Narrowing the Market With Stock Screeners:
With close to 20,000 tickers available to trade on US stock exchanges each-and-every day, it’s critical that traders have a platform they can use to narrow their focus. Even following 100 stocks at a time can be overwhelming. A more realistic number is in the 5-10 range.
Screeners can help you narrow down high-potential opportunities based on various fundamental and technical criteria, such as price, sector, market cap, short float, earnings per share, insider ownership, volatility, and even specific chart patterns. From there, watch lists can be built and trade plans can be created. My top 2 favorite stock screening platforms are StocksToTrade and Finviz Elite.
StocksToTrade:
StocksToTrade is a revolutionary screening platform that aims to provide the absolute best capabilities for every type of investor, but is most valuable for active day and swing traders. The idea for the StocksToTrade platform was generated by millionaire penny stock trader, Timothy Sykes, in an attempt to create a robust screening tool that he wishes he had when he first started trading over a decade ago. Some of the best features of StocksToTrade include a filterable Twitter feed, paper trading capabilities, and a proprietary predictive algorithm called Oracle. In Spring 2017, StocksToTrade is set to launch full brokerage interaction, making it a legitimate one-stop-shop for all possible trading needs. [Read StocksToTrade Review]
Finviz Elite:
Finviz Elite is a dynamic stock trading platform that seeks to provide both traders and investors with superior financial analysis. You can’t actually execute trades within the platform, but you can do pretty much anything else: scan for chart setups based on specific criteria, track your portfolio, view sector heat maps, follow news, run backtests, set up email alerts, and more. The platform lacks information on OTCBB stocks completely, but what’s most appealing, however, is that Finviz offers two free options for beginners looking to test it out. Stock data will be slightly delayed and a handful of capabilities will be limited, but most of the other features are still provided at no cost. For real-time data, you have to be a Finviz Elite subscriber. [Read Finviz Elite Review]
Check Out Some of My Other Favorite Trading Tools.
Written by Matt Thomas (@MattThomasTP)
Related Pages:
- What is StocksToTrade.com? The Most Innovative Stock Trading Platform
- What is Finviz Elite? Powerful Real-Time Charting Software
- What is Profit.ly – Legitimate Social Platform for Traders or a Scam?
- Say Goodbye to Trading Commissions and Hello to the Future of Trading
- What is the Candlestick Course? Master Technical Analysis With Steve Nison
I have heard this rule of thumb before that focusing on a few good tickers over a course of time so that you can know how those stocks behave, is a good way to go and these platforms must broaden that number to new and unseen opportunities. Thanks for the tools needed. I will reference this article in the future as a hopeful trader.
Hey Matt,
I really like how detailed and helpful your site is. I’m only 20 years old but the stock market and stock trading are definitely beginning to peak my interest.
I don’t know that much about it yet as far as which stocks have the best ROI or which stocks are the best to hold onto for a long time but I know this info definitely points me in the right direction.
Hi Matt,
Do either of these platforms recommend buy, sell or hold on stocks? I you heard of VectorVest? I have a subscription with them and they take a lot of guess work out of selecting stocks. Let me know what you think of VectorVest.
Hi Edgar – neither platform (StocksToTrade or Finviz) will tell you flat-out to buy, sell, or hold any particular security, but they do provide you with a robust set of tools to more efficiently make those decisions on your own. StocksToTrade even provides a proprietary algorithm that generates a list of 5-10 stocks with the most momentum each trading day, both to the upside and/or downside.
I’ve heard VectorVest mentioned in conversation before, but never took the opportunity to check it out. In fact, I just pulled two free stock analysis reports from them via their homepage and am looking deeper into what they provide now. Certainly an interesting service for traders/investors. Seems like it’s geared more toward long-term investors though.
I’d love to hear more about your experiences with VectorVest if you have the time – like what package you’ve subscribed to, how exactly it has helped you reduce time researching sound investments, increased your portfolio value, etc. This program could potentially be the subject of a future review here at Elite Swing Trading.com. Cheers!
Hey Matt, great reviews of the two stock screening softwares. I am a trader myself so I have heard of StocksToTrade form Timothy Sykes before. But never heaard anything from the other one. But definitely gonna check them both out. I love your content recently, so keep up the great work!
Thank you, Los – Happy to help! If you have any questions regarding these two stock screening platforms, certainly let me know. I have firsthand experience with both. Cheers!
Hi,
I thinks the list of trading platforms reviewed are worth looking into as I have heard quite a few things about them. My interest is in narrowing the market with stock screeners and my questions is does this happen is real time?
If yes, what is the time laps between when the data happening and the feed hits the screen?
Sorry I am doing some research on this hence I thought I should ask.
Cheers
Hi Richard. StocksToTrade and Finviz Elite are both real-time stock screeners – virtually no time lapse at all between the data happening and it hitting your computer screen.
The major difference between the two is that StocksToTrade provides data on OTC markets – Finviz does not. Also, there are a couple free subscription options with Finviz – with StocksToTrade, you have to be a paying subscriber in order to receive any benefits. Finviz is browser-based and StocksToTrade is software-based. StocksToTrade offers a handful of unique tools not provided by any other trading platform as well, such as a proprietary stock-predicating algorithm and an imbedded real-time Twitter feed.
You can discover many of the similarities and differences within the reviews linked above, as well as by browsing the websites themselves: Finviz.com & StocksToTrade.com.
Does one of those platforms work better for somebody who is very new to stock trading. A couple of my friends have begun to talk about stocks and I know nothing about it at all. I would need something that makes it very easy to understand what I am doing and teaches me along the way. Would you recommend one of those over the other for somebody like myself?
Hey Brad. As far as teaching goes, StocksToTradePro offers training by Tim Bohen (on both the platform itself and stock trading in general), but that comes at an extra cost to the StocksToTrade software itself. Finviz offers free (yet limited) options, but you would essentially have to teach yourself various trading strategies.
Two of my favorite stock trading educational services are Jason Bond Picks and BioTech Breakouts, but feel free to check out all of these Free Rresources as well. It all depends on what sort of strategy you want to pursue, so just do your research and find a service that fits your personal preferences.