Trade Ideas does not offer a free trial of the full platform, and the help center says so plainly: no fully functional free trials, because of exchange requirements around live real-time data. What you get instead are four real routes in: a free account on 15-minute delayed data, a quarterly Test Drive that hands you full Premium access for $11.11, and free subscriptions paid by your broker at CenterPoint Securities or Cobra Trading if your account qualifies.
Which one fits depends on your account size and how seriously you’re evaluating the scanner. Here’s the whole picture, then each route in detail.
Your four options at a glance
| Route | What you get | Cost | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free account | Browser-based dashboards, 15-minute delayed data, 1 chart | $0 | No live data, no custom scans, no Holly |
| Test Drive | Full Premium with live data, Holly, backtesting, simulated trading | $11.11 | Fixed dates a few times a year, no refunds |
| CenterPoint Edge | A Trade Ideas subscription on the broker’s tab | $0 with a $30,000+ account | Base tier gets 3 months; ongoing access takes the Active tier |
| Cobra PRIME | TI Standard or Premium, broker-paid | $0 with $25,000+ and 200,000 shares/month | Drop below the volume average and the subscription gets canceled |
The free account: delayed data, one chart
Anyone can open a free account and poke around the browser-based TI Pro Market Dashboards. The data runs 15 minutes behind the tape, which tells you everything about what this account is for: browsing the interface, not trading the open. A gapper that fired fifteen minutes ago is already somebody else’s trade.
The published plan comparison caps the free account at one chart on screen and leaves out the features that justify the subscription price: no customizable scans or screeners, no Holly signals, no backtesting, no paper trading. Treat it as a showroom. It’s useful for deciding whether the layout and workflow suit you before you put money down, and nothing more.
The Test Drive: full Premium for $11.11
The Test Drive is the closest thing to a real trial, and it’s genuinely cheap. For $11.11 you get an event the signup page currently advertises as 10 full trading days of Premium-level access: Holly’s AI signals, unlimited backtesting, real-time simulated trading, all on live data. Run the math against the $254 monthly Premium plan, which works out to roughly $12 per session across a typical 21-session month, and the Test Drive prices the same software at about $1.11 a day.
The terms, straight from the official Test Drive FAQ, are strict but clean:
- The events run quarterly on fixed start and end dates. You can’t pick your window, sign-up late doesn’t extend it, and extensions aren’t possible.
- It ends automatically. Nothing converts into a paid subscription and there’s nothing to cancel; keeping the software means actively subscribing afterward.
- All sales are final, including the $11.11. The published billing policy allows store credit or exchanges, not refunds.
- One stated limitation on the Premium feature set: no auto-trading through your external brokerage account during the event.
Two practical notes. Live data means completing the exchange agreements at setup; Trade Ideas covers the exchange fees for non-professional users, while professional traders pay additional fees to NYSE, AMEX, and Nasdaq. And the desktop software is built for Windows, so Mac users run the browser version, which carries all 500+ alerts and filters, or a virtual machine like Parallels or AWS.
If you’re planning to use a Test Drive seriously, prepare before it starts. Our walkthrough on how to use Trade Ideas covers the setup work worth doing on day one so you don’t burn half the event learning menus.
Free through your broker
This is the route most coverage of the topic skips, and for funded traders it’s the best deal on the board. Two brokers will pay for the subscription outright.
CenterPoint Edge: $30,000 minimum
CenterPoint Securities includes Trade Ideas in its CenterPoint Edge program, a tools bundle the broker values at up to $7,500 a year and states clients are never charged for. The account minimum is $30,000. Edge runs three tiers: Base ($30,000–$100,000 equity or up to 100,000 shares a month) gets Trade Ideas free for 3 months, while Active ($100,000+ equity or 100,000+ shares a month) and Pro ($250,000+ or 250,000+ shares) carry it as an ongoing benefit. New clients start on the Active tier or higher for their first three months, then settle into whatever tier their equity or three-month trailing volume supports.
One thing to pin down before you count the value: the Edge page describes the access as real-time scanners, trade alerts, and backtesting tools, but doesn’t name which Trade Ideas plan you’re getting. Backtesting sits on the Premium tier of the retail plans, which retail at $1,068 a year for Basic and $2,136 a year for Premium on annual billing, so the answer is worth a few hundred dollars either way. Ask the trading desk which plan Edge includes before you fund. Full broker context is in our CenterPoint Securities review.
Cobra PRIME: $25,000 plus real volume
Cobra Trading’s Cobra PRIME program is more demanding and more transparent. Qualifying takes a $25,000 minimum balance and a 200,000-share monthly average, calculated five business days before month end, and new clients become eligible after two months of trading. Qualified traders receive points and spend them on software of their choice: Trade Ideas Standard costs 17 points, Trade Ideas Premium 29, with Benzinga Pro, TrendSpider, journals, and a dozen other tools on the same menu. Point awards scale with volume, and Cobra doesn’t publish the conversion, so confirming your balance means a note to the desk.
The honesty cuts both ways here. Unlike CenterPoint, Cobra names exactly which Trade Ideas plan you’re picking, and its Premium listing spells out Holly, backtesting, and auto-trading. But fall below the 200,000-share average and the subscription gets canceled, with a discounted paid rate as the fallback. Market data fees aren’t included either. At 200,000 shares a month this program is built for traders already printing serious volume, not for someone trading two starters a day. Our Cobra Trading review covers the rest of the package, and if you’re weighing the two brokers against each other, the Cobra vs CenterPoint comparison settles it by use case.
Which route to take
Under $25,000 in the account: take the free account for a look at the interface, then wait for the next Test Drive and evaluate Premium properly for $11.11. That’s the entire sensible path, and it costs less than lunch.
Between $25,000 and $100,000: the Test Drive is still the right evaluation step, but if the scanner earns a permanent spot in your stack, run the broker math before paying retail. A $30,000 CenterPoint account gets at least three months free, and high-volume traders at Cobra can keep Premium covered indefinitely.
Already convinced and just price-shopping: the Trade Ideas pricing breakdown walks through the annual-versus-monthly math, and the current public discounts page tracks what’s actually live. For whether the scanner deserves your money at all, including who should skip it, start with our Trade Ideas review, or see how it stacks up across our day trading software rankings.
FAQ
Is there any way to get a Trade Ideas free trial?
Not in the usual sense. Exchange requirements around live real-time data are the stated reason Trade Ideas gives for not offering fully functional free trials. The sanctioned ways to try the software are the free delayed-data account and the $11.11 Test Drive.
How much does the Trade Ideas Test Drive cost?
$11.11 for the current event, which the signup page advertises as 10 full trading days of Premium access, including Holly, unlimited backtesting, and real-time simulated trading on live data.
Does the Test Drive auto-renew into a paid subscription?
No. It ends automatically on the announced date, there’s nothing to cancel, and keeping the software afterward requires actively subscribing to one of the paid plans.
Can I get a refund on the Test Drive?
No. All sales are final under the published billing policy, which allows store credit or exchanges instead. At $11.11 the stakes are small, but the policy applies.
How do I get Trade Ideas completely free?
Through a broker. CenterPoint Securities includes it in the Edge program with a $30,000 minimum (3 months on the Base tier; ongoing on the Active tier at $100,000+ equity or 100,000+ shares a month), and Cobra Trading covers a Standard or Premium subscription through Cobra PRIME for clients holding $25,000+ and averaging 200,000 shares a month.
Is the free Trade Ideas account worth using?
For browsing, yes; for trading, no. The data runs 15 minutes behind, you get one chart, and the features that matter to day traders, from custom scans to Holly, are reserved for the paid plans. Use it to judge the interface before spending anything.
Sources
Facts on this page were verified in June 2026 against the official Trade Ideas pricing page, the help center’s free trial, Test Drive FAQ, and billing policy pages, the CenterPoint Edge program page, and the Cobra PRIME program page.