Considering how good their options stuff seems to be, I was surprised by how mediocre their stock screener is.
sync...coming from a stock traders background I agree that is one sacrifice you make going with TOS...however there is so much FREE web stuff out there on screening stocks and evaluating stocks that I've not missed it.
Yes, there are lots are free good screeners. But it would be great to have it in TOS so you can then quickly and easily look at the options for the stocks in a screen. If you can import a watch list into TOS then I guess that would be pretty good. But I run several different screens, so constantly exporting and importing them is a nuisance.
That depends on what you are screening for. MSN Money has a good free screener. I'm referring to the advanced one that requires a download and only works in IE. http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/finder/customstocks.asp
http://www.nasdaq.com/reference/StockScreener.stm http://www.nasdaq.com/reference/guru.stm http://finviz.com/screener.ashx http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/finder/customstocksdl.asp http://www.prophet.net/ MSN (as previously mentioned) also has a user-friendly Deluxe Screener with more criteria available than the others. Also has numerous pre-selected searches and customizable searches. Great for looking for high dividend CEFs/equities in select industries. Only shortfall is that it doesn't search for optionable-only stocks.
That is a good point. I just checked and the TOS screener also does not have a filter for optionable-only stocks.
If you are a TOS client and you request that they add a filter for optionable only, they will likely add it. They are very reasonable when it comes to responding to client requests for new software features, and they are continually updating. The TOS trading platform, particularly for options is impressive. It's getting better for stocks and futures, notably with the most recent update.