You may be asking yourself “how to find good stocks to trade?” One such popular way is by using stock screeners which can save you loads of time by quickly sifting and sorting through 1,000’s of stocks based on your screening criteria. After doing a stock screen, you are usually left with a shorten list of stocks matching your trading objectives. From this list of stocks, you can then carefully evaluate each one before approving any one of the them to possibly be traded.
Upon opening an account with an online broker, you should get a screener that can screen for stocks (and exchange-traded funds and options as well) built right into your trading platform to make your trading life much more easier.
(see also our best recommended third party screeners that can do even more than the default screeners from online brokers).
The Power Of Stock Screeners
Stock screeners can find good stocks for you to trade based on all kinds criteria such as market outlook (bullish or bearish) and technical analysis or fundamental analysis (or a combination of). You can screen for all kinds of things like:
- Indicators
- Oscillators
- Sectors
- Chart Patterns
- Candlesticks
- Stochastics
- Relative Strength Index (RSI)
- Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD)
- 52 Week Highs and Lows
- Percent Changes in Price (over different time periods)
- Volume of Shares Traded
- Revenue Growth
- Earnings Per Share (EPS)
- Price to Earnings Ratio (P/E ratio)
- Institutional Ownership
- And So Much More!
You can even create your own custom made stock screens using your own unique combination of screening criteria and even save them on your trading platform for future use.
Exchange-Traded Funds (ETF’s) Screeners
When screening for exchange-traded funds (etf’s) the screening criteria can be somewhat different than it is for screening for stocks. Some of the screening criteria that you can do for ETFs include:
- Fund Category (Large Caps, Mid Caps, Small Caps, Commodities, Emerging Markets, Biotech, and Technology, etc.)
- Countries (Japan, Germany, and Brazil, etc.)
- Sector (Industrial Goods, Health Care, Financials, Consumer Goods, and Basic Materials, etc.)
- Issuer (Fidelity, iShares, Vanguard, and Goldman Sachs, etc.)
- Total Return Performance Over a Given Period of Time
Option Strategy Screeners
You can use an option strategy screener to find an option strategy that can fit your trading objectives. For instance, if you have a bullish outlook on the financial markets, you could screen for a bullish strategy such as a bull call spread or a bull put spread. If your market outlook is bearish, you could screen for a bearish strategy such as a bearish diagonal spread or bear put spread. You could even screen for sideways trading markets such as for iron condors and butterfly spreads.
In addition, you can also screen for such things as level of implied volatility, options that are in-the-money, at-the-money, or out-of the-money, or even shorter-term to longer-term options having different expiration dates, plus a whole lot more.
Third Party Screeners
Third party screeners offer both free versions and paid versions where paid versions can do more.
If you are interested in screening for more advanced criteria or price theories, you can use third party screeners that are more advanced in their capabilities which can screen for such things as:
- Elliot Wave Theory
- Fibonacci Retracements
- Gann Fan
- William O’Neil’s – “CANSLIM” Formula
- And Other Advanced Price Theories
Advanced screeners can also screen stocks (and other financial instruments) in real-time instead of using time delayed or end-of-day price data. Real-time screening would be more appropriate for day trading rather than for longer-term trading styles like swing trading, trend trading or position trading.
(see our best recommended third party screeners).
