Article
Screen Your Watchlist With Your Own Rules
Most stock screeners scan the whole market with filters someone else chose. MyLinedChart's screener runs your own rules across the list you already follow: moving averages, RSI, new highs and lows, volume, or a formula you write. How it works, what it will not do, and how to build a screen worth checking every day.
A market-wide screener answers the question "what in the whole market matches this?" That is useful when you are hunting for new names. Most days, though, the real question is narrower: which of the 20 to 50 symbols I already follow is setting up today? MyLinedChart's screener is built for that second question. The universe is your watchlist, and the rules are yours.
Why Screen a Watchlist Instead of the Market
A full-market scan returns every stock that matches, including thin names, spreads you would never trade and sectors you do not follow. You then spend the next ten minutes throwing most of it away.
Screening your own list skips that step. You already decided these symbols are worth your attention. The screener's only job is to tell you which of them meet your conditions right now, so you open five charts instead of fifty.
It also keeps the data side simple. A 50-symbol list is a few hundred requests to the data provider you already connected, which every supported provider handles comfortably.
How a Screen Is Built
A screen has three parts, applied in order.
| Setup in words | Condition row |
|---|---|
| Price is above its 50-day average | Price above moving average: SMA, 50 |
| The 20-day average is above the 50-day | Moving average crossover: SMA, fast 20, slow 50 |
| RSI is oversold | RSI below (oversold): period 14, threshold 30 |
| Closing at a new 20-day high | Price at N-day high: 20 |
| Volume is heavy | Volume above: 2,000,000 |
- Universe: pick one of your watchlists from the dropdown.
- Coarse filters: optional minimum and maximum for price, volume and percent change. They drop symbols that are out of range before any indicator is calculated.
- Conditions: one row per rule, picked from nine presets. Price above a moving average, price below a moving average (each SMA, EMA or WMA with your period), moving average crossover with the fast above the slow, RSI below a threshold, RSI above a threshold, price at an N-day high, price at an N-day low, volume above a number, and price above or below a value.
- Custom formula: a box for anything the presets do not cover, such as stdev(close, 20) > 5 or close >= highest(high, 50). It uses the same formula language as custom indicators and alerts, and it is checked as you type.
Every Condition Must Be True
Conditions combine with AND only, and the screen says so. A symbol appears in the results only when every row, and the custom formula if you wrote one, is true on the most recent bar.
That is a deliberate limit of the formula engine: each formula is a single comparison. So there is no OR inside a screen. If your setup is "either a breakout or an oversold bounce", save two screens and run both. In practice that is often clearer anyway, because the two setups usually need different follow-up.
For the formula language itself, including the window functions and the look-back function ref, see the custom formula reference inside the app's Formula tab.
Reading the Results Honestly
Refresh is a button, not a background process. Next to it the screen shows how current the data is, for example "Data as of Sep 12 close", so you never mistake yesterday's result for today's.
The result line also reports coverage, such as "3 matches, covered all 5". If a symbol could not be checked, for instance because the provider returned too little history for a 200-bar average, it does not silently count as a non-match. You can see that the list was only partly covered and why.
A Daily Routine That Uses It
The point is fewer charts with more attention each. For turning an alert into a checklist rather than an impulse, see A+ Setup Alerts and Checklists: Reduce Screen Time Without Missing Best Trades.
- Keep one watchlist per style: a swing list, a momentum list, a longer-term list.
- Save one screen per setup you actually trade, named after the setup, not the indicator.
- After the close, run each screen and open only the matches.
- Mark the level that matters on each match, then set an alert on it so you do not have to watch it. See Stock Price Alerts on Your Phone and Watch.
- Once a week, look at which screens produced trades you took. Retire the ones that never do.
What It Does Not Do
- It does not scan the whole market. Add a symbol to a watchlist to screen it.
- It does not combine conditions with OR.
- It does not refresh on its own. Press Refresh, or use alerts for anything you need watched.
- It does not place trades. MyLinedChart is read-only, and screens only read chart data.
FAQ
Can MyLinedChart screen the whole stock market?
No. The screener runs on a watchlist you choose, and market-wide discovery is not part of it. Add the symbols you want screened to a watchlist.
Can a screen use OR between conditions?
No. Every condition and the custom formula must be true on the latest bar. For an either-or setup, save two screens and run both.
Which indicators can a screen condition use?
The presets cover price against an SMA, EMA or WMA, moving average crossovers, RSI above or below a threshold, N-day highs and lows, volume above a number, and price above or below a value. Anything else, such as standard deviation, goes in the custom formula box.
Where does the screener's data come from?
From the broker or market-data account you connected in the app, using your own keys. MyLinedChart does not supply or resell market data.
Sample Structured Chart-Data Exports
Review how chart drawings, annotations, OHLC, volume, and execution context become reusable structured data.