Take stock is a fine idea, other than that sometimes it simply does not work for several minutes at a time.  However, in checking 40 mostly successful stocks, all are either rejected outright, or I find that they are now priced higher than the recommended price.  How can we even find good companies that are now a "Buy" using Take Stock?   The old Quicken one-button screening tool would at least give you an "idea" list of stocks that are worthy examples for further consideration.  Take Stock will not function as a screening tool, but simply rejects all of my ideas.   And if it rejects companies that are young or small, then some of the best growth prospects are rejected out of hand. 

Unless I am missing something, I rate the usefulness of Take Stock as 2 out of 10.

Fermen:

At 12:02 AM 12/21/2007, you wrote:

> From the The Suggestion Box forum at StockCentral.com, Fermen Dillon writes:

>Doug, thanks for your quick reply. I missed The "Take Stock Quality"
>field in the screener. That is helpful. However, the "desirable"
>list under a take stock quality screen still returns mostly
>unacceptable stocks with a buy price below the present price. I have
>not found one real "buy" in the screen!

The on-line version of Take $tock does not yet include the advanced mode that was an essential part of the desktop version. I'm hopeful that we will see that completed by next summer. That would provide you, and other experienced users the ability to override the conservative judgments that are the default values for the novice mode. As for the acceptability or desirability of those companies, the screen pays no attention to the price and focuses only on the quality parameters. You may certainly include them in your watch list pending the time when the price comes within the buy range.

>How can I find out just what parameters are used in the Take Stock
>Quality "desirable" screen?

The parameters are the same things as are required in sections one and two of the Stock Selection Guide. Strong and stable sales and earnings growth, both historical (up to ten years) and recent (trailing twelve months), and profit margins that are not declining. ROE should be as strong as earnings growth. That's about it.

>I still find that Take Stock itself is not very useful, but the
>screener may be useful to generate an "idea" list. However, I cannot
>accept that young and small companies are necessarily rejected out
>of hand by Take Stock. What are the cutoff points?

Young and small companies have not established a suffient track record to be able to predict their future growth with any confidence. This is a program that will not allow the new investor to get into trouble and select stocks that are not of sufficient quality to have at least four out of five do just fine. Remember, "Experience is a license to lower your standards."

ET