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- Manlobbi
Investment Strategies / Mechanical Investing
No. of Recommendations: 4
I'm trying to familiarize myself with Value Line Investment Survey, one of the major sources for stock screening on this MI board. I want to assure myself that if this board disappeared (as the Motley Fool MI board did a few years ago), I could "DIY" some of the screens that I'm currently using, thanks to the generosity of those who post current rankings.
I'm making some progress, using Keystone only because it is a fairly simple screen. My biggest problem is I don't understand where the criteria "Total Return - 26 week" is supposed to come from. The Value Line screener has an item "Total Return," but that appears to be for the last fiscal year (according to the label it applies to that column in the screen results). So where do the other periods (13, 26 weeks, and most recent full year) come from?
Thanks for whatever guidance you can offer me!
Robert Marshall
No. of Recommendations: 2
I haven’t used Value Line for many years but from memory assuming you are using the version that runs locally on your PC you can just download the latest update and take a look at the data columns all the fields are there. The online screener used to have a drop down menu for all the fields. You should have (or at least used to have):
Total Return 1-Week
Total Return 4-Week
Total Return 13-Week
Total Return 26-Week
Total Return YTD
Total Return 1-Year
Total Return 3-Year
Total Return 5-Year
Total Return 10-Year
Total Return Last Year
Total Return 2 Years Ago
Total Return 3 Years Ago
Total Return 4 Years Ago
Total Return 5 Years Ago
Total Return 6 Years Ago
Total Return 7 Years Ago
Total Return 8 Years Ago
Total Return 9 Years Ago
Total Return 10 Years Ago
Are you referring to the Dog Island east of St George Island?
No. of Recommendations: 2
The VL database includes columns for Total Return - 1,4,13,26,52 weeks. All of them are updated each week, except for 52 which is updated monthly.
No. of Recommendations: 4
The VL database includes columns for Total Return - 1,4,13,26,52 weeks. All of them are updated each week, except for 52 which is updated monthly.
Except when they forget to update the database.
For example, the total return fields were bad or missing on these weekly data release dates:
2025-01-06
2025-01-13
2025-01-20
2025-01-27
2025-02-03
2025-02-10
2025-02-17
2025-02-24
2025-03-03
2025-03-10
2025-07-07
So, you have to do a visual spot check to make sure the current TR field values are sane. The quickest sign of problems is that the TR fields are blank, or identical to each other for a given stock.
Stock prices are all garbage even more often, and the quickest check is to check Microsoft: if the MSFT price is two digits instead of three, it's wrong. When it's wrong, it usually says $92.31 for some unknown reason. The good news is that, as far as I know, either the stock prices are all good, or all bad. In weeks that the stock prices are bad, all the P/E ratios are also bad.
The total return fields are calculated based on the number of weeks in the name of the field, except for 52 week, which is actually one year total return landing at the end of a calendar month. It's updated monthly in the first weekly data release that's at least a little after a month end. I'm not sure, maybe the data release that's around 6-13th of the month??
Jim
No. of Recommendations: 1
Thanks!
I think the cause of my problem is that I'm trying to replicate the screen using Value Line's online, web-based screening tool to gather up the data required, then transferring that data, using copy-paste, into a spreadsheet for further manipulation. It seems that the online screener does not have the set of Total Return [## weeks] fields. It does have a single field called Total Return, which appears to be for the most full recent fiscal year. Close, but not the same.
In order to use the Windows-based software (Investment Analyzer), I believe I would need to have a Windows-based computer, but for at least the last ten years, I've used nothing but Chromebooks. Ugh!
Anyway, you've been a big help, so thanks again.
Robert
No. of Recommendations: 7
It seems that the online screener does not have the set of Total Return [## weeks] fields.
I just checked, and you're right. How bizarre.
However, if it's of interest, I've always found the ratio of price to 52 week high to be one of the best all-round momentum criteria, and that is available. It's listed in the company data section, not the stock returns section.
(After a bear market during the rebound, use ratio or price to 52 week low for a few months instead)
Jim
No. of Recommendations: 6
Suggest getting away from ValueLine (and perhaps SIPro) for modern screening. There are several much better cloud screening services out there with well paid staff that provide consistently reliable and robust screening functions.
Such as Stockcharts; for a few hundred a year, one can build screens starting from basic criteria and add in formulas such as this snippet from their "workbench":
[ [group is SP400] or [group is SP600] or [group is SP500] ]
and [high > yesterday's max(252,high)]
(instantly returns 100 stocks as of today)
They have over 100 technical signals to choose from, many fundamental statistics and the ability to calculate custom fields.
Or Zacks...
Or Barcharts...
or Portfolio123...
VL's schtick was the Timeliness Rank and the Safety Rank, but there's no milk left in that cow and they're not feeding the cow very well (aka Mungo's posts on constant data problems up thread).
FC
