Stock Screeners
“Nice to Have” features

Once you find stock screeners with your personal “must have” features, the benefits associated with the nice to have and advanced features can make a difference. Take into account your personal preferences as well.

Remember, screeners are stock screening tools and you are looking for the best tool for the job.

The nice to have features

The following features may by requirements based on your investing strategies. But whether they are must have or nice to have, they are worth considering:

• Relative comparisons to sector, industry or benchmark – there is a lot of evidence to support the use of industry relative criteria in place of absolute criteria.
• Historical comparisons – sooner or later you will probably want to compare data for the current quarter/year with historical values.
• Saving the screen results in a portfolio – many stock screeners provide access to a portfolio where the results of the screen can be tracked.
• Restricting the number of results – a screen that provides too many results defeats the purpose of screening.  It is possible to sort the results manually but it is nice if the screener provides the functionality.
• Ranking or percentile ranking – ranking, like relative comparisons, eliminates the need for absolute values and allows the screen to function under diverse market conditions.
• Creating a view of data that is independent of the screening criteria – you should consider viewing more than just the data used in the screen.  If you believe other data may be useful for further analysis, now is the time to save it. 
• Sorting the results by any viewable field – if the screener does not allow sorting in the screening process, you may need to sort the results.
• Technical analysis – if your strategies rely on technical indicators as part of the screening process, having this built into the screener eliminates the need to check the results in another screener.

Continue to the advanced features

Return to Stock Screeners