TradeXchange Review – Is This Service Worth Using?

TradeXchange is a real-time market news service designed to help you trade around breaking news. It offers a speedy feed and access to a helpful news desk, making it a solid resource for day traders.

However, TradeXchange is operating in a competitive market alongside better-known platforms like Benzinga Pro, Trade The News, and TheFly.com. In my TradeXchange review, I’ll dive into what this platform offers and help you decide which trading news service is right for you.

About TradeXchange

TradeXchange was launched in 2014 by two financial analysts, Milton Marmanides and George Avidon. The Connecticut-based company offers breaking financial news for the US stock market as well as a trader-friendly news desk and a community chat for users. It’s aimed primarily at retail day traders who want to trade around breaking news.

TradeXchange Pricing

TradeXchange offers two plans: TradeXchange Member and TradeX Plus.

A TradeXchange Member subscription costs $44.95 per month or $449.50 per year and includes access to the platform’s news feed, community chat, and reports.

A TradeX Plus subscription costs $69.95 per month or $699.50 per year and adds audio squawk and a real-time feed for SEC filings and press releases.

TradeXchange doesn’t offer a free trial, but you can get 50% off your first month of a TradeX Plus subscription with promo code tx50.

TradeXchange Features

News Feed

The core feature of TradeXchange is the real-time breaking news feed. This is a pretty simple feed that only includes a short headline for each entry. Headlines are written by the TradeXchange team and are straight to the point, often in less than 10 words. In contrast to services like Benzinga Pro and TradeTheNews, there’s no additional description or short article for traders who want to dig into the headline a bit more.

Most of the headlines are tagged as news, but TradeXchange does have some other tags—including filings, Fedspeak, economic, and technical—that you can use to filter the feed. The feed is also searchable.

However, there aren’t many other options to customize the feed. You can’t filter it to specific tickers, for example, or set up alerts or unique sounds for certain tickers or news types.

If you’re a TradeX Plus subscriber, you’ll get access to an audio squawk feature that can be turned on or off. I liked the squawk in TradeXchange because it’s not overly active. The team only picks up the microphone for the most important headlines and market updates, and squawk headlines usually break before they appear as text in the main feed.

It’s also worth noting that all TradeXchange users can contact the news desk directly to ask for more information about a specific ticker or headline. This works like a live chat feature.

Community Chat

TradeXchange also includes a community chat where traders can discuss the news throughout the day. The chat is fairly active, but the conversations I saw there were more for fun than focused on deep analysis. It’s worth noting that the TradeXchange news team does post some additional material in the community chat to supplement headlines, including links to news articles and geopolitical news that could be relevant to markets.

Market Reports

All TradeXchange subscribers get access to daily and weekly PDF reports with some helpful information on the market.

The daily report includes:

A timeline of the day’s expected economic announcements, reports, and other major market events.

Premarket data like changes in equity futures and offers a list of the top bullish and bearish stocks in premarket trading. 

A summary of major SEC filings and insider trades

A summary of analyst ratings changes

A list of major corporate press releases

A breakdown of the US president’s schedule for the day, including any announcements

The weekly report includes information about how specific sectors are performing on a weekly basis, year-to-date performance of major indices, investor sentiment, and upcoming US and world events.

I really liked these reports. They’re easy to read and are a great resource for starting the trading day. They also highlight what news to be on the lookout for, which can help you formulate a watchlist of stocks to focus on during a given day or week.

TradeWire

TradeWire is another real-time feed available only to TradeX Plus subscribers. It highlights SEC filings and corporate press releases. These aren’t curated by the TradeXchange team directly, but rather come from newswire services like GlobeNewswire, Businesswire, and PRNewswire.

This is a nice addition to TradeXchange, but it felt like an afterthought. I’d rather see this data incorporated into the main news feed with filters to turn it on or off. Monitoring an additional feed in a different window just doesn’t feel realistic when I’m already watching the main TradeXchange feed, the community chat, and a charting platform.

Is TradeXchange Easy to Use?

TradeXchange is extremely easy to use. The lack of customization options means that there’s virtually no setup required. You can just sign up and start getting headlines immediately.

On the other hand, the lack of filters means that it’s hard to use TradeXchange to monitor specific tickers on your watchlist. You’ll get an alert every time there’s a new headline, and you have to check the feed to find out if that news is relevant to you. The audio squawk helps, but many headlines are delivered with no soundbite so you still have to monitor the feed.

One other thing I noticed is that TradeXchange’s platform opens in a new browser window and can’t be combined with your browser’s other tabs. This isn’t a huge deal, especially if you have multiple screens and allocated dedicated space for the TradeXchange feed, but it makes it a little more difficult to organize your screen if you’re tight on space.

TradeXchange Platform Differentiators

TradeXchange is up against several competing market news services, including Benzinga Pro, TradeTheNews, and TheFly.com. All four of these platforms deliver breaking news as quickly as possible so you can stay on the leading edge of the market. However, they differ quite a bit in features and price. 

TradeXchange has carved out a niche as the most affordable of these news services. It’s significantly cheaper than Benzinga Pro and Trade the News, which respectively cost $147 per month and $350 per month if you want audio squawk functionality. TheFly.com is more competitive at $74.99 per month for an audio squawk-enabled plan.

I also felt like TradeXchange is the most barebones of these services. The news feed only provides headlines with no additional descriptions or links to third-party news articles. There’s no color-coding to indicate whether news is bullish or bearish and headlines aren’t tagged by ticker or sector. Options to filter the news feed are also extremely limited.

Color-coding, news tagging, and filtering features are all much more robust in Benzinga Pro, TradeTheNews, and TheFly.com. I recommend these services over TradeXchange if you want more flexibility to customize your news feed.

However, it’s worth noting that TradeXchange has mobile apps for iOS and Android—something that its competitors lack. That’s a huge deal if you’re trading on the go and still need access to breaking news.

What Type of Trader Is TradeXchange Best For?

TradeXchange is an affordable real-time market news feed that’s ideal for day traders who want to trade around breaking headlines. It won’t break the bank and comes with the most important features traders need, including audio squawk and access to a live news desk. TradeXchange’s daily reports can also be very helpful for day traders who need resources to plan their day and keep track of market events. If you frequently trade from your smartphone while away from your desk, TradeXchange’s mobile app is a huge benefit.

That said, TradeXchange isn’t very customizable, so it can be hard to use the service to monitor news around specific tickers or sectors. It also doesn’t come with any charting or analysis tools, so you have to be able to switch between the news feed and your charting platform quickly. I recommend having a second or even third screen available to get the most out of TradeXchange.

Is TradeXchange Worth It?

TradeXchange is a good choice if you want a market news feed on a budget. That said, TheFly.com is only slightly more expensive and offers a lot more functionality, including more detail with every headline and information about whether a piece of news is likely to drive prices up or down. I’ve also found TheFly.com’s feed to be much more customizable, making it easier to monitor news for the tickers on your watchlist.

The main advantage of TradeXchange over TheFly.com is that TradeXchange offers mobile apps. If you’re routinely on the move during premarket hours or want the ability to monitor market news while not at your desk, then TradeXchange could be the better option.