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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
Real Top List with filters, recorded.
Stock Hacker and Trade Ideas side by side
thinkorswim
Trade Ideas
Building the scan
Stock Hacker with your own criteria and thinkScript
Pick from 308 alerts (events) and 249 filters, combined with AND. No scripting needed. Gap (%), Relative Volume, Float and more, set as min and max
Being told
Alert when scan results change
Instantly, as new events happen in real time. No need to refresh. Event alerts like Gap Down Reversal
Placing trades
Trades in your Schwab account
Trade Ideas connects to many brokers, like E*Trade, Interactive Brokers, TradeStation and Alpaca, so you can place live and simulated trades right from the app.
Cost
No software fee with a Schwab account; $0 online stock trades
thinkorswim details from schwab.com, checked October 12, 2026. Trade Ideas connects to many brokers, like E*Trade, Interactive Brokers, TradeStation and Alpaca, so you can place live and simulated trades right from the app.
Example numbers, not a real trade
Results change vs event alert. Example numbers, not a real trade.
Stock Hacker plus Trade Ideas, day to day
Schwab clients get a lot with thinkorswim, and Stock Hacker can do real gap scans, including custom thinkScript if you like writing your own. So why do some of them add Trade Ideas? Mostly for the alerts that fire on the event itself.
Key point
Here is the difference in plain terms. A Stock Hacker scan alert tells you the list changed, a symbol came on or dropped off. Trade Ideas alerts tell you something happened on the tape, like a gap down that just crossed back through yesterday’s close, on the trade it happened. For gap trading, that timing is the whole game.
A setup a lot of Schwab traders run:
Keep thinkorswim for charts, orders and your account. Nothing about your broker changes.
Build the gap list in Trade Ideas with gap percent, relative volume and float.
Add the gap down reversal and false gap up retracement alerts so the moves come to you.
When one fires, type the symbol into thinkorswim and trade it there.
Key point
Example, made-up numbers. A $35 stock gaps down to $32.90 on a sector selloff. In Stock Hacker it sits on your gap down scan all morning, so nothing new happens on the scan. In Trade Ideas, at 10:52 it trades back over $35 and the gap down reversal alert fires right then. You flip to thinkorswim and see it on your chart. That is the gap where the two tools fit together.
No need to move your money, since Trade Ideas doesn’t hold accounts or place trades for you unless you set up a connected broker yourself. There is a free account with just an email if you want to look before deciding anything.
Trader tip
One more practical point. A scan that tells you the list changed is fine for building a swing list. For the first hour of a gap morning, many traders want every matching stock and an alert on the exact trade. That’s the job Trade Ideas was built for, and it’s why the two sit next to each other so well.
