What is a Stock Screener and How Do I Use One?

Investing in the stock market can feel overwhelming, especially with thousands of stocks to choose from. The average investor spends 6 minutes on research before purchasing a stock, according to a 2025 study from the New York University’s Stern School of Business. That short research time could potentially leave out some key factors like a company’s financial health, valuation or growth potential, making it easy to miss opportunities.

That’s where stock screeners come in, helping investors quickly filter through thousands of options to find stocks that meet their specific criteria. But not all screeners are created equal.

While most tools simply give you a list of stocks, Accountable Finance goes further by ranking them based on your investing strategy, not just the metrics.

What is a Stock Screener?

A stock screener is an online tool or software that allows investors to filter stocks based on certain metrics or characteristics. These criteria can include things like:

Price. Are you looking for stocks under $50, $100 or higher?
Market capitalization. Do you want small-cap, mid-cap or large-cap stocks?
Dividend yield. Are you focused on income-generating investments?
Valuation metrics. Such as price-to-earnings (P/E) or price-to-book (P/B) ratios.
Technical indicators. For traders, you can screen by moving averages, RSI or other trends.

Traditional screeners stop there, presenting you with a static list of names that meet your filters. But investors know that not all qualifying stocks are equally strong. That’s where strategy rankings can make all the difference.

Why Use a Stock Screener?

A stock screener saves time and adds structure to your investing process. Here’s why it’s helpful:

Efficiency. Instead of manually checking hundreds of stocks, a screener does the work for you in seconds.
Customization. Screeners let you define your investment strategy, whether that’s growth, value or dividend investing.
Discovery. Sometimes you’ll find hidden gems or new opportunities you wouldn’t have discovered otherwise.

When a screener also ranks stocks on how well they fit your investing strategy, you get a clearer view of which companies are positioned to meet your goals. That’s where Accountable Finance stands out. It doesn’t just show you which stocks meet your criteria, it ranks them according to your chosen strategy to highlight the strongest opportunities for your approach.

How to Use a Stock Screener

Using a stock screener doesn’t need to be complicated. Here’s a step-by-step approach to using Accountable Finance’s strategy builder as a stock screener:

Define Your Strategy. Decide what type of investor you are. Are you looking for long-term growth, dividend income, or short-term trading opportunities? Your strategy will guide which filters you use.
Set Your Filters. Start by setting a few key criteria, like market cap, P/E ratio, 1-year price appreciation, or positive cashflow. Avoid overcomplicating things at first, focus on the filters that matter most for your strategy.
Use Rankings to Prioritize. With a traditional screener, you’d get a list of stocks that fit your filters. With Accountable Finance, you get a ranked list based on your strategy. This helps you quickly identify the companies showing real momentum and financial strength.
Analyze the Results. Once you have your ranked results, focus on the top performers. Accountable Finance provides a comprehensive snapshot of each company's fundamental data to help you evaluate how the company is performing financially, and the strategy ranking gives you context on how the stock stacks up within different investment strategies (e.g., growth, value, dividend-oriented).
Refine and Repeat. As markets shift and your goals evolve, revisit your filters and rankings to see what’s working and what’s not. Adjust criteria like valuation ranges, growth thresholds, or time horizons to better align with your portfolio’s performance and risk tolerance. Over time, this refinement helps you build a more focused, data-driven investment strategy.

Using Accountable Finance as your Stock Screener.

If you’re looking for a simple, data-driven way to find quality investment ideas, Accountable Finance offers an intuitive stock screener designed for both new and experienced investors. Instead of leaving you with a long list of names to sort through, it ranks stocks using quantitative metrics like Price Appreciation (1-Year), Total Revenue and other key financial indicators.

With Accountable Finance, you can:

Filter stocks by your strategy, valuation metrics, performance indicators and technical signals.
Compare companies using real-time data.
Save and revisit custom strategies to track changes over time.
Access our backtesting tool to see how your filters would have performed historically.

This ranking-based approach helps investors focus on quality and performance, not just qualification. It makes it easier to identify which stocks are gaining traction in the market and which may be lagging behind.

A stock screener is an essential tool for anyone who wants to make more informed investment decisions. But while most screeners only show you which stocks meet your filters, Accountable Finance helps you understand which ones are actually performing best.

Long-term investing starts with informed decisions. The Accountable Finance AI Strategy Builder uses stock screeners and rankings based on your strategy to help you identify and refine an investing plan built for sustainable growth.

‍

Disclaimer: ‍

accountable.finance is not operated by a broker or a dealer. Under no circumstances does any information posted on accountable.finance represent a recommendation to buy or sell a security.