Walkthrough · Step by step · Stock Trading
How to Read the Performance Columns on a Stock Screener
Stock screener performance columns each measure price change over a different window, so one stock can show a gain in one column and a loss in the next.
Short answer
Each column is the percentage price change over one window, such as a week, a month, a quarter, a half year, year to date or a full year. Most are price-only, so dividends are left out. Compare each figure with the index over the same window, check relative volume and volatility beside it, then read the chart before acting.
- 1
Know each window
Check whether week, month, quarter, half year and year are counted in trading days or calendar periods, and that year to date starts from the prior year's last close.
- 2
Check whether it is price-only
Find out whether the column includes dividends. Most do not, which understates the return on high-yield stocks.
- 3
Compare against the index
Set the stock's figure against the index over the same window. A gain that trails the index is relative weakness.
- 4
Pair with relative volume and volatility
Read the performance figure next to relative volume and a volatility column, so a big move on thin trading or in a wild stock stands out.
- 5
Sort, then read the chart
Use the columns to build a shortlist, then open each chart to see how the move actually happened.
Plus 15% in the quarter column. Minus 8% in the year-to-date column. Same stock, same row. The first instinct is a data error. It doesn’t. The columns are measuring from different starting points, and a stock that fell hard early in the year and has rallied since will show exactly this.
What does each window measure?
Each column is a percentage price change up to the latest price. What changes is the starting point.
Both are true at once. The stock slid from $50 to $40 early in the year. Then it climbed to $46.
The usual windows run from a week up to a full year, with a quarter, a half year and year to date in between. Year to date runs from the last close of the previous year. The others count back from today, and screeners differ on how: some use calendar periods, some a fixed number of trading days, so a “month” can mean the last 21 sessions on one screener and since this date last month on another. The screener’s definitions page settles it.
Is the figure price-only?
Usually. Most performance columns ignore dividends.
For a stock that pays nothing, it barely matters. For a high yielder it matters a lot. Suppose a hypothetical stock starts the year at $40, ends it at $40.80, and pays $1.60 in dividends along the way: the performance column shows 2%, while a holder earned $2.40 on $40, which is 6%. Sorted by one-year performance, it ranks too low.
How does it compare with the index?
A 15% quarter reads differently in a falling market and a rising one. So put the stock’s figure beside the index’s figure over exactly the same window. If a hypothetical benchmark rose 12% over the quarter, the stock’s 15% is three points of outperformance, which is modest, and a stock that rose 8% over that quarter actually lagged, even though the column is green.
The relative strength line tracks that gap over time. Ranking a whole list this way is covered in ranking stocks by relative strength.
What should you read next to it?
Relative volume and volatility.
Relative volume compares today’s volume with the stock’s own average. A big move on relative volume well above 1 had real buying or selling behind it, while the same move on half the usual volume may reverse the moment anyone tries to trade size in either direction.
Volatility tells you whether the move is unusual for this stock. A 15% quarter is a big move for a stock that normally drifts a percent a week and routine for one that swings 5% on a quiet day. Read the performance column in units of the stock’s own normal movement.
How do you read the columns together?
Line the windows up and they describe the shape of a trend. A stock positive in every column, from the week out to the year, has been rising on every timescale the screener measures. Mixed signs tell you where the turn happened.
The columns also nest, which lets you back out the part of a longer window that the shorter one leaves out.
The stock did most of its six-month gain in the latest quarter. That is acceleration. Flip the figures, a half year of +20% with a quarter of +2%, and the move is fading even though the longer column still looks strong.
Filters work the same way. Asking for a positive quarter and a positive half year, with a week that is slightly negative, finds stocks in an uptrend that are pulling back, and that is a very different list from simply sorting by the week.
Why read the chart after you sort?
Sorting by performance gives you a shortlist. It can’t tell you how the move happened. A stock can show +15% for the quarter after a steady climb, after one gap on earnings with nothing since, or after a spike that has already half reversed, and each is a different trade even though the column prints the same figure for all of them.
Open each chart. Look at the path first. Then check volume on the up days and the down days, and where price sits in its recent range. The approach in swing trading the leading stock in the leading sector starts from exactly this kind of shortlist, and the stock trading hub has the rest of the screen.
People also ask
Do screener performance columns include dividends?
Usually not. Most performance columns measure the change in share price alone, so a stock that paid a large dividend during the window shows a lower figure than its holders actually earned. The screener's definitions or help page says whether a column is price-only or total return.
What does Perf Half Y mean on a stock screener?
It is the price change over roughly the last six months, the half-year window. Screeners count it either in calendar months or as a set number of trading days back from the latest close, which can give slightly different results for the same stock on the same day.