Author · Trade Ideas leadership Updated

Daniel Mirkin, CEO and Co‑Founder of Trade Ideas

Named to the Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest-growing private companies six years in a row (2017–2022).

Daniel Mirkin, CEO and co-founder of Trade Ideas

Daniel Mirkin is the CEO and co-founder of Trade Ideas. He began trading as a University of Texas student, was one of the original SOES traders in the mid-1990s, and co-founded Trade Ideas with CTO Philip Smolen in 2002. For more than two decades, Trade Ideas has made real-time stock scanning and AI signal software for active investors.

Background

From SOES trader to founder

Dan was born in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, in 1970. He immigrated to the United States in 1978.

He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1994 with a bachelor's degree in accounting. He began trading while he was still a student.

In the mid-1990s, he was trading full time from home in Austin as one of the original SOES traders, often called "SOES bandits," during what many call the "Wild West" of trading. In those years, retail traders could compete directly with market makers. He has over three decades of trading experience.

A 1996 Austin Business Journal article described the internet venture he was already planning. Its goal was to "de-institutionalize the stock market" and give everyday investors easy access.

The idea

Why he built Trade Ideas

In the early days, traders had a hard time seeing a stock start to move in real time. Quotes often meant refreshing a page by hand.

Dan wanted what he called a "surf report" for momentum. If a stock started to move, he wanted to know right away. He also wanted to know whether the move mattered.

No tool did that at the time. So the team built the whole technology stack from scratch, around streaming market data. Source: Dan Mirkin and the Making of Trade Ideas (2026 interview).

Independence

Innovation Through Independence

Dan co-founded Trade Ideas in 2002 with Philip Smolen, the company's CTO. The two have known each other since high school.

Trade Ideas is self-funded and has never taken venture capital, so the company can spend its time on the software rather than on outside investors. In the 2026 interview, Dan said the business started with about $100,000 of its own capital. More than two decades later, it is still independent.

Trade Ideas is still made in the USA by US developers. Today the team is about 25 people.

Traders in over 65 countries use Trade Ideas. The company was named to the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies six years in a row (2017–2022).

The software is built to stay current as the market changes. The Silicon Review put Dan on the cover of its 2021 issue naming Trade Ideas one of the 50 Most Trustworthy Companies of the Year.

"Trading in the SOES days was like seeing the market's DNA. It showed me what's possible when the playing field is fair, and I've built Trade Ideas to give today's traders that same edge."

Daniel Mirkin
In print The Silicon Review, 2021: 50 Most Trustworthy Companies of the Year
Open copy of The Silicon Review, 2021. Dan Mirkin is on the cover, next to the line At Trade Ideas, we stand for fair market access and real supply and demand.
In his words

How he thinks about trading

Speed and technology matter. Dan says his SOES years taught him that early.

"Markets can be beaten, but only with the right tools and the right approach. Speed and technology matter."

Dan Mirkin, 2026 interview

Avoid paralysis by analysis. He says there is no perfect indicator. Traders have to develop feel.

"I often compare trading to putting in golf. You can understand the mechanics, but sinking putts still requires intuition and trust."

Dan Mirkin, 2026 interview

Practice without risking capital. He sees simulated trading as the way to build that intuition.

"Traders can practice ideas repeatedly in real market conditions without risking real capital."

Dan Mirkin, 2026 interview

Built for a different experience. He uses a car analogy for the design.

"There's nothing wrong with a Toyota. It's reliable and gets the job done. But a Porsche is built for a very different experience. Trade Ideas is a Porsche for active traders."

Dan Mirkin, 2026 interview

He describes Trade Ideas as built "by traders, for traders."

Today

What he leads today

Dan leads the company that builds these Trade Ideas products:

  • Streaming Alerts. The Trade Ideas stock scanner reports market events as they happen.
  • Holly AI. Holly is the Trade Ideas AI. Holly AI Signals give entry and exit points in real time on TI Premium (listed as The Apex on our pricing page).
  • OddsMaker. It backtests the same alert and filter setup you trade.
  • The Trade Ideas Trading Room. A free live room where traders use Trade Ideas together.
Bylines

Articles by Daniel Mirkin

Dan has the byline on 39 Trade Ideas roundups, comparisons and alternatives pages.

Comparisons

Press

In the press

Austin Business Journal, March 1996: 'Trader makes quarter-million without ever putting on a tie', article on Dan Mirkin as a home trader
Austin Business Journal, March 22-28, 1996: Dan Mirkin, a recent University of Texas graduate, trading full time from home and already planning an internet service to give everyday investors direct market access. Headline: "Trader makes quarter-million without ever putting on a tie," by Neil Orman. Subhead: "Home trading more than a hobby for UT grad." Austin Business Journal, March 1996: 'Trader makes quarter-million without ever putting on a tie', article on Dan Mirkin as a home traderRead the full article (scan)

What the article covers

A 25-year-old University of Texas at Austin accounting graduate (1994) trading full time from home in Austin. It describes SOES, the Nasdaq system that let individual investors bypass institutional firms. It also covers the internet service he planned, to "de-institutionalize the stock market" for everyday investors.

The San Diego Union-Tribune, April 14, 1998, framed clipping of "Got To Be Quick" by James B. Kelleher, with intraday charts and a photo of Dan Mirkin at a bank of trading screens
The San Diego Union-Tribune, April 14, 1998 (page C1): Dan Mirkin, then a 27-year-old San Diego day trader, trading through the Oct. 27, 1997 crash, when the Dow fell 554 points. Headline: "Got To Be Quick: Day traders sometimes bet it all in minutes," by James B. Kelleher, Assistant Business Editor. Photo by Don Kohlbauer/Union-Tribune. Source: Archive listing (subscription).

What the article covers

He spent that morning shorting a handful of shares and made money on the day. He was short Microsoft when trading stopped for half an hour: "those 30 minutes were tough." The photo caption quotes him: "When you come in here, you have to be prepared to take advantage of wherever the market's going." He also told the paper, "People in the day-trading industry pray for days like October 27."

“What we try to teach people is that in day trading, stocks aren't stocks. They are four-letter symbols for making money.”

Dan Mirkin, quoted in the Arizona Law Review, 1998
Arizona Law Review, Vol. 40 (1998): a law review article on individual investors and securities law quotes Dan Mirkin on day trading. Michael H. Dessent, "Joe Six-Pack, United States v. O'Hagan, and Private Securities Litigation Reform: A Line Must Be Drawn," 40 Ariz. L. Rev. 1137, 1141 & n.13 (1998). Source: California Western School of Law Scholarly Commons (PDF).

What the article covers

Footnote 13 attributes the quote to Dan Mirkin. Footnote 12 cites the April 14, 1998 Union-Tribune article "Got To Be Quick" shown above.

Open copy of The Silicon Review, 2021. Dan Mirkin is on the cover, next to the line At Trade Ideas, we stand for fair market access and real supply and demand.
The Silicon Review, 2021: Trade Ideas named one of the 50 Most Trustworthy Companies of the Year. Cover headline: "At Trade Ideas, we stand for fair market access and real supply and demand." Source: The Silicon Review. The Silicon Review 2021 cover scan, showing Trade Ideas CEO Dan Mirkin.See the cover scan

What the article covers

Trade Ideas was on the cover of The Silicon Review's 2021 issue of the 50 Most Trustworthy Companies of the Year. The cover headline is about fair market access and real supply and demand.

Historical press coverage. Past results, including backtests, don't guarantee future results.

More

More about Dan and Trade Ideas