Table of Contents
Predefined Scan Results
Our Scan Engine searches our entire database for symbols that meet whatever technical criteria you specify. This process is called “scanning,” “searching” or “screening.”
The Predefined Scan Results page contains the results from roughly 80 technical scans designed by StockCharts.com. These results are updated every few minutes during the trading day.
The different scan results are broken out into three sections in the report: Technical Indicators, Candlestick Patterns and Point & Figure Patterns. Each section is further split into bullish and bearish patterns.
In general, the Predefined Scans are relatively simple examples of what our Scan Engine can do. StockCharts Members can use the Scan Engine to create custom scans with much more complexity.
Accessing the Predefined Scans Report
You can get to the Predefined Scans page from the “Your Scans” area of Your Dashboard or the “Additional Tools & Reports” section of the Charts & Tools page.
Parts of the Predefined Scans Report
In the table above, the left column contains the total number of results for that scan. The colored bar shows how that number has changed from the previous day - green means there are more results than yesterday, red means there are fewer results. If you hover the mouse cursor over the colored bar, it will display how many more or fewer results there are today compared to the previous day, as shown below.
The columns on the right side of the table show the results broken down by exchange and mutual funds. Clicking on the number of results will take you to a page showing the specific results of that scan.
You can view results from the previous five trading days by selecting a different timeframe from the “Select a Different Scan Report” dropdown list, which is located in the upper right corner of the page.
Customizing a Predefined Scan
Once you choose your report timeframe and click on the number of results for a specific predefined scan, you'll be taken to a scan results page similar to the custom scan results page.
In the top right corner, click on the “Click here to edit this scan” link to load the scan clauses in the Advanced Scan Workbench. From there, you can adjust the scan to suit your own needs and save it to your account as a custom scan.
Note: You can also load predefined scan clauses directly from the Advanced Scan Workbench. To do this, choose the predefined scan you want from the Predefined Scans dropdown menu, located in the Scan Components section of the workbench.
Step-By-Step Instructions: Customizing Predefined Scans
Learn More: Advanced Scan Workbench
Symbol Search
The Symbol Search feature also searches the Predefined Scan Results for any scans that contain a particular symbol. Simply enter a symbol into the “Search for Symbol” box and click the “Search” button to obtain a list of relevant scan results. As you enter text in the search box, a dropdown list of symbols (which updates with each letter entered) will appear, which you can use to find your desired symbol; this is useful if you know the name of a security but not its symbol. Once you have the search results, clicking on them will take you to the scan results.
