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Swing trading isn’t for the faint of heart.
With buying and selling the same stock after only owning it for a few days, or even overnight, swing traders can be exposed to weekend and overnight risk where the opening price on the following session could be a lot lower than where they bought it at.
It’s one of the hardest investment strategies for a new trader. The high risks can pay off with high profits, but not always. A Stanford University graduate who started his own stock analysis site reports that his average account drawdown is negative 28%. But his average annual return is 143%.
Active traders rely on real-time alerts of price movements so they can quickly act and hopefully profit from short-term trading.
The good news is you don’t have to sit by your computer so you can jump on a real-time update. Many of the swing trade alert services we reviewed can be checked weekly for alerts that can still be worth investing in if you want to wait that long. Daily check-ins may be best, though that doesn’t mean you have to wake up at 5 a.m. to see them.
Below is our review of the best swing trade alert services. We review the main features, costs, and what’s best about each. We’ll also explain what swing trading is.
In this article
Overview of the best swing trade alert services
Company | Best For |
Trade Ideas | Artificial intelligence |
Mindful Trader | Beginners |
Tim Alerts | Penny stock tips |
Motley Fool Stock Advisor | Learning about investing |
Scanz | Stock scanning |
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Best swing trade alert services
Trade Ideas
Artificial intelligence is behind everything at Trade Ideas. It uses several dozen investment algorithms to show subscribers which stocks have the highest probability in the next market section.
The company named its artificial intelligence Holly AI. At night between market sessions, Holly looks at the previous day’s stock market action and runs trading scenarios that lead to trading recommendations for the next day with a 60% probability of success.
Holly also gives suggested entry signals to buy and sell stocks, which can help swing traders who want to hold an asset for a day or longer as they try to profit from price changes or “swings.” Real-time events can be displayed in alert windows that users set up through filters.
All of this is meant to allow real-time stock buying. Trade Ideas isn’t a trading platform, but active traders can link to their own brokerage for stock trading.
Trade Ideas has a steep learning curve for beginners, but it has tutorials, webinars, and other educational resources to help new traders. Its software must be downloaded to a desktop computer or laptop to use Trade Ideas. It doesn’t offer a mobile app.
- Costs: $999 annually or $84 monthly for the standard plan; $1,999 annually or $167 monthly for the premium plan.
- Where to find: Trade Ideas
Mindful Trader
Mindful Trader was started by economist Eric Ferguson in 2020 and is based on trading systems Ferguson came up with after testing trading patterns and stock price action.
His website is easy to use and shouldn’t overwhelm beginners like other time trading sites. He trades stocks, options, and futures, and his picks are based on historical probabilities and price movement tendencies. They’re all backtested.
One of the best things about Mindful Trader is anyone from new traders to active traders can use the service without studying data for hours. Ferguson’s picks are made in real-time for subscribers, who might need only 5-10 minutes per day to follow.
The swing trades he recommends typically last about one week. If a trade doesn’t hit preset profit or loss points within two weeks, he closes it. You can set up a trade through your brokerage account with the recommended prices and then forget about it.
This one-week average for a pick means they’re swing trade stock picks, not day trades, Ferguson points out on his website. So even if you don’t review his picks first thing in the morning, you still might benefit from the stock pick for a week. He typically makes one to three stock picks daily, but sometimes he may go a week without making a trade because none match his strategies.
His site is very transparent. He points out that when he posts a stock pick, the stock price doesn’t immediately move because his subscribers are all buying the same thing. This is because his members don’t make up a large stock market volume, but also because Ferguson realized that timing trading was difficult, especially when trading penny stocks that some stock trade alert services recommend. That’s a big reason why he focuses on trading large cap stocks.
- Costs: $47 per month.
- Where to find: Mindful Trader
Tim Alerts
Tim Alerts is a subscription plan from Timothy Sykes, whose trading in penny stocks made him a millionaire by age 22. Each year Sykes starts with a small account, as he did with $12,415 of bar mitzvah money and trading it in penny stocks to a value of $1.65 million, to trade and show people how to trade as he does.
Tim Alerts offers real-time trade alerts through email, SMS, push alerts, and in his chatroom. The site has a mobile app for iPhone and Android.
Sykes emails his penny stock watchlist of five to 10 companies to subscribers each morning at 8 a.m., which is also posted at 9 a.m. on his blog “in extraordinarily less detail,” he says. He also sends follow-up emails throughout the day within seconds of his actual trade executions, which aren’t posted on his blog.
Tim Alerts is the most basic plan from Timothy Sykes, whose two other upgraded plans are more expensive and do more in teaching subscribers his trading strategies. Tim Alerts may be worth trying out for a month to see how it works for swing traders who want short-term trading in penny stocks.
- Costs: $75 monthly
- Where to find: Tim Alerts
Use Motley Fool's Stock Advisor To Invest
- Over 100 Stock Picks with 100%+ Returns
- Averaged Stock Pick Return over 593% (vs. 165% for the S&P)
- 2 New Stock Picks Every Month
- Investment Community With 700,000+ Loyal Members
- 30-Day Membership-Fee-Back Guarantee
- Joy Wallet Reader Deal: The Motley Fool is offering 50% off its top stock-picking service for new members (Limited Time)
Motley Fool Stock Advisor
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor is a stock picking service with a track record of more than tripling the return of the S&P 500 as one of the best stock-picking newsletters. It also offers swing trade alerts in real-time.
Trade alerts are sent via email every Thursday. Subscribers who want that information faster can log in to the site’s members dashboard to see trades of swing trade stock faster.
The service provides stock watchlists, dozens of related articles for each stock pick, monthly reports with stock recommendations, investing strategies, fundamental analysis, and a library of investing content. The site is a great place to learn about investing through fun and easy-to-read articles.
While the site should help active traders who want to do short-term trading, its main goal seems to be helping buy-and-hold investors who plan to be investors over their lifetimes. Its technical analysis may not be what day trading or swing trading investors want, but its high-quality content is helpful for beginners and active traders.
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor normally costs $199 for one year, but it currently has a deal for $99 for a year, with a 30-day refund if you don’t like it.
- Costs: $99 annually.
- Where to find: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor
Scanz
Scanz is a screening platform that provides real-time swing trade alerts as it assesses market data. Users can save numerous scans to filter the criteria they’re looking for in stock, such as foreign stocks, regular stocks, ETFs, or exchange-traded funds.
Stock scanners such as Scanz are screening tools that search the markets to find stocks that meet user-selected criteria and metrics for trading and investing. It also offers a news scanner with links to more than 100 news sources.
Results from Scanz’ stock scanner are downloadable in CSV format, a simple text file that can be opened in various programs, which is unique among stock scanners. Other features Scanz offers include stock watchlists, daily swing trade alerts, streaming charts, and email support.
Scanz has only one plan available for $169 per month.
- Costs: $169 per month.
- Where to find: Scanz
Use Motley Fool's Stock Advisor To Invest
- Over 100 Stock Picks with 100%+ Returns
- Averaged Stock Pick Return over 593% (vs. 165% for the S&P)
- 2 New Stock Picks Every Month
- Investment Community With 700,000+ Loyal Members
- 30-Day Membership-Fee-Back Guarantee
- Joy Wallet Reader Deal: The Motley Fool is offering 50% off its top stock-picking service for new members (Limited Time)
Best swing trade alert services summary
Company | Cost | Real-time alerts | Mobile app | Make trades on site |
Trade Ideas | $999 or $1,999/year | Yes | No | No |
Mindful Trader | $47/month | Yes | Yes | No |
Tim Alerts | $75/month | Yes | No | No |
Motley Fool Stock Advisor | $99/year | Yes | No | No |
Scanz | $169/month | Yes | No | No |
FAQs
What is swing trading?
Swing trading is a speculative strategy where a stock or other asset is bought and held for one day or more to reach a profit target from price changes or “swings.”
Is it safer than day trading?
No, though the risks are high for both. Day trading focuses on smaller price movements, making day trading safer than swing trading.
How fast should I act on swing trade alerts?
Being a swing trader doesn’t mean you must be tied to your phone or computer all day or awake before dawn to act on stock alerts. You can if you want to, but most swing trade alert services post valid alerts for at least a day. They still send alerts as soon as their algorithms find a stock worth recommending, and you can act quickly if you want to, such as the timeliness Tim Alerts provides. Others, such as Mindful Trader, send valid alerts for a week and maybe as long as two weeks. But when the data no longer supports the alert, Mindful Trader removes it, which could be sooner than one week. Take a close look at the alert site you’re interested in to determine if its alerts are meant for short-term sales of days or weeks or if it has target months.
Why you should use swing trade alert services
Swing trade alert services can simplify trading by giving you alerts on when to buy or sell a particular stock. Instead of crunching data as a day trader or selecting investments for a retirement portfolio, swing traders can use changes in market conditions to their advantage and buy and sell stocks based on momentum, not a company’s long-term value.
Following changes in the market, whether for a day, week, or a few months, is very risky. Swing traders should be prepared to be down from time to time in their portfolios, with the overall goal of profitability.
Use Motley Fool's Stock Advisor To Invest
- Over 100 Stock Picks with 100%+ Returns
- Averaged Stock Pick Return over 593% (vs. 165% for the S&P)
- 2 New Stock Picks Every Month
- Investment Community With 700,000+ Loyal Members
- 30-Day Membership-Fee-Back Guarantee
- Joy Wallet Reader Deal: The Motley Fool is offering 50% off its top stock-picking service for new members (Limited Time)
The bottom line
If you can handle the risk of swing trading and can follow the advice of a swing trade alert service even when prices drop, then this type of trading plan may be for you.
The best services offer real-time updates you can act on immediately and own stock within seconds. Or, more likely, you can still wait a few hours, days, or even a week or so and still buy or sell the stock before the price drops out of the recommended range.
Some alert services recommend having at least $10,000 to invest through this method, though $2,000 or so may only be required if you want to just invest in the stock picks and not do futures or options trading.
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Writer
Aaron Crowe is a freelance journalist who specializes in personal finance writing and editing. He has worked at newspapers, where he won a Pulitzer Prize, and has written for numerous online publications. These include AOL, US News & World Report, WiseBread, Bankrate, AARP, and many websites focusing on housing, credit and insurance. He lives in California with his wife and daughter.
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