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Roundup · AI trading assistants Updated
The Best AI Trading Assistants in 2026: 7 Compared, 1 Recorded Test
By Daniel Mirkin · Updated · Prices checked · 11 min read
The short answer: The best AI trading assistant does the work, not just the talking: it builds a live scan of the whole market from your words and hands you something you can act on. Our pick is the Trade Ideas AI Assistant, included with TI Standard and TI Premium. In a recorded test, it opened a live whole-market Top List in under 6 seconds. For AI chat about charts, TrendSpider's Sidekick is the strongest alternative.
Free account, just an email. No card. Live access for a limited time.
Named to the Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest-growing private companies six years in a row (2017–2022).
Investopedia: Best Short Term Stock Screener, 2024
Type it in plain English; the AI Assistant builds the live window.
The ranking: Trade Ideas for an assistant that builds live scans of the whole market. TrendSpider Sidekick for AI chat about your charts. TradingView for AI help setting up a screener. Benzinga Pro for AI research next to the news. ChartingLens for a low-cost AI screener. Composer for AI strategy ideas you can automate. AltIndex for AI chat about daily stock picks.
Written by Daniel Mirkin, CEO of Trade Ideas, which makes one of the tools compared here. We built the AI Assistant, so weigh our view and try the tools yourself.
Best AI trading assistant by what you want
One honest pick for each job, and what it costs:
Best AI trading assistant by job. Prices checked October 2026 on each company's own site.
Trade with AI finds and evaluates strategy ideas; Composer can trade them.
Starter $0; more AI use from $10/mo
Competitor prices and features checked October 2026 (dates for each are under How we checked).
Four tests
What a real AI trading assistant does
Many tools now have a chat box. These four tests separate an assistant that helps you trade from one that only talks.
It works on live market data. An answer about "today's movers" is only useful if it reflects the market right now.
It covers the whole market. It should rank every stock you could trade, not a sample it happened to fetch.
It builds something that keeps working. A live scan or alert that keeps updating beats a one-time list in a chat window.
It hands you a plan, or a test. An entry and a stop, or a way to test the idea on history before you risk money.
Past results, including backtests, don't guarantee future results.
Same question, two assistants
Same question, two AI assistants
Key point
On Wednesday, August 12, 2026, during market hours, we asked two AI assistants for the day's top gainers. We typed "show me a top list of stocks that are up the most today" into the Trade Ideas AI Assistant, and "show me what stocks are up the most today" into TrendSpider Sidekick. Both screens were recorded in one take, with no cuts.
Full recording, 1:33, no cuts. The Trade Ideas AI Assistant is on the left and TrendSpider Sidekick is on the right.
Step
TrendSpider Sidekick
Trade Ideas AI Assistant
First reply
Asked which universe we meant, and said it had only partial market data for a subset.
Built a Top List sorted by biggest % gain today and opened it as a live window, on screen under 6 seconds after the prompt.
Stocks covered
After we replied "spx," it fetched data for 21 S&P 500 symbols.
Stocks on NASDAQ, NYSE, AMEX and NYSE Arca priced at $1 or more.
The answer
Five S&P 500 names, led by Akamai at +5.25%.
A ranked list led by BOXL, up 168.0% at the 0:25 mark, still updating while the clip ran.
Settings
Fairness note. This is one recorded test, on one day, with one prompt per assistant, worded slightly differently. Other wording, settings or plans may give different results. Sidekick has other strengths: it can read your charts, filings and news. Trade Ideas made the recording and publishes this page. The full write-up is on Trade Ideas vs TrendSpider.
Method
How we compared
Every assistant faced the same 7 questions. Each one is a column in the table.
What the AI does: in the company's own words.
Live market data: does it answer from the market right now?
Builds scans or alerts: does it set up something that keeps working?
Reads charts: can it look at the chart you have open?
Plan or test: trade levels, or a way to test the idea first?
Free use: any AI you can use without paying.
Price: the cheapest plan that includes the AI.
At a glance
AI trading assistants, side by side
AI trading assistants compared. Facts and prices from each company's own site, October 2026.
AI chat with daily AI stock picks built on alternative data
Not stated; picks update daily
Smart alerts; 3-filter screener on Starter
Not listed
Not listed
Starter $29/mo or $199/yr
"Not stated" or "Not listed" means we did not find it on the company's own pages. It does not mean the tool lacks it.
The list
The 7 best AI trading assistants in 2026
1. Trade Ideas AI Assistant: best AI assistant for live scans of the whole market
Type what you want in plain English, such as "a top list of the biggest gainers today" or "stocks breaking out on heavy volume", and the AI Assistant builds the live Alert window or Top List for you, across every US stock. Open a chart and ask what is going on; it reads the chart you have open. Want proof before you trade? It hands the setup to OddsMaker.
Key point
It builds, then keeps working. What the AI Assistant builds is a live window, not a one-time answer. Streaming Alerts can fire on every trade, and Top Lists re-check which stocks qualify every 15 seconds while their data updates in real time. Underneath are 310 alerts and 249 filters, so you can also adjust anything it built by hand.
Two AIs, two jobs. The AI Assistant does the setup work. Holly AI Signals, on TI Premium, go further: Holly tests its strategies every night, and only the ones that pass can signal the next day, during the session, each with an entry and a stop.
Price: the AI Assistant is included with TI Standard ($127 a month or $1,068 a year) and TI Premium ($254 a month or $2,136 a year), which adds Holly AI Signals, OddsMaker and Money Machine.
Trader tip
Worth knowing: the AI Assistant runs in TI Pro, the desktop platform for Windows (Mac users run it through Parallels). It is not in the browser-based Web Dashboard. Trade Ideas covers US-listed stocks. To look around first, open a free account.
Best for: active traders who want an AI that does the scanning work across the whole market, live, and a way to test before they trade.
ChartingLens is a charting app with an AI screener that builds a scan from plain English, plus a pattern scanner.
What the AI does
Plain-English AI screener, pattern scanner, and scans built from your own indicator (My Script).
Free use
The free plan has a scanner with 10 results per scan and daily quotas. Its own roundup says the AI screener, pattern scanner and My Script are Premium.
Price
Premium is $14.99 a month or $149 a year. Pro is $29.99 a month or $299 a year.
Worth knowing: its scanner covers 2,000+ US stocks.
Best for: traders on a tight budget who want an AI screener.
6. Composer: best AI for strategy ideas you can automate
Composer is a broker-dealer with a no-code strategy editor. Its AI helps you find and test strategy ideas, and Composer can trade them for you.
What the AI does
Trade with AI helps you discover and evaluate strategy ideas.
Free use
Starter is $0 and includes Trade with AI, with unlimited backtests.
Price
Advanced is $10 a month, with more weekly AI use. Pro is $32 a month billed yearly.
Worth knowing: no stock scanner is listed; you build rule-based portfolios.
Best for: investors who want an automated, rule-based portfolio.
7. AltIndex: best AI chat about daily stock picks
AltIndex turns alternative data, such as employment, insider and congressional data, into AI stock picks, with an AI chat on top.
What the AI does
AI stock picks updated daily (top 25 on Starter, all 200 on Pro), AI chat and portfolio insights.
Free use
A free account is offered; the AI picks and chat start on Starter.
Price
Starter is $29 a month or $199 a year. Pro is $99 a month.
Best for: investors who follow alternative data and want to ask about it.
General chatbots
What about ChatGPT and other chatbots?
General AI chatbots are good at explaining ideas, summarizing news and helping you think through a plan. They are not built to watch the market. Unless a tool feeds them live data, their answer about "today's top gainers" comes from what they can search for, which may be minutes or hours old and may cover only part of the market.
Key point
Use a chatbot to learn and plan. Use a trading assistant that works on live market data to find and act on the move.
Fact check
Fact check: does Trade Ideas have an AI assistant?
Yes. Some roundups say Trade Ideas has "no AI assistant" or "no conversational features." Here are the facts, from our pricing and product pages on October 28, 2026:
The AI Assistant comes with TI Standard and TI Premium. You talk to it in plain English, and it builds live scans and reads charts.
Holly AI Signals are a separate AI on TI Premium that signals trades during the session, not a list sent each morning.
There is a free account, just an email and no card, that opens the web dashboards on delayed data.
The price is $127 a month or $1,068 a year for TI Standard; $254 a month or $2,136 a year for TI Premium.
You want a free AI chat for a few questions a month. TrendSpider's Sidekick Free or TradingView's presets cost nothing.
You trade crypto, forex or futures. Trade Ideas covers US-listed stocks.
You need the AI on your phone today. Our phone app is in the works.
If you are okay with static non-refreshing data, Trade Ideas is probably not your best choice.
Method
How we checked
Vendor sources only. Each fact comes from the company's own pricing or product pages, or, for ChartingLens, its own published roundup.
"Not stated" is literal. We did not find it on those pages. The tool may still offer it.
Order. Trade Ideas is first because its assistant builds live, whole-market scans, which is the job we built it for. The others follow by how much real work their AI does for a trader.
Past results, including backtests, don't guarantee future results.
For an assistant that builds live scans of the whole market, our pick is the Trade Ideas AI Assistant, included with TI Standard and TI Premium. For AI chat about charts, TrendSpider's Sidekick is the strongest alternative. We make Trade Ideas, so try the tools yourself.
Does Trade Ideas have an AI assistant?
Yes. The AI Assistant comes with TI Standard and TI Premium. Type a request in plain English and it builds a live Alert window or Top List, reads the chart you have open, or hands a setup to OddsMaker for testing.
Can an AI trading assistant place trades for me?
Some tools can automate trades, such as Composer and, on TI Premium, Trade Ideas Money Machine, which trades from your own scans with rules you set. TrendSpider says Sidekick cannot execute trades. Always know how a tool manages risk before you let it trade.
Is there a free AI trading assistant?
Yes, with limits. TrendSpider's Sidekick Free allows up to 25 messages, TradingView lists preset AI screener requests on its free plan, and Composer's free Starter plan includes Trade with AI. See our best free stock screeners with AI.
Can ChatGPT be my trading assistant?
It can help you learn and plan, but it doesn't watch the market. Unless a tool feeds it live data, its answers about today's movers come from what it can search, which may be delayed or incomplete. A trading assistant built on live market data is better for finding the move.
What is the difference between the AI Assistant and Holly?
The AI Assistant does setup work you ask for: it builds scans and reads charts. Holly is the Trade Ideas AI that tests strategies every night and, on TI Premium, signals trades during the session with an entry and a stop.
Can AI predict the stock market?
No tool predicts every move. Treat any AI output as one input to your own plan, and test ideas before you risk money. Past results, including backtests, don't guarantee future results.
