Technical Stock Screening

Direct Answer

A technical screen is a rule applied across a universe of stocks to return the subset currently satisfying it. Writing the rule is the easy part; what decides whether the output is usable is the liquidity filter applied before the screen and the validation applied after it. A condition being true says nothing about whether you can act on it, because a stock can be genuinely oversold and still untradable on spread, average volume, or float.

Why does a screen return so many unusable results?

Because a condition being true says nothing about whether you can act on it. A stock can be genuinely oversold and still be untradable on spread, average volume, or float. Filtering for liquidity before the technical condition removes most of that noise, which is why it belongs first in the pipeline rather than last.

Every guide in this section

15 guides in this section.

All guides

• 52-Week High Screen

  A 52-week high screen filters for stocks trading at or near their highest price in the trailing year, a level some analysts read as relative strength.

• Breakout Screen Explained

  A breakout screen filters for securities moving beyond a resistance level, range, or moving average, often with a volume filter to flag genuine breakouts.

• Death Cross Screen

  A death cross screen filters for securities where the 50-day moving average has recently crossed below the 200-day, a lagging signal of a possible downtrend.

• Gap-Down Screen: Finding Overnight Losers

  A gap-down screen filters for securities that opened notably below the prior close.

• Gap-Up Screen: How It Works

  A gap-up screen filters for securities that opened notably above the prior close.

• Golden Cross Screen: How It Works

  A golden cross screen filters for securities where the 50-day moving average recently crossed above the 200-day, a lagging signal of a possible longer-term.

• How to Validate Screener Candidates

  A stock screen narrows a universe, not a decision.

• Liquidity Filters Before Technical Screens

  A liquidity filter removes thinly traded securities from a screen before technical criteria run, so results reflect patterns on tradeable candidates.

• MACD Screen: Crossover-Based Stock Screening

  A MACD screen filters securities by MACD state, a bullish or bearish signal-line crossover, or a histogram zero-cross.

• Momentum Screen

  A momentum screen filters for securities with strong recent price performance over a lookback period, based on the premise that recent winners tend to keep.

• Multi-Factor Technical Screens

  A multi-factor technical screen combines two or more criteria, like RSI, volume, and moving averages, into one filter a security must satisfy simultaneously.

• Overbought Stock Screen: How It Works

  An overbought stock screen filters for securities showing technical signs of a potentially excessive short-term rally, such as a high RSI reading or price.

• Oversold Stock Screen

  An oversold stock screen filters for stocks with a low RSI, a sharp recent drop, or a price well below its moving average, a signal, not a value judgment.

• RSI Screen: Finding Oversold/Overbought Stocks

  An RSI screen filters securities by Relative Strength Index reading, most often below 30 or above 70, to surface potentially oversold or overbought candidates.

• Unusual Volume Screen

  An unusual volume screen finds stocks trading well above their average daily volume, flagging names worth investigating for a news event or breakout.