Best stock screeners: how to choose one
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A stock screener filters thousands of tickers down to the handful that meet rules you set. Done well, it turns "what should I look at today?" into a repeatable routine.
What to look for in a screener
- Filter types. Technical filters (moving averages, relative volume, new highs) and fundamental filters (market cap, earnings growth, valuation ratios). Many traders want both.
- Data timing. Free tiers are often delayed. If you scan intraday, check whether quotes are real-time.
- Alerts and saved scans. Saving a screen and getting notified saves repeated manual work.
- Backtesting or charting. Some tools let you test a rule on past data, which helps you see how often it would have fired.
- Price. Compare what the free version actually includes before paying.
Screeners and research tools compared
Finviz Popular
A browser-based screener with a large library of technical and fundamental filters, plus market maps and quick charts. Free use is available, and a paid tier adds features such as real-time data.
Trade-Ideas
Real-time scanning aimed at active and day traders, with preset and custom alert strategies. It is a paid service built for speed rather than casual browsing.
Financhill
An investing tool suite featuring proprietary stock ratings, seasonality charts, covered-call and dividend screeners, and tracking of institutional and hedge fund transactions.
StockInvest.us
Automated technical-analysis summaries and signals for individual stocks. Treat any automated signal as one input among several, never a guarantee.
Barchart
A long-running market-data site with screeners, technical opinions and market overviews. Handy for a quick look at movers and highs and lows.
Stock Fetcher
A query-language approach to screening: you write conditions in text, and the site returns matching stocks. Appeals to traders who like precise, rule-based scans.
MarketInOut
Screeners and tools for studying how stocks and markets behaved historically, including backtesting-style features.
Fintel
Ownership and market data, including institutional holdings and analyst rating summaries. Useful for research alongside a technical screener.
Lucid Trend
A trend-following analysis and market-scan platform from Tradier that checks a stock's trend across short, medium and long time frames.
Example screens to learn with
These are common starting points for learning how screens work, not trade ideas. Adjust any number to your own research.
- Trend: price above its 50-day and 200-day moving averages.
- Activity: relative volume above average, to find stocks that are drawing unusual attention.
- Breadth of interest: a minimum average daily volume, so you can enter and exit without large slippage.
- New highs: stocks near their 52-week high, a screen momentum traders often study.
- Quality filter: positive earnings growth and manageable debt, if you also care about fundamentals.
Build a routine, not a hunch
Pick one or two screens, run them at the same time each day or week, and write down what you saw and why you acted or passed. A trade journal makes this habit stick; see our free resources list for journaling options, and the book list for the thinking behind it.
Not investment advice. Screening shortlists stocks to research; it does not tell you to buy or sell. Always do your own due diligence.