Scanning — s.c.a.n.

PPO Hist Alert No Signal

JimJames — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 19:25:22 +0000

Is anyone able to point me in the direction as to why this syntax isn't producing a signal?

[[Symbol is 'SPY']

AND [Yesterday's Daily PPO Hist(5,20,0,Daily Close) > 0.0]

AND [Todays Daily PPO Hist(5,20,0,Daily Close) < 0.0]]

Number of characters

dhall6938 — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 18:06:35 +0000

I have asked this question before, but I am going to ask it again. The last time that I asked you advised me to delete every single scan and alert and rebuild them all. I have not tried to take on that task yet because it's an enormous job. I have done something which limits all of my scans and alerts to approximately 5500 characters maximum. Because of what you told me last time, I think it has to do with the cutting and pasting that I have done over the years. Maybe it has removed the space for approximately 2500 characters in my scans and alerts. Anyway, if any of this makes sense, is your suggestion the same, delete everything and start from scratch rebuilding everything?

Can I check to see if Spy is above its 50 dma within a scan of other stocks?

BobS — Sat, 13 Dec 2025 15:54:24 +0000

Within a scan of a group of stocks, I would like to check to see if the ETF "Spy" is above its 50 day moving average. I know the following code will not accomplish that. But can someone tell me if it is possible and what code would do that? Thanks in advance.

['Spy' close > 'Spy' sma(50,close)]

BobS

Scan to find an industry group about to take off

BobS — Sun, 28 Sep 2025 21:19:07 +0000

I am trying to write a Scan to find an industry group about to take off. To do this I want to find an industry group which has recently (within the last 2 - 4 weeks) had its 10 week slow Stoch cross out of oversold and then had its price climb above the 50 dma. Below I will insert some code which I think can do this for a stock. But I am not sure how to do it for an industry group. Is there a way?

Below is the code I would use to find such a stock. How much of it can I use to find such an industry group?

and [ [1 week ago Weekly Slow Stoch %K(10,1) < 20] // or 2 week, 3 week or4 week ago?
and [0 weeks ago Weekly Slow Stoch %K(10,1) > 20 ] ] // w-KosO
and [ [Weekly Slow Stoch %K(50,1) < 20] or [Weekly Slow Stoch %K(50,1) > 80]] // K50w os, ob
and [today's Close > today's sma(50,close)] and [yesterday's Close <= yesterday's sma(50,close)]

AUTO Scan Editor

azb — Wed, 24 Sep 2025 13:06:45 +0000

Making the AUTO Scan Editior the default is TERRIBLE. I no longer see my scans in PLAIN ENGLISH coding. This option is now GONE.

A scan to spot strong buyer interest near 52 week lows

markd — Mon, 15 Sep 2025 00:08:38 +0000

The recent Oracle jump made me curious about whether it was a Wyckoff accumulation. It didn't appear to be, but, I did notice several consecutive days of strong buying in late April when the stock looked weak. I've seen this before in stocks that later perform well. So here's a simple scan that picks up strong buying when a stock is weak enough to be trading near it's 52 week lows. Like most scans, it picks up some symbols that don't work out, but some have legs. I haven't thoroughly researched this, and it is a bull market; almost anything will "work" in a bull market. But the logic behind it is, retail buyers generally don't buy weak stocks. They buy stocks already on the way up, or, stocks that are pulling back from new highs that look like a bargain. So that implies the buyers on weakness are "strong hands", i.e. knowledgeable institutions and funds, and several days of buying shows commitment to the story behind the stock, whatever it turns out to be. Professionals make mistakes, too, but not as many. Run this for May 2, 2025. Oracle is just one of a number stocks that have done well since then. // begin scan [group is sp500] // or your choice, indexes, industries, market cap, etc. // at some point in the last twenty days, price closed in the lowest 20 per cent of the one year range. and [min(20, Fast Stoch %K(251,1))< 20] // at some point in the last twenty days, there were at least 5 consecutive up closes and [max(20, Streak Up(close)) > 4] // end scan That's it. Try it for other dates and see what it comes up with.

Time offset

dhall6938 — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 21:03:57 +0000

I assume that these still functions, but I get the little yellow time off set triangle warning me. Is there something wrong with this expression? [Favorites list is 31] and [1 Day ago Close < [[1 Day ago High + 1 Day ago Low] / 2.0]]

Writing a scan on Scan workbench

TraderY — Thu, 28 Aug 2025 14:51:08 +0000

How to write a scan of a piercing candle signal on a weekly chart on advanced scan workbench? Thank you

MACD Hist SMA

dhall6938 — Tue, 19 Aug 2025 23:12:13 +0000

Is it possible to scan for a sma of a macd histogram? [(20,SMAMACD hist(72,154,54) > 1 Day ago (20,SMAMACD hist(72,154,54)]

trying to write a scan in technicals the monthly perfornance , like 5day perf > than one month.

dab2lab12 — Sun, 17 Aug 2025 22:20:46 +0000

thanks if you can help

Alert Capacity

dhall6938 — Sun, 10 Aug 2025 13:52:34 +0000

I have asked a similar question in the past and you advised that I delete every scan and alert and rebuild them all. I have not done that because it's a massive effort. Not sure that I have the vocabulary to describe this mess but here goes again. A while back I noticed that some of my alerts and even some of my scans would not save the full 8000 characters any longer and we assumed that it was somehow because of all the cutting and pasting that I have done that somehow limited the number of characters that the machine would save in a scan or alert. Just this morning, I noticed that I was having the same problem with another large scan that I was attempting to modify. However, when I changed the name of the alert, it saved just fine, just like it used to do before I started having the problem. If it helps, there is some kind of autofill that likes to use previous alert names that have been used before. If I change the name of the scan to something that I have never used before, it seems to accept and save it. Does that help you to understand what the problem with saving large scans might be and what to do about it?

counter trend entry scans - K21 crosses below 20

markd — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 18:26:25 +0000

This scan finds potential set ups for medium term trades. A strong stock that ventures into the lower 20% of its monthly (21 day) range may offer an opportunity for good gains over longer term than the K10 set up, although like the JGBS set up in the K10 discussion, the two sometimes overlap. The scan is essentially the same as the K10 with the parameters changed for K 21. See the K10 discussion for comments explaining the scan code. // 00 30 020 K21 xb 20 hits in STOCKS [[exchange is NYSE] or [exchange is NASDAQ]] and [ // sectors open bracket [[market cap > 100] and [group is EnergySector]] or [[market cap > 100] and [group is MaterialsSector]] or [[market cap > 100] and [group is IndustrialSector]] or [[market cap > 100] and [group is ConsumerDiscretionarySector]] or [[market cap > 100] and [group is ConsumerStaplesSector]] or [[market cap > 100] and [group is HealthCareSector]] or [[market cap > 1000] and [group is FinancialSector]] or [[market cap > 100] and [group is TechnologySector]] or[[market cap > 100] and [group is CommunicationServicesSector]] or [[market cap > 100] and [group is UtilitiesSector]] or[[market cap >100] and [group is RealEstateSector]] ] // sectors close bracket and [symbol not contains '/'] and [sma(21,volume) > 1000000] and [close < 20] and [close > sma(251,close)] // this replaces the SCTR > 70; see below for why // get first close or low into the bottom 20 per cent of the last 10 days' range // avoid second or third crosses // K21 has been above 80 in the last 20 days and [max(20, Fast Stoch %K(21,1)) > 80] // K21 has not been below 20 in the last 5 days and [1 day ago min(5, Fast Stoch %K(21,1)) > 20] // check for low xb 20 AND K21 xb 20- strong stocks may not close xb 20; moving LPC may be too far from 20? and [ [ 1 day ago min(21, low) + [ [1 day ago max(21, high) - 1 day ago min(21,low)] *.2] x low ] or [20 x Fast Stoch %K(21,1) ] ] rank by SCTR Here's an example that worked very well; don't expect them all to work like this. GRPN was a hit on 4/28/25 because of the long tail, and then again on May 6 because of K21 xb (cross below) 20 Like JBGS in the K10 discussion, GRPN doesn't retrace below MA 3 of highs when it takes off. You could anticipate this by entering a buy stop each day after the scan hit just above the MA 3 of highs, if you are OK with the possible wider draw down (to your stop under the Lower Price Chan(21) if the trade tanks. Again, this set up was good because this was the first retreat from a breakout after a fairly long consolidation range. Note that there was a K10 entry earlier that fit all the entry criteria but was disappointing. There doesn't seem to be any way to avoid this. You can prevent a serious loss by putting a stop under the MA 3 of lows (blue line), but not too close to avoid noise. Maybe choose the MA 3 of lows two days before the current day and move it up after momentum slows down. These are trades, not investments, so its OK to get stopped out with a gain. A note on 'close above sma 251' in this scan vs. SCTR > 70 in the K10 example. Use 'close abv 251' for research running scans on paste dates but use SCTR for current date scans if you decide to try it. It seems that if you include SCTR in your research scan, Stockcharts uses *today's* SCTR value even if you set the scan date back to a past date. That will skew the results toward set ups that work (because SCTR improves between the scan date and today's date), giving you an unrealistic picture what the scan picks up. Often, only one or two of maybe 20 hits will work out. The important things to look for on a scan hit chart are the consolidation period (not shown on this chart - its too the left before the chart begins) and breakout, and (add these to your chart style) either $SYMBOL:$INDUSTRY generally rising (the green dots on my chart) or $SYMBOL:$SECTOR generally rising (the orange dots). On the GRPN chart, you can see GRPN:$INDUSTRY (the green dots) picked up and gradually settled back to its rising 63 day MA (the green solid line). In fact, the trade occurs just when the dotted line gets back to the MA. Maybe just a coincidence, but too bad you can't scan for that event.

counter trade entry scans - price in lower 20% of 10 day range

markd — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 23:55:28 +0000

If you like short term trades, buying a pull back in an up trending stock is a reasonable strategy. Here is a scan for finding stocks that have traded into the lowest 20% of their 10 day range. The most strongly trending stocks often won't do this that often. However, with a scan that casts a wide net, it's possible, at least in some markets to find opportunities often enough to make it worthwhile. // 00 00 00 30 010 K10 xb 20 hits in STOCKS // find K10 xb 20 hits in stocks only [[exchange is NYSE] or [exchange is NASDAQ]] and [ // sectors open bracket [[market cap > 100] and [group is EnergySector]] // comment out sectors that don't interest you or [[market cap > 100] and [group is MaterialsSector]] or [[market cap > 100] and [group is IndustrialSector]] or [[market cap > 100] and [group is ConsumerDiscretionarySector]] or [[market cap > 100] and [group is ConsumerStaplesSector]] or [[market cap > 100] and [group is HealthCareSector]] or [[market cap > 1000] and [group is FinancialSector]] or [[market cap > 100] and [group is TechnologySector]] or [[market cap > 100] and [group is CommunicationServicesSector]] or [[market cap > 100] and [group is UtilitiesSector]] or [[market cap > 100] and [group is RealEstateSector]] ] // sectors close bracket and [symbol not contains '/'] // this avoids special issues and [sma(21,volume) > 500000] // or your choice and [close > 5] // or your choice // and [close < 100] // or your choice; use one or both to limit hits to a price range that suits you and [SCTR > 70] // or your choice; you do want good relative strength stocks // K10 has been above 80 in past 2 weeks (price has shown some strength) and [1 day ago max(10, Fast Stoch %K(10,1)) > 80] // K10 has not bee below 20 in past 2 weeks (try to get first crossing) and [1 day ago min(10, Fast Stoch %K(10,1)) > 20] and [ // close crossed into bottom 20% of yesterdays's ten day range [20 x Fast Stoch %K(10,1)] or // low crossed into bottom 20 per cent of yesterday's ten day range [1 day ago min(10,low) +[[1 day ago max(10, high)-[1 day ago min(10, low)]]*.2] x low] ] rank by SCTR Even with SCTR, not every hit will be great. You should probably prefer hits coming off a new trend high, and earlier in the trend. Also, the entry should be AFTER a close above the MA 3 of HIGHS. Enter probably next day below that MA, with a stop below the 10 day lower price channel. If ranges are wide, pass on the hit. Here's an example: The first scan hit is June 20 (because the long tail gets into the Fast K10 bottom 20% range). Price continues down - so the hit itself is not the entry. Price stays below the MA 3 of highs on a closing basis until Jul 8. In this case price doesn't pull back into below the MA 3 of highs. JBGS is a good candidate because it has just broke out above its 63 day channel (green) after a long basing period, and this is the first pull back. Note the Fast K 20 also crossed below 20, which is another variation on this idea but more for mid-length trades. Here's another example, also scan date Jun 20. Here again price continues down after the hit, closes above MA 3 Jul 1, then dips back below it, offering a chance to get in. This is also a good candidate because it follows a recent breakout above the 251 and 63 day upper channels and is not too far from a long basing period. One more example: This one doesn't work out, even though it fits all the scan criteria. The hit was the more the result of the ranging price - the channel comes up to meet price instead of price dropping to the channel. Also the big jump in price and volume in early Jun is an irregularity that interferes with the normal pattern. p.s. specifying the sectors at the top of the scan excludes ETFs and other issues not belonging to a sector (some foreign issues, mutual funds, commodity and bond funds, etc.). I don't know if non-common stock issues respond similarly.

Avoid Long Candles

PeterPan8 — Sat, 14 Jun 2025 19:58:00 +0000

Is there a way to scan for stocks in order to avoid very long candles? (Left) I've tried with ATR and ADX but no setting seems to work. Any ideas?

A scan to detect possible well-informed buying

markd — Fri, 25 Jul 2025 13:15:31 +0000

Here's a bottom feeding scan to detect possible well-informed buying in sold out stocks, such as Wyckoff might be interested in: [group is sp500] // or your group, sector or list of interest and [min(10,Fast Stoch %K(251,1)) < 20] // stock is near low of 52 week range and [Streak Up(close) > 4] // 5 or more consecutive days of buying. and [max(10,volume) > max(10, sma(20,volume))] // volume is meaningful Price itself may move significantly soon after a hit, or many weeks later. The scan only shows big money interest, not necessarily readiness to move. It's more a scan to fill out a watch list, than a scan to act on right away. Run for scan date July 23, 2025 to see examples. Many dates will return "no data" because it doesn't happen all the time. Also try it for May 16, 2025, but for [group is sp600], see esp BKE, KSS already launched; PRAA, VSCO possibly on the launch pad. p.s. reviewing past results from other dates, I would add, the chart should show at least one form of relative strength to get on your list - rising $SYMBOL:$INDUSTRY, rising $INDUSTRY:$SECTOR or rising Force(251). Also, before entering, it helps if the stock has a period of ranging just above the 251 lower channel on the daily chart. That is the Wyckoff accumulation phase. Sometime during the ranging or on the breakout, $SYMBOL:$INDUSTRY should get above its 63 day MA and stay there, showing improving relative strength versus its peers. Entries have a better chance after that happens. If you have the patience, run the scan for several months in 2024 to see the variety of results. Here are the chart style values to see the indicators involved Here's the KSS chart For clarity, I've shortened the chart start-end. See current chart for full picture. The vertical blue line is the scan date.

Ichimoku Tenkansen/Kijunsen cross scan refuses to give good results

peterinjapan — Tue, 22 Jul 2025 17:55:58 +0000

Hi, so I use Ichimoku investing which is super convenient as a way to spot trends or places where I should take action. One of my scanners is supposed to catch stocks in my main chartlist (#21) when the tenkansen / conversion line and kijunsen / base line. Here's an example, from XEL. The blue (tenkansen) and red (kijunsen) lines below price. A tenkan/kijun bullish twist took place on July 2, yet my scanner is just reporting it to me now, three weeks late. All my results are equally frustrating: I just want to catch the twist within 2 days, yet the results are not useful at all. Can anyone suggest a better approach? Here is the latest version of my scan, made with the help of Chat GPT becasue it's 2025. // Bullish Ichimoku Conversion/Base Line Cross within last 2 days on ChartList 21 // Scan Mode: End-of-Day Data Recommended // Bullish Ichimoku Tenkan/Kijun Cross – Last 2 Days on ChartList 21 [[ChartList is 21] AND [Ichimoku Conversion Line(9,26) > Ichimoku Base Line(26,52)] AND [1 days ago Ichimoku Conversion Line(9,26) <= 1 days ago Ichimoku Base Line(26,52)]] OR [[ChartList is 21] AND [1 days ago Ichimoku Conversion Line(9,26) > 1 days ago Ichimoku Base Line(26,52)] AND [2 days ago Ichimoku Conversion Line(9,26) <= 2 days ago Ichimoku Base Line(26,52)] ]

Scanning for 200-day moving average has been trending higher for X days

bulusufinances — Sat, 13 May 2023 15:22:52 +0000

I am trying to scan for stocks that are in an uptrend with a volume. But the specific condition I am looking for us is to check if a stock is above 200-day SMA for more than 14 days in a row. Below is what I have so far with other conditions I was checking. Stuck on the SMA trend [type is stock] and [country = US] and [Close > 2] and [weekly volume > 1 week ago sma(10, volume) * 2] and [weekly close > 1 week ago close] and [Daily SMA(10,Daily Close) > Yesterdays Daily SMA(10,Daily Close)] and [Daily SMA(200,Daily Volume) > 1000000] and [SMA(50) > yesterdays SMA(50)] // add condition for checking if the stock is higher than SMA(200) for X days in a row Help, please. Thanks in advance.

In my "learn something new" series.

lmkwin — Wed, 14 Jun 2023 21:53:31 +0000

I was getting no results whenever I'd put the CMF indicator into a scan. I flipped over to the Predefined Scans page as they have a scan for Improving Chaikin Money Flow. There is zero results showing for the stock indexes when I checked as well. I sent a message to support and they responded Thank you for contacting us. You cannot scan for volume-based indicators, like CMF, during trading hours. Their data isn't available for charting nor scanning at that time. There's more information on why posted here: https://support.stockcharts.com/doku.php?id=faqs:why_arent_my_volume_based_indicators_updating Please let me know if you have any other questions or comments about our website. I then followed the link, which talks about the chart updating. Not much help there but then I went to the CMF in ChartSchool and at the bottom of the page there is a note. Note: For the purposes of scanning, daily volume data is incomplete during the trading day. When running scans with volume-based indicators like CMF, be sure to base the scan on the “Last Market Close.” Examples of other volume-based indicators include Accumulation/Distribution, On Balance Volume, and the PVO. I had never noticed this before. Of course, I don't use any of those other 'volume based' indicators in my scans but word to the wise, if you run a scan during the trading day, and you get zero results, check for a 'volume Based Indicator' in your scan.

help with ROC scan

nmull1972 — Sun, 20 Jul 2025 02:43:48 +0000

I am trying to find stocks that went up 200% in any 125 day span, in the last year(252). Somehow I get RNA and VKTX on my list. Neither has even doubled at any point this year. [type is stock] and[exchange is NYSE] or [exchange is nasdaq] or [exchange is amex] and [group is not etf] and [name NOT CONTAINS 'etf'] and [name not CONTAINS 'bond'] and [name NOT CONTAINS'trust'] and [name not contains 'acquisition'] and [name not contains 'muni'] AND [CLOSE > 5] and [sma(20,volume) > 225000] and [MARKET CAP > 2500] and [max(252, ROC(125)) > 200] I like to look for stocks that make huge gains in various time frames and use them on a big gainer list. I often get stocks that don't belong on list, I think, if I'm running the scan right. I am not sure I am using the "max" right Can anyone help? thanks

Symbol Help please for the "Fab 4"

IamJim — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 13:44:01 +0000

Anyone know/have the proper syntax call on these please? tyia, Jim ++

Scan price close to Moving averages

Jccj — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 18:52:57 +0000

What is the best way to scan( weekly time frame) stocks that are very close (within 2%) of the 20SMA ,50SMA and 100SMA(all 3). thanks

S&P 500 stocks older than 20 years

Jccj — Fri, 11 Jul 2025 17:37:49 +0000

Does anyone know how to scan for stocks in the S&P 500 that have been around longer than 20 years? the one I use is "and [120 months ago Close > 1.0] " but that only covers 10 years, will not lett me go to 240 months. thanks

MACD Entry

JJJJ — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 01:02:10 +0000

I am keying in on entering a trade based on the MACD histogram along with some other indicators. If I am looking at a daily chart, and I see the MACD histogram hitting a low and starting to turn up , should I enter then or wait until the histogram crosses the zero line ? Which approach would tend to give better results ?

I think I finally found a good scanning solution for tracking bearish/bullish swings

peterinjapan — Thu, 15 May 2025 16:14:23 +0000

Hello, all. I've been using Stockcharts for 4-ish years, learning as I went. One thing I tried to do for a while was set up scripts that would tell me when green ADX swung above red ADX, or when there was a bullish Tenkansen/Kijunsen cross in Ichimoku, meaning a likely positive setup. For whatever reason, all my scans would return signals that were 5-10 days old, leading to frustration. Recently I tried scanning for SAR bullish/bearish dot crosses, and this finally seems to be what I was looking for: an easy to way to track when items in my main chartlist are possibly setting up for a run up. My scans looks like this is anyone is interested. It basically flags a cross that happened today or yesterday. // Scenario 1: Cross happened TODAY (between yesterday's close and today's close/current) [[ChartList is 21] AND [close < Parabolic SAR(0.02,0.2)] and [yesterday close > yesterday Parabolic SAR(0.02,0.2)]] or [[ChartList is 21] AND [yesterday's close < Parabolic SAR(0.02,0.2)] and [2 days ago close > yesterday Parabolic SAR(0.02,0.2)]]

Alerts

dhall6938 — Tue, 03 Jun 2025 15:15:10 +0000

GM again. I have made some modifications to a scan and would like to also modify the alert. For two days now I have been trying to make the modifications to the alert but it will not save. I have tried a dozen times since yesterday morning. I have written to SC to see if they have some kind of internal issue but as usual have not heard a word from them. I know that it could be something on my end but do you know if SC is working on something right now or if they are having an issue somewhere somehow?

Scan to find stocks hitting a support level

srm — Fri, 14 Mar 2025 19:14:15 +0000

hello folks, is there a clever way of writing a scan that finds stocks at a support level. for exp - Intel (INTC) hit the 18.61$ support level 6 times since 8/2024. it would be nice to catch such support level repeated visits. thx!

Scan language for close in top half of todays range?

dtkrause — Tue, 22 Apr 2025 14:09:15 +0000

Title. Thanks, guys, you are appreciated.

Need scanner for this pattern

Teknical — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 09:25:22 +0000

Hello need help regarding scan for downward sloping flag( BullFlag) , I have attached link https://usethinkscript.com/threads/bull-flag-and-bear-flag-formations-for-thinkorswim.467/

2-Bar Narrow Range

Teknical — Tue, 25 Mar 2025 12:56:40 +0000

Need help in scanning this query , Toby Crabel – 2-Bar Narrow Range (NR) pattern is defined as the narrowest range from high to low of any two day period relative to any two day period within the previous 20 market days (Look_Back).

Scan for Fibonacci Levels

srm — Fri, 21 Mar 2025 14:37:27 +0000

hello, is there a scan that will help find stocks at key Fibonacci levels? or a function/call/API that I can use in a scan to do the same? thx