TWS Market Scanners Webinar Notes

The Scanner Library opens with a variety of predefined scans. When you select the asset type and region, the list of valid scanners will change. Choose a predefined scanner in the Library window. A description window opens for the selected scanner as the results simultaneously populate in the Monitor.

Many of the scanners provide a dual sort, showing the instruments with the greatest negative change on the left and positive percent change on the right.

Customize

Without any filtering, you may find the results too broad, so click the Customize button to tailor the results for your individual preferences.

• Universe section allows you to specify instrument and region. Your selections are highlighted in green as you define the "Universe".
• Fields & Filters section lets you add any combination of variables, filters and parameters to personalize your scans
  • Add Field drop down lets you choose any combination of additional market data fields to add to the scan results. Click and Drag the field name(s) or column headers to reposition the order displayed in scan results. Use the red "X" to remove the field from the scanner.
  • The Display selections let you specify how you want the field displayed, use the Line, Bar and Gradient graphical indicators for at-a-glance information.
    • Gradient – allows you to find companies that excel across multiple scanner criteria; appears as a colored circle with different shades to provide information on the field value. Hold your mouse over a gradient to see the color-shading key.
    • Bar – use a colored bar to indicate the direction and degree of change. Red indicates negative and green indicates positive.
    • Line – the field value is displayed using a colored line.
• Sort field allows you to specify the order for your scan results in ascending or descending order. Dual Sort splits the scan results in two columns – one sorts the results from High to Low and the other sorts Low to High – with both sorts displayed in the scanner results.
  • Scanner fields in the Monitor can easily be sorted by clicking the column header – arrow next to the column header indicates the field and the sort order for the scanner.

• Filter button lets you graphically set a range for results by dragging the green range bars or by entering values to limit the scan results.

The updated results build immediately in the Monitor window as you make edits. Click Done to complete the scan. Results can be exported to Excel.

Redefine a Scan

It's simple to modify and re-run your scan with just a few clicks. Open the Edit Scanner panel to add or remove criteria and filters. TWS Market Scanner does the rest!

Important Note:

TWS provides simultaneous quotes for up to 100 active tickers. If your scanner criteria returns more than 100 contracts, you will get a warning and the dual sort capabilities will be disabled. Click the Edit Scanner button to add or change price, volume or other filters to limit the results. Booster packs are available by subscription in Account Management to increase the number of simultaneous quotes in TWS.

Use the Filter button to graphically set filter bounds or to enter the values to filter scan results.

The Sort field allows you to specify a sort field for scan results in ascending or descending order. Dual Sort splits the scan results in two columns – one sorts the results from High to Low and the other sorts Low to High – with both sorts displayed in the scanner results.

Click Done to complete the scan. There's an Edit Scanner button in the upper right corner of the window to edit your preferences.

Results can be exported to Excel.

Save as a Custom Scanner

WhenWhether you Create a Custom Scan or select additional fields to personalize a predefined scanner be sure to name the scanner – making the it available on-demand from your library of customized scanners. (Right click scanner tab to name).

Options Scanner

When selecting Option as the asset class a single Mosaic scanner appears – Complex Orders and Trades. Specify an equity ticker for this scanner to return all complex strategies on that underlying that have a native bid/ask quote or that have traded today. Sort the results by Volume (left click Volume column header) to find the strategy most heavily traded during the current session.

Options Scanners can also be run based on the underlying equities. Consider adding Market Cap or volume constraints to filter out very high readings of options implied volatility.

• P/C Volume – A dual-sorted scan that displays equities with the highest and lowest put/call ratios.
• IV/HV –A dual-sorted scan that identifies equities whose options currently have the High Option Implied Volatility vs. their historical 30-day volatilities.
• Option Volume – Displays equities with the highest option volume today.

Additional options data can be added to US Equity scanners for volatility idea generation such as Highest Option Implied Volatility and High Option Implied Vol. over Historical Vol. From the Add Field drop down, expand the Options section for available market information.

Advanced Market Scanners (Classic TWS)

Market Scanners can be added in Classic TWS using the Quote Monitor "+" icon – right click to add a new page tab. You can also access both the Advanced Market Scanners and the Mosaic scanners from the Analytical Tools menu in Classic TWS.

When accessing from the Trading Tools menu, note the icons let you choose how to display the Scanner results – as a separate window or an additional tab in the Quote Monitor.

• When added as a detached Scanner window, there is a limit of active tickers (100) that will display real time quotes. You can limit the scan results from the Max Results drop-down, or use the scanner fields to filter for fewer results.
• Create a custom scan that you check each day by simply leaving the defined scanner tab open in the Quote Monitor tab or simply Save the scanner criteria as a template to view on-demand. Create as many "scanner" tabs as needed.
• In addition, you can transmit orders directly from a scanner, and save a scan as a template for later use.

Create a Scanner

Advanced Market Scanner opens with a scanner panel for you to select the Instrument by global region. Work from top to bottom and left to right, because choices you make will determine the remaining selections available:

• Choose an instrument first in the left panel. Scanner choices will vary according to the instrument selected.
• Available scanner criteria changes based on the Instrument/Location /Filter criteria you select. For example, Stocks as the instrument enables the selection to scan by Sector, Industry and Category.
• Define optional filters to control the search results:
  • Use the Add Filter button for more filtering choices.
  • The more detailed criteria will narrow down the results. For example, you may only want to see the Top% US Stock Gainers within a certain P/E range, or with a capitalization above 2,000,000,000.
• Scans are based on the price each selected instrument trades in, so if a user's base currency is EUR, Price Greater than 20.00 would be greater than 20 EUR.
• Each column in the scan results can be sorted by left clicking on the column header.
• Price ($) will convert all results based on US dollars for comparison – which is useful for :
  • non-USD based products (where price is converted to USD), and
  • global filters (where a common denominator is used to compare products that trade in different currencies).
• Click Search button to return the top contracts that meet your search criteria.
  • Data is updated every 60 seconds. (Time in Scan field)
  • Most scans return the top 50 contracts or you can select the number of results.
  • High Dividend Yield scan for US Stocks returns the top 750 contracts.
• Save your search parameters as a template with the Disc icon to be loaded on-demand.
• If you select a non-subscribed location, a message recommends that you either subscribe or remove the non-supported filters.

You can open multiple scanners in your Quote Monitor by simply adding a new tab with the "+" then selecting Advanced Market Scanner.

Search Bar

• After you've defined the scan criteria, click the Search button to run the scan.
• Check the Auto Refresh to have TWS automatically update the scan every 60 seconds. Unchecked provides a static view. Click Search button to update on-demand.
• Use the Reset button to set all filters back to the system defaults.
• Max results drop down let's you control the number of contracts returned.
• Edit button makes it simple to open, modify and re-run your scan
• Change your scanner choices – or create a new scanner by opening a new tab.

Option Volatility Scanners

Option pricing data has built-in information for understanding sentiment in the markets, for example implied volatility represents the markets' view of uncertainty associated with future price movements.

• TWS has 13 scans that will display option volatility rankings with highest/lowest volatility gainers and losers, contracts that are Hot by Option Volume, Put/Call Ratios and Open Interest, and many others.
• Choose Stocks as the Instrument,
  • Set Filters – i.e. for actively traded issues with the volume constraints
  • Scroll down in the scanner parameter drop-down menu and choose one of the Options parameters available.
  • You can also choose from Daily or Annual Volatility
• Activate the Statistics panel in the TWS OptionTrader to view scanner values for specific underlyings.

US Corporate Bonds

The US Corporate Bond scanner includes filters and parameters specific to the needs of bond traders.

Note that you must upgrade your Fixed Income trading permissions in Account Management before you can trade bonds. Optional subscriptions are available for US Bond quotes, Moody's' Ratings and Cusip service.

• Specify optional quantity, price, or yield filters
• Filter issuers that contain or exclude certain key words
• Specify more detailed criteria such as maturity, date range or ratings to narrow the scanner results.
• Use check boxes to require or exclude any industry specific bonds from search results.
• Choose Sort from the scanner dashboard to select how the results will display.
• The default sort is furthest-to-nearest maturity, also available are sorts by coupon rate, yield, spread between current bid and ask prices, ratings, biggest movers, daily volume numbers, as well as Reuters values you may find useful.

When searching for specific corporate debt issues, note the two fields at the bottom of the Market Data column for identifying bonds.

• Stock Symbol – is useful but may not return all available bonds.
• Issuer field – draws together all of the issuers under the common company name.

After Hours Scanner Snapshot

• You can still use most TWS Market Scanners when all trading has stopped, including during extended hours.
• After-hour scanners use data from the previous close to provide a static snapshot as of the market's closing price. A scan displaying snapshot data is identified by a gray background color in the Scanner display.

Market Statistics, TICK & TRIN indicators

View for AMEX, NASDAQ & NYSE:

• Advancing Issues, Declining Issues and Unchanged Issues.
• Up Volume, Down Volume and Unchanged Volume.
• TICK –indicator shows the number of stocks trading on an uptick minus the number of stocks trading on a downtick.
• TRIN – Trader's Index is a technical analysis indicator calculated by dividing the advances-to-declines spread by the volume of advances to declines.

Company Fundamentals

TWS Company Fundamentals incorporates numerous market scanners, allowing you to compare related firms to the selected ticker by category, sector and industry.

When you subscribe to Reuters Worldwide Fundamentals you can include additional fundamental fields in the scanners from the Global Configuration window.

Similar Products

Several customized scans for companies with related Industry/Sector classification are provided in through TWS Fundamentals. Use the dashboard drop down to find Similar Products.

• Choose between most active, top gainers, even scan for the highest dividend.
• Add other fundamental fields to the scan results with the small wrench icon.
• Sort and re-sort by left clicking column headers.

The Market Scanner pages are configurable with the Reuters fields through the Global Configuration window:

• Growth Rate.
• Price/Earnings Ratio.
• Quick Ratio.
• Dividend Yield.
• Return on Equity.
• Price/Book Ratio.

Create Orders from Scanner

You can create and manage orders from the Scan Results list, by clicking the bid/ask price to create an order row where you select your order criteria and transmit the order.

Click the Bid for a sell order, and the Ask for a buy order. The standard order management panel with separate tabs for Orders, Log, Trades and Portfolio is available in the Market Scanners to support order management.

Mobile Scanners

Scanners are also available on smart phones, tablets and in the WebTrader application.

WebTrader

Trader's Insight

Global market commentary is available from IBG traders and market participants through the IB Traders' Insight. These daily briefs are available on our website and on smart phone apps and tablets or navigate to the commentary/tables from the Education menu on our web site. Traders' Insight articles can also be viewed in TWS under the source code TI.

Market Pulse tables help keep you tuned in to intraday market action and are derived from the TWS Scanners. Options, Forex, Interest Rates, Corporate Bonds, ETF, Highest Dividend Yields, Futures Arbitrage and EFP Interest tables are updated throughout each trading day.