What is Sidekick?
Sidekick is TrendSpider's always-on AI co-pilot, layered on top of any plan as an add-on. Unlike the AI Strategy Lab (which builds and backtests strategies), Sidekick is conversational — you ask it questions about charts, alerts, and setups in real time, and it responds in context.
What Sidekick does well
1. Setup explanation in plain English
Highlight any chart pattern and ask "what is this and is it tradable?" Sidekick replies with: pattern name, historical reliability, suggested entry/stop/target rules, and similar setups it's seeing in your watchlist.
This sounds gimmicky until you actually use it for two weeks — at which point it replaces 3-4 separate tabs you'd otherwise have open (chart pattern reference, watchlist screener, news feed).
2. Alert configuration without learning TS Script
Type "alert me when SPY closes above the 50-day SMA with volume above the 30-day average and RSI not overbought." Sidekick builds the multi-condition alert for you. No manual condition stacking.
For non-coders, this is genuinely useful. It also exposes you to the alert grammar you can later edit manually.
3. Trade journal queries
If you've connected a broker, you can ask Sidekick "how have my breakout trades performed in the last 90 days?" and it'll pull execution data, group by setup type, and surface the win rate / avg R-multiple / drawdown for that subset of trades. That's a tier of analytics no retail trade journal app currently does well.
4. Multi-asset cross-references
"What was the S&P 500 doing the last three times AAPL gapped down 5%+ pre-market?" Sidekick handles cross-asset historical lookups in seconds. Manual research equivalent: 30+ minutes.
What Sidekick doesn't do well
1. It hallucinates on prices and dates occasionally
Like any LLM, Sidekick will sometimes confidently state a wrong price level or date. Always verify on the actual chart before acting. We've caught maybe 1 in 30 responses with a factual error.
2. It can't predict markets (and shouldn't try)
Sidekick won't tell you "buy SPY tomorrow." When pushed for predictions, it appropriately deflects to historical analogs and probabilistic framings. This is a feature, not a bug — but if you wanted an AI fortune teller, you'll be disappointed.
3. Not a replacement for the Strategy Lab
For systematic backtesting, you still want the dedicated AI Strategy Lab. Sidekick is conversational; the Lab is structured. They complement each other rather than overlap.
4. Pricing isn't trivial
Sidekick is sold as an add-on, not bundled — typical pricing is in the $20-40/mo range on top of your plan. For a casual user this is hard to justify; for an active trader who'd save 5+ hours per week of manual analysis, it pays for itself.
Who should buy Sidekick
- Yes: Active swing/day traders who already pay for Elite or Advanced and would use AI 5+ times per session
- Yes: Discretionary traders who want a second-opinion layer
- Maybe: Casual swing traders — try the free trial, decide if you'd reach for it daily
- No: Long-term investors, infrequent traders, or anyone who finds the base TrendSpider plan more than they need
Sidekick + SET25 math
Combine Elite with SET25 ($40.50/mo) + Sidekick ($30/mo typical) = $70.50/mo total. That's roughly equivalent to TradingView Premium without any AI tooling. If you'd actually use the AI co-pilot, this combo is meaningfully cheaper than buying the same capability across separate tools.
The verdict
Sidekick is the most genuinely useful AI feature in retail trading we've tested in 2026. It's not magic, but it materially compresses the time between "see the chart" and "build the trade." If you're already on Elite or Advanced and trade actively, the add-on is worth a 30-day trial. If you'd use it weekly rather than daily, skip it.
Start the 7-day TrendSpider free trial — you can layer Sidekick on at upgrade and still apply SET25 to the base plan.