## Scanner Panel

The scanner tab allows you scan symbols using a user defined formula. All the symbols that meet the criteria of the scan are put into chart group. The chart group will use the same name as the scan name, and be located as a folder under the "Scanner" group.

### Open Scanner

This will load and display the selected scanner in the scanner dialog.

### New Scanner

Here you can create a new scanner. Selecting this will bring up a series of dialogs. First you are asked for a name to call your new scanner. The name must be unique, if not an error message will display. After that, the scanner dialog will appear.

### Delete Scanner

Deletes the selected scanner.

### Rename Scanner

This brings up a dialog that allows you to enter the new name of the selected scanner.

## Scanner Dialog

The "Scan" button will perform the scan. The "Apply" button will save the scan rule.
Symbol Selection: Checking the "All symbols" box will choose all symbols in the qtstalker database for scanning. Pressing the symbols button will bring up a file selector dialog that allows you to choose a specific group of symbols.
Bars/Compression: Bars is the number of bars to load. Compression to use when scanning symbols. ie. Daily, Weekly, Monthly.
Scanner Formula: This is where we enter the formula to scan symbols with. Here the above shot is using a simple SMA crossover formula. Here is a breakdown of the formula.
1. REF function grabs an array of close bars.
2. MA function creates a 20 period SMA with step 1 as the input.
3. COMP function that compares step 1 with step 2. If step 1 is greater than step 2, than a TRUE result is returned and the symbol being scanned will be put into the scan group.
**CRITICAL**
In order for this formula to work, you must have a COMP step somewhere in the formula to generate the boolean array that will generate the scan logic. Note also that the only step that is checked in the plot column must be the COMP step. The checked step is the one that tells qtstalker which step contains the logic for selecting symbols. If a non COMP step or multiple steps are checked, the results will be unreliable.