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Scanners

Scanners is a workspace limited to the approved staff accounts. Its navigation entry is Scanners under My Tools in the sidebar, or More on a phone. Thirteen scan windows share one workspace, with color-coded rows and a linked chart. They contain 26 separately configurable scans and strategies. The desktop layout uses five columns of stacked windows, with compact title bars and readable data tables.

Reading the data​

The market-data source uses the freshest fully completed five-minute candles available from the provider. Each candle records the open, high, low, close and volume for that period. The app adds no extra 15-minute holdback. Provider delay and the wait for a completed candle can still make a fast move appear after it happened.

The top bar shows actual data age, Refresh 5 min, and one compact last-batch time. A red delay badge appears when the data is at least 15 minutes old. Timing comes from the returned data rather than an assumed feed delay. A scan's title-bar gear opens Parameters; expand Data details there for its source, actual data time and coverage.

This workspace does not reproduce tick-by-tick alerts. It uses historical stock volume to calculate same-time relative volume where enough history is available. Some scans still need additional information, including historical options-volume averages, short interest, earnings data, quotes or trading-halt events. Those inputs remain required, and their availability can be reviewed in the scan's Parameters → Data details.

The scan tables show only rows that satisfy every required rule using available data. Rows with missing required inputs are excluded from the tables. The relevant scan's Parameters → Data details shows result counts, missing inputs and general data notes.

An empty table stays blank. Open its Parameters → Data details to see whether no covered stocks qualify, required data is missing, or a feed request failed. Coverage is limited to the scanned batch; a blank table does not establish that no stocks across the market qualify.

Relative volume​

Relative volume compares reported shares traded since midnight Eastern Time through the displayed bar with average volume through the same time in prior sessions. It includes premarket activity available from the provider and uses at least 20 usable sessions from the prior 30 trading sessions, excluding today. A reading of 2 means twice that historical same-time average.

The history count and data time matter: missing history can leave this value blank. This calculation uses completed minute bars and a fixed recent-session window, so it can differ from Trade Ideas' own profile. It does not substitute a full-day volume ratio for a same-time comparison.

Options data​

Parameters → Data details provides general notes about options coverage and missing inputs. Contract totals can satisfy a scan only when the full current-session chain is available and its timestamps align with the selected stock candle. A newer snapshot or a subtotal from an incomplete chain does not qualify as the scan's options volume.

Average options volume and options volume as a percentage of normal still need complete historical daily contract totals, including contracts that later expired. The current chain snapshot does not provide that baseline. Scans requiring it cannot display qualifying rows until it is available. Their result counts and missing-input notes remain accessible through Parameters → Data details.

Using the workspace​

  • Open a window's title-bar gear to review or adjust its Parameters. Use Scanner parameters or Strategy parameters to select the rules to edit. Expand Data details for source, coverage, feed failures, result counts and missing-input notes. Each scan's settings save on this device.
  • Choose Reset this scanner, then Apply parameters, to restore that scan's supplied configuration.
  • Click a column heading to sort a scan. Use a window's expand/restore icon to give it more room or return to the stacked layout.
  • Select a ticker to update the linked chart. Open chart opens it in the full Charts workspace.
  • Data loads when the workspace opens and refreshes automatically every five minutes while it is visible and unpaused. Use the Refresh icon to request another batch immediately. The Pause and Resume icons control automatic refresh. A refresh may reuse a batch cached within the past 60 seconds, or return the same candle if the provider has no newer completed data.
  • Use Search on the top bar to find a symbol. Open the top-bar gear, Workspace settings, for data-source selection; its Data details disclosure contains workspace feed information.
  • Use the top-bar Appearance → Dashboard theme control to follow the dashboard's light/dark toggle. Choose Dark or White to keep a separate scanner appearance; the choice saves on this device.
  • Turn on Classic colors in Workspace settings for brighter green/red table fills in either appearance. The workspace keeps compact rows with larger, higher-contrast text.

Extreme Master Blaster​

Extreme Master Blaster combines four strategies in one window. Each strategy has a name and color. A stock can appear more than once when it qualifies under different strategies; each row identifies the strategy it belongs to.

All conditions within a strategy must be satisfied for its row to appear in the table. Open the window's Parameters to review each strategy's rules, and expand Data details to review result counts and missing-input notes. Insufficient relative-volume history or missing historical-range information prevents the row from qualifying.

The window reads completed price bars. It does not reproduce every repeated new-high alert from a tick-by-tick service, and the All-time High strategy still needs sufficient verified history before its historical-range condition can be checked.

Options Plays Magic​

Options Plays Magic combines six strategies: three levels of unusually strong options activity for stocks making new highs, and three for stocks making new lows. Each has a separate name, color and settings.

These levels overlap. A stock can appear under several strategies when it meets more than one level. The table starts with the symbol and uses strategy colors; open Parameters to review the named strategies. All conditions within a strategy must pass before its row appears in the table.

Every strategy requires a price of at least $10, a five-day average stock volume of at least two million shares, relative volume of at least 2 and at least 1,000 options contracts today. The options-volume minimums are 150%, 200% and 300% of normal, with no upper limits.

The table remains blank while the required historical options-volume benchmark is unavailable. Parameters → Data details provides result counts and missing-input notes. A new intraday low also does not necessarily mean the stock is down from yesterday's close; this window has no daily-change direction filter.

Options Volume Plays​

Options Volume Plays has six separate strategies for new highs and new lows. All require a $1–$100 stock price, relative volume of at least 3, at least 300,000 stock shares traded today and at least 50 options contracts today.

The higher strategies require a new session high and a gain of at least 1% from the previous close. The lower strategies require a new session low and a change of −1% or less from the previous close.

Each direction has three options-volume bands: 150–199%, 200–299%, and 300% or more of normal. These exact supplied bands have upper limits, unlike Options Plays Magic's overlapping thresholds. A value such as 199.5% or 299.5% does not fit an adjacent band. Each strategy has its own label, color and settings.

The historical options-volume percentage is still a required missing input. Parameters → Data details shows result counts and missing-input notes. Rows cannot appear in the table until every required condition can be checked and passes.

Reviewing the layout with samples​

Open Workspace settings and choose Sample layout as the source to review the windows and controls with synthetic data. The source selection identifies sample mode; its rows are for layout testing only. Sample data never replaces an unavailable market feed automatically. Choose Market feed in the same settings to return to market data.

Scans are educational research tools. A match is a condition to study, not a recommendation to buy or sell.