Published: September 12, 2024

Last Update: June 18, 2026.

TradeSmith Proprietary Metrics

Health (Short-Term): The Health Indicator tells you how healthy a position is in the short term. The Health Indicators provide a full life-cycle view of your positions' health. They are designed to tell you at a glance exactly where any position stands relative to TradeSmith's proprietary algorithms.

These signals indicate the current health of the position (performing well, in a period of correction, or stopped out).

Health (Long-Term): Similar to Health (Short-Term), the Long-Term Health Indicator measures a position's health using a longer-term trailing stop based on the Volatility Quotient (VQ). It indicates whether a position is in the Green Zone (healthy), Yellow Zone (correction), or Red Zone (stopped out) over a longer time horizon, helping investors filter out short-term noise.

Trend: The overall direction of a market or asset's price. You can filter for:

• Uptrend: marked by higher highs and higher lows.
• Downtrend: marked by lower lows and lower highs.
• Sideways: marked by relatively equal highs and lows.

Entry Signal: Allows you to search for securities that have triggered a Health Indicator Entry Signal and/or an Early Entry Signal within a specified number of calendar days.

• Health Indicator Entry Signal (Red to Green): Our most conservative re-entry signal. It tells us when it's safe to get back into a stock that had previously been stopped out. The Entry Signal uses our trend indicator to distinguish good bounces off the bottom from bad ones. A "good" bounce follows through to the upside; a "bad" bounce fails and is soon followed by new lows.

Risk (VQ%): The Volatility Quotient (VQ/Risk) indicates how volatile an investment is based on at least one year's historic price action. The lower the number, the more stable the movement of that stock. Higher percentages indicate the stock is more volatile in its market moves over time.

VQ breakdown:

• Up to 15% = Low Risk
• 15% – 30% = Medium Risk
• 30% – 50% = High Risk
• 50% and above = Sky-High Risk

Kinetic VQ Ratio: The Kinetic VQ strategy looks for stocks with current Volatility Quotients that are well above their average VQ. When this condition occurs, it's as if the stocks have an extra store of energy to push their prices higher as the VQs return to their normal averages. For a stock to qualify, its current VQ must be at least 20% higher than its average VQ.

TradeSmith Strategies: Applies to all TradeSmith products that have investment strategies as part of their subscription. Currently, this includes Ideas by TradeSmith, Trade Cycles, Money Movers, and Platinum subscriptions.

Average Risk (VQ): The average Volatility Quotient (risk) for a position over the past 30 years. Regarding TradeSmith strategies and the Pure Quant tool, equities must have an average VQ of 40% or less, and cryptos must have an average VQ of 80% or less.

Rating: Pertains to Ratings by TradeSmith. It provides an overall stock rating based on TradeSmith's proprietary indicators and other technical and fundamental indicators. This filter allows you to search for securities that are Strong Bullish, Bullish, Neutral, Bearish, or Strong Bearish. Available to Ratings by TradeSmith and TradeSmith Platinum accounts.

Business Quality Score: Our Business Quality Score rates every company based on a composite of four broad quality metrics:

• Growth: Measures changes in a company's finances, such as sales, profit, return on equity (ROE), return on assets (ROA), and cash flow over the past five years.
• Profitability: Measures a company's current level of profitability relative to its assets, sales, and shareholder equity.
• Safety: Measures a company's financial strength (debt burden, credit risk, etc.) and its stock's historical volatility versus the overall market.
• Payout: Measures how much of what a company earns benefits shareholders via dividends, net share buybacks, and debt repayment.

Our algorithms calculate the current quality score for each stock compared to its history and all other stocks in our database, then average those scores on a quality scale from 0 (lowest quality) to 100 (highest quality).

Money Movers Score: A proprietary score ranging from -100 to 100 measures institutional money flow into or out of a stock. A positive score indicates money is flowing in (potential buy signal); a negative score indicates money is flowing out (potential sell signal).

The higher the positive score, the stronger the buy signal; the lower the negative score, the stronger the sell signal.

Social Heat Score: A proprietary score from 0 to 100, developed by analysts Andy and Landon Swan, that captures and analyzes millions of consumer data points daily, including social media posts on X, Reddit, YouTube, and Google; company-level web traffic trends and app usage; and search trends and AI queries from across the internet. The higher the score, the greater the consumer interest and momentum surrounding that company's products or services. This can reveal emerging investment opportunities before they gain mainstream attention on Wall Street.

To learn more about the Social Heat Score, click here.

TradeCycles by TradeSmith

Days to Cycle Start Date: The number of calendar days until the next projected cycle turn area begins for a security. This filter helps you plan ahead for upcoming potential peaks or valleys.

Cycle Period: Refers to the individual cycles that make up TradeSmith's composite cycle. You can isolate your search to securities that are in a very long-term, long-term, medium-term, or short-term cycle.

• Longer-term cycles provide more stable, sustained trends.
• Shorter-term cycles allow you to pinpoint specific entry and exit points within those longer time periods.

Cycle Turn Area: Allows you to isolate your search to find securities that are in a current or upcoming peak or valley.

• Valley = Bottom (price projected to move higher).
• Peak = Top (price projected to move lower).

Cycle Conviction Level: The conviction level, pertaining to Trade Cycles by TradeSmith, tells you how many of the individual cycles agree on the turn area (peak or valley). The higher the conviction level, the higher the probability that the event will occur.

Optimal Seasonal Pattern Only: When enabled, this filter limits results to securities for which TradeSmith has identified an optimal seasonal pattern — the strongest combination of historical accuracy and average return metrics. Use this to focus on only the highest-quality seasonal setups.

Seasonal Synergy Signals Only: When enabled, filters to show only securities whose optimal seasonal patterns align with the optimal Relative Strength Index (RSI) for that pattern, increasing overall conviction in a seasonal trade idea.

Seasonality Years Under Review: This specifies the duration of historical data being analyzed. A longer period under review can provide a more accurate and robust understanding of seasonal patterns, allowing investors to observe their consistency over multiple cycles.

Days to Seasonality Pattern Start Date: The number of calendar days until the seasonal pattern is expected to begin.

Seasonality Pattern Accuracy Rate (Historical): The historical accuracy rate of the average return percentage for that price pattern.

Seasonality Pattern Average Return (Historical): The average historical return of the seasonal pattern over the review period, telling you how well the seasonality model has historically captured seasonal patterns.

Seasonality Pattern Annualized Return (Historical): The seasonal pattern's historical returns are adjusted to an annualized basis, enabling apples-to-apples comparisons with other investments.

Predictive Alpha

Predictive Alpha Prime is a service powered by analysts John Jagerson and Wade Hansen. The following filters are derived from their proprietary model for projecting stock price targets and timelines. These filters are available to Predictive Alpha Prime and TradeSmith Platinum subscribers.

Prime Outlook: The directional outlook (very bullish, bullish, bearish, or very bearish) for a stock as projected by the Predictive Alpha Prime model. Use this filter to screen for securities with a specific directional bias.

Prime Expected Move: The projected price target or expected price movement for a stock based on the Predictive Alpha Prime algorithm. This represents the anticipated magnitude of the move from the current price to the projected target.

Days to Prime Projection Date: The number of calendar days remaining until the projected target date for the Prime price move. This helps you identify securities with an imminent move versus those that are further out.

Prime Historical Directional Accuracy: The historical accuracy rate (expressed as a percentage) of the Predictive Alpha Prime model's directional calls (bullish vs. bearish) for a given security. A higher rate indicates stronger historical predictive power.

Prime Historical Target Accuracy: The historical accuracy rate of the Predictive Alpha Prime model's specific price target projections for a given security. This measures how precisely the model has historically hit its price targets.

VolScore: A volatility-based score from the Predictive Alpha model that measures the current volatility environment for a stock relative to its historical norms. VolScore can help identify stocks entering or exiting periods of elevated volatility.

Trend Zone: Classifies a stock's current price trend based on the Predictive Alpha model, helping identify whether it is in a favorable trend configuration for a potential trade setup.

Correlated Only: When enabled, this filter limits results to securities whose trend and Predictive Alpha Price Projection are moving in the same direction.

Quantum Edge Scores

Quantum Score: The Quantum Score is derived from a 29-factor model that measures 120 data points per stock to determine an overall score indicating whether a stock is a buy. Scores range from 0–100, with 90 or above in the buy zone. The Quantum Score is composed of the Technical score (58%) and the Fundamental score (42%).

Quantum Edge Fundamental Score: Fundamentals include sales and earnings growth, profitability, debt levels, and other essential metrics to determine whether the business is healthy. The Fundamental Score represents 42% of the overall Quantum Score.

Quantum Edge Technical Score: The Technical score is composed of volume, price, and volatility metrics and is designed to determine whether money is flowing into a stock. The Technical Score represents 58% of the overall Quantum Score.

Market & Classification

Country of Exchange: Allows you to isolate your securities based on the following countries:

• Australia
• Canada
• United Kingdom
• United States

Markets: Allows you to search for securities traded on specific U.S. and foreign stock exchanges, including major indices and exchanges such as the NYSE, NASDAQ, and the S&P 500.

Sectors: TradeSmith is tracking the 11 S&P 500 Sector ETFs:

• Energy (XLE)
• Utilities (XLU)
• Technology (XLK)
• Materials (XLB)
• Consumer Staples (XLP)
• Consumer Discretionary (XLY)
• Industrials (XLI)
• Communication (XLC)
• Health Care (XLV)
• Financials (XLF)
• Real Estate (XLRE)

Industries: Allows you to isolate your search to securities that fall within a particular industry or sub-industry classification, enabling more granular screening beyond broad sector categories.

Asset Type: This allows you to isolate your securities based on the following asset vehicles:

• Stock
• Crypto
• Index
• Fund

Note: Fund includes mutual funds and ETFs.

Quote Currencies: The quote currency (counter currency) is the second currency in both a direct and indirect currency pair and is used to value the base currency. Currency quotes show how many units of the quote currency will be needed to exchange for one unit of the first (base) currency. This filter is particularly relevant for crypto trading pairs.

TradeSmith Baskets: Similar to a watchlist, a TradeSmith Basket allows you to track a collection of securities. Your baskets can be incorporated into various tools, such as the Screener, to filter results to only the securities in that basket.

Model Portfolios: Allows you to filter securities by TradeSmith's pre-built Model Portfolios, curated collections of stocks based on specific investment strategies. This enables you to screen within a model portfolio's universe of holdings.

Portfolios & Watchlists: Allows you to filter by the securities in your existing TradeSmith portfolios and watchlists, making it easy to run screens against positions you are already tracking.

Newsletter Recommendations

Newsletters Recommendations: Any newsletters you've synced with TradeSmith. The Screener will then pull positions from the newsletters for consideration, allowing you to isolate your results based on your active newsletter subscriptions.

Price, Volume & Performance

Latest Close: The last closing price for which the position trades during the trading session. In TradeSmith, this is adjusted for corporate actions such as dividends, splits, and spin-offs.

Volume: A stock's volume is the number of shares traded in a given period. Traders and investors use the metric to gauge interest in a security and make trading decisions. When trading volume is up — whether it's buying or selling volume — it means the security is gaining attention and trading activity is increasing.

Short Interest: Short interest represents the number or percentage of a stock's float (shares available to trade) that has been sold short but not yet covered or closed. High short interest can indicate bearish sentiment among traders; it can also create conditions for a short squeeze if the stock moves higher, forcing short sellers to buy back shares.

RSI (14): A momentum indicator used in technical analysis that measures the magnitude of recent price changes to determine if a security is overbought or oversold. Currently set to the standard 14-day period.

• Above 70%: Overbought (security may be overvalued and due for a pullback).
• Below 30%: Oversold (security may be undervalued and due for a bounce).

One Day Change: The difference between a stock's latest close price and its previous close price, expressed as a percentage.

One Week Change: The change in market price over one week, expressed as a percentage.

One Month Change: The change in market price over one month, expressed as a percentage.

One Year Change: The change in market price over one year, expressed as a percentage.

Three-Year Change: The change in market price over three years, expressed as a percentage.

Five-Year Change: The change in market price over five years, expressed as a percentage.

YTD Change: The change in a security's market price from the first trading day of the current calendar year to the latest close, expressed as a percentage. Use this filter to screen for stocks based on their performance so far in the current year.

52 Week High: The highest closing price a security has reached over the trailing 52-week period. Use this filter to identify stocks trading near or at their annual highs, which can indicate strong price momentum.

30-Day Average Volume: The average number of shares traded per day over the past 30 trading days. Provides a near-term benchmark for a stock's typical liquidity level and is useful for assessing whether current volume is above or below recent norms.

1-Year Average Volume: The average number of shares traded per day over the past year. Provides a longer-term benchmark of a stock's typical trading activity. TradeSmith requires that stocks used in the Pure Quant tool have an average daily volume of 100,000 shares or more.

30-Week MA: The 30-week moving average of a stock's closing price (roughly equivalent to a 150-day moving average). Many investors use this as a key long-term trend benchmark; stocks consistently above the 30-week MA are generally considered to be in a healthy uptrend.

Price vs 30-Week MA: Compares a stock's current price to its 30-week moving average, expressed as a percentage above or below the average. A positive reading means the stock is trading above its 30-week MA (constructive); a negative reading means it is below (potentially bearish).

30-Week MA Slope: The direction and rate of change (slope) of the 30-week moving average. A rising slope confirms a strengthening uptrend; a declining slope suggests a weakening or deteriorating trend.

Valuation & Fundamental Metrics

Market Capitalization: The market capitalization of a company is the total dollar value of its outstanding shares, calculated by multiplying the number of outstanding shares by the current market price.

• Large Cap = $10 billion or more
• Mid-Cap = $2 billion to $10 billion
• Small Cap = $300 million to $2 billion
• Micro-Cap = $50 million to $300 million
• Nano-Cap = Less than $50 million

P/E Ratio: The price-to-earnings ratio determines if a stock is overvalued or undervalued by measuring its current share price relative to its earnings per share (EPS).

• A high P/E typically means a stock's price is high relative to earnings.
• A low P/E indicates a stock's price is low relative to earnings.
• A negative P/E ratio means the company has negative earnings, or is losing money.

P/B: Price-to-book (P/B) ratio measures the value of a company's assets relative to its stock price. It is calculated by dividing the stock price per share by the book value per share (BVPS). A P/B ratio below 1.0 could signal that a stock may be undervalued relative to its asset value.

PEG: The price/earnings-to-growth ratio builds on the P/E ratio by factoring in expected earnings growth. It is thought to provide a more complete picture of a stock's value than the P/E ratio alone.

Enterprise Value: Enterprise value (EV) is a more comprehensive measure of a company's total value than market capitalization alone, as it accounts for debt obligations. It is calculated as market capitalization plus outstanding preferred stock and all debt obligations, minus all cash and cash equivalents. Enterprise value is used to identify companies that may be undervalued by the market.

Enterprise Value/EBITDA: The EV/EBITDA ratio compares a company's enterprise value to its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. Lower ratio values generally indicate that a company may be undervalued. Typically, an EV/EBITDA value below 10 is considered healthy.

Enterprise Value/Revenue: The enterprise value-to-revenue multiple (EV/R) measures the value of a stock by comparing a company's enterprise value to its annual revenue. This multiple is commonly used for early-stage or high-growth businesses that do not yet have positive earnings.

Revenue: The money generated from normal business operations, calculated as the average sales price times the number of units sold. It is the top line (or gross income) figure from which costs are subtracted to determine net income.

Net Income: Also called net earnings, net income is calculated as revenue minus all expenses, including cost of goods sold, selling, general and administrative expenses, operating expenses, depreciation, interest, and taxes. It represents the company's "bottom line" profitability.

EBITDA: Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) is a widely used measure of core corporate profitability. Formula: EBITDA = Net Income + Interest Expense + Taxes + Depreciation + Amortization. EBITDA is expressed as a dollar amount; a higher EBITDA is generally better. Note: EBITDA should not be confused with EV/EBITDA, which is expressed as a ratio.

Diluted EPS: Diluted earnings per share account for all potential shares that could be created through stock options, convertible securities, warrants, and other dilutive instruments. It provides a more conservative measure of per-share earnings than basic EPS. A higher EPS indicates greater company profitability and is a widely used metric for estimating corporate value.

Total Assets: Refers to the total amount of assets owned by a company. The total-debt-to-total-assets ratio, calculated using this figure, shows the degree to which a company has used debt to finance its assets, considering all debt and all assets, including intangibles.

Shares Outstanding: The total number of shares issued and actively held by all stockholders — both outside investors and corporate insiders. Shares outstanding do not include stock options or other benefits that have not yet been converted into actual shares.

Dividends, Cash Flow & Ownership

Trailing Dividend Yield: The sum of dividends paid over the past 365 days divided by the latest close price. TradeSmith excludes all dividends except ordinary dividends, daily accrual funds, and underlying payouts.

• Ordinary Dividends: a regularly scheduled payment made by the company.
• Daily accrual funds: the amount of income earned in a mutual fund.
• Underlying payouts: the security or asset that must be delivered when a contract or warrant is exercised.

Forward Dividend Yield: A forward dividend yield estimates the current dividend yield for the year based on the most recent dividend payment annualized. In contrast, trailing dividend yield uses actual past payments. Forward yield is an estimate and may fluctuate based on the company's business prospects.

Free Cash Flow: Free cash flow (FCF) represents the cash that a company generates after accounting for cash outflows to support operations and maintain its capital assets. Unlike earnings or net income, FCF excludes non-cash expenses and includes capital expenditures and changes in working capital. Interest payments are excluded from the generally accepted definition of free cash flow.

Free Cash Flow Yield: Free cash flow per share divided by the current share price, expressed as a percentage. It represents the cash return an investor theoretically receives from a stock's free cash flow, similar to how dividend yield works. A higher FCF yield may indicate that a stock is undervalued relative to the cash it generates.

Insider Transactions: As a general rule, insider buying shows management's confidence in the company and is considered a bullish sign — insiders believe the stock price is likely to go up. Insider selling is considered bearish; those in the know may be offloading stock in expectation that prices will soon fall.

Institutional Ownership: Institutional ownership is the percentage of a company's available stock owned by mutual or pension funds, insurance companies, investment firms, private foundations, endowments, or other large entities that manage funds on behalf of others.

Mutual Fund Ownership: Each mutual fund share represents an investor's proportionate ownership of the mutual fund's portfolio and the income the portfolio generates. This filter allows you to screen based on the level of mutual fund ownership in a security.

Dividend Growth Streak: The number of consecutive years a company has increased its annual dividend payment. Companies with long dividend growth streaks are often considered financially stable and shareholder-friendly. Those with 25 or more consecutive years of increases are commonly known as "Dividend Aristocrats."

Key Events

Days to Earnings: The number of calendar days until a company's next scheduled earnings report. This filter is useful for timing entries and exits around earnings announcements, or for finding stocks with earnings due within a specific window.

Days to Ex-Dividend Date: The number of calendar days until a stock's next ex-dividend date — the cutoff date by which you must own the stock to qualify for the upcoming dividend payment. Investors can use this filter to identify income opportunities ahead of upcoming distributions.

Days to Splits/Spinoffs/Stock Distributions: The number of calendar days until an upcoming corporate action such as a stock split, spinoff, or other stock distribution event. These events can meaningfully affect a stock's price and liquidity.

Trading History: Allows you to filter based on how long a security has been publicly traded. This is useful for screening out very new or recently IPO'd stocks when you prefer securities with an established price history.

The Billionaires Club

Billionaires Name: Allows you to filter stocks by which specific high-profile billionaire investors currently hold a reported position in that security, based on publicly disclosed 13F filings. This can help you identify stocks favored by well-known market participants.

Billionaires Holding Status: Indicates whether a tracked billionaire investor has recently bought, sold, or maintained (held) their position in a stock, based on the most recently available filing data. Use this filter to find stocks that prominent investors are actively accumulating or exiting.

Other

Exclude Individual Securities: removes specific stocks you do not want in your scan.

Options Available Only: refines your results to stocks that have options contracts available for trading.

Chaikin

The Chaikin category includes filters powered by Marc Chaikin's Power Gauge system and is available to Chaikin members.

Chaikin Power Gauge Rating: A proprietary quantitative rating that analyzes 20 fundamental, technical, and sentiment factors to classify a stock's potential performance from very bullish to very bearish.

Need Help? 

Our Customer Success team is ready to assist: 

• Phone: 1-866-385-2076 (toll-free) 
• Email: [email protected] 

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