Stock Screening and Ranking - Example #10

OBJECTIVE: Find stocks that have moved up on at least twice their average volume.

1. Click the “Scan / Rank” button along the left edge of Lighthouse Trader. This will open up a new scanning window.
   
2. You will see the “Available Item” list in the lower left corner of the window. Expand the “Comparison Operators” branch to show all of its members.
   
3. Click and drag the “Above/Below” filter item over to the “Selected Item” list. You will see the following popup window.
   
   Choose “greater than” and click the OK button.
   
4. Click and drag the “close” filter item (in the “Data” group), dropping it on the “Above/Below” filter item. Click the OK button on the popup window to accept the default settings.
   
5. Double-click the “Modifiers” heading to see the filter items in this category.
   
6. Click and drag the “Time Shift” filter item, dropping it on the “Above/Below” filter item.  You will see the following popup window.
   
   Set “number of periods to shift back in time” to 1 and click the OK button.
   
7. Click and drag another “Close” filter item, dropping it on the “Time Shift” filter item.  Click the OK button on the popup window to accept the default settings.
   At this point, we have created a scan definition that will find stocks which closed higher than yesterday's close.
   
8. Click and drag another “Above/Below” filter item, dropping it on the “Time Frame: daily” filter item in the “Selected Item” list. You will see the following popup window.
   
   Choose “greater than or equal to” and click the OK button.
   
9. Click and drag a “Volume” filter item (in the “Data” group), dropping it on the new “Above/Below” filter item. Click the OK button on the popup window to accept the default settings.
   
10. Double-click the “Arithmetic Operators” heading to see the filter items in this category.
    
11. Click and drag the “Mul” (multiply) filter item, dropping it on the new “Above/Below” filter item. Click the OK button on the popup window to accept the default settings.
    
12. Click and drag the “constant” filter item (in the “Data” group), dropping it on the “Mul” filter item. You will see the following popup window.
    
    Set the value of this parameter to “2” (in the box near the top of this window. Then click the OK button.
    
13. Double-click the “Indicators” label to see the filter items in this category.
    
14. Click and drag the “moving average, simple” indicator, dropping it on the “mul” filter item. You will see the following popup window.
    
    Just click the OK button to accept the default settings.
    
15. Scroll up in the “Available Item” list until you see the “volume” filter item (in the “Data” group). Click and drag the “volume” filter item, dropping it on the “50 sma” filter item in the “Selected Item” list. Click the OK button in the popup window to accept the default settings.
    
16. The scan definition is now complete. It should look like the following. Click on the following thumbnail to see an enlarged example.
    
    You have now defined a scan that will identify stocks which have closed higher on at least twice their average volume (as determined by the 50 day moving average).
    
17. Click the “Run” button to perform this scan. The result table will look like the following. Remember that you can sort the table by clicking on any column header. Click on the following thumbnail to see an enlarged example.
    
    Notice that there are two columns labeled“close” near the left side of the table. The left-most “close” column corresponds to the first occurrence of a “close” filter item in your scan definition. The values in this column represent the closing prices for stocks on the date for which you ran the scan. The next “close” column, just to the right, corresponds to the second occurrence of a “close” filter item in your scan definition. The values in this column represent the closing prices for stocks on the day before the date for which you ran the scan. This is due to the effect of the “Time Shift” filter item you dropped into your scan definition.

Let’s say you decide you want to “cut-back” the list of stocks that passed your scan by eliminating those stocks that are priced below $5.00 per share.  Here’s how to modify the existing scan definition to accomplish this.

1. Click the “S” tab along the right edge of the main Lighthouse Trader window. This takes you back to the “specification” window where you defined the scan.
   
2. In the “Selected Item” list (not the “Available Item” list this time!), click on the top-most occurrence of the “close” filter item. Then click the “Set Preferences” button to the left of the “Selected Item” list. Remember, this button looks like the following:
   
   
3. The following popup window will appear.
   
   Click on the “must be” radio button, choose “greater than or equal to” and enter “5” into the text box. Then click the OK button.
   
4. The new scan definition will look like this. Click on the following thumbnail to see an enlarged example.
   
   In the above screenshot, the change is highlighted in the “Selected Item” list.
   
5. Click the “Run” button to re-run the scan using the new definition. Stocks priced below $5.00 per share (on the date of the scan) will be eliminated from the results.

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