Stock screener is your guide in world stock markets

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Stock screener is your guide in world stock markets

Last year, the world's stock markets have increased by over 30%, reaching the historic highs:
  • - MICEX index has grown from 1711 to 2162 (as of February 11);
  • - S&P index — from 1829 to 2 316;
  • - NASDAQ index — from 4266 to 5734.
Analysts believe that in 2017, due to the victory of Donald Trump and recovery of the commodity markets, stock indices of the USA, Russia and Europe may increase by 10-20%, some sector indices and stocks of some companies can bring income up to 30% per annum.
In the USA, the most profitable stocks can be in the biotech industries and of the infrastructure companies; in Russia, it can be financial, telecom and retail sectors; at the same time, power, oil & gas and mechanical engineering are also promising, but their major growth took place in 2016 when sector indexes rose over 100%).
Situation with investments in the EU is not very clear. "Goldman Sachs" analysts suggest that the most reliable will be European indices and German economy. They believe that Stoxx Europe 600 can grow more than twofold compared to S&P500 and bring an investor an income of about 8-10% per annum. Analysts recommend investors forming their investment portfolio to choose companies, which are included in DAX index. On the other hand, elections in France and Germany, uncertainty in the UK and  structural problems of the EU banking system (particularly, in the banks of Italy and Deutsche Bank) might hinder economic growth in the EU.
In China, investors’ interest can be attracted to the high-tech companies in the field of intellectual development and electronics. Analysts also predict the rise in the consumer goods sector. However, in view of the customs war between the US and China, export-focused Chinese economy can continue to decline.  
So, we have spoken about specific of industries suitable for investments, but how can we choose the companies, which stocks are worth buying, as there are thousands of them in the world? In this case, a stock screener will help you.

How to use a stock  screener:  overview of the most popular services

Stock screener is a service enabling you to choose a company, which shares are listed on a stock exchange. List of companies and the data on them are constantly updated in a screener, you just need to set the desired parameters and you will see a list of companies, which meet your requirements.
Basic principles of a screener:
  • There are no perfect screeners because information about the companies cannot be updated instantly. Therefore, it is recommended to use several screeners. Usually screeners are customized to the stock market of a particular country;
  • We do not recommend you to follow the principle "the more filters you have the better". It is important to use them on order of preference. Filters of the Screeners can be compared with the use of filters in the indicators of the Forex market: where one filter is insufficient, while 10 filters are too many, as they distract you from the main task. It is important to select the best option suitable for the trader's strategy;  
  • A screener analyzes the history that is why its recommendations are suitable for the long-term strategies; they are not good for the volatile market or intraday strategies.
Below you can see a list of some interesting and easy to use screeners, which provide a great number of  filters.

1. Google Finance Stock Screener

This is one of the most simple and easy to use screeners, which contains information about almost all major exchanges of the world. In the top menu you can select the country, stock market and economic sector. In the basic version the system displays the company, sorted by four criteria. However, by clicking on "Add criteria", you can see the required filters and set their parameters.
Parameters of some filters:
  • Market Cap — market capitalization of the company;
  • P/E Ratio — the ratio of share price to profit per share. This parameter allows to assess the value of a stock  (to see whether it is overvalued or undervalued);
  • Div yield — the amount of dividends per year;
  • Last Price — current stock price of the company;
  • Average Volume — liquidity of shares.
The only drawback of this screener is possibility of some technical failures. Note that this screener was designed for professionals and can be used for a brief review of the list of companies.

2. Finviz.com

This is one of the best analytical sites, devoted to the US stock market. Traders use its analytics to determine market trend; the site’s section "Screener" is an additional trading tool. It reviews only three American exchanges, but provides more filters on the companies than Google Finance Stock Screener
Note that if we review US exchanges in the Google Finance Stock Screener, we will see not more than 600 companies, while Finviz.com screener provide over 1.000 companies for only three US exchanges. At the same time this screener will review 190 companies on the European exchanges, while Google Finance Stock Screener shows stocks of more than 400 companies only in Italy.
This site also has separate sections containing analytical information:
  • Maps. They display stocks in accordance with sectors and subsectors. Sectors are displayed as separate squares, while each asset is represented as a rectangle. The larger the rectangle, the greater the capitalization of the company. When you put a cursor on an asset (a rectangle), you will see change in price. Green color means the rise in price; red color shows the decline in price.
  • Groups. This section shows changes in sectors, industries, countries and capitalization in the past periods.    
  • Sections Futures and Forex display prices in the certain markets.
We can say that Finviz.com screener is a useful screener for the American market; however, it probably has too much information.

3. Screener.finance.yahoo.com

This screener is one of the leaders among the screeners, but it is focused only on the US stock market. The title page of the site offers a user to choose one of more than 10 sections: most profitable and most loss-making shares for the day, undervalued securities, etc.
Each section has a list of companies with P/E parameters (ratio of share price to earnings per share), daily changes in price with absolute and relative dimensions. In order to receive detailed information on quotes of each company, go to a Search of a required Ticker.
Traders have mixed opinion about this screener. Traders on many forums (for example, Smartlab) give a high rating to it. On the other hand, it is difficult to understand its operation principles. For example, there is no description of the filters’ parameters (which is good for those who only begin to work in the stock market). A choice of filters is insufficient for work. However, tastes differ.
This screener goes first in the search system in case of a query "Stock Sceener." It is also focused exclusively on the US stock market, but it has Russian interface. Below you can see a list of companies it provides:
Filters are divided into several sub-menus:
  • main parameters: price, volume of traded stocks per day, sectors, countries, indexes, etc.;
  • technical filters: changes in stock price during the current session, price range during a session,  changes price over different periods, etc.;
  • basic filters: the ratio of share price to earnings per share, total number of shares in free circulation, etc.
There are also filters of the best buy and sell prices, signals, etc. Some settings (e.g., monitoring or setting of charts) are available only after the registration.
Stock quotes on the site are updated every 15 minutes (according to the website), the site also has  charts showing the history of changes in price. For example, click on the screener’s section, search "Electronic Equipment" in the list of industries and go to the Ticker AAPL. You will see the history of  “Apple” quotes.
Note, however, that there can be some technical failures when setting filters, or incorrect forwarding and the lack of description of the tickers in the list of companies.

Conclusion:

Stock screener is an additional tool providing analytical information, such as, for example, an economic calendar or a map with Pivot points. Screeners help quickly find securities of the companies, which meet investment objectives of a trader and provide comparative characteristics of assets’ financial statements., which enables a trader to:
  • save time;
  • find attractive stocks in the stock markets around the world;
  • compare performance of the different companies and industries.  
We know that there is no a perfect screener, at the same time, the data from several sceeners devoted to a specific country or industry, can provide a general idea of the trend and decide what screener displays more reliable information.
If you have some experience of work with screeners — you are welcome to enter into a discussions devoted to this subject.

Read more interesting stories in LiteForex Traders' Blog:  https://www.liteforex.com/blog/



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