By: Alexander Voigt
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What Are The Best Stock Screeners of 2024?

My stock screener is the first tool I open once I start my trading day. That’s because timing is essential for day trading, which makes it necessary to have trade signals based on real-time market data as fast as possible.

I think using the best stock screener is beneficial and helps improve trading results, and over the years, I have intensively tested and reviewed over 30 stock screeners. Some are ideal for day traders, and some are the better choice for investors. Below you will find my 10 favorite ones of each category.

stock screener

About Stock Screeners

A stock screener is a tool used by active traders, swing traders and investors that helps identify the best stocks to trade and invest in.

The best stock screeners are the ones that help you to achieve your goal most efficiently. The ratio between costs and outcomes should always be well-balanced.

If the best free stock screeners do the job, then that’s okay. Yet if you have a day trading platform and brokerage account for day trading purposes, you’ll need stock screeners with real-time tick-by-tick data to get trade alerts in real time. To help you find the right stock screener, we’ve listed the best ones below.

Best Stock Screeners

Stock Screener Best For ✅
Trade Ideas Day Trading
TradingView Mobile Devices
TrendSpider Technical Analysis
Seeking Alpha General Screening
Stock Rover Investing
BlackBoxStocks Options Screening
TC2000 Desktop Screening
Finviz Free Screening
Zacks Investment Research
Benzinga Pro Market News

1. Trade Ideas – Best for Day Trading

Trade Ideas

Day traders need quick and precise stock screeners that scan the market in real time, and this is where Trade Ideas has its strengths. The screener is empowered by AI algorithms, which are used to identify trading setups that work in current market environments.

The AI tool scans the U.S. and Canadian markets, identifies best possible settings, applies them to current market conditions and provides users with trade ideas in real time

While the price tag is surely at the upper end of scanners, the wide variety of all-in-one features is known to convince. The features range from trade alerts, backtesting and fully customizable stock screeners, over market fundamentals, picture-in-picture charts and a trading room to broker integration, simulated trading and trading through the chart with one click.

  • Screening metrics, filters, alerts and variables: 500+
  • Pricing: Free version, occasional free trial (test drive), paid version from $118 – $228 monthly and $999 – $1,999 yearly.
15% Off With Coupon Code DAYTRADINGZ

2. TradingView – Best for Mobile Use

TradingView

TradingView strikes with the best app for iOS and Android amongst all stock screeners in this list. The app has excellent ratings on the App Store (4.9/5 with about 400 reviews) and on Google Play (with an impressive 4.6/5 based on about 470,000 votes).

The screener app works everywhere. It is fast and accurate. Those who want to use TradingView on larger monitors should consider using the web-based version or installing the available desktop software.

TradingView also stands out by covering the broadest range of market data across the globe. From U.S. and Canadian markets to European and Asian markets, users can choose from nearly every market imaginable.

  • Screening metrics, filters, alerts and variables: 500+
  • Pricing: Free version, free trial, paid version from $14.95 – $59.95 monthly and $155.40 – $599.40 yearly.
30 Day Free Trial + Discount Offer During Trial Period

3. TrendSpider – Best for Technical Analysis

TrendSpider

If excellent charting capabilities, a broad range of covered financial markets and innovative functionalities are what you are looking for, TrendSpider becomes an excellent choice.

TrendSpider is frequently used for technical analysis. You can apply over 200 trading indicators to your chart. In addition, multiple chart types are supported, from candlestick charts, over range bars, Heikin Ashi charts, Renko and Point-and-Figure charts, to TrendSpider’s innovative Raindrop charts. You can visualize multiple charts on one monitor simultaneously.

What makes TrendSpider unique is the multi-time frame analysis, where you set a primary time frame and a secondary time frame. This way, you can, for example, visualize a trading indicator value calculated based on a lower time frame on a higher time frame (e.g., the 200 EMA of the 5 minute chart on the daily chart)

While TrendSpider focuses on technical analysis, it’s an excellent choice for stock traders to scan for fundamental and technical criteria because of their integrated database of company fundamentals, earnings data, and seasonality insights.

  • Screening metrics, filters, alerts and variables: 200+
  • Pricing: Free trial, paid version from $149 monthly and $1,788 yearly.
13% Off on Monthly and 50% Off on Yearly Subscriptions

4. Seeking Alpha – Best for Fundamentals

Seeking Alpha

Seeking Alpha is an excellent choice for smart investors who want to analyze the stock market in detail regarding every fundamental data aspect one can think of. There are three main contributor types at Seeking Alpha. The traditional SA authors write well-researched stories, the Wall Street analyst ratings and news, and the Seeking Alpha Quant algorithm.

The quant functionality grades and ranks stocks based on fundamental data at buy, hold and sell. This can be combined with factor grades such as valuation, growth, profitability and momentum. In addition, it’s possible to set price alerts for every stock, monitor SEC filings, compare companies against their peers, and connect portfolios to the Seeking Alpha platform.

  • Screening metrics, filters, alerts and variables: 200+
  • Pricing: Free version, free trial, and a paid version for $239 yearly.
20% Discount and 7-Day Free Trial

5. Stock Rover – Best for Buy and Hold Investors

Stock Rover

Stock Rover has the best coverage of screening metrics. Over 700 data points can be evaluated, analyzed, compared and used to make informed investment decisions. The clear target group of Stock Rover are buy-and-hold investors with long-term investment horizons.

The web-based platform works on any device. The charting options are wide ranging, from traditional price charts to valuation to ratio charts. A stock’s fair value, margin of safety, historical stock scoring, Monte Carlo portfolio simulation, rebalancing tools and many other features for investors are integrated.

  • Screening metrics, filters, alerts and variables: 700+
  • Pricing: Pricing: Free trial, paid version from $7.99 – $27.99 monthly and $79.99 – $279.99 yearly.
30 Day Free Trial

6. BlackBoxStocks – Best for Options Trading

BlackBoxStocks

BlackBoxStocks excels where other screener functionalities end. While most tools focus on stock screening, BlackBoxStocks goes the extra mile and fully features an options screener that scans over 900,000 options contracts in real time. The stock screener covers scans like top lists, dark pool trading activities, premarket action and more.

The options screener comes with a bullish and bearish flow, options heat map, volume, alerts, open interest analytics, and options flow, including historical options flow. Unique features are the gamma exposure, net options delta (total and 0DTE), and options dollar flow.

  • Screening metrics, filters, alerts and variables: 100+ (stocks and options)
  • Pricing: Free trial, paid version $99.97 monthly and $959 yearly.
1st month 50% Off or Free Trial

7. TC2000 – Best for Windows Installation

TC2000

TC2000 is an installable trading software with extensive market scanner features. Users can scan for technical analysis based conditions and a wide range of company fundamentals. Custom alerts can be set to never miss a price change.

The scanner is feature-rich, and the help guide on filtering, scanning and sorting alone includes 54 helpful articles. You’ll quickly learn how to use the condition editor, use multiple filters, create conditions for indicators, analyze bid/ask spreads, use the data sort feature, and more.

  • Screening metrics, filters, alerts and variables: 100+ (stocks and options)
  • Pricing: Free trial, paid version from $9.99 – $59.99 monthly and $99.84 – $599.88 yearly.
$25 Discount

8. Finviz – Best for Quick Market Research

Finviz

Finviz is a free stock screener that I have used for over ten years to quickly check market conditions when delayed quotes are okay enough for the things to look at. As surprising as it may sound, Finviz looks similar to how it looked ten years ago. That’s due to its absolute simplicity and efficiency of how you can use it. Type in the stock symbol of your choice, and you’ll get a good mix of company fundamentals and technical analysis insights, along with news and insider trading information.

The tool is fast, and the free version is much better than many other tools with free stock screener features. Those who want can subscribe to ther premium stock screener Finviz Elite, get access to advanced stock screeners, correlations analysis, backtesting and broader market coverage.

  • Screening metrics, filters, alerts and variables: 300+
  • Pricing: Free version available. Paid version $39.50 monthly and $299.50 yearly.
Register for Free

9. Zacks – Best for free Investment Research

Zacks

The Zacks stock screener is only one of the diverse screening tools Zacks offers since, besides stocks, you can scan for mutual funds and ETFs. The stock screeners are divided into Basic Screens and Premium screens, where the Basic Screens are free stock screeners that accessible to everyone.

You can use the Zacks stock screener app to freely scan for undervalued stocks, stocks with fundamental strengths, growth stocks and many more. The paid plan includes access to the Zacks #1 rank (strong buy) list today and guides on how to use the Zacks stock screener.

  • Screening metrics, filters, alerts and variables: 100+
  • Pricing: Free version and free trial available. Paid Premium version $249 per year.
30-Day Free Trial

10. Benzinga Pro – Best for Screening Market News

Benzinga Pro

Benzinga Pro combines stock screening and data analysis with actionable stock market news, trader chat rooms and trading signals, with innovative features like their audio squawk streams.

The screener is frequently used by swing traders. Also, active traders enjoy using it with scanning intervals down to 1 second.

The scanner feature is available in the Essential subscription but not in the lower-priced Basic subscription.

  • Screening metrics, filters, alerts and variables: 100+
  • Pricing: Free trial, paid version from $30.58 – $166.42 monthly and $367 – $1,997 yearly.

Stock Screeners for Day Trading – Conclusion

My favorite stock screener for day trading is Trade Ideas, followed by TradingView. Both tools know to convince with fast data streams, a great selection of stock screener settings, and an easy-to-use interface. Still, backtesting, automated trading, and A.I. trade signals are only available with Trade Ideas, which makes it the clear winner.

For options traders, BlackBoxStocks is an exciting scanner that can scan for unusual options activity (they also have basic stock scans). The filter options are really good, and the screener is fast and accurate. The stock screener from TrendSpider is a good choice for swing traders and investors because of their stock analysis features.

Help Guide

What Are The Different Types of Stock Screeners

Pre-configured Pre-configured screens help investors and traders get started efficiently by selecting a defined screener and getting results visualized immediately. Popular pre-configured scans are premarket gappers, earnings surprises, high relative volume and market cap.

Custom Custom screens enable users to define their filter criterion to archive more specific scanner results. Filters can be specific fundamental data points such as market cap or data such as position in the previous day range on high relative volume.

Community Many traders and investors want to help each other save time and achieve the best possible results by sharing their stock screener settings with others. Community-based screener settings are frequently shared with specific URLs that contain the relevant settings.

3rd-party The market of trading systems and custom scan developers appears endless. Users must be cautious with such products since sellers in this niche frequently protect the source code, which makes it impossible for users to see what the system does and what sensible data is shared.

What Is the Difference between a stock scanner and a screener?

The difference between a stock scanner and a screener is that the scanner uses tick market data, while the screener mainly screens for fundamentals. A clear differentiation with all details can be found in my article stock screener vs scanner, where I explain the differences with examples.

How to Choose a Stock Screener for Day Trading

You start by evaluating your needs and then look at the best options where price and value are well balanced.

You will also need to choose whether a standalone screener or an integrated screener. Broker dashboards often include a screener, but in some cases, it is only a side product and not the best choice.

A dedicated stock scanner is typically the better option since those are directly developed for scanning purposes.

Here are some of the things to consider when evaluating a stock screener:

  • What regions are you interested in? (North America, Europe, Asia etc.)
  • What other assets do you want to trade and invest (mutual funds, ETFs, forex or even cryptocurrencies).
  • Does free end-of-day data suffice, or do you need real-time tick data?
  • Is it sufficient to have out-of-the-box pre-defined scans, or do you need coding language capabilities?

How Do You Know That You Use a Good Stock Screener?

You know that you are using a good stock screener when the tool helps with your trading and investing strategy. Your learning curve should be steep when you add this type of software.

A good screener has fundamental and technical filters. Fundamental data like price to earnings ratio and market cap are typically included in free screeners, but if you need more complex things, you might need to sign up for a paid plan.

Day traders consider using stock screeners with pre market data if it helps them to prepare to either trade during pre market or shortly after market open.

Are Stock Analysis Websites Worth It?

Free stock research websites like Google Finance and Yahoo Finance are highly valuable for beginners. Some of them include screener features and add value with market updates and analysis functionalities.

Is Free Stock Research Worth It?

Yes. Free stock research is worth it because you save money compared to paid research tools. However, if the time is invested in researching information on different websites, it can be of higher value to pay a subscription for a research tool that aggregates information, which makes it more efficient to complete especially complex research.

Is TD Ameritrade’s Free Stock Screener (thinkorswim) A Good Choice?

TD Ameritrade is different from the other scanners in the list because it’s a platform provided by the broker TD Ameritrade. That means that you need to open an account to use their scanner, which is only possible for people in the United States.

Those eligible to open an account with TD Ameritrade can use their platform thinkorswim. The platform includes a great market scanner. So, in the best case, if TD Ameritrade is your preferred broker, and if the functionalities are sufficient enough to match your needs, then this tool is a great choice since then you save money because it’s not necessarily to subscribe to any other screener.

  • Screening metrics, filters, alerts and variables: 50+
  • Pricing: Free for brokerage clients
Alexander Voigt, CEO
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Alexander Voigt is the founder of DayTradingZ, was a regular contributor to Benzinga and has been featured and quoted on leading financial websites such as Investors.com, Capital.com, Business Insider and Forbes.