Finviz Elite is a screener. You set filters and it lists the stocks that match, re-running the screen every 10 seconds on Elite. Trade Ideas is built for the session itself. A Streaming Alert can fire on every trade, which can mean several times in one second. The Top List ranks the stocks that qualify right now. Holly AI Signals and OddsMaker work from the same live data. Plenty of traders keep both: Finviz the night before, Trade Ideas once the bell rings.
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
Real Stock Race replay, recorded.
The short answer
Pick Finviz Elite if you mostly research after the close: screening on fundamentals, scanning heat maps, reading charts and building a watchlist for tomorrow, for about $25 a month on the annual plan.
Pick Trade Ideas if you need to know the moment something happens during the session, want an AI that brings you trade ideas, and want to test a setup on past data before you trade it.
From screen to signal. Upgrade to TI Premium for Holly AI Signals, a fresh set each trading day with the entry and the stop spelled out, and for OddsMaker to check a setup before you use it. Say what you want and the AI Assistant builds the screen, or choose from 308 alerts and 249 filters in a no-code menu. For a rule no preset covers, write your own filter in the Formula Editor and see in OddsMaker which past events it would have caught. The closed loop on our Data Difference page shows where each of these tools sits, starting with live data and ending with the next session's Holly AI Signals.
New to trading and want the premium experience? Pick Trade Ideas. There is no need to configure anything. The Channel Bar comes with every plan and opens on themed channels from the first day. Every plan also includes the AI Assistant in TI Pro, and the free Trading Room lets you learn while you trade. See Trade Ideas for beginners.
Use both if your day has two halves. Finviz is good at the night before. Trade Ideas is built for the hours the market is open.
Trade Ideas publishes this page and makes one of the two tools.
The real difference
A screen you re-run vs events that come to you
Key point
Finviz built a well-known stock screener on the web. You pick filters such as market cap, P/E, relative volume or RSI, and Finviz returns every stock that matches. Since 2025 its screener also handles intraday timeframes from 1 minute up, which makes it more useful during the day than it used to be. On Elite the screen re-runs every 10 seconds. On the free version it re-runs every 3 minutes, on delayed data.
Key point
A screen answers one question: which stocks match my rules right now? It can't tell you when a stock started matching, or what just happened to put it there. If a small cap spiked on volume four seconds after the last refresh, you find out on the next pass.
Key point
Trade Ideas splits this into two tools. Streaming Alerts (Scanner) are the scanner. They report the event itself as it prints, such as a new high, a 1 minute volume spike or a cross above VWAP, with the time it happened, and you narrow them with filters like price, float and relative volume. The Top List (Screener) is the screener. It is the closest thing to a Finviz screen, except it updates every 15 seconds.
Holly AI signals in the Channel Bar.
Side by side
Trade Ideas vs Finviz Elite, feature by feature
Feature
Finviz Elite (from finviz.com)
Trade Ideas
What it is
Screener, charts, heat maps, news, fundamentals and portfolio tools in the browser.
Real-time on Elite, including pre-market from 4:00 AM and after-hours to 8:00 PM ET. Free version is delayed.
Real-time data on both paid plans, on Trade Ideas live market data.
How results update
Screener auto-refreshes every 10 seconds on Elite (every 3 minutes free).
A Streaming Alert can fire on every trade, which can mean several times in one second. The Top List updates every 15 seconds.
Alerts
Unlimited email and push alerts for price, news, ratings, insider trades, SEC filings, and new screener matches.
308 alerts and 249 filters, plus Price Alerts, inside TI Pro.
AI trade signals
Not listed on the Elite plan page.
Holly AI Signals (TI Premium).
AI Assistant (plain-English scan builder)
Check their site.
Included in every TI Pro plan
Backtesting
No strategy backtester listed on the Elite plan page.
OddsMaker tests any alert and filter set across past trading days (TI Premium).
Automation
Data export (CSV, Excel) that you can feed into your own workflow.
Auto Trading (Money Machine) through connected brokers.
Charts
Interactive charts, up to 12 charts per layout, automatic pattern recognition.
10 charts on screen on TI Standard, plus real-time chart pattern alerts across the market.
Research
8 years of financial statements, full ETF holdings, peers and correlation, intraday heat maps.
Focused on live price, volume and market behavior rather than deep fundamentals.
Runs on
Web browser.
TI Pro on Windows, and on a Mac through Parallels. The browser-based Dashboard skips the download, covering Top Lists, TreeMaps, Market Pulse, Races, Picture in Picture charts, and stock details and news.
List price (monthly / annual)
Finviz Elite listed on finviz.com (see costs section).
TI Standard $127/mo or $1,068/yr; TI Premium $254/mo or $2,136/yr. OddsMaker, Holly AI Signals and Money Machine come with TI Premium only.
Competitor prices and features checked October 12, 2026.
Finviz details checked on finviz.com/elite on Oct 5, 2026. Where this table says "not listed", we mean the feature does not appear on Finviz's Elite plan page.
Beyond the screen
Three things Finviz doesn't list: Holly, OddsMaker and Money Machine
The chart, the list and the headlines on one desk.
Holly AI Signals bring you the trade
A screener still leaves the hard part to you: deciding which of 40 matching stocks is worth a trade, and where you are wrong. Holly is the Trade Ideas artificial intelligence, and it does that part.
Keep in mind
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
Holly picks its strategies by running OddsMaker-style tests every night and only sends signals for the ones that pass. See Holly AI Signals.
OddsMaker tests the setup before you trade it
Trader tip
Say your Finviz habit is "small caps up 10% on twice normal volume." In Trade Ideas you can build that as an alert with filters, then run it through OddsMaker. It replays every time that alert fired across all stocks over past trading days and shows the trades it would have produced, the win rate and the profit factor, with your own entry, stop and exit rules. You find out whether the idea held up before you put money behind it.
Past results, including backtests, don't guarantee future results.
Money Machine automates what you already scan for
Money Machine trades from your own Top Lists (Screeners) and Streaming Alerts. It sets a stop and target for each stock from that stock's volatility and sends orders through Brokerage Plus to a connected broker. It also has a Simulated Mode, so you can watch it work before it touches real money.
Web Dashboard replay, narrated by Daniel Mirkin · press play for sound
Real time
Ten seconds is fast for research, and slow for a breakout
Finviz Elite's 10-second refresh is quick for a screener, and for swing setups or evening prep it is plenty. A momentum breakout can run its first leg inside that window, though, and a refreshed list doesn't tell you which stock moved first.
Settings
A breakout in Trade Ideas is an event, not a row on a list. Opening range breakouts and breakdowns fire at 1, 2, 5, 10, 15, 30 and 60 minutes, such as the 15-minute breakout, and indicator events like a 15-minute MACD crossing above signal or a 5-minute 8/20 SMA cross up arrive the moment they print. They are among 308 alerts, joined by 249 filters, all documented in our help. Any alert takes any filters with a min and max on each, and 191 alerts have their own setting, such as the 0 to 366 day lookback on a New High, so the combinations are effectively unlimited.
That is the job Trade Ideas is built for. If you are okay with static non-refreshing data, Trade Ideas is probably not your best choice. If your trading starts from a weekend watchlist and an end-of-day chart, Finviz may cover most of what you need.
Keep in mind
Trade Ideas also monitors unusual options activity across all stocks. A dedicated channel puts it in front of you in TI Pro and the Web Dashboard. Finviz's Elite plan page doesn't list an options activity feature, so if unusual options volume is part of how you find stocks, the options volume filter is worth a look.
What is better, Trade Ideas or Finviz?
Trade Ideas is made for spotting the move while it starts; Finviz is made for a quick screener and heat maps. Which is better comes down to which of those jobs fills your day.
Why consider Trade Ideas over Finviz?
When the choice is Finviz or Trade Ideas, these are the points you can verify.
Key point
Finviz Elite is a quick screener you run again when you want fresh results. Trade Ideas works the other way around: Streaming Alerts (Scanner) come to you the moment an event happens, and Top Lists (Screeners) refresh every 15 seconds. Both read every US exchange, plus off-exchange trades and the NBBO. If you like Finviz for homework at night, keep it, and use the Channel Bar's ready-made scans during the session. Holly AI Signals and OddsMaker are on TI Premium. Open a free account with only an email to see the difference.
The AI Assistant, standard on both plans.
Open a free account, card not needed.
Founded in 2002.
Honest take
Who Finviz is better for
Investors and swing traders who screen on fundamentals. Eight years of financial statements, full ETF holdings, peers and correlation tools are Finviz strengths, and Trade Ideas doesn't try to match them.
Anyone who thinks in heat maps. The Finviz map lets you read a whole market day at a glance, and Elite makes it intraday.
Budget-first traders. At $299.50 a year, Elite costs a fraction of either Trade Ideas plan, and a free registered account goes a long way if delayed data is fine for you.
People who want everything in a browser tab. No install, no Windows requirement.
Do-it-yourself workflows. Elite's CSV and Excel export lets you pipe screens into your own spreadsheets or scripts.
Real Streaming Alerts: 30-minute highs and lows.
Use both
A two-tool routine: Finviz at night, Trade Ideas in the session
Evening: run your Finviz screens and scan the heat map. Save the 20 to 50 names whose story or chart you like.
Pre-market: load that list into a Trade Ideas watchlist, and keep a market-wide gap filter running beside it for names you didn't plan for.
At the open: let Streaming Alerts tell you which names on your list are actually breaking out, spiking on volume or reversing, and use the Top List (Screener) to rank them.
During the day: watch Holly AI Signals for trades you wouldn't have found yourself.
Weekly: run your best Finviz-style idea through OddsMaker to see whether it deserves real money.
Pricing
What each one costs
Prices checked October 2026
Key point
Finviz: a free registered account with delayed data. Elite is $39.50/mo billed monthly, or $299.50/yr (Finviz shows this as $24.96/mo). Finviz offers a free Elite intro period (card required) and refunds within the first 30 days on written request.
Trade Ideas:TI Standard: $127/mo billed monthly, or $1,068/yr (about $89/mo). TI Premium: $254/mo billed monthly, or $2,136/yr (about $178/mo). Holly AI Signals, OddsMaker backtesting and Auto Trading are on TI Premium. TI Standard includes real-time data, customizable scans and screeners, 308 alerts and 249 filters, TI Wave, paper trading, in-app trading and AI Assistant.
Key point
Finviz Elite costs less. The gap goes toward a database Trade Ideas designed from scratch and has kept improving for more than two decades, a scanner that streams events trade by trade, and Top Lists (Screeners) that re-sort every 15 seconds.
Yes. Finviz says real-time quotes are included in every Elite plan, with pre-market data from 4:00 AM and after-hours data until 8:00 PM ET. The free version is delayed, and its screener auto-refreshes every 3 minutes instead of every 10 seconds.
Does Finviz have a real-time scanner like Trade Ideas?
Finviz has a screener and alerts. Elite re-runs your screen every 10 seconds and can notify you when new stocks match a saved screen. Trade Ideas Streaming Alerts work differently: they can fire on every trade, multiple times per second. Each event, such as a new high or a one-minute volume spike, reaches your Alert Window as it happens. The Top List (Screener) updates every 15 seconds.
Does Finviz have AI trade signals or backtesting?
Finviz's Elite plan page does not list AI trade signals or a strategy backtester. Trade Ideas includes Holly AI Signals, the OddsMaker backtester and Money Machine on the TI Premium plan.
Which is cheaper, Finviz Elite or Trade Ideas?
Finviz Elite. On Oct 5, 2026 Finviz listed Elite at $39.50 a month or $299.50 a year. Trade Ideas TI Standard was $127 a month or $1,068 a year, and TI Premium, which adds Holly, OddsMaker and Money Machine, was $254 a month or $2,136 a year.
Can I use Finviz and Trade Ideas together?
Yes, and many traders do. Use Finviz for evening research, heat maps and fundamentals, then use Trade Ideas Streaming Alerts, the Top List and Holly during the session to see which stocks are actually moving.
Is Trade Ideas good for beginners?
Yes, especially for a newer trader after the premium experience. Nothing needs setting up on day one. Whichever plan you choose, the Channel Bar and the AI Assistant are part of it in TI Pro. Ready-made channels cover themes, among them big momentum movers and S&P 500 stocks moving up fast. Stock Races turn the market into a live contest between stocks. You can join Barrie Einarson and a whole community of traders in the free Trading Room. Paper trading gives you a place to practice before money is involved. Money Machine, Holly AI Signals, 308 alerts and 249 filters and OddsMaker wait for when you want more. See our guide for beginners.
Stock Race with a Holly AI buy signal.
Method
How we checked
Finviz first-hand. We read the Elite page, the screener help page and the Finviz blog post that introduced intraday screener timeframes, all on October 5, 2026.
Refresh figures are Finviz's. The 10-second Elite and 3-minute free screener refresh rates are the ones Finviz states; we did not time them.
