
Howtotradestocks.org

How to use a Stock
Market Screener

A stock market screener is a very useful tool that allows us as stock traders to find suitable stocks for consideration.

You can use a stock screener to search all major stocks that meet a criteria that you specify. Most stock screeners allow you to do very comprehensive searches.

Personally I like the free stock screener from google. It is very user friendly and allows you to search stocks on factors including:

Market Capitalization

P/E Ratio

Dividend Yield %

52 week price change

Last price

Earnings per share

52 week high and low

Dividend data such as dividend yield

Financial ratios such as cash/share, book value/share, total debt/equity

Return on investment

Gross profit margin

Growth rates

and many many more. With the free google stock screener, you can search by any set of metrics that you like. You will then be presented with all the results that meet your selected critera. An example of this is shown below:

free stock screener example

Here I just did a quick scan for all stocks with a market cap above $50bn.

Once you have got a list of stocks that meet your criteria, you can then investigate them further. With google, you just click on the stock and you are then presented with a lot more information about the stock and comprehensive charting.

Google is by no means the only free stock screener out there. There are many other very good ones including:

Yahoo Stock Screener
Market Watch Stock Screener
MSN Stock Screener

If you need some help choosing a broker after finding suitable stocks for your portfolio, i've put together a list of the best discount stock brokers.

Also, if you are looking to trade penny stocks, I have spent a lot of time looking for the best penny stock brokers.

How to use a Stock Market Screener

How to use a Stock
Market Screener