How can a fairly programming illiterate trader create custom scans? Any recommendations on easy to use products?
I started using Stock Fetcher a few months back. I learned of it from these boards. I developed my own scans using english phrases. Some people there are serious programmers. I have had good success with the scans I created because I was aware of what I wanted to search for. Try it as a free scan platform and use that time to build your scans. The free service is delayed, I believe a few days at most.
If you are looking to create screens for stocks you like MSN has a fairly good array of preset screens, and is customizable: http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/finder/customstocks.asp
Thanks guys what I'm particulary interested in doing is setting something like this up. Stocks above 20 day volume ema's, with postive macd, above 20 ema and positive cci levels, just as an example. I want to scan mostly on my technical set ups more then anything else! Do I need to learn a programming language to do this?
Samson, You probably already know this but it would be very easy to set this up in RadarScreen using Tradestation.
No you don't. There are several sophisicated programs out there. You might want to try this one: http://www.bigeasyinvestor.com/about/pricing.html
The easiest way is often the hardest... I mean, software that lets you create easy scans (without programming) is most of the time very limited in customizing And software with lots of customization possibilities usually would use a programming language TC2005 = easy, very good and fast, customizable, but for example you can not scan on ADX IRT- very fast scanner (I have not found anything faster), very versatile, programming is mostly visual but awkard nevertheless, database management = demanding... Amibroker= not as fast as I hoped it would be, you need to learn a bit of progamming, but all in all my favourite for the time being... especially since it can use TC2005 data
Samson, My vote is for TC2005. I don't use any technical indicators, but my suspicion is anything that can be put into a simple arithmetic formula can be created as a "personal criteria formula" which then can be used in "easy scans". Keep in mind that TC2005 is not streaming data or intraday (but can be updated intraday). Beyond that, I'd skip the programming and look to spreadsheet work. No, it's not terribly elegant, but with a few hours effort you can pretty much do anything you want to. You could even use Yahoo data imported into spreadsheet and have no software or data cost whatsoever. Let me know if you have any specific questions, I've used TC for a long time.
bundlemaker I recently looked at TC2005 and it looked daunting to say the least .... I told you I was pretty bad with this stuff. I will look at it again, keep the suggestions coming people eventually I will find one that I can work with.