What Is a Stock Screener, and How Do I Get One?

A stock screener is an online tool that allows investors to search for stocks based on a set of criteria they enter into certain fields. Many investors claim that the same stocks are featured or highlighted over and over, despite the fact that there are thousands of companies on the stock exchanges. Stock screeners show investors a wide variety of stocks, rather than limiting them to the same stocks repeatedly.

What are the Benefits of Using a Stock Screener?
A stock screener comes with a number of advantages, including:

? Cuts down on research time. Before the introduction of the stock screener, investors would have to research companies and market values and prices manually, either through the internet, newspapers, or trade papers. The stock screener takes what could be hours and even days' worth of research and condenses it into just the amount of time it takes to select your criteria and hit "submit" on the computer.
? Greater variety. There are many "unknown" stocks that have the potential to be great money makers, or starting companies that are experiencing a great deal of growth, yet they are hidden below the more well-known or famous stocks. Stock screeners bring up a much wider variety of stocks than are usually found otherwise.
? Precision. Stock screeners allow investors to tailor their criteria to a broad range of stocks, such as "listed on the New York Stock Exchange" to a much more specific set of criteria, such as "annual growth of 25% over the past 5 years."

How Does a Stock Screener Work?
A stock screener works simply by entering criteria in a given set of fields. While each stock screener varies in features and capabilities, for the most part they will include such fields as:
? Price. The tool might have an option that says "Show me stocks trading between $X per share to $X per share." Or "Trading Below 52-week high."
? Volume. The volume section allows you to enter in criteria such as, "Stocks with a current trading value between ___ and ___."
? Fundamentals. This allows such criteria as "All stocks with a PE ratio from ___ to ___." Or "with a market capitalization from $__ to $__."

How Do I Get a Stock Screener?
There are a number of stock screeners on the web. Many of them are free, while some require purchase. Sometimes, a stock screener will come free with the purchase of stock software or from joining an online stock trading company. A simple internet search of "free stock screeners" will pull up dozens of accurate stock screeners you can use on the web.

Some stock screeners, however, you will have to pay for. Typically, you'll make a credit card payment and then download the screener. As a general rule, the stock screeners you pay for are a little more sophisticated than the free downloads you might find on the web.
They might have such features as the ability to search more companies (with a screener, the more the better); view results in graphs, tables, spreadsheets, or forms; and online tech support or tutorials.

A stock screener can be an invaluable tool for an investor. Whether you opt for a free stock screener or one you can purchase, they are both likely to help you with your investing by increasing your knowledge of stocks on the market.