Segment: Brokerage
Publication date: Friday, February 26, 2010
# Pages: (77 pages)

Abstract | Table of Contents

Eighty-five percent of e-Monitor firms offer stock screeners. We considered the following in evaluating each firm’s offerings:

• Accessibility
• Usability
• Results & Follow-Up Options

Of the firms that offer stock screeners, 88% restrict the tool to clients; only two firms provide stock screeners publicly. Two other firms offer “preview” or restricted versions of their screeners to public site users.

One of the more advanced, and most helpful, features on stock screeners is real-time matching results – that is, dynamically updating and displaying the current number of matching results directly on the screener as users make selections. This feature allows users to gauge how broad or narrow their search is before navigating to the results page. Of the firms that offer stock screeners, more than half include this feature.

We also looked for firms that provide a selection of predefined, “off-the-shelf” stock screens to complement the customizable tool. These are especially helpful for novice investors that may not know where to start on their own. Of the firms that offer customizable stock screeners, nearly 60% also provide a selection of predefined screens. The number of predefined screens offered by each firm ranged from five to 40.

Subjects

Online tools, calculators, etc.

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