Allow slightly higher D/E

How Your Request Was Applied

You asked to “allow slightly higher debt-to-equity (D/E) ratio.”
The screen now uses:

'debt_equity': {'max': '2.0'}

Previously, the limit was 1.5. So your request is implemented correctly: the screener now accepts companies with somewhat more leverage, while still capping D/E at a reasonable level (not highly indebted).

All other filters were kept the same to preserve your original strategy of “weak fundamentals strict.”

Screening Filters

1. Market Cap Category: ['large', 'mega', 'mid']

   • Purpose: Focus on larger, more established and liquid companies.
   • Rationale:
     • Large & mega caps reduce the risk of tiny, illiquid names that can behave erratically.
     • Adding mid caps (per your last change) modestly increases the universe while still keeping generally well-covered, optionable stocks.

2. Volume: min 100,000 shares

   • Purpose: Ensure tradability and reasonable liquidity.
   • Rationale: A minimum average volume filter helps avoid thinly traded stocks where spreads are wide and it’s hard to get in/out or implement options strategies.

3. RSI Category: ['overbought']

   • Purpose: Find stocks that are technically stretched on the upside.
   • Rationale:
     • Overbought RSI often indicates short-term exuberance or stretched price action.
     • Combined with weaker fundamentals, this can highlight candidates for mean-reversion, hedging, or cautious entry timing.

4. Sector: Consumer (Cyclicals & Non-Cyclicals), Healthcare, Financials, Industrials, Energy, Utilities, Real Estate, Retailers, Telecom

   • Purpose: Focus on mainstream, economically important sectors.
   • Rationale:
     • These sectors contain many liquid, optionable names.
     • Excluding niche sectors (e.g., some tech subsectors, materials) keeps the search aligned with sectors where your strategy might be more consistently applied.

5. Exchange: ['XNYS', 'XNAS'] (NYSE & NASDAQ)

   • Purpose: Limit to primary U.S. exchanges.
   • Rationale:
     • Ensures higher reporting standards, better liquidity, and more consistent data.
     • Most actively traded, optionable names are on these two exchanges.

6. Gross Margin: max 45%

   • Purpose: Enforce “weak-ish” fundamentals by cutting off very high-margin, premium-quality businesses.
   • Rationale:
     • High gross margins often signal strong competitive advantages.
     • By capping at 45%, the screen tends to avoid elite-margin companies and keep you in names with more average or weaker economics.

7. Net Margin: max 12%

   • Purpose: Further enforce relatively modest or weak profitability at the bottom line.
   • Rationale:
     • High net margins (>12%) are often the hallmark of high-quality, efficient businesses.
     • Your cap aims to find stocks where profitability isn’t stellar, consistent with your “weak fundamentals strict” theme.

8. Return on Equity (ROE): max 15%

   • Purpose: Avoid very high-return businesses.
   • Rationale:
     • High ROE firms are often high quality or priced at a premium for their efficiency.
     • Capping ROE keeps the focus on companies with less impressive capital efficiency, again aligning with weaker fundamentals.

9. Debt-to-Equity (D/E): max 2.0

   • Purpose: Control leverage while accommodating “slightly higher” debt as you requested.
   • Rationale:
     • Previously max 1.5 was stricter; moving to 2.0 allows more leveraged companies into the screen, which may fit your idea of weaker balance sheets.
     • At the same time, 2.0 is not extreme leverage, so you avoid the most distressed or over-indebted names.

10. P/E (TTM): min 16, max 22

    • Purpose: Target a narrow valuation band that is somewhat above low P/E “value” levels, but not excessively high.
    • Rationale:
      • Many very weak companies trade at very low P/E or have no P/E (loss-making). Your band excludes those extremes.
      • It also avoids expensive, very high P/E growth names.
      • The tight 16–22 range is quite restrictive and may be one of the main reasons for zero matches.

11. Price-to-Sales (P/S): min 1.5, max 3.5

    • Purpose: Add a second valuation constraint that keeps names in a mid-range valuation zone by revenue.
    • Rationale:
      • Low P/S can indicate deep value or distressed; very high P/S often indicates aggressive growth pricing.
      • The 1.5–3.5 band filters for stocks that are not dirt cheap but not sky-high, consistent with finding “overbought but not premium-quality” names.

12. Is Optionable: True

    • Purpose: Ensure all results have listed options.
    • Rationale:
      • Critical if you intend to use options strategies (hedges, covered calls, spreads, etc.) on these names.
      • This further narrows the universe to more liquid, institutionally followed stocks.

Why These Filters Match Your Intent

• Your request to “allow slightly higher D/E” is directly implemented by raising the max D/E to 2.0 from 1.5.
• All other “weak fundamentals strict” constraints (caps on margins and ROE, plus valuation bands) are preserved, so the overall philosophy of the screen is unchanged.
• The screen continues to look for overbought, liquid, optionable, mid-to-large cap names with mediocre fundamentals and moderate valuations—just now allowing a bit more leverage on the balance sheet.

Why No Results Were Returned

No stocks currently meet all of these conditions simultaneously. Likely binding constraints:

• Very tight valuation bands:
  • P/E restricted to 16–22 and P/S to 1.5–3.5, both at the same time, can easily eliminate most of the market.
• Weak fundamentals caps + overbought technicals:
  • Companies that are overbought and have capped margins/ROE may be rare; overbought conditions often appear in stronger names.
• Optionable + US large/mid caps only:
  • Even though this is a large universe, once combined with the above strict caps, it can shrink drastically.

All together, the screen is highly selective, so it’s not surprising that at this moment, it finds zero matches.

Next Step: Are You Willing to Adjust?

To surface results, we can relax one or more constraints. For example:

• Widen valuation ranges (e.g., P/E 14–25, P/S 1–4).
• Loosen some fundamental caps slightly (e.g., net margin max 15%, ROE max 18%).
• Broaden RSI beyond only “overbought” (e.g., include neutral as well).
• Remove or relax the optionable requirement if options are not strictly necessary.

Which of these would you be most comfortable relaxing first?