As a day, swing or penny stock trader, you’ll realize that finding ideal trade entry and exit points can be a little challenging. There’s so much happening in the world and it’s not really possible to keep up with all the technical and fundamental analyses needed to trade successfully.
This is where market scanners come in handy. The two most popular stock scanners on the market currently are Trade Ideas (TI) and EquityFeed (EF). At a glance, the two may look pretty much the same but if you take an even closer look, you’ll realize that there are quite a few points of difference as well.
Trade Ideas
Overall Rating: 4.7/5
EquityFeed
Overall Rating: 4.4/5
What’s Trade Ideas?
Commonly referred to as TI, Trade Ideas is a stock market scanner that relies heavily on expert input and artificial intelligence. Founded in 2002, this platform scans US and Canadian equity markets by identifying what works best for different styles of trading. This, therefore, makes it an ideal choice for anyone who might be looking for a system capable of delivering predictive outcomes.
Yet another positive attribute of TI is that it is founded on a rich online community of traders. Since its establishment, the scanner has grown to accommodate over 50,000 traders. With such a large community in tow, you can bet that the TI live chatrooms are a beehive of activity.
As a beginner who is looking to learn the basic or even get a mentor, these forums are a superb launching pad. All you need to do is listen in to the conversation in order to pick a few ideas. You can even shoot your questions and one of the pro-traders or moderators will answer you.
Because this is such a massive system, one would be forgiven to think that it gobbles up tons of space on your computer’s RAM. That’s, however, not the case since the company has invested heavily in data centers which handle all the workload and only send filtered ideas down to you.
Of course, that reduces the load-time significantly and also ensures you access highly accurate scans. You can even go ahead and crunch over 6,000 stocks using your PC and it won’t hang or take centuries to give you feedback.
Pros
Cons
What’s EquityFeed?
In a world where many inventions come and go, EquityFeed is one of the few platforms that have managed to stand the test of time. The subscription-based stock discovery platform uses advanced software to scour the markets and deliver filtered, actionable feedback for you.
A unique feature of EquityFeed is that it can be integrated into some brokerage platforms such as TD Ameritrade and Interactive Brokers. Of course, you can always reach out to your broker to confirm if their system is compatible with EquityFeed – so many brokers have been working hard to make sure their platforms can allow third-party market scanners to be loaded.
There are quite a few reasons why this system remains popular, however, we tend to think that flexibility is one of their greatest strengths. You can get started with as little as $130 per month by tracking the OTC Markets Group US Exchange.
Alternatively, you can target the bigger NASDAQ, NYSE and AMEX markets, individually, at a cost of $135 each. Thinking of widening your possibilities? All you need to do is check all the options – and in total, you’ll access a heavily discounted package at $255 per month.
Pros
Cons
Similarities
The two platforms are similar in the sense that both are stock scanners. Indeed, both are designed to give you a competitive advantage in the murky waters of stock trading. The two use advanced software to scour the markets and present you with filtered information.
Yet another similarity is that both TI and EquityFeed have flexible pricing options with billings ranging from daily, monthly to annually. Of course, the longer packages tend to cost less and so in both cases, you’re better off purchasing an annual package as opposed to a daily or monthly one.
It also seems that both scanners recognize the importance of news in helping one make informed trading decisions. EquityFeed comes with a built-in news feed which can be tweaked to link to stock symbols. You can, therefore, track alerts on 10Qs, 13Ds, Form4s, and 8-Ks.
Likewise, TI comes with the provision of a newsfeed option. You, however, have to install a third-party news platform such as Benzinga Pro in order to access news releases and clickable headlines on TI.
It’s, however, important to note that even though TI doesn’t come with a built-in news tool, it features integrated scan alerts. That means, it can send you market alerts whenever your scheduled scan captures unique entry and exit points.
The Differences
As you’d expect, a number of differences exist between these two platforms as well. So, which one offers the best combination of features? Let’s delve deeper.
1. Pricing
Trade Ideas comes in two different packages. The Standard Plan costs $118 per month (1068 per year) while the Premium Plan goes for $228 per month ($2268 per year).
EquityFeed, on the other hand, has an “a la carte” pricing formula which allows you to select packages based on your needs. You can, therefore, start out with a $130 per month package although this would limit you to the OTC Markets Group. The most expensive package under EquityFeed goes for $255 per month.
That said, we find that TI offers a pretty straightforward pricing formula and tends to offer better value for money in the long-run.
2. Charts
While both platforms have versatile charts, EquityFeed seems to offer a slight advantage over TI. This is because EquityFeed charts come with pre-configured indicators alongside tools designed to enhance your ability to interpret price action. What’s more? There’s a built-in Chart Montage feature that allows you to access multiple features at once – including analytics, charts, news, sales, time, level 1 and 2 prices.
The Trade Ideas chart package is quite basic and offers the likes of candlesticks, bar charts as well as common indicators. While that may sound like a major weakness on their part, we feel that this simplicity is meant to make trading less strenuous. Who needs to deal with a crowded desktop screen with a built-in artificial intelligence (AI) system doing the heavy lifting for you?
So, our verdict is that EquityFeed provides detailed charts, but if you’re looking for simplicity, TI offers the best deal.
3. Stock Scanning Abilities
Trade Ideas comes with built-in, pre-configured scanners. All you need to do is set additional parameters such as stocks, exchanges, price range, volumes ETFs, and options. Some of the strategies available at your disposal include Up/Down Big in Pre-Market, Turbo Breaks, Bearish-Bullish Candle Patterns and so forth. What’s more? There are endless ways to combine trading strategies using this platform.
On its part, EquityFeed offers pre- and post-market filter-based scanners to identify new highs and lows in the stocks market. Other than that, you can customize your trade alert using color codes. This provides you with a real-time view of the situation on the market.
However, as far as strategy setting is concerned, EquityFeed clearly fails to match up to the challenge created by Trade Ideas. The system is only designed to provide you with timely information and you need to have an already existing trading strategy in order to utilize this data.
What Sets Trade Ideas Apart From the Rest
Ranked the best stock scanner on the market today, TI stands out with its unique ability to offer intra-day scans and the flexibility to combine scans. So, if you’re looking for unlimited customization options, fast loading speeds, and new trading strategies, Trade Ideas would be a good platform – any day.
Worth noting is that this platform is available both as a web-based platform and standalone software. We do recommend the standalone software as the web-based platform isn’t as powerful, though.
What Sets EquityFeed Apart From the Rest
EquityFeed is reputed for its stability and the ability to filter through dozens of markets with no qualms. The fact that you can tailor-make your alerts by uniquely color-coding them makes this a wonderful bet for any trader looking to paint a picture of how the markets are performing.
With such flexibility at your fingertips, all you need to have is a good trading strategy – and once you select the right stocks to play, you can pretty much take the rest of the day off.
Conclusion
There’s only one place to start when comparing Trade Ideas vs EquityFeed: their user-friendliness. Clearly, TradeIdeas is friendlier to beginners, loads faster and easy on the eyes than EquityFeed.
The difference couldn’t be more stark! Trade Ideas is slightly superior and better priced than its arch-rival the EquityFeed scanner and is, therefore, our best pick.
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