Advanced Scanning Features
Chaining Scans
TradeStation allows you to chain scans together. In other words, you create a scan that runs, and then the results of that scan populate a second scan. The second scan can run with different rules than the first scan. This functionality is often used to reduce a huge universe of symbols down into a smaller list using broad scanning criteria. With the small list of symbols, you can apply more precise scanning logic which may have taken too long to on the entire universe of symbols. These scans can be useful because you can create one broad scan that can be rated once and chained to multiple other scans.
With TradeStation, you can save the scan results to a Custom Symbols List. A scan can use a Custom Symbol List as the symbol universe. In other words, you can create one scan that creates a Custom Symbol List, and then create a second scan that uses that Custom Symbol List as the universe. This provides a chaining-like functionality with one exception: When the first scan completes, it does not necessarily have to trigger the second scan to run. The second scan can be scheduled to run at a specific time and will use the latest symbol list in the Custom Symbol List folder that the scan was pointing to for a universe.
Sharing Scans
You can share scans or groups of scans by sharing the individual scan files/folders. When you save a scan folder to the latest TradeStation 9.(X) version, (Build XXXX)\Scans directory, those scans automatically appear in the Scan window. For more general information about the Scanner feature, view the About Scanner topic.