This is to help explain some of the differences between our alerts product and some of the other products on the market like Neovest, Neoticker, etc. Are the alerts like a black box? Yes and no. The technology behind the Trade-Ideas alerts server is similar to a black box. It receives all price data on all relevant stocks in real time. It compares this data to known patterns, which are confirmed by historical data. It reports when there is a pattern match, in real time. The output is far more concise than the input because of all the filtering. A black box will typically make specific recommendations like "buy CSCO" or "short QQQ". Trade-Ideas does not make specific stock recommendations. Instead we point you to interesting market events, so you can examine these and decide for yourself what to do. Using Trade-Ideas is like having a room full of assistants watching the market for you. These people do not have trading authority, but they know what you want to see. Are the alerts like a stock screener? No. Trade-Ideas examines the same data as a stock screener, and there is some overlap in the types of analysis, but the presentation is completely different. Stock screeners typically update on a regular basis, maybe every 15 minutes, maybe more often if you ask. Trade-Ideas is looking at the data on a tick by tick basis. Stock screeners always produce a list of the top stocks, which is ordered by the user's criteria. Trade-Ideas works in a streaming fashion, where the most recent alert is presented on the top of the list, as it happens. Stock screeners always present the same number of symbols, as specified by the user. Trade-Ideas allows you to control the average rate at which you see alerts, but we will present you with more alerts when more interesting things are happening, and fewer alerts when fewer interesting things are happening. Stock screeners are like the six o'clock news, and Trade-Ideas is like a special news bulletin. "Have you ever wondered why there is always exactly the same amount of news every night?"