CHAPTER 13: Market Scan

Overview

BullCharts has two main scanning modules, BullScan and Market Scan.

Market Scan is a useful scanning tool that includes many fundamental and pricing choices to scan on. If you are on a live data plan, Market Scan will also scan on live data giving you a unique view of the market at that point in time.

BullScan, the other scanning module in BullCharts, has a primary focus on technical scanning with 215+ indicators using live or end of day data. There is a separate Getting Started with BullScan guide from the Help menu.

This section of the BullCharts manual describes the Market Scan feature. The BullScan feature is documented in another section.

Market Scan Basics

Starting Market Scan

To start using Market Scan, you need to be online to the Internet. Once you are online, from the Actions menu, select Market View then Market Scan.

First Scan

Each time you open Market Scan, the default scan will appear:

Scan Criteria

Security Types

You can choose what kinds of securities the Market Scan will examine.

Basic Stocks are more properly known as FPOs. They represent normal shares in a company.

Equities include Basic Stocks as well as other kinds of stocks.

Options scans through all options.

Warrants scans through all warrants.

Everything scans through all the above.

Sort By

The list of stocks can be sorted on a number of different attributes.

% Chg. (Close) sorts the list by movement since the previous market close, as a percentage.

% Chg. (Open) sorts by movement since today’s market open, as a percentage.

+/- Chg. (Close) sorts by movement since the previous market close, in dollars.

+/- Chg (Open) sorts by movement since today’s market open, in dollars.

Symbol sorts the list alphabetically by security symbol.

Last sorts by the most recent price.

Volume sorts by cumulative volume since today’s market open.

Sales sorts by cumulative sales since today’s market open.

Trades sorts by cumulative trades since today’s market open.

P/E Ratio sorts by each security’s Price/Earning Ratio – that is, the most recent price divided by the earnings rate per share.

Market Cap sorts by each security’s Market Capitalisation – that is, the most recent price multiplied by the number of issued shares.

Sort direction

You can view the results starting from the top or the bottom

Top shows the largest items in the list (the largest numbers, the most positive change, or symbols starting with A) first.

Bottom shows the smallest items in the list (the smallest numbers, the most negative change, or symbols starting with Z) first.

Scan Period

The Period list allows you to run your scan over different periods, so you can compare the results of a current scan, with what the same scan would have returned on a previous day, or so you can examine price movement over several days instead of just once.

Latest runs the scan over the latest price information available

Previous runs the scan over price information as at market close on the previous trading day.

Five Days runs the scan over the previous five trading days.

Last Week runs the scan over the previous calendar week.

Last Month runs the scan over the previous calendar month

Dates contains a list of the last five calendar days, including today. The first item in the list is exactly equivalent to choosing “Latest”, the second is equivalent to “Previous”, and the remaining three show the price information as at market close on those respective days.

Show Open, High, Low

Although Market Scan will display Open, High, and Low columns if they are involved in the scan, you can force them to always appear by ticking the “Show Open, High, Low” box:

Creating a scan

A Market Scan is a list of fields. Each field listed will be a column in the result table, along with any default or standard fields. Each field may optionally include a range filter so that only securities for which that field is within the given range will be included in the results. If more than one field includes a range filter, only securities that match all the filters will be shown.

To add a new field: If there are no fields currently set to “Nothing”, click the “Add” button at the end of the first field to add a new field to the end of the list. When you have a “Nothing” field (an old field reused or a newly added field) you can set the field by choosing the new field from the list. Finally, click the “View” button.

To remove a field: If the field in question is at the end of the list, you can click the “Remove” button next to it. Otherwise, click on the Field List and choose “Nothing”, then click the “View” button.

To add a filter to a particular field: To show only securities where a field is greater than or equal to a particular number, enter the number in the “at least” box. To show only securities where a field is less than or equal to a particular number, enter the number in the “at most” box. Finally, click the “View” button.

You can enter a number in both fields. If the number in “at most” is less than the number in “at least”, you will get no results. Filters applied to a “Nothing” field have no effect.

To remove a filter from a particular field: Delete the numbers from the “at least” and “at most” boxes, then click the “View” button.

Example

Let’s create a scan that shows Basic Stocks that currently have a Market Capitalisation over $1,000,000,000, a last price of less than $10, sorted by Market Capitalisation.

Step 1: Open a new Market Scan window by going to the Actions menu, then Market View, then choosing Market Scan.

Step 2: In the new scan window, choose Market Cap from the Sort By list.

Step 3: In the first row, click on the “where” list, then scroll down to Market Cap, under Fundamentals Fields:

Step 4: In the first row, enter “1000000000” (a 1 with 9 zeros, without the quotes) in the “at least” box:

Step 5: Click “Add” to add a new row.

Step 6: In the new row, select Last Price from the field list.

Step 7: In the new row, enter “10” (without the quotes) into the “at most” box:

Step 8: Click the “View” button to perform the scan:

Step 9: View the results:

Searchable Fields

Market Scan can filter on all of the following fields.

Quote Fields

High Price
Last Price
Low Price
Open Price
Previous Close
Top Bid Price
Top Ask Price
Cumulative Volume
Cumulative Sales
Total Trades
+/- Change since Previous Close
+/- Change since Open
% Change since Previous Close
% Change since Open

Fundamentals Fields

Total Class Issue
Par Value
Paid Up Value
Asset Backing
Earnings Rate Per Share
Price/Earnings Ratio
Market Cap

Dividends Fields

Dividend Yield
Dividend Rate Per Share
Current Dividend Amount
Scrip Dividend Amount
Franked Percent
Gross Dividend Amount
Total Annual Dividend Rate Per Share
Dividend Cover

Derivative Fields

Margin Price
Theoretical Bid
Theoretical Ask
Implied Volatility
Premium Discount
Shares Per Contract
Exercise Price
Warrants Per Share

Miscellaneous Fields

Face Value
Registration Unit Value
Interest Rate
Current Interest Rate
Current Interest Amount

Knowledge Base

Overview