Help getting my price parameters to work

StockCharter

I've entered my scan and it says I have no errors, but my results are turning up random results. Here's my issues:

I have my parameter set as '[yesterday's close = today's open]' and my scans are returning some stocks that meet that and some that don't. What do I need to do to get my results to show stocks that closed yesterday and opened today at the same price? Even +/- .02 would be acceptable, if those parameters are too tight or if I need to tweak my chart after seeing the results with the same price.

Also, I'm trying to set up this scan to show stocks between $1 and $35. I enter '[open > 1] and [close < 35]' and I'm still getting Apple and other stocks well over the $35 open/close range. I also have my volume set at '[volume > 175000]' and am still getting lots of stocks under that number, but it's easy enough to fix by sorting by high to low, so that one is not dire, but kind of frustrating since it's like my parameters don't really or only sometimes matter??

And finally, is it possible to see stocks that match my criteria for that day? For example, if a stock closed yesterday at $15 and opened today at $15, can I set up the scan to show my results today as of 1pm or anytime once the market has opened? Does the parameter shown below just have to be set correctly?:

Starting ___ trading days before the Option 1)Last Market Close (24 Aug) OR Option 2)Last Intraday Update (24 Aug, 3:21 AM)

(yes, I'm working on this scan at a crazy early hour and because I couldn't figure it out after numerous hours and attempts, I had to sign up for the answer network, make sure someone hadn't already asked the question, etc. lol)

markd

It sounds like you have a lot of conditions in one scan, which is fine. But do they all start with "and", or do some start with "or"?

If you are using even one "or" statement, it has to be bracketed correctly, or you will get unexpected results - namely, pretty much everything that meets just one condition in the scan instead of every condition.

If you want to post the entire scan, we can look at your questions one by one.

StockCharter

markd,

Thanks for the reply. Here's my parameters I've set up that do run, just not correctly:

[type = stock] and [yesterday's close = today's open] and [volume > 175000] and [close < 35] and [exchange is NYSE] or [exchange is AMEX] or [exchange is NASD]


I played around with the price screening a few different ways before settling on the above, just trying to get it to show only stocks under $35, but ideally, I'd like it to filter stocks between $1 and $35. So far, nothing has been completely working as I've wanted it to and no matter what changes I make, I get '999' results on my scans.

markd

The problem is your "or" conditions. They need to be bracketed as shown below.

The uncorrected version is getting ALL nyse stocks, ALL amex and ALL NASD stocks.

As you had it written, you were saying, give me stocks that meet these price and volume conditions OR stocks that are on the nyse, amex or nasd.

What you wanted to say was, give me all stocks that meet these price and volume conditions AND are stocks on the nyse, amex or nasd.

The "OR issue" is explained here:

stockcharts.com/docs/doku.php?id=scans:advanced_scan_syntax


This gets 89 results as of the 11:47 am intraday update. I did not verify the results, but they "look right". You will get different results (more or less, probably more, as volume increases through the day).



[type = stock]
and [yesterday's close = today's open]
and [volume > 175000]
and [close < 35]

and

[ // begin "OR" statement

[exchange is NYSE]
or
[exchange is AMEX]
or
[exchange is NASD]


] // end "OR" statement

NOTE: the format shown above - each "and" begins a new line, and separate lines for the OR statement brackets and the word "or", etc. is not required, but it it helps to clarify things and makes it much easier to read and comment. I highly recommend commenting each line, no matter how obvious. Not only does it keep clear in your own head what you are doing as you write the scan, but when you come back to it, or want to change it, it will make it much easier to remember what you were up to. You can add comments at the end of each line (good, if the line is very short) or above each line (better).

You can choose to run the scan as of the most recent intraday update, or, as of the prior close, or as of some number of days prior to either of those updates. But you cannot choose to run a scan as of an intraday update that has gone by - so in other words, at 2 pm you cannot run the scan as of, say, 11:30 am.

StockCharter

That fixed it. Thanks so much for the help, markd. You're a sanity saver.