RiskPicks vs TradeZella

The short version

Both tools cover the core trading-journal workflow: connect your broker, auto-import your fills, see your performance over time, and add notes to each trade. The differences come down to what surrounds that core.

• Pick RiskPicks if you want AI research that is handed live prices, technical indicators, congressional trade disclosures, SEC insider filings, and Polymarket prediction-market odds before it answers, plus a daily AI coach that reads your real trade history. The position sizer and quote tools are free without an account.
• Pick TradeZella if your highest priority is post-trade replay, an established mobile app, and a polished analytics suite with many pre-built reports. It is one of the most popular journals among day traders for good reason.
• Use both if you can. A free RiskPicks calculator alongside whatever journal you already trust costs nothing extra.

Side-by-side feature matrix

One disclaimer: TradeZella's pricing and feature set change. Treat the right column as a high-level snapshot, then verify on their site before deciding.

Where RiskPicks is genuinely different

AI is a first-class part of the trading workflow, not a bolt-on

Generic AI tools (ChatGPT, Gemini) do not have your account, your broker fills, or your private context. Most journal apps that mention AI either link out to ChatGPT or sprinkle AI summaries on top of static reports. RiskPicks does the opposite: when you look up a ticker, the AI receives the live price, real technicals (ATR, RSI, VWAP, pivots), recent congressional trades in that name, recent insider transactions, and any sector-relevant Polymarket odds before it answers. The AI coach reads your actual fills every day and surfaces patterns you would otherwise miss (entries too early, exits too late, time-of-day weakness).

The position sizer is free and front-and-center

Most journals treat the calculator as a side feature behind a paywall. We built RiskPicks around it: enter your bankroll, risk percent, entry, and stop, and the calculator returns exact share count, dollar risk, and risk-reward ratio in real time. Stocks, options (calls and puts), scale-in plans, and reward multipliers all supported. No account, no time limit.

Public-data feeds you usually pay another tool for

Congressional trade disclosures (Senate and House), SEC Form 4 insider transactions, and Polymarket prediction-market odds are fetched on a schedule, displayed on dedicated pages, and made available to the AI on every research lookup. These are usually separate subscriptions on other platforms.

Where TradeZella is the better choice

Trade replay

If your improvement loop depends on watching the chart play back tick by tick alongside your fills, TradeZella's replay is well established and we do not have an equivalent today.

Mobile-first journaling

If you log most of your trades from your phone and want a polished native app, TradeZella has one and we do not. Our site is mobile-responsive but it is still a web app.

Heavy report customization

TradeZella ships with a long list of pre-built reports and report builders. If you want to slice your trades by a dozen different dimensions out of the box, that breadth is real. RiskPicks' dashboard is opinionated: equity curve, drawdown, P&L distribution, win-rate splits, profit factor, expectancy, discipline score, and streak tracking, with date filtering and export.

Honest limits of RiskPicks

We do not pretend the tool is everything. The current gaps:

• No native mobile app. Responsive web only.
• No backtesting or strategy simulation. Forward-only journaling.
• No trade replay video / chart-with-fills playback.
• AI is an input, not a price predictor. We never claim AI can predict markets, and we do not generate buy or sell signals.
• Read-only broker connections via SnapTrade. RiskPicks cannot place trades on your behalf, by design.

Pricing at a glance

Free tier: position size calculator, real-time quotes, technical indicators (RSI, ATR, VWAP, relative volume, gap %, pivot points), market movers, daily market briefing. No account required.

• Trader — $19.99/mo ($249/yr): trade journal, brokerage sync, performance dashboard, daily AI trade coach.
• Trader + AI — $44.99/mo ($399/yr): everything in Trader plus AI stock research with three depths, 50 tokens per day.
• Trader + AI Pro — $89.99/mo ($699/yr): 150 tokens per day for heavier research usage.

Every paid plan includes a 5-day free trial with full access. Cancel anytime in one click. No credit card required to start the trial.

Frequently asked

Can I import my historical TradeZella trades into RiskPicks?

Not directly today. The fastest path is to connect your broker via SnapTrade. RiskPicks pulls historical fills directly from the brokerage and runs FIFO matching on them, which is the cleanest source of truth and avoids any field-mapping issues.

Is the AI optional?

Yes. The journal, dashboard, and brokerage sync work fully without ever using AI research. The AI coach is included with the Trader plan but generates no output unless you have trades to review.

Which AI models does RiskPicks use?

We route across Claude (Anthropic), Perplexity, Gemini (Google), and Grok (xAI) depending on the job. Deep Research runs on Perplexity. If a backend is down, we waterfall to the next so research does not break. If we have to fall back to a lighter model than you asked for, you are billed for the depth that was actually delivered, not the one you requested.