Stock screeners are a tool that can help show investors new potential investment opportunities. They are user-metric defined and can notify investors when a new stock falls into preset categories.
In this article we are going to share our 7 best stock screener recommendations that can drastically improve an investor’s experience.
Quicklook: Best Stock Screeners
- Trade Ideas – Best for Real Time Scanning
- Benzinga Pro – Best for Event and News Research
- TC2000 – Best for Day Trading
- StocksToTrade – Best for Penny Stocks
- TradingView – Best for International Traders
- Yahoo Finance Stock Screeners – Best for Free Stock Scanning
- Finviz Elite – Best for a Free All-In-One Option
Table of Contents:
- Best Stock Screeners
- What Is a Stock Screener
- How Does a Stock Screener Work?
- What Makes a Good Stock Screener?
- What Stock Screener is Right for You?
- Frequently Asked Questions
7 Best Stock Screeners
In our recommendations we divide up the stock screeners by standout features, mobile applications, alert features, benefits/disadvantages, pricing, and much more. Read on to find which the best stock screener is for your investment needs.
Trade Ideas
Trade Ideas is a great stock screening tool for those who want quick real time scanning. The platform comes with two options: the Standard Plan (which has 10 simultaneous charts, 10 price alerts, real-time streaming quotes, and chart based trades) and the Premium Plan (which includes the Standard Plan’s features in addition to 20 simultaneous charts). They additionally have pre-built scans for investors who do not know where to start.
Standout Features: Pre-configured scanners, real time scanning, live trading room, and simultaneous charts
Mobile Application: Yes, however does not come with all the features on the website
Alert Feature: Breaking news and price alerts
Real Time Scanner: Yes
Benefits: Comes with more than 800+ trading features
Disadvantages: Only for US and Canadian stock exchanges
Pricing: Standard Plan ($118 per month or $1,068 annually) and Premium Plan ($228 per month or $2,268 annually)
Offers / Discounts: Promo codes from 15% to 25% off
Benzinga Pro
Best for Event and News Research
Benzinga Pro is a trading platform that is an extension of the data technology startup Benzinga. This stock screener is a web-based stock screener that has a real time news feed, detailed analysis window, and event calendar for investor use. It additionally has two plans, the Basic Plan (which gives real-time newsfeed and watchlist alerts) and the Essential Plan (which has Squawk box, event calendar, sentiment analysis indicators, and chat box).
Standout Features: Advanced financial news feed, detailed analysis feature, and event calendar for stocks
Mobile Application: No
Alert Feature: Yes, you can add a sound alert feature to your desktop
Real Time Scanner: Yes, you can screen every 10 seconds, 30 seconds, or minute depending on investor preferences
Benefits: 5 pre-configured scanners, chat room, squawk alert feature, and newsfeed
Disadvantages: Only covers equities, coverage is not 24 hours, and does not include REITs
Pricing: Basic Plan is $79 per month and Essential Plan is $177 per month
Offers / Discounts: Offers 14-day free trial and 30% off discounts
TC2000
TC2000 is a stock screening platform that has a wide selection of both fundamental and technical analysis screening filters. This user-friendly platform has personalized watchlists, bar intervals, an indicator library, and a live streaming news window.
TC2000 is a great option for day traders and those who wish to have more control over their stock screening experience. Lastly, this platform has three plans (Silver, Gold, Platinum) which are best suited for investors at different levels.
Standout Features: Graphical options strategy integration, formula editor, and EasyScan Dashboard
Mobile Application: Yes
Alert Feature: Yes – includes trendline, price, condition, and alert reminders
Real Time Scanner: Yes – bar interval function
Benefits: Personalized notes window, drawing tools, QuickSort feature, and multiple data feeds
Disadvantages: Only for US and Canadian stock exchanges
Pricing: Silver Plan $9.99 per month, Gold $29.99 per month, and Platinum plan $89.98 per month
Offers / Discounts: Discounted when paid annually (Platinum members can save $300 by doing this)
StocksToTrade
This stock screener platform is best for investors who wish to have a wide variety of investment options including penny stocks. It includes features such as Oracle (their scanner tool), paper trading simulator, and live twitter/news updates.
The paper trading simulator option is one of their standout features since it gives investors a $30,000 starting balance to emulate demo trading without actually adding risk to this balance. Additionally, it offers a Level 1 and Level 2 platforms for traders.
Standout Features: Paper trading simulator and automatic data saver without internet access
Mobile Application: Yes
Alert Feature: Oracle alert notifications
Real Time Scanner: Yes
Benefits: Built for swing traders, constant updates, strategy webinars, and useful charts
Disadvantages: Reported to have some software lags
Pricing: $179.95 per month or $1,899.50 annually
Offers / Discounts: Offers 7-day trial for $7
TradingView
Best for International Traders
TradingView is a great option for investors that want to expand their portfolio into international markets. This platform has more than 100k user generated strategies for its investors and has an active user community of more than 10 million people.
These strategies include more fundamental and technical analysis criteria in addition to interactive mapping of economic indicators.
Standout Features: International markets, flexible backtesting, extensive charting capabilities and fundamental screening characteristics
Mobile Application: Yes
Alert Feature: Real-time price alerts
Real Time Scanner: Yes
Benefits: Chart analysis, trading from charts, chat rooms, and learning resources
Disadvantages: No offline usage and minimum information on historical data
Pricing: Depending on which plan you choose pricing can range from $14.95 per month to $59.95 per month
Offers / Discounts: 30-day free trial
Yahoo Finance Stock Screener
This platform is best for investors who want to use stock screener software but don’t know where to start. This user-friendly platform is a very basic and simplistic option for beginner traders.
It is completely free to use Yahoo Finance’s fundamental data and is a well respected platform utilized by even advanced traders.
Standout Features: Uses Yahoo Finance’s data, streaming quotes, and ESG filters
Mobile Application: No
Alert Feature: Yes
Real Time Scanner: Yes this platform provides real-time screening quotes
Benefits: Easy to use, beginner friendly, and free
Disadvantages: Limited options on filters
Pricing: Free
Offers / Discounts: No
Finviz Elite
Best for a Free All-In-One Option
This platform has more in-depth free options for more advanced investors who want to test out stock screening. It has different level platforms but the free options include candle and advanced charting types, daily price alerts, and current newsfeed.
However for the Elite plan it includes intraday price alerts with performance and interactive charts. Both plans include group tabs of international markets as well.
Standout Features: Grouping tab (including sector, industry, and country) and latest insider ownership news
Mobile Application: No
Alert Feature: Yes
Real Time Scanner: Yes – depending on plan it can span from monthly, weekly, daily, or intradaily scan
Benefits: Wide selection of investment options, backtesting, and portfolio functionality
Disadvantages: Browser-based, limited fundamental analysis criteria
Pricing: Elite Plan $39.50 per month or $299.50 annually
Offers / Discounts: No
What Is a Stock Screener?
A stock screener is a trading software that looks in depth for stocks that fall into an investor’s user defined metrics. By scanning the market for these types of stocks it allows the trader to join in on the investment and make a potential profit.
It essentially advises the investor what new stock they should be potentially investing in and helps to sift through potential investments.
How Does a Stock Screener Work?
When the investor puts in its user-defined metrics (such as a certain market capitalization, P/E, or dividend ratio) the stock screener looks for stocks that have those characteristics. It uses technical analysis to spot these stocks over a short period of time.
Additionally, it is advised that investors use their own analysis of the company prior to investing. They can do this by using the company’s historical data to dictate what its future performance will look like.
What Makes a Good Stock Screener?
A good stock screener comes with three main components: robust screening filters, flexibility, and how easy it is to use.
Robust Screening Filters
The quality of these recommendations will be determined by how specific the trader can be. Platforms that do not offer a vast range of filters are preventing the investors from making detailed user-defined metrics which therefore leads the screener to make more generalized recommendations.
Some key metrics an investor should consider are the company’s market capitalization, revenue, volatility, debt-to-equity ratio, price-to-equity ratio, and profit margin.
Flexibility
In addition to having a wide range of filters, investors should look into the stock screener’s flexibility. What markets does this screener include? Does it include cryptocurrencies? What security types are included?
These should all be questions investors should ask in addition to how generalized these suggestions made by the stock screener are.
Easy to Use
An investor’s experience can drastically change depending on the platform’s user friendliness level. If the platform is difficult to use or execute new metrics, this can impact a trader’s overall performance.
Look for platforms that are user-friendly and not complicated to help ease the given learning curve experienced from using a stock screener.
What Stock Screener is Right for You?
Out of all our recommendations, we hope that you find the platform that best suits your investment needs. It is important to find a platform that is credible, flexible, user-friendly, and has a robust option of screening filters so you as an investor can make the most out of the platform.
If stock screeners are not the right investment platform for you, talk to a financial advisor on how to better assist your investment needs. Learn more about getting a financial advisor here.
Frequently Asked Questions
For international investors TradingView is best, for day traders TC2000 is best, and the best stock monitoring site overall is TradeIdeas. However, there are great free options for stock monitoring sites such as Yahoo Finance and FINVIZ Elite.
Some platforms do offer free stock screening, such as Yahoo Finance and FINVIZ. However, for more in-depth analysis, Benzinga Pro is a high quality platform that is an inexpensive option in comparison to other stock screening platforms that offer their similar features.
Stock screening can be a useful tool for investors that are looking to expand their portfolio. This software can assist and make you aware of new potential investment opportunities.