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Getting Started

You may create a screen by simply clicking the New button in the Screener Task Panel, or right click on your mouse and select Rename. You'll be prompted to indicate whether you want to create a New Stock Screen, New Fund Screen or New Folder in which to house your screens. The New item you create will appear at the bottom your My Screens folder in the Screener Task Panel with an editable field label.

If you created a screen, type in your preferred screen name and hit the Enter key to save the name. The Screen Input window header will now reflect your new screen's name.

To rename a screen, double-click the screen name in the Screener Task Panel. An editable field will appear; type in the new name, and hit Enter to save it.

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Setting Screener Criteria

Screener criteria are displayed in a series of filter inputs as bar or area graphs (which you can manipulate by clicking and holding the slider bars) and text selection fields. These reflect the distribution of those criteria for all stocks in the database, and allow you to view the criteria settings for each input at a glance.

• Within the Screen Input window, criteria categories can be expanded by clicking the category header; clicking an open category header will close the category. When a category is expanded, you will have a full view of the criteria input types available for criteria selection. Scroll down to see them all.
• You can also navigate input categories by using the “Jump to” dropdown menus in the category headers. These menus allow you to go directly to a specific input of your choice without having to traverse the accordion structure.
• The number of criteria for each input category in the Stock screens and Fund screens varies. You may enter criteria values in any order and even skip a category entirely.

Criteria Inputs

• Many of the criteria input fields allow you to specify a range of values. For example, in the Smart Select Ratings category, you may enter the criteria range from 80 to 90 for Earnings Per Share (EPS) Rating. In this example, of you removed the 90 from the “to” field and left it blank while leaving the 80 in the “from” field, the screen would pull results with EPS Rating values of 80 and higher.
• Other criteria input types include: dollar range, date range, letter grade range, binary (true/false, yes/no), keyword, percentage range, and pick lists. All inputs are customizable, and as you enter them the Waterfall Summary, Benchmark Evaluator, and List Contents will update dynamically with results.
• Criteria input that you apply often to a variety of your screens can be added to the Favorites Criteria Category. This feature offers you quick and easy access to your most favorite screen criteria without having to open the accordion structure. To add criteria input to Favorites, just click the grey star in the Criteria Input box. The star turns yellow once you have successfully added it as one of your Favorites. You may remove criteria inputs from your Favorites by clicking the yellow star. Once the criteria input is removed, the star turns back to grey. All of your assigned Favorites criteria inputs can be accessed from the master “Jump to” dropdown menu in the Screen Input Window header.
• In some criteria input boxes, you will see a button with initials representative of our featured stock market gurus. You may click that button to populate that criteria input with a suggested value that matches the investment philosophy of the guru whose name corresponds to the initials. For example, if you select the button with the initials WJO, values that reflect the investment style of William J. O’Neil will be assigned to that criteria input. Guru Value buttons will only appear in the criteria input box if the criteria corresponds to a guru's individual investment style. Some criteria will have more than one guru’s suggested value associated with it. In this case, the Guru Value button will feature an arrowhead indicator in the bottom right corner. Click and hold your cursor over the indicator to see a dropdown menu with names of the gurus. Select the name of the guru whose suggested value you want to apply to the criteria. These Guru Value buttons allow you to screen like a stock market guru or mix and match styles to create your own custom screens.
• Only stocks and funds that match all of your criteria are included in your search results. By setting too many criteria, it’s possible to narrow down your results set to null. Check the Waterfall Summary to see the degree to which each criteria affects your results set.

Criteria may be entered either by adjusting the slider bars or by entering the data manually.

Viewing Criteria Inputs

By default, the Screen Input Window shows you all criteria available for creating screens. At times, however, you may want a more streamlined view of just the criteria that you are using for a particular screen. You can select the Hide Unused Criteria link in the Screen Input Window header to display only the criteria inputs boxes that are currently in use for your selected screen. To see all available criteria again, select the Show All Criteria link in the header.

When your unused criteria is hidden, you can easily add new criteria or remove existing criteria in your user-created screens. To add new criteria to your screen, click the Add Criteria link in the header bar to launch the dropdown menu that allows you to navigate directly to the criteria you want to add.

To remove criteria, right click your mouse in the criteria input box and select "Reset & Remove Criteria."

Note: If you create a new screen while your unused criteria is hidden, you will not see any criteria input boxes in the Screen Input Window until you've added criteria using the "Add criteria" button.

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Changing Screen Universe

By default, the custom screens you create filter the entire MarketSmith Database. As you build your screen, you have the option of screening against individual lists, or excluding lists. To modify the screen universe, click Change from the MarketSmith Database located in the Waterfall Summary. A light box will open and you may choose to screen from user created or pre-set MarketSmith lists and reports. To exclude a list from your screen, such as an existing watch list, simply check the Exclude selection from MarketSmith Database box and click Select.

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Results

The List Manager

• As you make selections within the Screen Input window, the results set dynamically loads in List Contents. The Waterfall and Benchmarks views will update dynamically as well.
• To view a stock chart or fund chart within your results set, double-click the symbol; the corresponding chart will be generated. Visit Learn :: List Management for more information on how to view, control and manage your results within the List Panel.

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