The Trading Analyst Review

Options trading can be a lucrative pursuit for retail traders, despite the risky reputation it often gets.

There’s just one problem—it usually isn’t very lucrative, and most retail investors lose money when trading stock options. 

Whereas most traders simply rush in without even knowing the basics of trading stocks, options are complex financial instruments and require an even more pronounced mastery of the stock market if a trader wants to be successful in the long term.

The volatility, price swings, and complexity of options are simply on an entirely different level—and while it might take at least a year to get a grip on things, you don’t have to go at it alone. By enlisting some professional help, you can get some hands-on experience, a behind-the-scenes look at professional trading methodologies, and secure profit—all the while you’re increasing your trading skills.

Today, we’re going to be covering one of the most prominent options trading alert services—The Trading Analyst. They’ve been in business since 2018, and over the last five years have accrued more than 11,450 customers.

Let’s take a closer look at what they’re offering, and whether or not that would be something that interests you.

General Overview 📌

Before we move on to sections where we hone in on specific features, let’s first take a general look at what TTA offers. We’ve singled out three main features based on the impact and appeal they have to the average options trader:

• Real-time options alerts—delivered on average 2 to 5 times a week, with clear entry and exit points and realistic profit targets ranging from 10% to 20% per trade. The service encompasses three separate alert systems, catering to both day traders and swing traders. Alerts are sent out via SMS, email, and messaging application Telegram.
• Market analysis, news, and reports—traders receive a daily pre-market briefing, containing the most important news of the day, and a longer, more expansive weekly report covering major stock trends, macroeconomic news, the week’s upcoming events which are most likely to impact the economy and stock market (earnings reports, jobless claims and unemployment reports, consumer-related data, new home sales, etc.). Market news is also sometimes shared directly via TTA’s Telegram channel.
• Educational materials—TTA gives traders access to two self-paced options trading courses in PDF format, one catered to beginners and one tailored for intermediate traders. On top of that, a wide variety of educational articles are available on their site free of charge, as well as an e-book detailing stock chart patterns.

Types of Alerts Provided 📱

The Trading Analyst provides real-time alerts to subscribers—but that isn’t the entire story. The service encompasses three separate alert systems, each catering to a unique style of stock and options trading. 

The alerts themselves are concise and easy to follow, and each includes clear entry and exit points, as well as a recommended stop-loss level for risk management. 

To focus a bit more on the exit levels, The Trading Analyst’s swing trading system entails selling one half of a position when predetermined criteria are met—once that happens, the team takes another look at the landscape and determines the criteria for selling the other half.

In summary, they work as follows:

Let’s go over these three different trading alert systems, one by one.

Momentum Trade Alerts 🔔

Focused on shorter-term trades with holding periods ranging from just an hour to 3 days, the momentum trading alert system is the “middle ground” approach. 

With the momentum trade alert system, most of the alerts customers receive are for buy-to-open orders, either for calls or puts, giving the approach a degree of versatility.

There are an average of 2 to 5 alerts sent out per week, via SMS, email, and Telegram alerts, and this system also encompasses pre-emptive notifications.

What are pre-emptive notifications? They aren’t full alerts—since the holding periods for trades here are so short, you need a bit of advanced notice when market conditions are moving in the right direction, but not quite there yet for a trade—and that’s what pre-emptive notifications are for.

This momentum trade alert (with a preemptive notification) was sent on December 12, 2023. To illustrate the timeline here:

• The preemptive notification was sent at 9:31am EST.
• The entry alert was sent at 9:39am EST.
• The exit notification was sent at 1:35pm EST.

So, this position was held for about 4 hours.

With a medium level of alert frequency and a focus on trades with positions that are held for a relatively short amount of time, this system is best suited for active traders looking to profit off shorter-term momentum trends, or any individual with access to their phone throughout the day.

If you work a typical 9-5, you can still benefit from these trades; you’ll just need to work in an environment where you can access your cell phone and receive notifications. There are a number of reliable stock trading apps that can allow you to quickly execute trades from a mobile device.

Swing Trade Alerts 🔔

Like the momentum trade alert system, The Trading Analyst’s swing trading alerts consist primarily of buy-to-open call or put options—but the swing trade system also recommends regular stock positions on occasion, when options simply aren’t enticing due to market conditions, or are very expensive to enter.

This approach has a lower frequency of alerts, as well as a longer holding period. With this plan, you can expect to receive 1 to 2 alerts per month, with holding periods ranging from 3 days to a month.

The rate of alerts that customers receive with this system really depends on the market environment. The Trading Analyst uses trading volume as one of their several key indicators to enter or exit a position. When trading volume is generally lacking, this system produces 1-2 alerts per month.

When trading volume picks up however, the system has historically produced up to 10 alerts per week.

Here is an example of what a swing trading alert delivered in The Trading Analyst’s Telegram channel looks like:

On November 15, 2023, The Trading Analyst entered $EXPE Mar15 $130 calls at the price of $11.95 per contract.

On December 7, 2023, The Trading Analyst exited $EXPE Mar15 $130 calls at $20.15. This particular swing trade resulted in a 68% gain.

Swing trading is a much better fit for traders who aren’t all that active—with fewer alerts that are focused on larger gains, this approach is best suited toward working professionals who trade part-time since these trades are usually not time sensitive to execute.

Intraday alerts 🔔

Last but not least, the intraday alert system is The Trading Analyst’s most recent addition. These alerts are sent out a staggering 5 to 15 times per day, and the recommended holding period for trades ranges from 3 to 30 minutes.

That requires a rapid response—so unlike the previous two systems, these alerts are exclusively sent through a separate, invite-only Telegram channel.

Most of the trades in this system are focused on QQQ options, and the short holding period for trades makes this a system best suited toward day traders and scalpers.

Here is an example of the format used for alerts delivered via Telegram:
ENTRY: Bought QQQ at, price = 367.89
EXIT: Sold QQQ at, price = 368.32
ENTRY: Sold Short QQQ at, price = 369.538
EXIT: Bought to Cover QQQ at, price = 369.14

How Are These Trade Alerts Delivered?🦉

There are three avenues by which The Trading Analyst delivers options trade alerts—via email, SMS, and, Telegram. 

While each method of transmission has its advantages, this isn’t a situation where you have to pick and choose—and opting to receive text messages or messages via Telegram ensures that not only delivery but actually reading the alerts and putting the advice into play are both done in a timely fashion.

To complement this, the platform also supports a portfolio tracker feature, allowing users to have a neat, clear overview of all of their positions—both open and closed.

Other Parts of the Service 

In addition to the alerts, The Trading Analyst also has several interesting and helpful features. Each Monday, the team behind the service sends out a weekly trading report that deals with market analysis. 

Expect to see an overview of the major stock indices and how they’ve fared over the last week, along with the performance of various market indicators like the VIX or the Fear and Greed Index.

These reports also delve into macroeconomic factors, such as the levels of the DJIA, inflation trends, interest rate hikes, bond yields, expectations in upcoming earnings reports, the state of the economy in light of consumer spending trends and unemployment figures, and similar macroeconomic data.

On top of that subscribers receive daily pre-market briefs—although they aren’t too in-depth, they do succinctly cover 5 or 6 of the day’s most pressing topics, giving users a helpful way to get a lay of the land in a single glance in terms of economics.

Subscribers also gain access to a watchlist curated by the trading team over at The Trading Analyst, which covers both stocks and potential future options trades.

In terms of education, TTA offers two trading courses—an introductory course and an advanced one. 

Whereas the first one deals with the basics of options trading, risk management, and options trading terminology, the advanced course delves more into advanced metrics like the Greeks, topics like portfolio management, and advanced trading strategies such as iron condors, box spreads, earnings plays, and volatility trading.

One downfall with the courses is that there are no video modules. The courses are only available in PDF format, but there are quizzes available at the end of each major section to help gauge your learning.

Apart from the two trading courses, prospective traders can also check out a wide variety of educational articles and guides hosted on The Trading Analyst’s website, as well as other resources such as a comprehensive 43-page ebook that tackles the topic of stock chart patterns.

Finally, the team does also share live news updates and market commentary from time to time, when they consider the news relevant.

Who is The Trading Analyst Best For? 🎯

The Trading Analyst is a robust, versatile options trading alert service—there are a lot of features here that will interest a very wide array of traders.

However, that being said—it won’t benefit everyone to the same degree. First, let’s deal with the topic of trading style. Since the service has three alert systems, it will come as no surprise that each is tailored toward a specific strategy.

The momentum trading system will benefit…well, momentum traders looking to capture gains in a timeframe ranging from an hour to a couple of days. The swing trading system, with only one or two alerts per month, is much more suited toward more conservative traders who are looking for a smaller number of highly profitable trades that don’t require as much constant oversight.

Finally, the intraday trading system is the most rapid-fire out of all—with 5 to 15 alerts per day and a recommended holding period of 3 to 30 minutes, it won’t shock you to find out that this plan was made specifically with scalpers and day traders in mind.

Target Audience and Demographics ✅

Alright—now that we’ve covered which strategies are a good fit for this service, let’s go a little more in-depth. Once you go beyond strategy and take a holistic look at all the features available, it quickly becomes apparent that two specific groups stand to gain the most from what The Trading Analyst has to offer.

The first are working professionals with busy schedules. Working a full-time job isn’t easy, despite what anyone says—and being a successful trader with a 9-5 job is even tougher. That doesn’t mean it isn’t doable—just that it requires a lot of discipline, sacrifice, and effort.

Something that isn’t often talked about is the fact that being able to constantly monitor the markets is a luxury—and it’s one that not everyone can afford. By leveraging the ability to deliver real-time alerts, as well as accommodating longer-term strategies like swing trading, TTA allows working professionals to make timely trades, gain knowledge and experience, and profit—all without having to sacrifice what little free time they have or stay glued to a screen for half the day.

The second demographic is beginner and intermediate traders in need of assistance. While options get an unfairly bad rap, as derivatives, they are indeed volatile and complex financial instruments. By getting a behind-the-scenes look into serious research methodologies, traders can develop a feel for trading that would otherwise take them years to cultivate.

On top of that, the various educational materials, along with the weekly reports and daily trading brief help traders learn more about options trading and the stock market, making them a valuable resource for anyone who is still learning. In essence, it’s like having access to a trading room—only with a little less hustle and bustle and more curated, highly relevant content and alerts.

Fees: Pricing and Subscription Options 💰

This options alert service has three subscription options—but there are no separate tiers. In other words, your choice is relegated to billing—no matter what you choose, you will always have access to the same features.

Subscribers have a choice between monthly, quarterly, and annual billing, which cost $147/month, $357/quarter, and $787/year, respectively.

Obviously, the annual billing plan offers the best value, with $787/year being equivalent to just $66 a month—far less than the $119 or $147 a month the other two billing plans entail.

Although $787 charged at one time isn’t negligible, it is still competitive—with plenty of competitors such as Sky View Trading, Motley Fool Options, and Marketh Chameleon charging slightly higher prices.

However, price shouldn’t be looked at in a vacuum—when contrasted with the value that The Trading Analyst provides, it becomes clear that the asking price is fair.

Research & Tools 🔎

In terms of research, TTA uses a proprietary formula based on more than 24,000 publicly available data sets. Alerts are generated through a volume confirmation formula—and while the exact science is a trade secret, we do know the basics of how it works.

By leveraging both algorithms and human oversight, TTA looks for large-cap stocks that have been trading sideways, or to be more precise, in a defined range, for at least a certain period of time. The focus on large-cap stocks is meant to ensure liquidity while finding a rangebound stock ensures that large price moves are potentially in the cards.

Next comes an analysis of stock volume—and if a stock has been seeing an increased level of volume compared to the near-term historical average on multiple days, then the team over at TTA takes a closer look at devises a trading hypothesis.

This applies to the swing trading system—when it comes to the intraday and momentum alerts, market sentiment and short-term indicators play a much bigger role in when signals are sent out.

In all three cases, risk management is a huge part of TTA’s philosophy—as well it should be. Without risk management, there is no long-term success in the stock market, and that applies to options trading in a much more pronounced way.

The alerts contain either an exact entry or exit point, in addition to position sizes. General risk-management rules also apply—as the service recommends not using more than 1% to 2% of your account value on any trade. 

Once the first take-profit level is reached, a sell alert is sent out—and it usually sells half of that position. This allows traders to lock in profits, while still leaving room for additional gains should conditions be favorable.

One thing that sets TTA’s risk management apart is that these aren’t “set it and forget it” data points—open positions are constantly monitored by the team, and adjustments are made as necessary.

The overall philosophy is focused on consistent gains and using risk management to avoid irrational, emotional trading, which is very much in line with the best practices that trading psychology recommends.

Features and Benefits 💯

Now, let’s take the time out to recapitulate the main selling points of The Trading Analyst as we see them, and how they offer value to options traders.

Real-time Alerts ⏰

Accurate, timely-delivered alerts accomplish two things for options traders—one, they allow you to increase your returns by enlisting professional help, and two, they serve as a learning experience. 

Although TTA won’t share the full details of its trading methodology with users, it’s still possible to “watch and learn”, and trying to find the common threads in proposed trades can point you in the right direction of developing a feel for trading.

The alerts are clear, easy to follow, and are sent out frequently, allowing traders to adapt their usage to their personal styles—where busy professionals can use them to make a couple of trades a month, active traders can easily use the service to place dozens in the same timeframe. 

The clarity of alerts is crucial, as even less time-intensive strategies such as swing trading require a lot of analysis, using metrics and factors that can seem arcane at times—TTA does a great job of cutting through the ambient noise and delivering highly structured yet simple-to-follow instructions.

Market Analysis 📈

Staying abreast of the latest developments in the market is non-negotiable if you want to succeed. The daily pre-trading reports don’t go particularly in-depth but still provide a handy way to get a quick overview of how the market has been faring.

The weekly reports are more expansive, but neither go into granular depth—the goal is to keep traders informed about the most important goings-on in the market, not provide pages of analysis—that’s all done in-house and behind the scenes.

While some traders might find this lacking, the reports serve a clearly defined purpose—and they do that quite well. In particular, an overview of how various large indices are faring is crucial for options traders.

Competitive Pricing 💲

With three pricing tiers, TTA can accommodate distinct levels of commitment. While the shorter subscriptions do end up being significantly more expensive, the larger one-time expense isn’t that bad for traders looking to give the service a test run.

While we’re cognizant of the fact that, like most options trading alert services, TTA does require a hefty investment on the part of investors, the price is still competitive—even when looking at the less cost-effective shorter subscriptions.

To quickly recap—the three billing options are $147 per month, $357 per quarter, and $787 per year. That amounts to $147 (shocking) a month, $119 a month, and $66 a month, respectively—and although the annual plan is by far the most cost-effective, the service remains competitive in terms of pricing even with the other two tiers.

Variety of Trading Styles 📃

Last but certainly not least, with the recent addition of two alert systems on top of the original swing trading alerts, TTA now caters to a pretty wide variety of trading strategies. This type of versatility is rare—most options trading alert services prefer to choose one strategy and focus all their efforts on executing it well.

While the majority of TTA’s thus-far impressive record comes from swing trading, scalpers, day traders, and momentum traders can now also find value in the service—and with the aforementioned previous results, there’s good reason to be hopeful that the two new alert systems will perform at a similar level of quality.

Customer Service 🦺

The Trading Analyst offers 24/7 customer support. Customers who want to reach out to the service have two avenues—a support email at support@thetradinganalyst.com or by using the live chat feature on the platform’s website.

In both cases, customer support is quick to answer, and the service is prompt, helpful, and professional.

Educational Resources 💡

Educational resources are one of the priorities of any options trading alert service worth its salt. Most traders have zero formal training—so even if they have a couple of years of experience under their belt, there are still knowledge gaps that need to be filled.

The Trading Analyst adopts a three-pronged approach to educational materials—by utilizing articles, courses, and ebooks.

In terms of articles, the service’s in-house team produces a wide variety of written content, from simple educational pieces covering basics like common options trading mistakes and the different types of options orders, all the way to advanced guides such as how to implement strategies like iron butterflies.

On to courses—as we’ve mentioned before, TTA has two main trading courses, aimed at beginner and intermediate traders, respectively. 

The beginner course starts with the very fundamentals, such as the differences between call and put options, open interest, and concepts such as in-the-money, at-the-money, and out-the-money, before moving on to the basics of risk management and 6 strategies for beginners.

The advanced course begins with an overview of more advanced analytic concepts, such as implied volatility and options Greeks. 

It also includes a primer on 5 advanced options trading strategies (diagonal spreads, calendar spreads, butterfly spreads, the iron condor, and box spreads), as well as an explanation of advanced trading concepts such as earnings plays, arbitrage, and volatility trading. 

To cap things off, the advanced courses finish with a section on portfolio management and diversifying your options trading across different sectors.

As far as e-books go, TTA currently only has one. It’s a very useful, straight-to-the-point guide to stock chart patterns, and we consider it a valuable resource—but in this area, the service will have to add some variety in order to compete with other alert services. Still, we’re eager to see what they come up with since the quality of the educational material thus far is excellent.

User Experience 🪁

In terms of user experience, The Trading Analyst merits high marks. The real-time alerts are consistently delivered and timely, and succinct enough to strike a good balance between delivering enough information and being actionable without too much further analysis required.

The alerts are simple to follow—with exact entry points, exit points, and stop loss levels always provided. This holds true no matter what method of delivery we’re talking about—email, SMS, or Telegram messages.

The website and sign-up process are responsive and well-optimized, and the process of opening an account is simple and doesn’t take too much time. The service is also available worldwide and boasts clients from every corner of the globe.

Performance Analysis 📊

Now, it’s time to look at concrete data.

In the period since The Trading Analyst started operating its swing trading system, back in July 2018, through July 2023, there have been 337 winning trades from alerts sent out—and 302 losing trades. That’s a win rate of 52.7%—and while that might seem like “barely breaking even”, one metric never paints the full picture.

We also have to take into account the profit factor—in plain and simple language, how the winning trades stack up to the losing trades. The average winning trade led to a gain of $4,343.02—on the other hand, the average losing trade led to a loss of -$2,603.29. That’s a profit factor of 1.66, which is quite good.

The Trading Analyst recommends starting with an account size of at least $5,000 in order to see the full benefits of their system. To use a hypothetical example that combines all of these data points into something more relatable, an account with a starting equity of $100,000 in July of 2018 would have grown to $771,011.67 by July of 2023 by following TTA’s swing trading system.

The trading system seems to be working—in the timeframe that we’ve been looking at, the returns netted from approaching options trading this way far outpace the total returns of the S&P 500. While the S&P 500 TR sits at around a 106% annual average, The Trading Analyst’s average is a much higher 474%.

Advantages ✅

Timeliness, efficiency, and risk management are the stars of the show here—this is an options alert service that is easy to use, has a reliable track record, and focuses on securing consistent gains, rather than chasing unreasonable big wins. Each trade targets gains ranging from 10% to 20%.

By providing timely alerts, as well as regular market analysis and updates, TTA makes it easy for options traders to stay on top of their game. In tandem with this, the handy portfolio tracker feature gives a clear overview of your performance.

The second most pronounced advantage is versatility—when TTA started out, it catered exclusively to swing traders. While swing trading is a nice, middle-of-the-road approach that is easy to adapt to, the addition of the momentum trading and intraday trading systems go a long way in making the service appealing to a wider audience of traders, as does the addition of a stock pick here and there.

The Trading Analyst also supports 3 distinct billing plans, and although the yearly plan is by far the most cost-effective, it’s still nice to have the ability to try the service out for a shorter period before committing for an entire year.

The educational resources at your disposal are also a big help— TTA has a large library of well-produced educational material that covers everything from the basics all the way to advanced strategies.

Disadvantages ❎

Although we’ve already discussed the price, there’s no going around the fact that dropping $747 at once is a steep price for many. While the service is well worth the money, professional options trading alerts in general are expensive—so TTA might be out of reach for some beginner traders.

One area where TTA does not stand out is research tools. While the service undoubtedly uses an advanced methodology, it offers very little when it comes to “DIY” tools. While the watchlist feature is nice, several competitors offer access to features such as screeners, unusual options activity monitoring, and other advanced research tools. While we don’t consider this a major drawback, it might be off putting to traders who are more used to doing the heavy lifting themselves.

On a similar note, while the weekly market reports and daily pre-trading reports are useful, they don’t particularly go in-depth. We’re not knocking them—they’re incredibly useful and succinct, and made in a way that gives you a quick overview of the market’s major events and factors at a glance—but they are not thorough, laser-focused, in-depth explorations that many traders expect from market analysis.

Apart from these facts, The Trading Analyst has all the “drawbacks” that any options trading alert service does. But the variety of alert systems, the track record, the educational material, and the 24/7 customer support helps The Trading Analyst to stand out among it’s competition.

Conclusion 🏁

The Trading Analyst is a strong competitor in the field of professional options alert services. With a wide variety of trading styles supported and a solid level of alert frequency, the service offers plenty of features that will interest a wide audience of traders.

In the five years that TTA has been in operation, it has managed to achieve impressive results, all the while maintaining a competitive asking price. While the service won’t be a good fit for everyone (particularly DIY traders in need of advanced analytic tools), TTA certainly merits a closer look from the majority of options traders looking to up their game.