What Is a Screener?
A stock screener is a search tool with filters. Instead of looking at stocks one by one, you tell it what you want and it shows you every stock that matches.
It's like shopping online. You wouldn't scroll through every item in a store. You'd filter by size, color, and price. A screener does the same for stocks.
Filters You Can Use
The TrustScore is not a filter. Every result shows the stock's TrustScore and grade, and you can sort the results by TrustScore once the screen has run.
Here are the main filters available:
- •Price and Volume: Set a minimum and maximum stock price, and how many shares trade per day.
- •Company Size: Set a minimum market cap to keep to larger companies.
- •Valuation and Income: Set a P/E range, a P/B range, and a dividend yield range.
- •Financial Numbers: Filter by profit margin, return on equity, debt-to-equity, revenue growth, and earnings growth.
- •Trend and Momentum: Require a price above the 50-day or 200-day moving average, a golden cross, an RSI range, a volume surge, or a price near its 52-week high or low.
- •Market: Screen US stocks, or pick another exchange.
Tips for Better Screens
Start simple. Begin with 2-3 filters that match what you're looking for. If you get too many results, add another filter to narrow it down. If you get zero results, remove a filter.
Match your filters to your strategy. Looking for bargains? Try a low P/E and P/B with a high return on equity. Looking for growth? Try high revenue and earnings growth, then sort the results by TrustScore.
Example Screens
Value hunting: The Value chip sets P/E at most 15, P/B at most 2, dividend yield at least 2%, and market cap at least $1 billion. These are established stocks that are cheap on the usual ratios.
Growth stocks: The Growth chip sets revenue growth and earnings growth at least 15% with market cap at least $500 million. Dividend stocks: The Dividend chip sets dividend yield at least 3%, profit margin at least 10%, debt-to-equity at most 1.5, and market cap at least $2 billion.