Screening

Purpose: Find stocks matching my own criteria.

If I'm standing on the White board of a Watchlist, Screen stocks will open the query panel without any criteria. If I'm standing on a query result, Refine Query will open the query panel with the criteria of that query.

The query panel contains the following elements:

• Get top list sorted on: to define the metric to be used as ranking criterion.
  • Multiple sort criteria (composite ranking)
    Besides sorting on a single metric, Uncle Stock also supports sorting on multiple criteria.
    • You can select several sort metrics at once.
    • Only a curated set of metrics is available for multi-sort.
    • Each selected metric is scaled to a 0–1 range across the result set.
    • The scaled values are added together to form a composite score.
    • Stocks are ranked by this composite score, highest first.
    • As a result, no single metric dominates due to its unit or magnitude; each contributes proportionally.
• Criteria: to define a set of restricting criteria on metrics.
  • To select a metric, type in the name, and Uncle Stock will hint the metrics, or select and use the tree view.
  • Clause types:
    • Must: condition is required for matching.
    • Should: flexible matching. The system will try to satisfy as many “should” conditions as possible. If there are 2 or more, results are automatically ranked so stocks matching more “should” conditions appear first.
    • Exclude: exclude stocks that match this condition. Also allows including stocks with missing values.
• Index: specify the code of an index. The query will look for stocks that are components of the index. Only indexes listed in the assistant are supported. Don't use the ^ symbol. Examples: GSPC (S&P500), RUT (Russell 2000), STOXX (Stoxx 600), FTLC (FTSE 350).
  • To search within multiple indexes, see example below (All:).
• Full text search: top left of the search dialog, provide a query expression to filter on the business summary, industry, country, or exchange of the company.
  • It's possible to use AND, OR, and NOT operators.
  • Remark: Location, Business summary, Institutional holders, or Mutual fund holders can be selected for convenience, but with less flexibility.
  • Examples:
    • All: 3D printing Nasdaq
    • All: dividendPayDate > 2019-3-1 AND dividendPayDate < 2019-3-31
    • All: resultsAsOf < 2019-10-1
    • All: NOT ipo > 2023-01-1
    • All: msQuarterDate < 2019-10-1
    • All: date < 2019-10-1
    • All: China OR "Hong Kong"
    • All: splits: 0
    • All: splitsCount < 2
    • All: startDate < 2015-01-1
    • All: numberOfYears > 10
    • All: indexSymbol: (GSPC OR STOXX OR FTLC)
    • All: symbol: (AAPL OR ...)
    • All: NOT symbol: (ALALO.PA OR ...)
    • All: currency: GBX
    • All: resultsAsOf > 2022-06-30 AND location: NOT China AND summary: "natural gas"
    • All: industry: "Oil, Gas Consumable Fuels"
    • Location: China
    • Location: "United States"
    • Location: "Cupertino, CA, United States"
    • Location: CA AND "United States"
    • Business summary: gold OR silver OR platinum
    • Business summary: fintech OR (financial AND technology)
    • Business summary: (gold OR silver OR platinum) AND "TSX Venture Exchange"
    • Business summary: NOT China
    • Business summary: NOT acquiring AND NOT portfolio
    • Business summary: NOT LP AND NOT L.P. AND NOT partnership
    • Top institutional holders: "Berkshire Hathaway"
    • Top institutional holders: Mawer
• Markets filter: select continents or countries for filtering on the country of the stock exchange. Consider using the Business filter to query business location.
• Sectors, industry groups, and Industries filter.

Remark: NOT clauses will slow down your query (and backtest).

After defining or adjusting the query, click Search to run it. The result will open in a new tab. From there, you can:

• Use More stocks... to get the next set of search results.
• Export to .csv using the Excel icon at the top right of the result list.
• Backtest the query to simulate its historical performance.
• Use Save query to save the query for future use.

Purpose: Gauge the effectiveness of a query.

Backtest will run a backtest on the query at hand.

Backtesting is process of testing an investment strategy on prior time periods. Uncle Stock makes a simulation of the query on relevant past data in order to gauge its effectiveness. More information on the backtest options can be found here.

Remark: if the query was already backtested by another user, Uncle Stock will immediately show its result.

Use to view the details of the backtest result. The yearly return is calculated as ((1 + total price return) to the power of (1 ÷ period)) - 1, where period is in years. There is a comparison with the S&P500. All returns are adjusted for dividends, but not for inflation.

Tip: Use Refine Query to try improving the criteria.