For explanation of column headings in the results display, refer to the Glossary link above.
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Stock selection methods
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Click on one of the following radio buttons:
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Enter stock symbols separated by a space. Only those stocks will
be compared.
If you don't know the ticker symbol, you can use the links
at the bottom of the page to find it using other websites.
For stock classes (e.g CL A,B), enter sym.class, for example: PLR.A, plr.b
For preferred stocks, some are entered as sym.P (e.g, ACI.P), and some as
sym-class (e.g, ABN-E, FNM-I). When in doubt, use the 'Screen' option
selecting specific intustry 'Preferred stocks'.
- Specify the criteria used to include stocks in the comparison.
You can specify multiple conditions, as described below.
- one or more of the following:
Revenue, profit, yield, Price/52hi (%), price, P/E, P/S, profit margin, DJI correlation, Oil price correlation, debt/equity.
Specify one or 2 values for each of the selected criteria: >= and/or <=.
You can leave one of the '>=','<=' fields empty, meaning that there is
no minimum or maximum limit for that criteria.
You can specify 0 (zero) in any of these fields. This will be used as
a screening value (as opposed to leaving the field blank).
To enter more than two of the above criteria, click on Expand. An additional
pair of pull-down menus will appear. Repeat to add more criteria.
To remove the added criteria, click on Reduce.
- Industry group
You can scroll down and select an industry group. Stock-comparator uses a unique
Modified SIC system which is based on the SIC (Standard Industry Classification),
updated to enhance screening.
For companies that
don't have a SIC, an approximate SIC has been assigned by stock-comparator.com.
The number in brackets next to the industry name specifies how many
companies are included in this industry in the database.
You may select only one industry group from the list.
You can enlarge the selection list so that 30 items are displayed at a
time. After selecting an item, you can proceed with selecting other options,
or reduce the size of the selection list back to two items; The item that you
selected will be one of the items displayed.
The Enlarge/Reduce feature is available also to the next 3 selection lists
described below.
- Specific industry
This is normally the name of the industry as reported by the company to
the SEC. In some cases, the industry name has been changed by stock-comparator
to provide a more accurate classification of the company.
You may select either industry group or specific industry.
You may select only one specific industry from the list.
- Country
Select U.S, all non-U.S companies listed in the U.S, Canada, or another
country in the list.
The number in parentheses specifies the number of companies in the database
for the country, or all non-U.S. You may select only one item from the list.
- State/province
Select the name of the U.S state or canadian province (these appear at the end of the list) where the company is
located. Again, the number in parantheses next to the state is the number of
companies located in that state/province in the database.
(Note that the company location is used and not its state of incorporation).
You may select only one item from the list of states/provinces.
You can select either country or state/province.
Exchange traded funds (ETFs): These securities are included in the
main stock list although only price and yield data is available for them. They are
classified under their own industry and industry group.
The comparison results rank the ETFs according to their price fall from
52-week high and their yield, according to the comparison formula.
Closed-End Funds (CEFs): Also included in the main stock list, despite
limited data. They also have their own industry.
Preferred stocks (Pfd's): Same as ETFs/CEFs above.
ETFs, CEFs and Pfd's are also grouped together under state "ETF/CEF/Pfd".
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This will produce a comparison of all the stocks (over 6000) in the
main stock list in the database.
| Pre-selected stocks groups: DJI, SP500, NAS100
,DJI UTL, DJI TRAN, PHI SEMI, SP MID 400, New & updated, NYSE 100 Int'l, New Lows, etc. |
You can click on one of these buttons to produce a ranking of a pre-selected
group of stocks. These groups contain the stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P
500 index, the NASDAQ 100 index, the Dow Jones Utilities index, the
Dow Jones Transportation index, the Philadelphia Semiconductor index and the S&P MidCap 400 index.
"New & updated" shows stocks that have been added to the database, or that
their latest quarterly report has been added to the database today.
Note that "new" means newly covered stocks, or stocks that their symbol has
changed due to change in NASDAQ status, change of name, etc. The industry
and state/country items for these stocks is added within a few days.
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Select the 'Q end' button and a month from the list to compare all the stocks
who latest quarterly report was during the selected month.
For example, at the beginning of October, all the stocks whose latest reported
quarter is June, are due to report their September quarterly results. So it may be
risky to buy these stocks. However, the data for stocks whose quarter ended in
July is still valid until the beginning of November.
To compare these stocks, select 'Jul' from the list.
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Clicking on any of the buttons in the table headed by "Sort main stock list by"
will produce a sorted list of over 7000 stocks
for which all the data needed for stock comparison is available.
| Sort secondary stock list |
Click on one of the three buttons in this table to produce a list of over 4000
stocks and indices for which only partial data is available. These are mostly
OTC-traded stocks. The correlation and volume data are calculated using a year's
worth of data, starting at the last day of last month and going back.
If not specified, then the default formula will be used for stock comparison/ranking.
You can view or change this formula by clicking on the "Modify formula"
button. In the "Modify formula" page, you will see the weights assigned to
each comparison factor, and you can change them. Specifiying 0 (as is the
default for Revenue) will remove the factor from the formula.
Specifying a negative weight will reverse the "the bigger the better"
into "the smaller the better" for the factor being changed, and vice versa.
Setting all the weights to zero will result in sorting the main stock list
by symbol. Also, setting all the weights to zero except for one of them, will
result in sorting the stocks by the factor that has non-zero weight.
You can click on "Use default" or "Use modified" to select which formula
will be used.
Note that on return from the "Modify formula" screen, the "Use modified" button
formula is automatically set; you may change it by clicking on "Use default".
Positive and negative P/E: when comparing two stocks, a low positive
P/E is considered better than a higher positive P/E and a negative P/E.
But a high negative P/E is considered better than a low negative P/E.
This is because the smaller the loss, the higher the negative P/E will be.
(but if you set the weight of P/E in the comparison formula to negative,
than all the above P/E relationships are reversed).
This option specifies how many stocks will be displayed per page.
The options are 50 and 200. You can display the next page, previous page
or return to the first page results, or the main stock selection screen
by using the paging buttons at the bottom of the results display.
Guest users are limited
to 50 displayed stocks, and paging forward is not allowed.
In any case, the number of stocks selected will be displayed in the
results screen.
When selecting stocks by symbols, you can check the 'Save list' box. After
hitting 'Submit', the list of stocks that you entered will be saved.
Later on, if you want to compare that list again, click on the 'Load list'
button. The system will load the previously saved list into the 'Symbols'
input area. You can change the list and save it again.
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History / Backtesting
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When you check the 'History' box, the comparison results page will include
an additional results table following the comparison results table.
This table contains up to 11 dates. For each date and each stock selected,
the score (based of the default formula) and the price for that date are
displayed, up to 50 stocks (regardless of the 'Output limit').
The scores displayed are based on the default formula.
Note that the same data is also displayed for individual stocks of the
'Company details' page.
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Submit/Reset/Reduce/Enlarge/Expand buttons
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Submit
You need to press this button in order to submit your selection, e.g
screen, sort, compare pre-selected group.
The only selections which are automatically submitted as soon as you
click on them are: 'Load list' and 'Modify formula'.
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Reset
Use this button to reset all selections (except Output Limit) and input fields
to their default setting.
The Reset button effect is similar to logging in or entering the site
again.
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Reduce/Enlarge
The Enlarge button increases the size of one of the 4 selection lists -
Industry group, Specific industry, Country and State. It makes it more convenient
to select an item from those lists, by displaying 30 items at a time (instead of 2).
If you wish to reduce the size of the enlarged list back to 2 items, click on the Reduce
button. This will still retain the item you selected from the enlarged list.
This button can also be used to re-load the page without loosing the
selected options and items (as opposed to 'Reset', which returns all selections
to the default state).
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Expand
The Expand button enables adding criteria to the selection screen.
Clicking on the button allows adding two selection criteria.
The additional selection lists can be removed by clicking 'Reset'.
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Red '*', green '↑', blue '↔',Q end
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*
A * next to a symbol in comparison or sort
results indicates that the quarterly and/or annual data for this stock is
out of date. See also 'Q end' below.
In most cases, the company has filed the report on time, and the red '*'
will be removed when the database is updated. In some other cases, the copmany
is in violation of SEC requirements, or has been merged, renamed or is out
of business.
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↑
A ↑ next to the 'Q end' month in comparison or sort
results indicates that the company's latest quarterly profit and revenue are
higher than the average for the last 12 months.
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↔
A ↔ next to the 'Q end' month in comparison or sort
results indicates that the company's latest quarterly profit and revenue are not available,
so the system cannot calculate whether the latest quarterly results are higher than the average for the last 12 months.
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Q end
This column in comparison or sort results displays the latest end-of-quarter
month for which financial data is available in the database.
For example, a company whose quarter ends of September 30, will file its
quarterly report with the SEC a couple of weeks later. The financial data in
the report is reflected in the database sometime after the filing - could be
a few days, weeks or more. The month displayed in the 'Q end' column, as
well as the end-of-quarter date displayed in the 'Company details' page,
provide a measure of data accuracy.
A P next to a symbol in comparison or sort
results indicates that the fundamental data for this stock is preliminary.
Preliminary data is based on earnings announcements issued by companies.
These announcements may precede the official quarterly/annual results by
a month.
Preliminary results are less reliable and comprehensive than the data in the
quarterly/annual report, but enables you to have more up to date data for
comparisons.
Only some companies issue earnings announcements.
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Gold background (subscribers only)
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A Gold backround around a ticker symbol
signifies that it meets the criteria of the 'Gold' screen. The criteria are
displayed on the 'Details' pages for those stocks.
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