How to Find the Best Free Stock Scanner for Technical Setups

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What's the difference between a stock scanner and a stock screener? In general, they are interchangeable terms. At Stock Trading Warrior, the distinction is that a scanner program is used to scan the thousands of stocks trading on the stock market for technical setups. A stock screener is used to screen for fundamental criteria. In short:

• Stock Scanner for Technicals (featured on this webpage)
• Stock Screener for Fundamentals

This webpage offers up suggestions and websites for finding research tools that will help you find stocks in technical price/volume setups:

Free Custom and Predefined Scanners

Custom programs will allow you to put in your specialized criteria for technical indicators like moving average crosses, MACD, RSI, ADX, etc. This is a great feature for people who want to tailor fit their search criteria.

Examples of predefined means stocks at their 52-week highs or lows, bearish or bullish price movements, big gainers or losers, momentum plays or stocks with high trading volume.

FINVIZ.com - I think this is one of the best for it's ability to combine technicals with fundamentals. They have a paid service with even more capabilities.

Dojispace.com - Offers customizable scans and predefined Candlestick pattern scans.

Stockcharts.com - has good predefined technical stock scans.

Additionally, your online stock trading broker should have at least some screener (fundamentals) capabilities if not a scanner. For example, the broker below (the one I use) offers the following stock scanner tools:

- Options Scanner, Backtesting Screener, ETF Screener, Mutal Fund Screener, Stock Screener - easy to use predefined stocks or limited customizable abilities for technicals. Additionally, TradeKing now offers a Stock Screener, ETF Screener, Mutal Fund Screener. The screener capabilities also offer technicals, candlestick chart patterns, performance and trader sentiment. Very easy to understand with the ability to save data.

Scanners are invaluable for pinpointing stocks that are setting up for price moves. Using a free service that searches for both fundamental and technical setups like FINVIZ is pretty great. If you can't get exactly what you want from a combined research tool then you might have to break it up into two searches.

You can also determine the most important probability in your stock market strategy and find stocks with those characteristics and then scan them visually on charts or run them through a scan program.

Go to Stock Market Screener to look for screeners for fundamental combinations.

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