Black Box Stocks Review – How Does This Trading Platform Rank?

About Black Box Stocks

Black Box Stocks is a real-time algorithmic stock and options scanner platform with enhanced social media features. Like a prix fixe meal, convenience is a key aspect of this service as it displays everything on a single screen and all the legwork of continuously monitoring over 13,000 stocks and options multiple times per second on their servers. Users are alerted to tradeable ideas mined using high-frequency trading (HFT) strategies from pre-market to market and post-market hours continuously from the scanner and social media. The simplicity, quality and convenience of this service makes it stand out in an overcrowded field of scanning products. Read our Black Box Stocks review to see if this platform will be a good fit for you.

Black Box Stocks Pricing Options

Black Box Stocks has one membership plan providing full-access to the service for $99.97-per month or $959-prepaid for the annual subscription, a savings of $240.64 compared to the monthly rate. This includes data fees and The Fly-on-the-Wall newsfeed.

Features Breakdown for Black Box Stocks

Here’s some of the notable features on the platform.

Charts

Institutional grade charts are available for every stock that triggers an alert so that users can quickly view the reasoning for the alert. Users can add studies and opt between candlestick, line or bar charts. The charts reference where the underlying stock was trading at the time of the initial alert, so users can follow along. Overall, the charts are nice, and similar to the charts we commended in our recent TrendSpider review.

News Feed

Users can stream Fly-on-the-Wall news feed all day as well a symbol specific news linked to Alerts or a watch list. Right off the bat, this is a great value. The Fly is one of my favorite real-time newsfeeds catered to traders. Traders who are used to paying for news services like Benzinga Pro and TradetheNews can save money instantly by taking advantage of the built-in newsfeed.

Pre-Post-Market Scanner

The pre-market and post-market scanners run continuously. Timeliness is the name of the game here. Stocks that meet criteria are alerted and can be researched through the Alert Log with the underlying charts. Users can add their favorite indicators to the charts as well to better assess potential trades and set-ups.

Alerts

The Alerts stream all day and saved on the Alerts Log. This is a cumulative list of the Alerts for the day. Users can sort them by time, volatility and percentage change and each symbol’s chart, news and social media can be referenced immediately. The algorithms are pre-programmed to find stocks and options that are seeing heavy activity, so you’re always going to be near the action.

Watch Lists

Default Top-10 watch lists (IE: Gainers/Decliners for Today/Yesterday for Stocks and Options) can be selected in addition to user-selected watch lists. This is just a matter of preference and screen space. I’m a big fan of being economical with screen space and use Blackbox solely for current scanning needs and keep my personal watch lists on my trading platform.

Options Trading

While trading stocks is perfectly fine, options provide much better leverage. Although, leverage is a double-edged sword and a small percentage move down can wipe out total investment in the options. Only experienced traders should consider using options, especially directional trades where you’re paying top dollar and heavy premiums to get in on the move. With that said, Black Box has some of the best options tools of any platform.

Members Chatroom

This is another one of my favorite features. The chatroom is usually occupied by 100 or more members at any time during the day. The Shot Callers are moderators and experienced traders. Overall, the community of traders are seasoned, and I find profitable ideas in this room daily. I have my favorite traders that I follow throughout the day and that alone is worth the price of membership. It also motivates me to grind it out every day when I see how these top traders are always scanning and reacting.

Audio Chat

The chatroom also has audio functionality which enables members to listen to in the #bbs_chat room. It’s great to listen in on insights from the moderators and some of the most seasoned traders on the site. This frees up screen real estate again form the chatroom and keeps me connected with traders I respect for potential ideas and set-ups throughout the day.

Compatible Brokers

Blockboxstocks recommends Think or Swim (TOS) through Ameritrade. Blackbox members can get special rates. For now, TOS is just a recommended broker and the platform doesn’t plug into TOS that I know of. Perhaps, they may integrate that feature in the future, which would add another layer of convenience.

Platform Differentiators

Platforms these days have gotten so complicated and bundled with so many useless features and ‘customizability’ that ends up clogging screen space and resources. The simplicity of design that saves screen real estate to be effective can’t be understated. Everything you need is relegated to one screen with tabs to view other functions on the same screen. Since all the data crunching is on their servers, it doesn’t slow down your computer system either.

Is Black Box Stocks a Good Value?

This is an incredibly good value considering that it includes real-time exchange data fees as well as the Fly-on-the-Wall newsfeed (retails for $35-$65 per month). It’s like getting the actual service for free. The value is undeniable as a trading tool and a learning vehicle to stay connected to market opportunities around the clock.  

What Type of Trader Blackboxstocks.com is Best For

This sleek, powerful and intuitively designed platform accommodates newbies to experience traders. With everything available on a single screen, it enables a full perspective at-a-glance and provides the tools for in-depth analysis as needed. It’s ideal for traders who don’t want the complications of creating or configuring scans, which honestly describes most of us, me included. The chatroom is also an excellent source of money-making ideas and allows newbies to learn from real pros.

Pros

• Convenient one-screen layout with all features available at-a-glance
• High-frequency-trading strategies integrated in algos that do the legwork
• Continuous functionality from pre-market through regular hours and after-hours
• Text and Audio member chatroom generates ideas from top traders daily
• Amazing value that includes exchange data fees and Fly-on-the-Wall newsfeed
• Simple and intuitive design makes it easy to learn platform quickly
• High quality alerts

Cons

• Traders still need a methodology to trade the Alerts
• Minimal trading education provided for newbies