StockstoTrade Review – A Platform Full Of Features For Your Trading

Item: StockstoTrade
Rating: 3.9
Author: Ryan

Ryan 5 years ago 7 Comments

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StockstoTrade Review

Product Name: StockstoTrade

Product Description: StockstoTrade is a fully featured charting, technical analysis, and stock scanner platform. The software is designed to put all of the features you need to make trading decisions in a single place.

Pricing
Charting
Level 2
Advanced Features
Ease of Use

3.9

Summary

What if you could find all the charting, analysis, and scanner stock trading features you wanted in one place? That is what the platform, Stocksto Trade, aims to do. Find out if they hit their mark and read our thorough review.

Review Navigation

StockstoTrade

StockstoTrade is a fully featured charting, technical analysis, and stock scanner platform that was introduced to the market by Timothy Sykes. The software is designed to put all of the features you need to make trading decisions in a single place, with the notable exception that there is no way to add a broker to place trades through the platform. The software is pricey, especially compared to free options like ThinkorSwim, but it includes several differentiating features such as Level 2 data and an algorithmic stock scanner that identifies probable breakouts.

Pricing Options

StockstoTrade is a subscription service billed at $179.95/month or $1899.50/year. There is also a seven-day trial available for $7.

StockstoTrade Features

Charts

The place to start with StockstoTrade features set is the charts. The charts are extremely powerful and provide a huge degree of customization, which makes them ideal for performing custom technical analyses. To start, traders can choose between candlestick, bar, and line charts, and choose from a huge range of overall chart timescales and interval lengths

In addition, traders can choose from a wide range of common technical analyses to add to the charts with just a click. However, note that this convenience comes at the price of control – while there is access to customize the timeframe of different technical analysis, it is difficult to further modify an existing indicator or to define a custom indicator.

The downside to the charts in StockstoTrade is that formatting them to be easily readable takes some work. It is difficult to adjust the x- and y-axes of any chart without going through multiple menus, and the default chart view makes it very difficult to see short intervals plotted over a moderate timescale.

There also isn’t an easy way to show multiple charts on a single tab using pre-formatted grids. However, for a single stock, you can place the chart on a screen containing news, Level 2 data, and stock summary information to get a holistic view of a security.

Level 2 Data

StockstoTrade is unique among platforms of this scale in that it offers Level 2 data to all subscribers. Better yet, this data can be displayed side-by-side with any charts. Note that you’ll need to specifically request access to this data from StockstoTrade after signing up.

Scans and Stock Screener

StockstoTrade includes a number of pre-defined stock scans related to finding stocks with the largest recent gains, but for any bearish scans or more complex scans you’ll need to dive into the stock screener. The stock scanner bears resemblances to the filter builder in EquityFeed.

Some users might love the stock screener interface, while others might find it bulky and obnoxious (especially compared to tools like s). While it is laid out clearly, finding and defining screening parameters requires scrolling through multiple menus and using multiple steps simply to define a single filter. That said, the highly visual layout of the screener makes it relatively straightforward to keep track of the parameters that have already been defined.

The stock screener also includes the ability to screen according to a variety of technical indicators, which is helpful for traders who rely heavily on technical analysis. Of course, you also have the option to save any custom screeners for future use.

One of the defining features of StockstoTrade is the Oracle scanner, which is an algorithm designed to identify stocks that are breaking up or down before momentum begins to slow down. This tool can be extremely useful during times when the broader market is relatively stagnant. Understanding and using the Oracle scanner effectively can involve a steep learning curve, as it does not resemble a traditional stock scanner, but the tool is extremely powerful for short-term swing traders.

Watch lists & News

StockstoTrade also includes basic features such as watch lists and news reports. Watch lists are easy to define and can be held on screen at all times so traders never lose track of the stocks in their current watchlist. Note, however, that the platform does not have much of an alert system to identify when watchlist stocks are breaking through technical support or resistance levels.

News is integrated into the charts pages for every security and is similar to the general stock news ticker provided by most brokers. You get access to news from a variety of wires, including Seeking Alpha. The advantage to this news program is that it is broken down into headlines, SEC filings, events, and more, but it will not supplant a dedicated stock news service for advanced traders.

Platform Customization and Ease of Use

StockstoTrade’s desktop-based interface is highly versatile when it comes to layout and uses a set of tabs rather than a single window. But, the number of options it offers requires something of a learning curve in itself. Part of the reason for this is that once a tab is opened and a module is chosen, it is difficult to return to other modules without opening a new tab. In addition, the platform uses an odd series of clicks, double-clicks, and tool icon clicks to navigate its features.

That said, the ability to combine multiple pieces of information related to a stock around the chart is helpful for taking in a wider view of a security, and the ability to keep watch lists open on the side is useful. It is easy to save chart layouts and page layouts as defaults for future use as well.

Is There Broker Integration?

During our initial StockstoTrade review, the platform didn’t have any broker integrations. They have since introduced integrations for ETRADE, Tradier, and Interactive Brokers. The company claims to have plans to build integrations for TradeStation, TD Ameritrade, and Robinhood soon.

Why Do Traders Choose StockstoTrade?

The main draws to StockstoTrade over cheaper or even free alternatives, such as ThinkorSwim, are the ease of use of the platform, the inclusion of Level 2 securities data, and the Oracle algorithmic scanner. While StockstoTrade’s layout makes it hard to get started, once traders are accustomed to the software the easy access to common technical analyses and visual stock scanner make it very easy to conduct fast analyses. In addition, the Level 2 securities data – included with the price of the platform – is something not often seen in comprehensive trading tools. Finally, the Oracle algorithm is a major win for swing traders who want to beat the market by finding stocks that are breaking out before they lose steam.

Is StockstoTrade Worth Your Time?

StockstoTrade is designed for highly technical and holistic day and swing traders who need to be able to quickly gather trading ideas and investigate stocks to make trading decisions. The platform puts an emphasis on finding stocks that are breaking out in the moment and its charts offer advanced technical analysis. Long-term investors won’t be as excited about StockstoTrade, particularly because it offers almost nothing in the way of fundamental data, even in its stock screener.

Pros

Detailed charts with many popular technical analyses built in
Includes Level 2 data for all stocks
Oracle algorithmic scanner identifies stocks breaking out before they lose momentum
Highly visual stock screener with ability to save screens for future use
Includes watchlists, news, and stock summary on same page as charts

Cons

Difficult to look at multiple charts on a single page
No broker compatibility to place trades
Expensive compared to other similar platforms