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Read the Stock Market Tape Better with Trade Ideas' Real-Time Scanner
A time and sales window shows you the tape of one stock. Trade Ideas reads the tape of every stock at once and tells you the moment one does something unusual: a block trade, prints coming 5x faster than normal, a big bid stepping in, the ask lifting to a new high.
Free account, just an email. No card. Delayed data. Real-time starts with TI Standard.
Named to the Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest-growing private companies six years in a row (2017–2022).
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The ask lifts to a new high and Trade Ideas flags it, live, from the quote itself.
Read the tape across the whole board
Key point
Classic tape reading means watching one stock's time and sales and Level 2 until something happens. You can only watch a few at a time. Trade Ideas watches the prints and quotes of every US stock, all day, and alerts you when the tape changes: size, speed, pressure and price. You read the tape of the stocks that matter, the moment they start to matter.
What reading the tape means
The “tape” is the record of every trade: time, price and size, printed one after another. Traders read it to see who is in control, buyers or sellers, before the chart shows it. Most tape readers watch two windows together:
Time and sales: each trade as it prints. Big prints, fast prints and trades at the ask or the bid tell you where the pressure is.
Level 2 (the order book): the bids and offers waiting at each price. It shows intent; time and sales shows what actually traded.
The catch: it takes one screen per stock and full attention. That is where a scanner helps. Learn the basics in our guide to Level 1 vs Level 2 data.
The tape alerts: what Trade Ideas watches for you
Each of these runs live on every US stock and fires the moment it happens. Combine any of them with filters, such as price, float or relative volume.
When an alert fires, open the stock. In Trade Ideas' Advanced Order Entry, Level Q shows the size of the best bid and best offer in real time, how many exchanges are quoting each side, and a pressure bar showing which side is winning, laid out the way you would read Level 2. Buy at the ask, sell at the bid or join either side in one click.
Level Q: best bid and offer size, exchanges quoting each side, and the pressure bar.
Good to know: Level Q shows the inside market, not full Level 2 depth at every price. Many traders keep their broker's time and sales and Level 2 open beside Trade Ideas.
How to read the tape with Trade Ideas, in four steps
Pick the tape events you care about. For momentum: Block Trade, Unusual Number of Prints and Running Up Now. Or ask the AI Assistant in plain English: “alert me when a stock under $20 prints a block trade on heavy volume.”
Filter out the noise. Add a price range, a minimum of average prints and relative volume, and skip wide spreads.
Let it watch the whole board. Alerts stream in live on every US stock. Turn on sound.
Read the one that fires. Open the chart and Level Q, check who is pressing, and decide. Test the setup first on history with OddsMaker (TI Premium).
Past results, including backtests, don't guarantee future results.
Block trades: the biggest prints on the tape
A block trade is a single large trade, usually 10,000 shares or more; Trade Ideas' Block Trade alert uses 20,000+. Blocks are often institutions moving size. On their own they don't say buy or sell, so read them in context: did the block print at the ask or the bid, and did price follow? Pair the alert with Running Up Now or New High Ask to catch blocks that move the stock.
Tape reading: questions
What is tape reading?
Tape reading is watching trades as they print (time, price and size) along with the bids and offers, to judge whether buyers or sellers are in control before it shows on the chart.
How do you read the tape?
Watch time and sales for large and fast prints and whether trades hit the ask or the bid, and watch Level 2 for size stacking up or pulling away. Trade Ideas helps by watching every stock's tape and alerting you when something unusual prints, so you read the right stock at the right time.
Can a scanner read the tape for me?
It can watch for you. Trade Ideas alerts on tape events across every US stock, such as block trades, prints coming 5x faster than normal, large bids and asks and new high asks. You still read the stock that fires and make the decision.
Is tape reading still useful with algorithms trading?
Yes, but it has changed. Orders are split into small prints, so speed and size patterns matter more than any single trade. Alerts like Unusual Number of Prints and Running Up Now look for exactly those patterns.
What is a block trade alert?
An alert that fires when a single large trade prints. Trade Ideas' Block Trade alert (BP) reports each print of 20,000 shares or more, live, on every US stock.
Does Trade Ideas have Level 2 and time and sales?
Trade Ideas has Level Q, which shows the best bid and offer size, the number of exchanges quoting and a pressure bar, but not full Level 2 depth. Many traders use their broker's time and sales and Level 2 beside Trade Ideas' alerts.
Can I try it free?
Yes. A free account, just an email and no card, opens the Web Dashboard on delayed data. Real-time alerts start with TI Standard at $127 a month.
