Technical filters
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A technical filter runs a study, such as RSI or a moving average, on each stock's price and volume bars and keeps the stocks where the result passes your rule. It answers questions like "is RSI under 30?" or "did the 50-day average just cross above the 200-day?".
Use an indicator filter for the scores scanr computes for you, such as relative strength. Use a technical filter when you want to pick the study, its settings and its timeframe yourself.
Tour
A technical filter is one row in a filter group. This row checks a study against a fixed value:
Read the row left to right: study, settings, timeframe, condition, target, value.
This one checks a study against another study. The second study sits on its own line under the first:
Pick Study as the target and a second study appears below the first.
- f(x): the modifier. Empty until you add one.
- Study badge (RSI, SMA): the study. Click it to pick another.
- Inputs and settings (Close,14): the data the study reads and its settings, such as the period.
- Timeframe (1 day): the bar size the study runs on.
- Plot: which output to test, on a study with several, such as MACD or Bollinger Bands. Only shown for those studies.
- Condition (Less than, Crosses above): how the result is tested.
- Target (Value, Study, Price): what the result is tested against.
- Value: the number to compare with, when the target is Value.
- within N bars: how many recent bars to check. With 5, the rule only has to hold on one of the last five bars.
- ⋯: Delete, Duplicate, Disable or Enable, and Reset to default.
The row has no distribution slider. For a study's usual range, such as RSI's 0 to 100, see the Study reference.
Create and configure
- Click + on a filter group (or Add filter in an empty group), then Technical filter. A new row appears with SMA and the rule "greater than 0".
- Click the study badge. Search for the study (Search studies…) and pick it.
- Click the inputs chip, such as Close,50, to set the Inputs and Parameters.
- Pick the Timeframe.
- Pick a condition, then a target: Value, Study or Price.
- Enter the value, or set up the second study or the price comparison.
- Set within if the rule may have held on an earlier bar.
- Click Scan.
Compare with another study
Pick Study as the target to test one study against another, as in SMA(50)>SMA(200). The second study gets its own settings, timeframe and bars ago.
- Equal to and Not equal to add a tolerance %, set to 1% when you pick them. Two different studies are almost never exactly equal, so without a tolerance the filter matches nothing.
- Greater than, Less than and their "or equal" versions add an optional gap %, from 0 to 1000. Less than with a 2% gap matches only when the first study sits at least 2% below the second. Leave it empty for a plain comparison.
- Range doesn't work with a study target.
To test a study against its own past, pick Study and keep the same study in the second line, then set that line's bars ago. RSI(14)>RSI(14) with bars ago at 5 on the second line finds RSI that is higher than it was five bars back.
Compare with the price
Pick Price to test a study against the stock's live price, such as "price is above its 20-day EMA". Price works with greater than, less than, equal to and not equal to. It doesn't work with Range or the crosses conditions.
- Equal to and Not equal to take an optional tolerance %: the study must sit within that percentage of the price.
- The inequalities take an optional gap % (min %): the minimum distance between the study and the price.
Add a modifier
A modifier runs a second calculation on the study before the rule tests it. Use one to ask how fast a study is rising, or how two series move together. Modifiers need Super Pro.
- Click f(x) on the row. The Edit modifier chain popover opens.
- Click Add modifier and pick one. Set its period, and its second input when it takes one.
- A row takes one modifier. To nest a second, click an input of correl or div and set its type to Modifier. A nested modifier reads a Series or a Study, not the study on the row.
- To edit both studies and their modifiers in one place, click the pencil to open the Advanced study editor.
Pick the sessions on intraday bars
On an intraday timeframe (minutes or hours), Pre, Reg and Ext set which sessions the study reads: pre-market, regular hours and after-hours. A new row reads the regular session only, and at least one stays on. Daily and longer bars have no sessions, so the buttons disappear.
Reference
Conditions
Combine a cross with within to catch a cross on any of the last N bars, as in SMA(50)crosses aboveSMA(200) within 5 bars.
Row settings
Every study, with its inputs, settings and ranges, is in the Study reference. The data a study can read, from the close to order-book inputs, is in Study inputs.
Modifiers
Plans
Lookback is how far back a study reads: its period times the bar size, counted in trading days. SMA(200) on daily bars reads 200 days. SMA(50) on weekly bars reads 250 days, over the Free cap.
Recipes
Oversold RSI
Stocks whose 14-day RSI sits in the bottom third of its range.
Filters
- RSI(c,14)<33.33
- How to use it
Look for a reason to expect a bounce, such as support on the chart, before you buy. Add a liquidity filter to skip thin names.
- Warning
A stock in a downtrend can stay oversold for weeks.
Golden cross
Stocks whose 50-day average crossed above the 200-day average in the last five sessions.
Filters
- SMA(c,50)crosses aboveSMA(c,200) (within 5 bars)
- How to use it
Treat it as a trend change for swing and position trades. Check that volume rose on the cross.
- Warning
The cross lags price. By the time it prints, much of the move may be done.
Unusual volume
Liquid stocks trading over three times their usual volume.
Filters
- Relative volume(v,60)>3
- SMA(bar_dollar_volume,50)>10M
- How to use it
Open the chart and news to find out why the volume spiked, then decide which way to trade it.
Triple momentum
Stocks with RSI above 55, the 20-day average above the 50-day, and MACD above its signal line.
Filters
- RSI(c,14)>55
- SMA(c,20)>SMA(c,50)
- MACD(c,12,26,9)>MACD(c,12,26,9)
- How to use it
Use it as a trend-following watchlist and time entries on pullbacks.
Quick reference
Tips
- Set within above 1 for crossing rules. A cross happens on one bar, so with within 1 you only see stocks that crossed on the latest bar.
- Add a dollar-volume filter, such as SMA(50)>5M on the $Vol input, to any oversold or breakout scan. It drops stocks too thin to trade.
- Use gap % instead of a plain comparison when "above" should mean "clearly above". SMA(50)>SMA(200) with a 5% gap skips averages that are tangled together.
- Check bars ago before you trust a result. A study read 5 bars ago describes last week, not today.