If you invest in individual stocks, and especially if you are an active trader, there is a stock screening Tools are one of your most important tools.
There are more than 3,600 company shares listed on US stock exchanges. And an even larger number of foreign stocks, mutual funds and exchange-traded funds. Good stock checker as the document provided by VIG will help you filter the companies you want to invest in, based on the criteria you choose.
Whether you are a buy-and-hold investor or a day trader, a good stock screener will help you make better investment decisions. To help you find the right one for you, we’ve put together this list of the best stock checkers. But before going into the list, let’s first go through the most basic information about stock checker.
What is a stock screener?
We can thank computers for this, but there is an almost limitless amount of information about every stock trade on national and international exchanges. For any security you want to invest in, there are dozens of important data points to help you make the right investment decisions. The stock screener will allow you to analyze those data points for any security you are considering investing in. You can narrow your list of 100 potential stocks down to just three or four based on the criteria that are most important to you.
Some of the criteria you can use to evaluate potential investments with stock screeners include:
Specific industry sectors
Geographical location
General information about the company
Earnings per share (EPS)
Price-to-benefit ratio (P/E)
Futures P/E Ratio
Estimated sales and profit growth
Market capitalization
Trading Range
Trading volume
Volatility
Price level: current vs target
Security against market or industry standards
The above list is just a sample of the criteria you can use. Most stock checkers can be customized to allow you to focus specifically on the categories that are most important to you. Stock filters are also available in free and premium versions. Naturally, you should expect the premium versions to come with more features and tools and even be easier to use. What you choose will largely depend on how much you trust your own stock analysis and how often you trade.
A free stock screener can help you if you only make a few trades per year. But if you’re a regular trader, and especially if you’re a day trader, you’ll almost certainly want a senior stock raider.
The best stock screeners
Instead of ranking the rankers in a particular order, we just list the ones we think are the best in a very large group. There is no one best stock appraiser for all investors, and the decision will be entirely up to which one will work best for you. But based on our experience, here’s the current ranking of the best stock screeners:
- VIG
For us, this platform is the best stock screener ever created. VIG will help you further analyze the stocks recommended by investment experts, so you can make informed decisions for yourself. Using VIG’s stock screener, you can be sure you’re not buying the wrong “stock”. You can minimize your mistakes before you actually buy. There is a wealth of information available from many sides, ensuring that any stock you research won’t hide anything from you.
- antique rover
Stock Rover was launched in 2008, comprehensive and easy to use. The service is available for desktop computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones. Also, it offers integration with its brokerage platform. It can be used for exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as well as individual stocks.
- Daystar
Morningstar has the advantage of being one of the most recognized and respected names in the entire investment sector. Not only does the company provide stock filters to individual investors, it is also a long-standing source of investment information for many of the world’s largest brokerage firms and financial news agencies.
- FINVIZ * Elite
FINVIZ * Elite, which stands for Financial Visualizations, is one of the best stock review tools available. It provides real-time quotes, charts, pre-market data and provides email alerts. It works with both technical analysis and fundamental data. Perhaps one of the coolest features is the ability to backtrack your business with historical data (and that includes 16 years of historical data).
- Yahoo! Finances
Yahoo! Finance isn’t one of the most comprehensive stock appraisers on this list, but it has the advantage of being free to use. And he was one of the most popular stock critics at the time, especially among new and more casual investors.
Ready to use one of the screeners above?
