A must-read for all investors now available! Have you ever wondered what is the best stock screener available right now? Or wanted to find the best free stock screener? Here is the answer! 50 different stock screeners put through the endurance test. Only a few of them are really good! Find out which is the best online stock screener and the best stock scanner!
What are the advantages of a stock screener app as opposed to an online stock screener? Which one is the best real time stock screener as opposed to those with delayed data? Get a comprehensive overview of the best stock screening sites, recommended free stock screening tools and stock research tools.
A selection of the best stock screening tools and the best stock scanners for you
Opening a broker account is done quickly. The first funds have been deposited – now all is ready for starting investing and/or day trading. But which stocks to buy and sell, and when? Stock screeners, stock scanners and charting tools facilitate making the best possible investment decision.
While the setup of these three different types of visualization tools varies slightly, they have one main purpose, namely simplifying trade decisions. Which one to use, and where, depends on the individual stock screening strategies.
But first let’s take a closer look at the differences between stock screeners, stock scanners and charting tools.
Stock Screeners: Stock Screeners are very common tools, and often free. Stock Screeners provide investors with the opportunity to browse capital markets evaluated by fundamental criterias like Market Cap, EPS, Industries, Dividends or even technical criteria. So this is a more or less static query lacking a real-time component. Stock screeners are widely used for trading decisions based on end-of-day data.
Stock Scanners: The main difference from the stock screener is that a stock scanner works like a radar. Based on the previously defined criteria, the tool scans the capital markets in real time for matches. A search algorithm might be set for „Show me all the stocks that are currently trading above $ 100, more than 100tsd today, up 5%, currently down 2% below the high and at the same time with a bullish candlestick within the 15 minute chart.“ These sometimes highly complex queries are processed in real time, and the stocks displayed in real time in a list are only those that meets the previously defined criteria. The backend of a stock scanner consist of not only a very extensive database of historical data, but also intelligent queries that compare the real-time data of thousands of assets with the selected criteria. Stock scanners are frequently used by day traders for trading on small time frames.
Charting Tools: Charting tools are stock market tools with origins mainly in technical analysis. In the area of technical analysis, the focus is on making trade decisions based on visually identifiable parameters, like displaying four stocks on a monitor simultaneously and making decisions based on the visualized movements of the stock price. Alternatively, a single share is often displayed in multiple time frames, as in a daily chart, again in the 60 minute chart, in the 15 minute chart and one for the final trading decision for market timing in the 1 minute chart. The focus of a charting tool, as the name implies, is clearly in the visualization.
However, it‘s rare to find a pure example for any of the three categories, whether stock screener, stock scanner or charting tool. In most cases one finds a combination of several functions that are partly free and partly paid.
I spent more than a month researching every stock screener, stock scanner and every charting tool I could lay my hands on. Despite more than 20 years of experience in financial markets so far I had not come across all of these tools. It’s seems almost unbelievable – I came across more than 50 tools of this kind altogether!
And here is the result: I‘ll introduce you in detail to the stock screeners, stock scanners and charting tools that reached a rating of at least 3/5 stars.
Best Screeners
1. Trade Ideas: Best for Day Traders
Trade Ideas Pro is the best stock scanner. It, in fact, is the best stock screener for day trading and short term investors. Trade Ideas can be used as downloadable windows version or used browser based on any device.
My preferred stock screener and scanner offers many easy to handle features and functionalities that make it possible for traders to screen and scan the market, to identify the best trading setups and to develop the best trading strategies. The tool is drag & drop based with input parameters for more than 500 filters and alerts.
Trade Ideas is very transparent about their company philosophy, the people running the company and about their products and services. Trade Ideas Pro is the perfect starting point for beginners, intermediates, pro traders and even institutions.
Trade Ideas is the top screener for day traders. Its AI powered algorithms scan markets in real time and find profitable trading opportunities on U.S. and Canadian exchanges. You’ll get long and short signals, customizable screeners and even automated trading.
Features:
- 500+ screening variables
- Trade alerts
- Backtesting
- Real time data
- Broker integration
Pricing starts at $127/month or $1,068/year and goes up for more advanced features.
Click here to sign up to Trade Ideas and get 15% Off with the promo code “STOCKAPP15“.
More Details: Trade Ideas Review
2. TradingView: Best for Mobile
TradingView has the best mobile experience for screening on the go. Its highly rated apps for iOS and Android have fast and accurate data and a simple interface. You can analyze stocks, apply indicators and watch global markets from your smartphone or tablet.
The TradingView moderators are community members who earned enough confidence to act as volunteers answering users’ questions and offering useful advice. And then there are free, helpful services everyone may use, like free access to simulated trading sessions with virtual money to improve one’s skills without any risk.
Remember when I explained the difference between a stock screener, stock scanner and charing tool in the introduction? In my opinion TradingViews focus is a bit to much on charting. TradingView offers a 30-day free trial for you to find out if a rather technical screener like this one meets your needs before subscribing for real.
Features:
- 500+ screening metrics
- Global market coverage
- Advanced charting
- Community insights
Pricing from free to $59.95/month or $599.40/year with a free trial.
More Details: TradingView Review
3. TrendSpider: Best for Technical Analysis
TrendSpider is the platform for technical analysis. With over 200 indicators and unique charting you’ll have all the tools you need to analyze stocks, futures, options, ETFs and cryptocurrencies. TrendSpider is great for swing trading because of its technical analysis tools.
Highlights:
- Multi-timeframe analysis
- Raindrop charts
- Automated pattern recognition
- Fundamental data
Pricing starts at $107/month or $1,284/year with a free trial.
More Details: TrendSpider Review
4. Finviz: Best for Quick Research
With Finviz, you will find a nice looking stock screener with cool functionalities including a nice tab navigation menu to choose between filter categories like valuation, financial, ownership, performance etc. Within those tabs you can filter thousands of stocks for values like market cap, volume, dividend yield, EPS, and pattern recognition types like wedges. That was a long time ago and in the past it was a really great scanner with lots of unique characteristics. No competitor could offer their functionalities. But nowadays finviz is really annoying. There are too many ads and distracting pop-ups.
One the one hand side Finviz is for free with the basic functionalities. You can access charts and quite a lot of filters. It might work for investors acting on daily basis who know exactly what they are looking for. For a beginner it will just be a frustrating experience. A paid version is also available, including real-time and pre-market data, advances charting, backtesting and correlation between stocks to be visualized. Advanced stock screening functionalities, alerts and notifications make it an interesting package.
Features:
- Customizable stock screeners
- Insider trading
- Technical and fundamental filters
- Stock charts
Free version available, premium features in paid subscriptions.
More Details: Finviz Review
5. Stock Rover: Best for Buy-and-Hold Investors
StockRover presents itself as a tool created by individual investors for individual investors. They offer an investment research and portfolio management platform with targeted and flexible stock screening functions, with the goal of enabling investors of all different levels to make well-informed trading decisions, to be in complete control of their investments – from the very beginning until the end.
The service includes highly advanced and well organized tools for analyzing and detailed financial data that makes it easier to compare investment opportunities. All of StockRover’s tools are permanently updated. Beside the mentioned software service, StockRover offers live webinars, videos and a blog for education, as well as the results of an unbiased stock research.
Instead of a big number of separate spreadsheets, websites, tabs and windows, StockRover created an integrated research platform for investors of all levels to turn them into better and more successful traders. Aside of the main goal the team of StockRover wants users to enjoy experiencing their system. By building up a steadily growing investment community to share this efficient research platform, it offers users access to the same tools and resources.
Features:
- Fair value estimates
- Portfolio rebalancing
- Dividend yield
- Historical stock scoring
Pricing starts at $7.99/month or $79.99/year with a free trial.
More Details: Stock Rover Review
Conclusion on Best Stock Screeners
Stock screeners are important tools that help you make the best possible investment decision. While some stock screeners are available for free, there are other trading software tools you have to pay for. In any case you should know that these tools are no magic pills that help you to choose the perfect stocks. You have to know exactly what kind of information you need to obtain it with the help of a stock screener and to choose the best stock picker tool. The good thing is that you can always use a free real time stock screener to try the functions and familiarize yourself with the handling.
First of all you have to decide what you want to trade (stocks, options, etc.), what trading approach fits you best (day trading, swing trading, long term investing) and most importantly you have to evaluate how much money you can risk without getting in trouble.
The spending for the trading tool of your choice should always be appropriate to your existing budget and your profit objective. There are excellent free online stock screener tools for limited budgets, and also free demo versions to try before coming to a decisions.
More Stock Screeners: