Effectiveness of Scanners

[johntherevelato]

Curious to know the value of the scanners compared to one another.

For example, would there be any discernible advantages opening positions with the Premarket scan 15 mins into the open of trading on the day versus the Powerscan at 1 hour into the trading day.

With the premarket scan, I suppose the idea is to try and spot whatever trends might be occurring as soon as possible by considering the overnight activity.

It's just that the Powerscan can also incorporate the aftermarket activity from the day before also, and it strikes me that trends are stronger and more apparent 1 hour into the day's trading than 15 mins into the day's trading i.e. the amount of volume appearing will indicate more greatly the trend of the stock on the day - and therefore, trading decisions can be taken more effectively.

[MR]

Since I left eSignal employment almost 20 months ago, I no longer have access to the scanners, so can only comment why both were found to be useful.

The premarket scan was a very useful tool for helping me prepare for the market open. Often, by using this scan, I could find attractive patterns quicker than waiting for the markets to open. Having the extra time to prepare before the open was very helpful as it gave me more time to develop strategies, and filter out which opportunity had greater potential.

Once the market opens, you don't have the luxury.

Then when the market opened, using the power scan as it was designed, I could often keep narrowing down opportunities, and often totally new ideas popped up during the day that might never have been in the premarket.

Also, I have seen many times where the premarket ideas totally did the opposite what I expected if I was trying to gap trade. There are days when, I think, the big institutional boys try to play suckers of us little traders by making us interprete premarket from what ultimately ends up happening. This is when the power scanner will help you better figure this out during the day.

So, in my opinion, both scanners play a row and can be very useful depending on that days market activity.

I will admit, it has been almost two years since I used these scanners, so my opinion is based on older use of that product line... but... I really did use to like the premarket scan. It really helped me a lot.

Hope this helps.

Marc