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How To Choose & Use Stock Scanners Successfully

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I don’t know if you’ve heard, but the days of spending hours and hours every morning monitoring your trades and stocks are long gone. No, I’m not saying that you should no longer deal with any kinds of investments. I’m simply saying that things have gotten much, much easier for stock traders. What used to take a couple of hours can now be done in a matter of minutes, which means that you can achieve a lot more in a lot less time.

The invention that made all of that possible is known as a stock scanner. These are designed to do all the heavy lifting instead of you, allowing you to enjoy your trades rather than constantly staring at the market fluctuations trying to grab the best trading opportunity. Nowadays, the opportunity can almost literally knock on your door. Except, the door is the screen of your smart gadget.

I can only imagine how curios you are about this new invention. It will definitely make your life much easier while also allowing you to grab the very best opportunities at the right time. What more could possibly a stock trader like you wish for? It’s safe to say that this sounds like a dream come true, am I right?

There is one catch, though. While these scanners can do all the hard work for you, it doesn’t mean that you don’t have to do anything at all. Your responsibility is to learn two important things. The first one is how to choose the perfect stock scanner for you and the second one is how to use it and make it work instead of you.

If you’re only now getting acquainted with this whole concept, you might be a bit confused and unable to figure out how you can choose the right tool for you, let alone how to use it the right way. I understand the confusion, but the truth is that you can very well do everything perfectly, just as long as you take some time to do some learning about the whole concept. For starters, you might want to learn more about stock scanners in general.

What Is A Stock Scanner?

First of all, let us take a look at what this tool actually is. It's a piece of software that can scan through countless stocks in an effort to find exactly what you're looking for. You set the criteria, the tool does the work almost instantly. That saves you a lot of time and a lot of trouble. You don't need to manually go through everything, because an automated software can do it all in an instant.

These tools really are a game changer in the world of stock trading. They save you so much time that you would spend on endlessly searching for the right opportunity and allow you to focus on that opportunity right away. I believe that every single stock trader out there can hugely benefit from this piece of software, which is exactly why they are becoming more and more popular, day after day.

How To Find The Right One?

Now, if you’ve done some searching already, you might have realized that there are so many scanners on the market, all offering to provide you with the best stock opportunities in no time. Still, it goes without saying that some of those work better than the others. That raises an important question. How can you be sure that you are choosing the right tool for you?

There are a few things you can do in order to be able to choose the right tool. Of course, you could give all of them a chance, but that isn’t exactly a viable solution. That’s why you should do some research before actually giving any of these tools a chance. Don’t worry, you’ll be able to do the research rather quickly and then proceed to using one of these amazing pieces of software.

For starters, you should get some information from your fellow stock traders. They might already know how to use a stock scanner and they might already be using one that works perfectly. That means that they can give you recommendations on specific tools and you should take those recommendations into further consideration. It can easily happen that you end up using one of the tools they suggested.

There’s one more thing that you should do before you start using any of these tools. Go online and read a few reviews, so that you can figure out how previous users were satisfied. This will help you discover both the strong and the weak points of particular pieces of software, which will definitely have a huge impact on your ultimate decision.

How To Use It?

After you have found the tool that you believe is the best one for you, it’s time to start using it. You might be a bit confused in the beginning about how these actually work and how you should use them effectively. That confusion will definitely be short-lived, because you’ll quickly figure out all the features of these tools. In fact, you’ll eventually become a true expert.

There are two most important things that you need to understand, at least in the beginning. First, you will need to build a watchlist. That will serve as a way to keep track of a collection of stocks, allowing you to quickly locate them and monitor their performance. Your very own watchlist will help you single out those market areas that show great potential, which will definitely lead to some great opportunities.

In addition to that, you will need to set up intraday alerts. That will help you know whenever something unique is happening. Even if you aren’t an intraday trader, you’ll definitely be able to benefit from setting up these alerts, because you’ll be able to spot certain changes very early. That way, you’ll never miss out on big opportunities.

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Emma Drew

Emma has spent over 15 years sharing her expertise in making and saving money, inspiring thousands to take control of their finances. After paying off £15,000 in credit card debt, she turned her side hustles into a full-time career in 2015. Her award-winning blog, recognized as the UK's best money-making blog for three years, has made her a trusted voice, with features on BBC TV, BBC radio, and more.

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