The short answer: StocksToTrade is a small-cap and penny-stock toolkit for $179.95/mo. It is built around pre-made screeners, its Oracle scanner and training based on Timothy Sykes' strategies and lead trainer Tim Bohen. Trade Ideas starts you with ready-made, themed channels on the Channel Bar in every plan, so there is no need to configure anything.
When you want more, you can build your own real-time Streaming Alerts and Top Lists. OddsMaker tests a setup before you risk money on it, and Money Machine automates it. Holly AI Signals come on TI Premium. If you want to follow someone else's scans and learn their method, StocksToTrade is a fair choice.
If you want the premium experience from day one, with test results before you trade, use Trade Ideas.
TI Pro for Windows (or a Mac through Parallels), plus the web Dashboard in any browser (no download) with Market Pulse, Top Lists, Races, TreeMaps, charts with Picture in Picture, and stock details and news.
Monthly price
$179.95/mo, or $1,899.50/yr.
$127 TI Standard, $254 TI Premium (about $89 and $178 billed annually).
AI Assistant (plain-English scan builder)
Check their site.
Included in every TI Pro plan
List price (monthly / annual)
StocksToTrade plans listed on stockstotrade.com (see costs section).
TI Standard $127/mo or $1,068/yr; TI Premium $254/mo or $2,136/yr. Holly AI Signals, OddsMaker backtesting and Money Machine auto trading need TI Premium.
Competitor prices and features checked October 12, 2026.
The real difference
Preset screeners vs setups you can test
Trader tip
StocksToTrade is honest about who it is for: traders who want "a shortcut," in its words, built by experienced traders. You open its pre-built screeners for fast-moving penny plays, check Oracle's morning list, and learn the method in StocksToTrade University. That is a real product for a real audience, and the training is a big part of what you pay for.
Example
The catch with any preset is that you are trusting someone else's rules in today's market. Trade Ideas gives you ready-made, themed channels on the Channel Bar to start. When you want to go further, you can build and test your own. Take the small-cap setup you already trade, for example a price range under $10, low float, high relative volume and a break of the premarket high, and build it as a Streaming Alert. Then run it through OddsMaker.
Those building blocks number 308 alerts and 249 filters, each with a page in our help. They include opening range breakout and breakdown alerts at 1, 2, 5, 10, 15, 30 and 60 minutes (2-minute breakdown, 30-minute breakout) and candle alerts such as a 5-minute hanging man. Put any alert with any filters, bound each filter by min and max, and use the alert-specific setting that 191 alerts offer, such as the minimum share count on Block Trades. The possible scans are effectively unlimited.
OddsMaker: check a setup's history before trading it
Settings
OddsMaker goes back through real market events across all stocks. Every time your alert fired, it becomes a test trade with the entry time and exit you choose: a stop, a profit target, a timed hold or a set time of day. You get the trades, the win rate and the profit factor. If the setup has not held up lately, you find out from a report, not from your account balance. Tighten a filter, test again, and only go live with what survives.
Past results, including backtests, don't guarantee future results.
Holly AI signals in the Channel Bar.
Algorithms
Oracle vs Holly
StocksToTrade's site describes Oracle as a prediction algorithm scanner that "sifts through 15,000 stocks every second, searching for 5-to-1 risk ratios, generating 20 trading opportunities right at the opening bell," with support and resistance levels and suggested buy and sell signals. StocksToTrade also markets two other tools, Silver Dollar Club and IRIS Analytics. We are quoting their descriptions, not grading their results.
Holly AI Signals fire during the trading day with a symbol, an entry and a stop to manage risk. Holly is designed to look for stocks with large long-term potential. Many signals won't work out. You choose whether to exit the same day or hold, based on your risk.
Trader tip
The difference in approach: Oracle hands you a morning list. Holly keeps working all session, sending a signal when one of her strategies triggers, and those strategies are tested every night with the same kind of testing you can run yourself in OddsMaker. Holly is on TI Premium.
What is better, Trade Ideas or StocksToTrade?
Both serve active traders, and the difference is the engine: Trade Ideas tracks real-time volume across the whole US market and backs it with AI tools you can test. For traders who want streaming alerts plus backtesting, Trade Ideas is often the better pick.
Why consider Trade Ideas over StocksToTrade?
Key point
Folks torn on StocksToTrade or Trade Ideas often ask what holds up.
Trader tip
StocksToTrade is built around preset small-cap screeners and its Oracle tool. Trade Ideas gives you ready-made channels in the Channel Bar on every plan, and you can test any of those setups in OddsMaker on TI Premium before you put money on it. Holly AI Signals, also on Premium, come with the reasoning behind each strategy. Every scan reads every US exchange, plus off-exchange trades and the NBBO, and the AI Assistant builds new windows in both plans. You can look around first with a free account, no card needed.
Streaming Alerts (Scanner), often several per second.
Around since 2002.
Be fair
Who StocksToTrade is better for
News for the stock you clicked shows up on the right.
Small-cap traders who want a curriculum. StocksToTrade University and live sessions come with the subscription.
Followers of Tim Sykes and Tim Bohen. The scans are built around their strategies, so the tool and the teaching match.
Traders who want news and filings in the same window. Its news and SEC filings streamers are built in, with a Breaking News Chat add-on.
Mac users who want a desktop app. StocksToTrade lists Mac system requirements. TI Pro is a Windows app that Mac traders can run through Parallels, or they can open the Trade Ideas web Dashboard in a browser, with no download, for Top Lists (Screeners), Races, TreeMaps, Market Pulse, Picture in Picture charts, and stock details and news.
What you get on top
What Trade Ideas adds that StocksToTrade doesn't list
OddsMaker to backtest any alert or filter set before you trade it.
Money Machine to automate a strategy that passed: it trades from your own Top Lists (Screeners) and Streaming Alerts, sets a stop and target for each stock from its volatility, and can retry or reverse based on your rules.
Holly AI Signals through the whole session, not only at the open.
The Formula Editor to script a custom filter only your account runs, then test it in OddsMaker.
Unusual options activity on small caps. Trade Ideas also monitors unusual options activity across all stocks, which you can watch in a dedicated channel in TI Pro or in your browser on the Web Dashboard. The Options Volume Today (%) filter flags stocks trading far more option contracts than usual.
If you are okay with static non-refreshing data, Trade Ideas is probably not your best choice.
Web Dashboard replay, narrated by Daniel Mirkin · press play for sound
Pricing
What each costs
StocksToTrade · $179.95/mo or $1,899.50/yr
TI Standard · $127/mo or $89/mo annual
TI Premium · $254/mo or $178/mo annual
StocksToTrade add-ons, priced separately: Level 2 data, Breaking News Chat, Small Cap Rockets and TipRanks ratings. Its FAQ says the intro period uses Nasdaq Last Sale data. On Trade Ideas, TI Standard includes real-time Streaming Alerts, Top Lists (Screeners), paper trading, in-app trading and AI Assistant; OddsMaker, Holly and Auto Trading are on TI Premium.
Bottom line
Which one fits you
Pick StocksToTrade if you want preset small-cap scans, a morning algorithm list and a training program in one subscription. If you are just starting and want the premium experience, Trade Ideas needs no configuration, and its free Trading Room lets you learn live. See Trade Ideas for beginners.
Settings
Pick Trade Ideas too if you want to build the scan yourself, test it in OddsMaker, automate it with Money Machine and get Holly's signals all day. Building it yourself takes no code: a point-and-click menu holds 308 alerts and 249 filters, and the AI Assistant will set up a scan from a sentence if you prefer.
Is Trade Ideas or StocksToTrade better for small-cap momentum?
Both are built for active traders. StocksToTrade leans on pre-built screeners, its Oracle scanner and training from its own traders. Trade Ideas lets you build or load real-time Streaming Alerts and Top Lists (Screeners), test any setup in OddsMaker before you trade it, and add Holly AI Signals on TI Premium. If you want to follow a teacher's scans, StocksToTrade fits. If you want to test the setup first, Trade Ideas fits.
What is StocksToTrade Oracle?
StocksToTrade describes Oracle as a prediction algorithm scanner. Its site says Oracle sifts through 15,000 stocks every second looking for 5-to-1 risk ratios and generates 20 trading opportunities at the opening bell, with support and resistance levels and suggested buy and sell signals.
Does StocksToTrade have backtesting?
We did not find a backtester listed on StocksToTrade's pricing or features pages. It offers paper trading with real-time Level 1 data. On Trade Ideas, that job belongs to OddsMaker (TI Premium): pick any Streaming Alert or group of Top List filters, run it across all stocks, and read the trades, win rate and profit factor.
How much does StocksToTrade cost compared with Trade Ideas?
StocksToTrade lists $179.95/mo or $1,899.50/yr, with paid add-ons such as Level 2 and Breaking News Chat. Trade Ideas TI Standard runs $127 a month and TI Premium $254 a month; billed annually, they come to about $89 and $178 a month. Prices checked October 2026.
Can Trade Ideas automate a small-cap strategy?
Yes. Money Machine trades from your own Top Lists and Streaming Alerts, sets a stop and target for each stock from its volatility, and can retry or reverse based on your rules. Orders go through a connected broker in TI Pro.
Is Trade Ideas good for beginners?
Yes, for a beginner looking for the premium experience. There is nothing to configure before you start. Each TI Pro plan includes the Channel Bar plus the AI Assistant. The channels are themed ahead of time; you might open big momentum movers, or S&P 500 stocks moving up fast. Watch Stock Races to see stocks race one another live. The free Trading Room puts you next to Barrie Einarson and a whole community of traders. With paper trading, your first trades can use simulated money. There is room to grow, too: OddsMaker, Holly AI Signals, Money Machine and 308 alerts and 249 filters. See our guide for beginners.
Real Streaming Alerts: 30-minute highs and lows.
Method
How we checked
StocksToTrade sources. We used its plans page, its product overview page and its help-center intro period guide, which is where the note about Nasdaq Last Sale intro period data comes from.
What we could not find. When a feature such as a backtester was not on those pages, the page says it was not listed rather than assuming it is missing.
Trade Ideas list prices: TI Standard costs $127 a month on monthly billing, or $1,068 billed once a year (about $89 a month); TI Premium costs $254 a month, or $2,136 a year (about $178 a month). TI Premium is required for Auto Trading, OddsMaker backtesting and Holly AI Signals. Either company may change these, so confirm on both sites.
