EFFECTIVE USE OF
STOCK SCREENERS

Stock screeners allow you to filter thousands of stocks efficiently, identify opportunities, and manage risk. They have become useful tools for active traders navigating today’s complex markets.

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Whether you’re hunting for AI growth stocks or seeking undervalued assets as part of a macro strategy, mastering screener technology can transform your trading approach. This is what you need to know about how to get the most out of these powerful yet user-friendly tools.

What Is a Stock Screener and Why Active Traders Need One

A stock screener is a filtering tool that helps traders sort through thousands of securities based on specific criteria. Think of it as your personal trading assistant that can scan the entire market in seconds, identifying stocks that match your exact requirements.

The filters can be set to locate a wide range of features, including stocks displaying strong upwards momentum, specific valuation metrics, or those belonging to a particular sector.

For active traders, screeners solve a critical problem: information overload. With trading platforms offering thousands of stocks, manually analysing each one would be incredibly challenging. Screeners automate this process, allowing you to focus only on stocks that meet your predefined criteria.

Modern screeners offer real-time data updates, customisable filters, and have evolved from simple filtering tools into sophisticated market analysis tools that can identify complex patterns and relationships between different market variables.

Setting Up Your First Stock Screener

Getting started with stock screeners requires understanding which filters matter most for your trading style. The key is to begin with broad parameters and gradually refine them based on your results and experience.

Basic filters which can start your stock selection process include those relating to:

• Price range and market capitalisation
• Volume and liquidity thresholds
• Sectors and geographic location

Start the screening process by considering the practicalities of trading – which ensures that elements of risk management are incorporated into your approach. Setting a minimum average daily volume should help ensure sufficient liquidity and that you would not have difficulties trading out of a position in the future.

The next part of the screening process is identifying investment opportunities: one place to start would be setting performance filters to identify momentum and trends. To do that, you could screen for stocks with positive returns – perhaps 5% gains over the past month.

To introduce more nuance into your analysis, you could adopt a multi-timeframe approach, which helps confirm sustained momentum rather than temporary spikes. To do this, combine the filter searching for 5% price rises over the last month with another identifying 20% gains over the previous three months.

You can fine-tune your research even further by applying industry-specific filters to develop strategies which capture emerging opportunities in sectors such as quantum computing and automation stocks.

Advanced Screening Strategies

Once you’ve mastered basic filtering, incorporating advanced screening strategies can help to enhance your trading edge. This sophisticated approach combines different types of filters to identify high-probability setups that align with specific market conditions.

Technical filters

Incorporating technical analysis filters allows you to take your screening beyond scanning basic price movements. Filters using metrics such as moving averages can be set to analyse complex indicators and identify patterns.

One example would be screening for stocks where the 50-day moving average has recently crossed above the 200-day moving average. This “golden cross” pattern is used to identify potential trend reversals.

Fundamental filters

Fundamental screening focuses on company financials and valuation metrics to identify stocks with strong business characteristics. Key fundamental filters include price-to-earnings (P/E) ratios, earnings growth rates, debt-to-equity ratios, and return on equity (ROE).

Screening for companies with consistent earnings growth despite economic uncertainty can uncover stocks of resilient businesses. One starting point for this approach would be to filter for stocks with a P/E ratio below 20, earnings growth above 15% and debt-to-equity below 0.5.

Combining fundamental filters can help you to identify financially stable companies trading at apparently reasonable valuations. For growth-focused strategies, you might prioritise revenue growth over profitability, particularly in emerging sectors like green technology or biotechnology where future potential outweighs current earnings.

Using eToro Stock Screeners

eToro’s stock screeners are integrated into the platform’s trading dashboard. User-friendly functionality allows you to filter over 3,000 stocks on global exchanges, applying metrics based on criteria ranging from price performance to fundamental, quantitative and technical analysis parameters.

eToro stock screeners are broken down into the following categories:

• Exchanges: Use this filter to limit your search to stocks listed in specific regions.
• Sectors: Target stocks in sectors you are interested in.
• Price: Track price performance over different timeframes and compare to long-term moving averages.
• Volume: Establish which stocks are being bought and sold most actively.
• Market capitalisation: Adjust your search to small-, medium-, or large-cap firms.
• Dividend yield: A key metric for those following income generation strategies.
• Beta: Enables you to filter stocks according to how closely their price volatility matches that of the broader market.
• Valuation: Enterprise Value, EBITDA, and PEG Ratios are just some of the ratios and multiples which can be applied.
• Fundamentals: Incorporate key metrics found in financial statements such as Net Profit Margin.

eToro CopyTrader

You can add nuance to your research by screening eToro CopyTraders by navigating to the CopyTrader section of the Discovery screen.

There you can bring up details of individual CopyTraders showing their performance and the sectors they are investing in. This social proof element, combined with traditional screening, creates a powerful hybrid approach, which allows you to validate your screening results against the real-life trades of other investors.

Final thoughts

Stock screeners offer a convenient way to enhance your research and analysis. Their ability to instantly filter a wide range of data points allows you to keep pace with fast moving markets or spot potential new investment opportunities.

Their uses extend beyond scanning the markets for your next investment idea; screeners can also play a key role in risk management of existing positions. Changes to key metrics might signal a need to adjust your overall exposure or consider rebalancing your portfolio in line with changing market conditions.

Visit the eToro Academy to learn more advanced analysis techniques.

FAQs

How often should I run my stock screeners?

Run your screeners at least once daily, preferably 30 minutes after a market opens, when prices have stabilised. For swing trading strategies, weekly screening may suffice, while day traders might screen multiple times throughout the session.

What’s the ideal number of results from a good screener setup?

Aim for 10–30 results. Fewer than 10 suggests overly restrictive criteria, while more than 50 becomes unmanageable. Refine your filters to hit this sweet spot for thorough analysis without overwhelming choice.

How can you combine filters?

Screening tools are typically set up to allow you to add as many filtering criteria as you like to your chosen data set. The more filters you apply, the fewer stocks will remain, which can help you pinpoint stocks which meet your investment objectives.

Is there a charge for using TradingView on eToro?

eToro users benefit from free TradingView access, making this professional-grade tool and its advanced level indicators accessible without additional subscription costs.

What are the downsides of using screeners?

No investment approach is perfect and one potential downside of screeners is that portfolios can become concentrated in assets which are too closely correlated. It is important to remember the ways portfolio diversification can smooth out returns, help you navigate market downturns and not be forced out of positions at inopportune times.