply.

Overall Verdict

8.6
Overall Rating | tradeideasreview.com

Trade Ideas is worth it if you're an active day trader who is already profitable, already has a defined strategy, and needs faster, more accurate scanning tools to find setups you're currently missing. At $89/month annualized for Basic or $178/month for Premium, you're paying for institutional-level scanning speed and, on Premium, a legitimately interesting AI signal system.

Try Trade Ideas Free → View Pricing Plans

One consistently underrated recommendation: start at Basic ($89/mo annual). The scanning engine is identical. Build your setups, validate with paper trading, and decide if Holly's signals add enough to justify the upgrade. That's a more rational path than paying $178/month from day one.

Common Questions

FAQ

Three tiers: The Par Plan is free but limited to delayed market data. Basic (Birdie Bundle) costs $127/month or $89/month annually ($1,068/yr). Premium (Eagle Elite) is $254/month or $178/month annually ($2,136/yr). There are also two optional add-ons at $49/month each. For most active day traders, the annual subscription on either paid plan is the right move given the 30% savings.
The Par Plan provides free access with delayed data. Trade Ideas also runs periodic "Test Drive" events that open full platform access temporarily, typically including Holly AI and all Premium features. Community reports say these happen a few times a year, worth looking out for before committing to a paid plan.
Trade Ideas' documentation states that the AI alert system only includes strategies with a success rate above 60%. For Holly Grail specifically, community reports cite win rates in the 55-60% range when properly managed. That doesn't mean 60% of all trades make money; it means 60% of entries that met criteria historically reached the profit target before the stop. Position sizing, risk management, and execution quality all affect real-world results significantly. A 55% win rate with poor risk management underperforms a 45% win rate with excellent risk management.
Basic gives you real-time market data, the full Trade Ideas scanner, paper trading, pre-market scanning, and broker integration including Interactive Brokers. Premium adds Holly AI, the Money Machine, OddsMaker backtesting, and Brokerage Plus auto-trading. The price difference is roughly $1,068/year on annual billing. Whether Holly's AI signals justify the extra cost depends entirely on how frequently you trade and whether Holly's signal style matches your trading approach.
Day trading is the clear primary use case, but swing traders who incorporate technical analysis, pre-market gap screening, and intraday setups into their workflow find genuine value too. Long-term investors or anyone focused purely on fundamental analysis will find better-suited tools elsewhere (Stock Rover, for instance, is a much better fit for fundamentals-focused research).
Honestly, not recommended as a starting point. The interface is complex, the subscription cost is significant, and the tool's value compounds with trading experience. New traders generally learn better and more cheaply with simpler tools first. That said, the Par Plan is free and gives you a reasonable sense of the platform. If you're a motivated beginner who genuinely commits to their educational resources before trying to trade on signals, the Basic plan is more defensible than jumping straight to Premium.
Trade Ideas is one of the more legitimate examples of AI trading tools in the retail space, specifically because their Holly AI system has a documented methodology, audited historical performance data, and doesn't promise guaranteed returns. The AI signals are probability-based, not predictive. Other platforms making stronger claims about AI-generated profits should be viewed skeptically. The best AI trading tools, and Trade Ideas is genuinely one of them, act as signal generators that improve your decision-making process rather than replacing it entirely.

We may earn from qualifying purchases through links on this page. Our research and analysis are independent. Prices and features verified at time of publication; verify current pricing directly with Trade Ideas before subscribing.