Testing shows the best stock screeners are Stock Rover, TradingView, Portfolio 123, and Finviz. Stock Rover is the best strategic stock screener for US investors. TradingView is the best stock scanner for global markets. Trade Ideas is the best AI-powered stock scanner for day traders.
Portfolio 123 provides excellent screening with structured backtesting, and Finviz is a fast, effective free stock screener.
I have personally installed and rigorously tested every stock screener on this list and can provide complete clarity into their benefits and features. As a certified financial technical analyst and investor for over 20 years, I understand the critical functionality and metrics that make a great stock screener.
10 Best Stock Screeners
- Stock Rover: Best Stock Screener for Investors.
- TradingView: Best Free Stock Screener.
- Trade Ideas: Best AI Day Trading Scanner.
- Finviz: Fastest Free Stock Screener USA.
- Tickeron: AI Screening & Portfolio Mgt.
- MetaStock: Best Stock Chart Scanner.
- Portfolio 123: Best Backtesting Screener.
- TC2000: Best Options Screener App.
- Screener.co: Large Screening Database.
- Yahoo Finance: Simple Free Stock Screener.
| Best Overall | Best for Traders | Best for Day Traders |
 |
 |
 |
|
#1 StockRover ✅ Growth, Income & Dividend Investors |
#2 TradingView ✅ Traders & Investors |
#3 TradeIdeas ✅ Day & Swing Trading |
| Fast, Free Screener USA | Flexible AI Screening | Best Stock Chart Scanner |
 |
 |
 |
|
#4 Finviz ✅ USA Stock Investors |
#5 Tickeron ✅ AI Algo Screening |
#6 MetaStock ✅ 360 Chart Indicators |
Best Stock Screeners Features Comparison
Stock Rover is the Best Stock Screener in the USA, with a 10-year historical database, backtesting, ratings, in-depth research, and portfolio management capabilities. TC2000 has excellent real-time USA market scanning. MetaStock & TradingView are the best screeners for day traders covering global stock markets. Finally, Portfolio 123 offers extremely powerful technical and fundamental backtesting.
| Stock Screeners | Stock Rover | TradingView | Trade-Ideas | Finviz | Tickeron | MetaStock |
| Rating | 4.7 | 4.6 | 4.6 | 4.5 | 4.5 | 4.4 |
| Best for: | Investors | Traders | Day Traders | Investors | Traders | Traders |
| Free Stock Screener | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ |
| Paid/Premium Screener | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Financial Screening | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| 10-Year Financials | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Portfolio Management | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ |
| Technical Chart Scanning | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| AI Stock Screening | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Stocks & ETFs | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| FX/Commodity Screening | ✘ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ |
| USA & Canada | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Global Market Data | ✘ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ |
1. Stock Rover: Best for Investors
Stock Rover is the best stock screener for investors, providing the largest database of company fundamental data. Stock Rover has 670 screening criteria, company ratings, analyst estimates, and a 10-year historical database of all US and Canadian stocks and ETFs.
Stock Rover Screener Features
| ⚡ Features | Charts, News, Watchlists, Broker Integration |
| 🏆 Exceptional Features | Screening, Portfolio, 10-Year Data |
| 🎯 Best for | Growth, Dividend & Value Investors |
| ♲ Subscription | Monthly, Yearly |
| 💰 Price | $0-$28/mo |
| 🆓 Free Plan | Yes – Get Stock Rover Free |
| 💻 OS | Web Browser |
| 🎮 Trial | 14-Day Free Trial |
| ✂ Discount | -25% During Trial Period |
| 🌎 Region | USA |
Stock Rover Pros
- The Best Free & Paid Screener in the USA
- 670 Financial Scanning Criteria
- Value & Growth Stock Scoring Systems
- Research Reports & Portfolio Management Tools
- Unique 10-Year Historical Fundamental Database
- 100’s of Value, Growth & Dividend Screeners & Portfolios
- Easy to Use & Broker Integrated
Stock Rover Cons
- No Social Community
- US & Canada Only
- No Mobile App
I actively use Stock Rover daily to find the stocks that form the foundation of my long-term investments. It is my tool of choice, and I have even developed a Beat the Market Screener that is now integrated into Stock Rover.
Stock Rover is an easy stock screener to use; it runs on PCs, Macs, Tablets, and Smartphones and requires zero installation; it simply works. Although Stock Rover is user-friendly, it is also the most advanced stock screener for financial analysis on the market. However, the market data, scoring, ranking, and analysis are only for the USA & Canadian markets.
Stock Rover has the best implementation of stock screening, research & portfolio management on the market today.
Video: Why is Stock Rover the Best Stock Screener for Investors?
Stock Rover integrates with every significant broker; this enables it to manage profit & loss reporting, portfolio correlation, and rebalancing. Including income (dividend) reporting and scoring, it is a unique package. Stock Rover is not for day traders; it is for longer-term investors that want to maximize their portfolio income and take advantage of compounding and margin of safety to manage a safe and secure portfolio.
Financial Screening & Stock Ratings
Stock Rover is the industry leader for stock screening with 670 fundamental financial metrics; 226 of the metrics contain ten years of historical data, allowing you to backtest your screening strategy. Watchlists have fundamentals broken into Analyst Estimates, Valuation, Dividends, Margin, Profitability, Overall Score, and Stock Rover Ratings. You can set the watchlist and filters to refresh every minute.
Stock Rover has over 150 pre-built screeners you can import and use; many of these have been tested during this research and are very thoughtfully built. You will need the Premium Plus service to take advantage of the most powerful screeners.
The team at Stock Rover has implemented some great functionality; I particularly like the roll-up view for all the scores and ratings. Here I have imported the Warren Buffett portfolio, including his top 25 holdings. I have also selected the “Stock Rover Ratings” tab, which rolls up all analyses into a transparent stock ranking system, saving tremendous time and effort while providing a wealth of insight.
The Stock Rover Warren Buffett Screener is based on criteria described in the bestselling Buffettology book. The company should have a 10-year track record of generally increasing EPS with no negative earnings years; long-term debt, not more than five times annual earnings; average ROE over the past ten years of at least 15%, average ROIC over the last ten years at least 12%, and earnings yield should be higher than the long term Treasury yield.
Value Stock Screening
Stock Rover is the best value investing stock screener because it has criteria that no other software has, such as Margin of Safety, Foward Discounted Cash Flow, Fair Value, and the Greenblatt formulas. It is possible to build a powerful Warren Buffett-style value stock screener using these calculations and metrics. A Buffettology screener built into Stock Rover incorporates the key criteria for Warren Buffett’s value investing methodology.
Dividend Stock Screening
Stock Rover is the best dividend stock screener because it has many pre-built scans for dividend growth, yield, consistency, and ETF dividends. The broad dividend screening selection criteria include dividend coverage, dividend cash flow, payout ratio, dividend 1,3,5, and 10-year average percentage growth. If you are screening for companies paying a consistent dividend, Stock Rover also allows you to scan for “Consecutive Dividend Growth Years.”
Stock Rover also provides intelligent dividend and income analysis, enabling you to compare company dividend yields, growth, and coverage and estimate future dividend income based on your portfolio or watchlist.
Stock Rover Research Reports
A new addition to the Stock Rover platform is the dynamic Research Reports. This brand-new service enables you to generate a professional, readable PDF report on any particular stock’s current and historical performance. Stock Rover also calculates anomalies in a company’s financial reports and issues warnings to help lower your investing risk.
Stock Rover Pricing
You can have Stock Rover for free; however, the real power of Stock Rover is unleashed with the Premium Plus service. Moreover, their top service tier is not even expensive compared to the competition. I strongly recommend going for the Stock Rover Premium Plus at $27.99 per month, as you will get the best premium stock screener on the market.
2. TradingView: Best Free Screener
TradingView is the best free and paid stock screener for active traders because it combines powerful charts and screening for Stocks, ETFs, Indices, Forex, and Cryptocurrencies across all international markets. TradingView enables backtesting trading strategies and has the largest active global community of traders.
TradingView Screener Features
| ⚡ Features | Charts, News, Watchlists, Screening |
| 🏆 Unique Features | Trading, Backtesting, Community |
| 🎯 Best for | Stock, Fx & Crypto Traders |
| ♲ Subscription | Monthly, Yearly |
| 💰 Price | $0-$59/mo |
| 💻 OS | Web Browser |
| 🎮 Trial | Free 30-Day |
| ✂ Discount | -50% Discount |
| 🌎 Region | Global |
Pros
- Good Selection of Fundamental & Financial Scanning Criteria
- Best Screener for Global Stock Markets
- Forex, Cryptocurrency & Commodities Scanning
- LargeSocial Community
- Great Usability & Setup
Cons
- No Deep Historical Data
- Not Enough Financial Data for Buy & Hold Investors
TradingView is one of the best stock market trading and charting platforms, with over 10 million active users sharing trading ideas and strategies in one big community. TradingView is a winner in our “Best Stock Analysis Software Review” and is now a winner for the best stock screener.
You can have TradingView for free, but there are limitations on the number of charts, alerts, and devices you can use. I recommend the PRO+ plan at $19 per month, as the benefits include real-time data, market scanning, and a robust alerting system.
TradingView Stock Screening & Scanning
TradingView’s screening watchlists have fundamentals data separated into Performance, Valuation, Dividends, Margin, Income Statement, and Balance Sheet. TradingView stands out with its vast selection of economic indicators you can map and compare on a chart, for example, the Civilian Unemployment Rate versus the growth in Company Profits.
I recommend TradingView for international traders as the market coverage is enormous, and if you want a very active trading community, this is the place.
Real-time Stock Screening with TradingView
TradingView allows you to run a continual live real-time stock screen that updates every 10 seconds; this is valuable for day traders scanning for volume spikes, changes in relative volume, or intra-day price spikes. The real-time stock screener covers pre-market gaps, volume, and major indicators such as RSI and Moving Averages.
The TradingView Stock Screener comes complete with 150 fundamental and technical screening criteria; all the usual measures are there, such as EPS, Quick Ratio, Pre-Tax Margin, and forward/trailing PE Ratio. TradingView also goes deeper with more esoteric criteria such as the number of employees, Goodwill, and Enterprise Value. Another positive is the screener implementation is very customizable; you can configure the columns and filters exactly how you wish.
The Best Stock, Forex & Crypto Screener
TradingView’s unique ability to screen for chart patterns and setups for foreign exchange pairs makes it very valuable for day traders searching for volatility and using leverage. The Forex screener can compare performance and volatility together, which can help you to narrow down the list for potential trades.
The ability of TradingView to provide crypto screening is unique in the industry. They have also included a rating filter that enables you to select the cryptocurrencies rated as “strong sell” to use as candidates for a short trade and strong buys as candidates for long trades; this will save you a lot of time.
Extremely easy to use, low cost, and packed with screening power, including economic data. TradingView is the right combination for active international day traders who value a social community.
Video Review: Why I Rate TradingView the Best
3. Trade Ideas: Best Day Trading Scanner.
Trade Ideas is the best stock screener for day trading because it has three AI algorithms that provide alerts for high-probability short-term trades. The backtesting, scanning, and trade success probabilities are all automated, meaning Trade Ideas can be used for automated day trading commission-free with eTrade.
Trade Ideas Scanner Features
| ⚡ Features | Charts, Watchlists, Screening |
| 🏆 Unique Features | AI Trade Signals, Trading Room |
| 🎯 Best for | US Day Traders |
| ♲ Subscription | Monthly, Yearly |
| 💰 Price | $118-$228/mo |
| 💻 OS | Web Browser, PC |
| 🎮 Trial | Try the Live Trading Room Free |
| ✂ Discount | -15% With Code Liberated |
| 🌎 Region | USA |
Pros
- 3 A.I. Stock Screening Algorithms
- Fully Automated Backtesting
- Audited & Profitable Trade Signals
- AI Auto-trading
- Free Live Trading Room Access
Cons
- Old School User Interface
- No Mobile App
Founded in 2003, Trade Ideas is a web & desktop-based software platform for finding day trading opportunities. Historically specializing in real-time scanning for trade opportunities, Trade Ideas now incorporates cutting-edge AI algorithms that backtest every stock in the USA & Canada for high-probability trading opportunities.
There are two tiers of product, Standard & Premium. Trade Ideas Standard costs $118 per month, or you can save $348 by going for an annual subscription costing $1068, a 25% discount. You get a live trading room, access to 40 market scans, and 500 price alerts for this price.
Trade Ideas Premium costs significantly more at $228 per month and enables the Holly Artificial Intelligence System. This comprises three constantly evolving AI screening algorithms, entry and exit signals, trade risk assessments, and AI Auto-Trading.
Best AI Stock Screener: Trade Ideas
Trade Ideas is the best AI stock screener because they have built an Artificial Intelligence algorithm called “Holly AI.” Holly applies 70 different strategies to all the stocks on the US stock exchanges; 70 strategies multiplied by 8,000+ stocks means millions of backtests daily. Only the strategies with the highest backtested win rate of over 60% and an estimated risk-reward ratio of 2:1 will be suggested as potential trades the following day.
The unique scanner system at the heart of the Trade Ideas platform gives you immediate access to over 40 different trading scans. The in-built scans are categorized into Bullish, Bearish, or Neutral. You can easily select a potential strategy for the day depending on the overall market direction.
One scan I find particularly impressive and innovative is the “Unusual Social Mentions Scan.” The Trade Ideas AI engine constantly scans StockTwits for surges in mentions of particular stocks. If you click load settings, you will be immediately presented with a list of stocks spiking on social media. Of course, you can customize any of the scans featured here or create your alerts from scratch.
The AI algorithms developed by Trade Ideas are the main reason you want to sign up. I had a lengthy zoom session with Sean Mclaughlin, Senior Strategist over at Trade Ideas, to delve into how the AI works, and I was very impressed. This company is laser-focused on providing traders with the very best data-supported trading opportunities. There are currently three AI systems in operation.
Trade Ideas 15% Discount Coupon Code
As a partner of Trade Ideas, I requested a discount for all our readers. Use the discount code “Liberated” to get 15% off your first purchase, worth $340, when going for the premium service.
4. Finviz: Beast Free USA Stock Screener.
FINVIZ specializes in FINancial VISualizations. Finviz uniquely enables investors to visualize a vast amount of stock market data on a single screen. However, Finviz needs to improve its charting, backtesting, and portfolio management.
Finviz Screener Features
| ⚡ Features | Screening, Heatmaps, Charts |
| 🏆 Exceptional Features | Patterns, Signals |
| 🎯 Best for | Beginner Investors/Traders |
| ♲ Subscription | Monthly, Yearly |
| 💰 Price | $0-$39.50/mo |
| 🆓 Free Plan | Yes. Use Finviz Free |
| 💻 OS | Web Browser |
| 🎮 Trial | 30-Day Money-Back |
| ✂ Discount | -37% With Annual Plan |
| 🌎 Region | USA |
Finviz Pros
- 67 stock screening metrics
- 33 Automated stock chart signals
- Intraday (1-minute) data with Finviz Elite
- One of the best free stock screeners
- Backtesting recognizes 102 stock chart patterns
Finviz Cons
- Interactive charts with no indicators
- Only 9 chart overlays
- Only 17 chart indicators on standard charts
- US Stocks Only
Finviz is a mixed bag, doing things like pattern recognition and market visualization very well but also needing big improvements in charting, backtesting, and user experience.
The Finviz screener allows for rapid filtering of 8,500+ major stocks and ETFs in the USA. However, this is not all the stocks in the world, just the major stocks, as there are over 10,000 stocks in the USA alone.
The Finviz stock screener is extremely fast and allows you to filter on 67 different fundamental and technical criteria. You can filter the stocks on specific chart-based signals such as new highs, lows, oversold, analyst upgrades, insider buying, or even chart patterns like double tops and head & shoulders.
Finviz allows you to scan for a mix of 67 fundamental criteria and combine it with 30 different trading signals. That may seem like a huge choice, but TradingView offers over 168 different criteria, Portfolio123 has 470 filters, and Stock Rover provides over 650 options.
Finviz also shines where the others do not because you can also screen on ten major candlestick patterns and 30 different stock chart patterns. This mix of fundamental screening criteria for investors, technical charts, and candlestick pattern recognition for traders makes Finviz a good match for short-term and medium-term investors.
I have highlighted the key interesting Finviz stock screener fields in red in the screenshot above. To test the Finviz screener, I built a growth stocks screening strategy to demonstrate high EPS growth, sales growth, ROI, and price above the 20-day moving average.
Finviz provides incredibly fast stock screening, heatmaps, and stock chart pattern recognition for free. If you want to visualize a large amount of stock data and find investments quickly, Finviz is definitely worth it.
5. Tickeron: Best AI Stock Screening.
Tickeron provides a suite of AI-driven investing and trading tools, including portfolio construction, stock price prediction algorithms, and stock screening and scanning. Tickeron enables the screening of 7 fundamental rating indicators, including valuation, profit/risk, price growth rating, and seasonality score.
Tickeron bridges the gap for those who want to trade short-term and invest long-term using smart AI algorithms to suggest trading ideas or construct intelligent portfolios.
Tickeron Screener Features
| ⚡ Features | Portfolios, Watchlists, Screening |
| 🏆 Exceptional Features | AI Trade Signals & Pattern Recognition |
| 🎯 Best for | Short-term Traders |
| ♲ Subscription | Monthly, Yearly |
| 💰 Price | $0-$250/mo |
| 🆓 Free Plan | Yes. Use Tickeron Free |
| 💻 OS | Web Browser/PC |
| 🎮 Trial | 14-Day Free Trial |
| ✂ Discount | 50% Off All Annual Plans |
| 🌎 Region | USA |
Tickeron Pros
- Innovative Screening
- 45 Streams of Trade Ideas
- 40 Real-time Stock, ETF, Forex & Crypto Pattern Recognition
- AI Trend Prediction Engines
- Investing Portfolios with Audited Track Records
- Build Your Own Portfolios with AI
Tickeron Cons
- Custom Charting Limited
- Cannot Plot Indicators
Tickeron also provides fundamental financial filters for 12 criteria, including price/book, PE ratio cash/share, beta, EPS, ROE, revenue per share, and dividend yield.
Tickeron can find you stocks based on industry, sector, market capitalization, or even technical buy and sell ratings. If you want to perform specific screening for value, dividend, or growth stocks, Tickeron is of little use.
Tickeron is designed to find high-probability trading opportunities, not for long-term investors wishing to build a sustainable portfolio. If you are a long-term investor, I recommend Stock Rover.
Overall, Tickeron is easy to use and provides enough power for demanding traders. You do not need to install software or configure data feeds. The most difficult element of Tickeron is trying to work out the pricing model, which is overly complex and granular. I spoke with my contact at Tickeron, who told me they are working to simplify the pricing structure.
Tickeron 50% Discount
You can immediately save 50% on all Tickeron’s plans by signing up for a single annual payment rather than paying monthly. This radically reduces the cost of the Expert plan from $250 per month to $125, which makes it a very cost-effective AI trading service.
6. MetaStock: Best Global Chart Scanner.
MetaStock is the best stock chart scanner because it combines powerful backtesting strategies with over 350 indicators and charting tools. MetaStock’s marketplace has over 100 stock scanning strategies that can be used to find trading opportunities across international stock markets.
MetaStock Screener Features
| ⚡ Features | Charts, Watchlists, Scanning |
| 🏆 Unique Features | Forecasting, Systems Marketplace |
| 🎯 Best for | Stock, Fx & Crypto Traders |
| ♲ Subscription | Monthly, Yearly |
| 💰 Price | $59-$250/mo |
| 💻 OS | PC |
| 🎮 Trial | 30-Day Free Trial |
| ✂ Discount | 3 Months for 1 |
| 🌎 Region | Global |
Pros
- Broadest Selection of Technical Analysis Stock Screening Criteria
- Best Screener for Global Stock Markets
- Ability to Screen Stocks, Futures, Forex & Commodities
- Winner of Backtesting & Forecasting Systems
Cons
- Need to purchase Refinitiv Add-on for Fundamental Screening
- No Mobile App
MetaStock is the leader in backtesting, forecasting, and technical chart analysis. If you purchase MetaStock R/T (real-time), you essentially get the Refinitiv add-on; this adds Real-time news (from Reuters) and Bloomberg-level fundamental and technical screening.
MetaStock’s Refinitiv integration means you get institutional quality real-time news, analysis, research, and economic outlooks, plus the fastest global news service available in the industry. For international investors, MetaStock is unique because the news is also translated into all major languages.
MetaStock has an incredible database of fundamental global data for screening, not just on companies but economies and industries, the wealth of data is first class. Using Refinitiv, you can see an in-depth analysis of company fundamentals from debt structure to top 10 investors, including level II; combine that with excellent watch lists featuring fundamentals and powerful scanning of the markets.
MetaStock Stock Screener Highlights
MetaStock provides scanning on any stock exchange globally, providing you have the market data package for the region. Screening all trading instruments is possible, including ETFs, Funds, Options, and Forex. Powered by Refinitiv, extensive analyst ratings and 79 core fundamental financial criteria are selectable. In total, 269 technical criteria are available for scanning.
MetaStock is not free software; you will pay $250 per month for powerful scanning. For that investment, you will get the fastest real-time streaming news, industry-leading technical analysis, backtesting, and forecasting.
MetaStock is one of our valued partners, and we have a “3 months for the price of 1” deal, which should save you $500.
7. Portfolio 123: Best Backtesting Screener.
The results of this Portfolio123 test show impressive stock screening, software with a robust financial database, and integrated commission-free trading with Tradier. Portfolio123 can be used by income, value, and growth investors but is also advantageous for swing traders.
Portfolio123 Screener Features
| ⚡ Features | Screening, Research |
| 🏆 Exceptional Features | Trading, Robust Backtesting |
| 🎯 Best for | Experienced Investors |
| ♲ Subscription | Monthly, Yearly |
| 💰 Price | $0-$83/mo |
| 💻 OS | Web Browser |
| 🎮 Trial | 21 Days for $9 |
| ✂ Discount | None |
| 🌎 Region | USA/Canada |
Portfolio123 covers stocks, fixed income, and ETFs on US & Canadian exchanges, so it is unsuitable for international stock investors. With Portfolio123, you can design a real-time trading strategy, fully automated with a broker, that will hold the stocks that pass your screen and sell those that don’t.
Portfolio123 Screener
The Portfolio123 screener allows you to filter 10,000+ stocks and 44,000 ETFs to help you find the investments or trades that match your exact criteria. Portfolio123 also has ranked screening which enables you to rank the stocks that best match your criteria, filtering a list from hundreds of stocks to a handful. You can also define your custom universes, setting the macro criteria for which stocks are included in the sample.
Most ideas based on fundamentals will be covered with over 225 data points. Portfolio123 has 460 criteria, including analyst revisions, estimates, and technical data.
You can also use Portfolio123 to screen stocks on their performance relative to the S&P500 or any other benchmark. You could develop a strategy to select stocks based on their historical performance versus the market.
The number of factors available for screening is impressive. Not only can you screen based on reliable information from a company’s financial reports, but you can access technical factors, create your factors using period and announcement dates, eliminate stocks with high bid-ask spreads, limit your screen to stocks in a certain industry, or sector, rank factors against other stocks in an industry or sector, and change your factor balance depending on economic conditions.
Here is a very complex screening strategy I developed using Portfolio123; as you can see, it is extremely powerful and flexible, with almost limitless rules and conditions.
Building your Portfolio123 screener is theoretically easy; select Research -> Screens, and you can start to play. No programming skills are required to build a Portfolio123 screener, but basic coding will certainly help. If you want to create more powerful screening rules, you will need to spend significant time studying the coding logic and understanding the proprietary criteria names.
Portfolio123 Backtesting
Portfolio123’s backtesting engine is where the software shines. Expertly implemented, fast, and extremely configurable, Portfolio123 has the best backtesting service for people serious about testing fundamental strategies.
Portfolio123 enables you to be very granular in setting up your backtest with entry rules, slippage, weighing, rebalance frequency, and custom timeframes.
The Portfolio123 screener is built to make users test not just pre-built concepts but all sorts of hypotheses. You can use your own universe, rank with your multi-factor rank, and run backtests or rolling backtests.
The Portfolio123 screener relies on great data, and they have worked hard to overcome the pitfalls of financial data, such as N/A numbers in sparse preliminary reports. Their pre-built factors handle N/A’s efficiently and use alternate algorithms to produce the best possible result. Great data isn’t an overnight project; they’ve been working on data since 2004.
The image below shows the LiberatedStockTrader screener I developed in the previous section. I backtested the screener for two years to see how it performed historically. My screener beat the market in this particular timeframe, returning 70.5% versus the S&P500’s 52%.
Pre-Built Screeners Integrated into Portfolio123
Portfolio123 has over 76 pre-built screeners that you can import and use. You need the Screener subscription plan service to take advantage of this. I have personally tested many of them, and they are very thoughtfully built. One of my favorites is the “Small Cap Winners” screener.
Portfolio123 is an excellent screening and backtesting platform for swing traders and medium-term growth investors. An incredible selection of fundamental criteria, a 20-year financial database, plus the most powerful financial backtesting engine makes Portfolio123 a great choice for experienced stock system developers.
8. TC2000: Best Options Screener App.
TC2000 specializes in real-time stock and options screening for the US stock, ETF, and options markets. The TC2000 EasyScan system enables quick implementation of powerful screening conditions and custom indicators and is the only software with screening available in the Mobile App.
| ⚡ Features | Charts, Custom Indicators, Screening |
| 🏆 Unique Features | TC2000 Brokerage, EasyScan, Options Screening |
| 🎯 Best for | Stock & Options Traders |
| ♲ Subscription | Monthly, Yearly, Bi-Annually |
| 💰 Price | $0-$89/mo |
| 💻 OS | PC, Mac, Web |
| 🎮 Trial | Free 30-Day |
| ✂ Discount | -25% for Bi-Annual Subscription + $25 Coupon + $199 in Bonuses* |
| 🌎 Region | USA |
Pros
- The Best App for Stock Screening
- Excellent Selection of Fundamental & Technical Screening Criteria
- Pre-market Stock Screening
- Create & Scan with Custom Indicators
- Ability to Trade from Charts with a TC2000 Brokerage Account
Cons
- No News Service
- No Social Trading
If you want fundamentals screened in real-time layered with technical screens integrated into live watchlists connected to your charts, TC2000 is a good option.
I selected TC2000 as my tool of choice back in 2000 because it offered the best implementation of fundamental scanning, filtering, and sorting available on the market. Twenty years later, they are still a leader in stock screening and scanning.
TC2000 offers a large selection of fundamentals to choose from, but what makes it unique is the fact you can, with a few clicks, create your indicators based on the fundamentals. You can then overlay the indicators directly on the charts, opening up a new world and technical and fundamental analysis.
Best Stock Screener App: TC2000
Out of all the software we tested, TC2000 has the best mobile app for stock screening. The “TC2000 Easy Scan Stock Scanner” is built directly into the main screen, and you can start a scan simply by selecting the lightning symbol. The ability to run live and pre-market scans directly from your mobile device is unique to TC2000.
In the image to the right, I am scanning for daily volume surges using the mobile app.
Best Pre-Market Screener: TC2000
TC2000 allows you to run screening and scanning on pre-market data. When you open the desktop software before market hours, the app asks if you want to load all pre-market data, this allows you to perform advanced screening before the market opens.
TC2000 is free to test its capabilities but to access the EasyScan system for Stocks, ETFs, and Options, you need the Gold Service, currently priced at $29.99 per month.
TC2000 is the best integrated of all stock market software. You can effortlessly glide from effective screening on a broad array of fundamental & technical screens to managing your watchlist and directly trading with the TC2000 Brokerage. The Options screening and on-screen options execution are second to none, leading the industry.
The only downside to TC2000 is that it is only available for those who trade the US and Canadian Stock Markets. TC2000 is well suited to Day Traders because its scanning is real-time, and you can trade directly from the charts if you use TC2000 Brokerage.
If you are interested in TC2000, click this button to get a discount on the Liberated Stock Trader PRO Training Course and our Stock Market Crash Detector Book (Combined Value of $129)
9. Screener.Co: Large Screening Database.
Screener.co has a huge financial database making it a good choice for international long-term investors who value customizable access to company fundamental data.
Lenny Grover, the founder of Screener.co, has built a powerful fundamental stock screener using industry-leading Thomson Reuters Data. There is a massive amount of fundamental data, literally everything you ever dreamed of; everything in the financial reports is there and includes detailed breakdowns of each company’s details.
Pros
- Huge Selection of Fundamental Screening Criteria
- Good Historical Database
- Can Export Data to Excel
Cons
- No News Service
- Difficult to Use
Screener.co features a large global universe of securities, so we recommend it for international investors; you can filter and screen on an exchange, index, sector, and even which country or state the company is headquartered in. A robust calculation engine allows non-technical users to create custom screening formulas to query 1,250 built-in metrics.
Screener.co is a fast HTML5 web-based platform that allows rapid iteration when developing screens, unlike Bloomberg’s cumbersome EQS. Flexible column sets allow any metrics, including custom metrics, to be displayed in the results table or watchlist view. Screener.co starts at $24.99 per month, comparable to Stock Rover, TC2000, and TradingView Premium Plus.
Screener.Co has solid fundamental screening; the elements I find to be unique are the following:
- Insider Trading Screens. You can screen for Insider Net Share Bought, Insider Trades, Insider Ownership Percent, Shares Purchased, Buy & Sell Transactions, and insider shares sold.
- Historical Fundamental. Most Stock screeners will only show you the picture now. Screener.co also stored the fundamental data historically, which is a huge bonus if, for example, you want to track management effectiveness (return on assets) over time.
- Extensive Dividend Coverage, Institutional Ownership, and Financial Statements.
Screener.Co is not designed for people looking for Technical Analysis screening. If you want to scan if the price is above the 200-day simple moving average (SMA) and the Relative Strength Indicator is above its own 20-day exponential moving average (EMA), you cannot do it with this package. So active Traders need not apply.
Additionally, Screener.Co is not easy to use. You will need significant time to sift through the database and learn the names of the specific criteria you are looking for.
[Related Article: Best Financial & News Services For Traders]
10. Yahoo Finance: Simple Free Stock Screener.
With 114 different technical indicators and 52 stock screening criteria, beginners will be well covered with Yahoo Finance. Yahoo has updated its interactive charting; it is a clean experience and now works full screen.
The interactive charts allow you to draw trendlines, linear regressions, and even quadrant lines. A nice new addition is Yahoo now provides real-time quotes and charts via the BATS system.
Pros
- Good clean user interface
- 50+ screening criteria
- Broker integration for trading
- Nice charts
Cons
- Overpriced premium plan
- Limited technical analysis screening criteria
Yahoo Finance is working hard to make its charting system a worthy alternative to other free vendors. They have done something quite innovative. You can now trade stocks through the Yahoo Finance charts, which provide an interface to many mainstream US brokers. But ultimately, it does not have an advantage over a broker’s standard software. It is a nice feature, but if you have a brokerage account, you will already have access to real-time data, charts, and quotes and can trade directly with them, so it seems a little redundant but still a step forward.
A major downside to the Yahoo Finance stock screener is there are no technical screening criteria, and access to more powerful scanning filters requires the overprice premium service.
Best Stock Screeners Testing Summary
The Best Stock Screeners
Testing shows that Stock Rover and Portfolio 123 are the best stock screeners offering comprehensive fundamental financial data and 10-year historical databases. Portfolio 123 is best for backtesting screening strategies, and Stock Rover is best for value, growth, and dividend investors.
Hand-on usage shows that Stock Rover is the best stock screener for value, dividend, and growth investors, with a 10-year fundamental database, 670 financial indicators, and industry-leading research and portfolio management. Portfolio 123’s backtesting engine is extremely detailed and provides excellent reporting and portfolio management features.
The Best Stock Scanners
The best stock scanners are TradingView, Trade Ideas, and MetaStock. TradingView enables global market scanning for stocks, Forex, and Crypto. Trade Ideas utilizes 3 AI Bots to scan the market for specific trading opportunities, and MetaStock is the most detailed technical market scanning, backtesting, and forecasting.
TradingView is the best stock scanning tool for international traders, with 160 technical criteria and a large active user community.
Trade Ideas is the best AI scanner for day traders, providing real-time profitable trade signals. Metastock’s software provides innovative backtesting and forecasting, helping to improve scanning results. Finally, TC2000 offers real-time Stock Option scanning and the best pre-market screener available.
The Best Free Stock Screeners
The best free stock screeners offering the most functionality are Stock Rover for long-term US investors and TradingView for US and international traders and investors. Finviz also has an excellent free stock screener. Stock Rover and TradingView offer the most useful free screening and scanning services.
The Best Stock Screeners Comparison.
| Top Stock Screeners | Best for: | Free Plan |
| Stock Rover | Investors | ✔ |
| TradingView | Traders | ✔ |
| Trade Ideas | Day Traders | ✘ |
| Portfolio 123 | Investors | ✔ |
| MetaStock | Traders | ✘ |
| TC2000 | Traders | ✔ |
| Finviz | Traders | ✔ |
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a stock screener?
A stock screener is an essential tool for investors allowing them to find stocks that meet specific technical, financial, or quantitative criteria. Stock screeners sort through thousands of stocks to give you a manageable list to research further.
What does a stock screener do?
Stock screeners do the task of finding stocks for investors based on specific investing criteria. Stock screeners save investors time by providing an efficient and effective way to highlight potential stocks that meet their investing strategies.
Are stock screeners good?
Stock screeners are only as good as the person using them. You need to understand what type of stocks you are looking for to use a stock screener effectively. Are you looking for undervalued stocks, dividend stocks, or growth stocks? Each strategy has differing criteria.
What is the difference between a screener and a scanner?
A stock screener enables you to filter stocks based on fundamental financial criteria such as Analyst Estimates, Earnings, Valuation, Cash Flow, and Sales. A stock market scanner will typically scan the market for technical measures, such as a new price high, a price above the moving average, or volume increases.
What is a stock market scanner?
A stock scanner is typically used by day or swing traders using technical analysis to identify short-term trades. Typical market scanning criteria include stock prices, patterns, volume, volatility, and chart indicators like moving averages, RSI, OBV, or MACD.
How to choose the best stock screener?
You should choose a stock screener based on your investing strategy. If you are a long-term growth, value, or dividend investor, then Stock Rover is a good choice. If you are a stock trader, then TradingView is a solid choice. Day Traders should select a scanner like Trade Ideas, which uses AI signals to give you an edge.
What is the point of stock screening?
Stock screening is a critical element in any investing strategy. Whether a day trader scanning the stock market for short-term trading opportunities or a long-term investor screening stocks for profitability, growth, or value, you must choose the right tool for the job.
Why is stock screening important?
Stock screening is a critically important early step in the process of building a stock portfolio. Those steps are: 1. Defining a Strategy. 2. Performing Stock Screening. 3. Research & Stock Selection 4. Purchasing Stocks & Balancing the Portfolio.
What to look for in a stock screener?
When looking for a good stock screener, you must understand your investing strategy. For a value investing strategy, a stock screener needs criteria such as Margin of Safety, Forward Cash-Flow, and Fair Value. An income strategy requires dividend yield, growth, and coverage criteria. For a growth strategy, a screener must have historical financial performance data on price, earnings, debt, and revenue.
Suppose you are day trading or swing trading. In that case, you will need a scanner to filter on technical criteria, such as stock price changes, volatility, volume, and performance, against indicators like MACD, Moving Averages, and RSI.
Do stock screeners work?
Well-designed stock screeners work very well, but unfortunately, many free stock screeners out there perform a very poor job. Our research shows the screeners that work the best are Stock Rover, TradingView, Finviz, Trade Ideas, and MetaStock.
How to use a stock screener?
You can easily learn you use a stock screener by following these steps. 1. Open TradingView. 2. Click on the Stock Screener Tab. 3. Click on Filters. 4. Select Your Criteria, for example, "Exchange = NASDAQ" and "PE Ratio < 25". 5. Review Your List of Fairly Priced Stocks.
What is an example of stock screening?
A good example of stock screening is finding undervalued stocks. A value investor would look for stocks with a Margin of Safety greater than 30%, a positive growing cash flow, and a PE Ratio lower than the industry average. These criteria provide a great example of what stocks value investors purchase.
Are stock screeners free or paid?
Most stock screeners are free to use, but you will need to pay to unlock more filters, features, and benefits. For example, Finviz, TradingView, and Stock Rover are excellent free screeners. But as you become more experienced and your strategies refined, you may want to pay for their premium services.
Are stock screeners worth it?
Yes, stock screeners are worth it because all good investing strategies start with a good stock screener. The three most important tools an investor uses are a stock screener, stock charts, and a brokerage account.
What stock screener should you use?
Our analysis shows that if you are a US value, growth, or dividend investor, you should use Stock Rover. If you are a US day trader, you should use Trade Ideas. If you are a US or international stock trader, then TradingView is a good choice.
What is the best free stock screener?
The best free stock screener for US long-term investors is Stock Rover. The best free screeners for traders are TradingView and Finviz. These free stock screeners offer powerful tools and functionality ideal for finding good potential investments at no cost.
What is the best stock screener?
Our research shows that the best stock screener for USA investors is Stock Rover, which provides powerful financial data filters. For international investors, TradingView and MetaStock are excellent choices.
Which stock screener is best in India?
Our research revealed the best stock screeners covering the India Sensex and BSE stock exchanges are TradingView and MetaStock. TradingView's screener covers India and is free. MetaStock Refinitiv's paid service has excellent stock screening, backtesting, and real-time news for all Indian stocks.
What is a good Can Slim stock screener?
Our testing shows there are two good options for finding Can Slim stocks. Stock Rover's stock screener enables you to implement a Can Slim strategy easily. Investors.com is the home of the Can Slim strategy and provides a slick paid screening service.
Does Google have a stock screener?
No, Google does not have a stock screener. Google Finance removed its stock screener over five years ago, and despite a recent redesign and revamp of the site, they have not reintroduced the stock screening functionality. A good alternative to Google's screener is Finviz.
Does TD Ameritrade have a stock screener?
Yes, TD Ameritrade has a basic stock screener with 55 filtering criteria. But compared to our testing of the best stock screeners, TD Ameritrade's screener does not make the Top 10; we recommend Stock Rover as a superior alternative.
What is the gap in stock screeners?
The Gap criteria in a stock screener allows you to filter stocks that have gapped up or down since the last close price. A Gap refers to a Gap in the stock chart price pattern, which indicates a strong buying or selling pressure on the stock. Two of our recommended stock screeners allow Gap screening, TradingView, and Finviz.
What is the best penny stock screener?
The best stock screener for penny stocks is TradingView because it allows you to screen for stock on OTC markets for free. Another good alternative is Finviz for penny stock screening.
What to look for when screening stocks?
When screening stocks for growth, you need to look for stocks that outperform the S&P 500 historically and have strong earnings growth. When looking for value stocks, you should select stocks with a high margin of safety. When looking for a dividend stock, you should seek a stable and consistent dividend yield and payout ratio. Stock Rover is the best US screener for these strategies.
What is the Graham Number in stock screeners?
The price to Graham Number is a conservative valuation measure based on Benjamin Graham's classic formula. The Graham Number is one of his tests for whether a company is undervalued and is computed as the square root of 22.5 times the tangible book value per share times the diluted continuing earnings per share.
Where is the google stock screener?
You might be wondering where the Google stock screener is. Google removed its stock screener over five years ago. Even though Google Finance has improved since 2021, the Google Finance team has not re-established stock screening functionality.
Appreciate very much your research in evaluating the different services. Great reviews; very informative and useful.
Which services are best for identifying sector rotation? Your service covering the major indices seems very useful but you don’t apply it to sectors. Why not?
Stock Rover is the best for sector rotation