If you’re working as a day trader, earning favorable returns often depends on access to the right tools. Two of the best platforms available for successful traders are Trade-Ideas and Benzinga Pro. The two have unique offerings, and in reality, many successful day traders could use both. Premium services have a higher price tag, but which offers better features? Read on for a complete breakdown of Trade Ideas Scanner vs Benzinga Pro, and find the pros and cons of each to find the best fit for your trading strategy.
What is Trade Ideas Scanner?
Trade-Ideas (TI) was created in 2003 and has managed to build and sustain growth for two decades. Today, TI relies heavily on artificial intelligence to fuel continued growth. Users can use AI to scan for profitable setups, and simulate trading strategies. TI incorporates cloud technologies and machine learning with AI to analyze stock charts and alert investors about abnormal price actions based on selected presets.
Trade Ideas scanner has a strong track record of beating the markets. It has won awards like “Best Machine Learning Development” from Fund Technology & WSL. While it’s one of the most sought-after scanners on the market, TI particularly shines for investors interested in technical analysis. Trade Ideas offers a free version, but if you need premium features, expect to pay $999 to $1,999 annually.
Pros
- Makes selecting high momentum stocks simple
- Alerts ensure you won’t miss a trade
- Setup automated trading
- Link to a brokerage account to execute trades
Cons
- High costs aren’t usually worth it for new day traders
- You’ll need to pay nearly $2,000 annually for AI tools and automated trading; they’re not included in the basic subscription.
What is Benzinga Pro?
While Trade Ideas offers good technical analysis, no stock scanner can beat Benzinga Pro in fundamental analysis. Arguably, fundamental analysis is more accurate for consistent trading. And considering that the vast majority of traders use fundamental analysis, that’s an important consideration.
Benzinga Pro was founded in 2010. In addition to alerts about stock movement, it’s designed with a customized news feed to give you key information that can affect the stock market before other investors. Benzinga Pro monitors Twitter, business news, stock market news, trade ideas, and financial news. It offers powerful tools that help you sort this vast information resource into key insights that can affect your trading strategy.
Benzinga Pro also offers crypto news, insider transactions, analyst ratings, and standard stock scanning filters, making it the best all-in-one solution for day traders to stay ahead of the market. While Benzinga Pro doesn’t offer a free version, you can get a free trial. Paid versions start at just $324 per year, substantially less than Trade Ideas. The premium version costs $2,364 annually.
Pros
- Over 30 screening metrics
- Breaking market news
- Excellent data insights
- Get fundamental and technical analysis tools with alerts
Cons
- No free version
- No information available on average returns
Comparing Trade Ideas Scanner vs Benzinga Pro
Should you choose Trade Ideas Scanner vs Benzinga Pro? Read on for a detailed breakdown of how each compares across key metrics.
Fees and Commissions
While both Trade Ideas and Benzinga Pro come with a monthly or annual fee, there are no commissions on either platform. Of course, the broker you use to execute trades may charge a fee you’ll need to factor in.
Comparing Trade Ideas Scanner vs Benzinga Pro on costs only, Benzinga Pro is the winner in base costs, but both are daily expensive. Trade ideas costs $118 a month for basic features but increases to $228 a month for premium AI features. Benzinga Pro costs $99 per month, and the price jumps to $177 per month for premium alerts and the ability to chat directly with analysts.
Research Offerings
Research offerings are where the comparison of Trade Ideas Scanner vs Benzinga Pro gets really interesting, starting with stock scanning.
Stock Scanning
Trade Ideas is one of the most robust and popular stock scanners on the market today. It allows you to set complex scanning strategies, such as scanning for stocks taking off in the first minutes of trading. Trade Ideas also comes loaded with diverse pre-made scans that you can easily customize, offering even beginning traders a lot of value. You can also opt for fully customized scans to mix and match strategies to your unique trading style.
If you pay for a premium subscription, Trade Ideas also allows you to use AI to simulate millions of trades each night and curate a list of setups and triggers for the next day. In terms of advanced scanning features, Benzinga Pro still has space to catch up.
That said, Benzinga Pro has improved stock scanning features recently. You can filter stocks by percentage change or over different periods. You can choose from a variety of financial and valuation metrics. Choose from over 30 screening metrics, including opening gaps, option activity, highs, lows, and current signals. In addition, Benzinga’s capability to open multiple windows and functionalities simultaneously can help traders connect meaningful news insights with current market motions and capitalize on early movements.
Market News
What Benzinga Pro misses in stock scanning presets, it more than makes up for in real-time live news feeds and alerts. In reality, this is the primary feature that makes Benzinga Pro attractive to traders. It delivers headlines quickly, usually before main competitors or major media sources. Benzinga Pro delivers this value through a dedicated team of market analysts who parse out the news and get it to users quickly rather than copying it from other media outlets.
Benzinga Pro’s dashboard includes updated headlines in real time. You can filter and search within the news feed to focus on specific stocks, companies, industries, or events. The newsfeed is integrated with price charts, allowing you to easily pull up a price change and recent headlines for the ticker symbol. Benzinga Pro’s premium subscription includes an audio feature that reads new headlines aloud as they become available.
Benzinga Pro’s market news research offerings include:
- Real-Time Newsfeed
- Details tool
- Calendar Suite
- Watchlists
- Movers tool to find big gainers and losers
- Audio Squawk
- Chat
In contrast, Trade Ideas doesn’t include a market news feature.
User Experience
If you need support through trading or chat features to collaborate with other traders, which is better, Trade Ideas Scanner vs Benzinga Pro?
In Trade Ideas, there is a chat room moderated by a company trader who can help you learn how to use Trade Ideas or execute trades. You can message other traders, but the main purpose is to train users on how to use the platform effectively.
In Benzinga Pro, there are various chat rooms for different experience levels and different asset classes. Of particular interest is a dedicated crypto chatroom. Benzinga Pro’s chat rooms are moderated, although the purpose differs from Trade Ideas.
The primary purpose of Benzinga Pro’s chat features is to facilitate idea-sharing and collaboration among traders. In that sense, Benzinga Pro’s chat rooms are significantly more valuable to intermediate to advanced traders who are already familiar with the basics of navigating the software. If you need a basic tutorial for how to trade in Benzinga Pro, you can find it here.
Trading Instruments
Benzinga Pro offers vast amounts of information for day traders and investors across markets, however, it isn’t a trading platform directly. The same is true of Trade Ideas, although Trade Ideas does allow integrations with other brokerage accounts, enabling traders to set up automatic trades or initiate trading from within the platform.
Mobile App and Desktop
Benzinga Pro is available as a mobile app for both Android and iOS. You can download the app from the AppStore or Google Play Store. Benzinga Pro also has a robust web-based version that allows you to open multiple windows and monitor many factors at once.
Trade Ideas doesn’t have a mobile app at present. Trade Ideas is available as a desktop app for Windows or through a web browser on any platform, including Mac and Linux.
Which is Better: Trade Ideas Scanner vs Benzinga Pro?
Trade Ideas Scanner and Benzinga Pro have different strengths, so which is better will depend on how you plan to use it. If you want the premium feature of AI analysis and overnight projections, the steep cost of Trade Ideas may make sense. On the other hand, if you’re one of millions of traders who rely on fundamental analysis for trades and want early alerts on companies, stocks, and market trends, Benzinga Pro is the best choice.
Which is right for you? Both Trade Ideas and Benzinga Pro offer free trial options. Try them today and see how the trade features align with your goals and accelerate your returns. Get Benzinga Pro here!
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Is Benzinga Pro scanner better than Trade Ideas?
A: While both Benzinga Pro and Trade Ideas have strengths and can help traders monitor markets, Benzinga offers additional features with reference to news feeds and fundamental analysis that make it a winner for most traders.
Q: What is better than Benzinga?
A: Nothing is better than Benzinga! Trade Ideas offers some unique features that Benzinga hasn’t incorporated yet. However, for fundamental analysis tools and advanced news alerts, most traders agree that Benzinga Pro is the best offering out there.
Q: Is Benzinga Pro any good?
A: If you’re a day trader, Benzinga Pro offers excellent features, advanced news alerts, and more than 50 features to customize the information you see and alerts you receive. While the cost is high, if you’re actively trading, you should more than make up the cost in advanced alert opportunities and market analytics that facilitate successful trades.