It took me a couple of weeks to go through all the functionalities and services included. In this review I’ll reveal some hidden gems which give you an edge right from the start.
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What is BlackBoxStocks?
BlackBoxStocks is a powerful stock and options platform with real-time scanning functionalities and trade alerts. The excellent educational concept and community aspects make the offer complete.
Founded in 2011 by Partner Eric Pharis, the company locates its data servers directly near the NYSE, NASDAQ, and OTC exchanges to avoid trading latency.
When running the software, the platform combines predictive technology with advanced artificial intelligence to help discover unusual market behavior and increasing volatility.
Its institutional-grade analytics plug-ins help subscribers uncover unknown market trends and alert users of potentially large price swings.
For subscribers, Blackboxstocks provides an easy-to-apply dashboard that includes real-time alerts, stock scans, news feeds like Benzinga Pro, a fully interactive chart, and a social media platform.
The community app also allows users to exchange information, discuss strategy, and communicate efficiently through its network.
Plans | Costs | Pricing
BlackBoxStocks offers monthly and annual subscription plans that include full access to all of the software’s features. The pricing model is easy to understand and straightforward.
- $99.97 per month
- $959 per year
There are no additional costs attached, and you get access to everything by paying the subscription fee. Also, real-time market data is included in the costs.
Key Features
BlackBoxStocks is a powerful platform with unique functionalities. They provide outstanding tools for day trading stocks and options, alongside a strong community and a competitive price. Fast and accurate real-time data is used to stream the prices for over 8,000 stocks and up to 900,000 options contracts.
Stock Screener
The proprietary stock screener combines market data with advanced artificial intelligence algorithms. The screener uses some of the same technologies perfected by high-frequency traders (HFTs) on Wall Street.
BlackBoxStocks focuses on the most important scanning functionalities and provides a great set of pre-defined scanning logics along with some filters to find the best stocks to trade.
At first, you choose the group of stocks you want to analyze. You can do so by either decide between:
- All stocks
- Nasdaq only
- NYSE/AMEX Only
or by using the price per share as a filter by selecting:
- Under $5
- Under $10
- Under $100
- Over $5
- Over $10
- Over $50
- Over $100
This default setting is the base for the whole scanner results shown in the different stock screener windows. Here is the scanner result layout:
Chart: At the upper left, you find the chart. The stock shown in the chart changes whenever you click on a stock symbol within the platform. The available time intervals are monthly, weekly, daily, 4 hours, plus 60, 30, 15, 10, 5, and 1 minute. You can use various chart styles like the traditional candlestick, bar chart, mountain, and line. But also awesome chart styles like Heikin Ashi, Renko, Point & Figure, and volume candle can be used. Also, a long list of trading indicators can be applied to a chart.
Top 10 Gainers: The top 10 gainers from today and yesterday can be visualized in the lower left. Click on the stock symbol, and the chart will change to the new symbol.
Volatility Indicator: Here in the middle of your screen, you can see the current volatility indication, the last price, traded volume, and change from yesterday at a glance. Even the bid and ask are visible. There is also a discreet box called Load Symbol right in the center. That’s where you can change the stock symbol individually. If you change the stock symbol, then also the chart will update.
Real Time News: At first, this might look like an unspectacular feature, but it is not. News are important because they are the primary catalyst for market movements. If a particular stock moves, then it is good to know why. The remarkable thing here is that not only regular feeds like PR Newswire are being used. Instead, also TheFlyontheWall live news feed is integrated for free.
Alert Log: The BlackBoxStocks pre-defined algorithms come up with alerts based on unusual trading activity. You can sort the list by time, volatility, and change. The cool thing here is that when you click on an alert, the chart will show you the exact point when the alert came in. Pro-tip: Do you see the question mark left to Alert Log? Click on it to view the explanation to the color-coding.
Alert Stream: I promised you that I would reveal some hidden gems in this review, and here is one more. At the top right of the alert stream section, you find a button called Filter. Click on it to choose between 52 week high and lows, stock price spike, halts, and a low float stock filter. Even dark pool activity can be selected to show unusual big prints, which is incredible.
More: I explained the visible windows, but there is more. At the bottom right, you have a little navigation bar. The first symbol is the megaphone for the alert stream explained above. Next to it, you find the premarket scan, postmarket scan, market scan, volume ratio list, a news feed, and StockTwits activity. Also, the main chat window can be opened here. Within the chat, moderators answer your questions, post trades, and mention free educational webinars.
Options Scanner
The BlackBoxStocks options scanner is powerful and provides some excellent ways to scan the options market and follow the options flow.
Click on Options in the top navigation to open the options screener. You will notice that the right part of the screen with the alert stream and chat remains the same, similar to the chart section.
Most Active and Flow: At the bottom left, you see the top 20 of most active calls and puts, as well as the bullish and bearish flow. While this feature is not that helpful, the next one definitely is.
Options: The BlackBoxStocks options scanner allows you to follow the institutions on Wall Street by identifying unusual options activity. This way, you can follow the smart money to make well-informed decisions. The color-coded real-time flow is provided options alerts that can be crunched based on currently 17 filters.
BlackBoxStocks options screener is full of features and included in the subscription. Other services out there charge more money for a fraction of options screening functionalities, and BlackBoxStocks provides these features in addition to all the other things. It would go too far to mention any aspect of the options screener in detail.
But I want to highlight two of them.
- First, you can identify options trades that have been executed above the ask. This indicates that the buyer wanted to get filled immediately. And if an institution needs to get filled quickly, then this is something you should analyze.
- Second, you can access the historical options flow by setting a date range. How cool is this? Let’s say you defined criteria that worked well today. The historical data allows you to analyze if the filter was also that powerful in the past.
- Finally, you can also download the data. And that’s where my clear recommendation goes for.
Having the opportunity to download options alerts opens an entirely new world of analysis. Unfortunately, the exact timestamp get’s lost if you export historical data. Anyway, if you export the data from the current day, you still have the exact timestamp. And in any case, you have the price per share when the alert was triggered, the stock symbol, strike price, expiration date, execution details like above ask, types like block and sweep, the implied volatility, and color-coding in any export.
Use cases: Export data for 1 month, consolidate it in Excel. Use a formula to find short-dated option alerts, focus on either the BlackBoxStocks color coding in Column K, or chose the type and transaction details of your choice. Add a column to evaluate the out of the money percentage (D3/F3-1). Now add another column to set the transaction’s value in relation to either the average trading volume or market cap if you have that data available. Open a chart and look at the price action in comparison to your excel-build filters. For bullish signals, focus on the above ask and at the ask executions with the type sweep.
Pro-tip: Make sure to click on the question mark left to Options in the middle section. Here you find the exact definition of every color-coding, field, and functionality. Read this one before everything else.
Education
My review would not be complete without mentioning the educational part of the service. Like most beginners, you probably tend to jump right into the market action from day one.
Make a difference by making it different. Slow down and be cautious. The market is here today, and it will be tomorrow. The BlackBoxStocks welcome message get’s it entirely right. Read the welcome to BlackBoxStocks message and better read it occasionally to remember yourself to slow things down a bit.
As you have seen in the review so far, there are many outstanding features available. But at first, you need to understand precisely what you see, how to interpret the data, and when to act. And this is where the educational part shows it’s strength. There is a calendar accessible if you select education at the top navigation. Here, you find the specific dates and times for the BlackBoxStocks orientation, Q&A webinars, the understanding options flow webinar, and the BlackBoxStocks Boot Camp.
Blackbox Bootcamp Class
Included free of charge for all BlackBoxStocks subscribers, the Blackbox Bootcamp Class is a 3-hour introduction to stocks, options, and the Blackbox system. The course is designed to help take your trading skills from the basem*nt to the penthouse.
During the first phase, you learn:
- Basic market terminology
- What is “short selling,” and what are the risks?
- The dangers of trading penny stocks and low float stocks
- How to use technical analysis, charts, candles and more
- How to identify support and resistance levels
Then you move on to options trading:
- What are calls and puts?
- How to read an option chain
- How to choose strike prices and settlement dates
- Time decay and implied volatility
- How to use directional option strategies
- Best account options for small investors
- In the final phase, you dive deep into its proprietary Blackbox System:
- How Blackbox alert systems work # pre-market, volume, price spike, rapid decline, etc.
- How Blackbox proprietary scanners, data tables, and charting programs work
- How Blackbox media features work # real-time news, symbol specific news, social media sentiment
- How the Blackbox trading community works # live trading rooms, moderators, as well as how to connect, interact, and contribute.
As an additional bonus, it’s great that BlackBoxStocks offers education in combination with data analysis and algorithmic trading tools.
As mentioned, if you’re interested in giving it a try, sign up for the boot camp is a great add-on to help increase your skills in the process.
Community
Stocks and options are the main focus of everything in the BlackBoxStocks community. A chat room with stock trade alerts and helpful guidance is implemented directly in the web-based platform.
The BlackBoxStocks community is strong. They are active on social media, where everyone can follow the latest news and developments. Subscribers get access to the day trading discord chat room and 2 private BlackBoxStocks Twitter groups for mobile alerts. The Discord channel mainly focuses on options trading.
For my taste, there is too much activity in the discord room. Within minutes the screen is flooded by too many posts from all traders, and it is hard to filter out the information you need. But I have to commit, that the main idea is being a community on Discord where all trades can ask all kinds of trading-related questions and exchange ideas. So I think that beginners will appreciate having this additional feature at their hands.
There are strict rules, and people who act against those rules get blocked forever. I like this a lot because the channel cannot be used for penny stock pump and dump and other questionable schemes.
At the left of the discord channel navigation bar, you find the moderators channels, the main room called #bbs-traderoom, and also a BBS where you can hear the moderators.
I see it this way, the discord channel is a free additional feature for subscribers, and you should give it a try. Check what channel is best for you and what moderators you like to follow. Please don’t forget that trading success needs concentration without any distractions. So once you start trading, turn the social media off.
At some point, you also have to decide if you prefer to listen to the BlackBoxStocks squawk to get news in real-time via voice, or to the moderators for comments on the current market situation.
Various trade alerts are posted in Discord, too, with the focus on options trades. The same goes for the 2 private twitter groups. BlackBoxStocks also has some interesting community-deals with TD Ameritrade and E-Trade to save some additional money as an options trader.
Free Trial | Promo Code
BlackBoxStocks occasionally offers a free trial. From my perspective, it’s important to allow prospective customers to validate a service before requiring a full purchase. Therefore, the company takes the right approach to this matter. As another feature, BlackBoxStocks does offer plenty of free trading resources through its BlackBoxStocks Blog.
There you can read investor articles such as Options Heat Maps, Options Dollar Flow as well as Bullish Flow and Bearish Flow. You can also follow the team on its official BlackBoxStocks Twitter, BlackBoxStocks Facebook, and BlackBoxStocks YouTube pages. You can use the links mentioned above to automatically apply the BlackBoxStocks promo code for a 20% discount.
Conclusion
BlackBoxStocks offers advanced data analysis tools and algorithmic features necessary for any trader to succeed in the stock market and options market. Speed is at the forefront of trading success, and with its advanced technology, the BlackBoxStocks algorithm can scalp valuable information much more quickly than any human.
When gauging the validity of any technology, a company should allow customers to test out the product before requiring a full purchase. By doing so, BlackBoxStocks takes the right path here.
If you are interested in giving it a try, our advice is to start with a monthly subscription for $79.97 in the first month. With it, you can test out all of the software’s features and know if it truly adds value before making a full commitment. After a month, you can either proceed by paying $99.97 per month or go for the annual subscription along with a 20% discount by committing to a full year.
All subscriptions include free access to the Blackbox Bootcamp Class. This 3-hour online webinar provides plenty of useful advice on stock trading, options trading, and how to best use its proprietary Blackbox System.
Traders looking for more comprehensive stock scanning features, automated trading, and artificial intelligence based stock picks consider the services Trade Ideas provides and compare both services.
Who Is BlackBoxStocks Best for?
Blackboxstocks is best for day trading beginners and active traders. The stock screener identifies stocks with high momentum, and the trading education section gets into details about stock and options trading.
How much does BlackBoxStocks cost?
The monthly subscription costs $79.97, and the annual membership plan is available for $959 to new subscribers by using the link with the discount attached.
Is BlackBoxStocks worth it?
Yes. BlackBoxStocks offers a wide variety of trading tools, trading education events, and a great community of traders.
Is BlackBoxStocks the best stock screener?
The BlackBoxStocks stock scanner has its particular strengths in terms of simplicity and static scans. Trade automation enthusiasts consider the Trade Ideas stock screener instead.
BlackBoxStocks Alternatives
InsiderFinance is a good alternative to BlackBoxStocks. The tool has powerful options screener capabilities and is specifically beneficial to options traders.
