StockSignal
How to layer multiple stories in the screener to build precise, multi-dimensional screens that match your specific investment question.
The Question
How do I use more than one story at a time? Each of the screener's stories captures a single structural pattern — quality, momentum, value, risk. But most real investment questions involve multiple dimensions simultaneously. "Find me quality companies that aren't overpriced." "Show me momentum with financial strength." "Exclude anything with risk signals." These questions require combining stories, and the way you combine them changes what the screener reveals.
This guide is not about any single screening dimension. It is about the methodology of combination itself — the techniques that let you move from single-story screens to multi-layered analysis that captures the specific structural picture you are looking for.
Why Combination Matters
A single story is a single lens. It answers one question well but leaves all other dimensions unaddressed. A company that passes the Quality Compounder story may be excellent operationally but wildly overpriced. A stock with strong Trend Alignment may have deteriorating fundamentals behind the momentum. A Deep Value Position may be cheap for good reason — the business is in distress.
Combination is how you address these blind spots. Each additional story either confirms the structural picture ("this quality company also has financial strength"), reveals a new dimension ("this value stock also has momentum"), or filters out risks ("exclude anything showing margin pressure"). The more dimensions you include, the more complete — and more selective — the screen becomes.
The trade-off is straightforward: more stories means fewer results. A single-story screen might return dozens of companies. A three-story combination might return a handful. An overly aggressive combination might return nothing. The art is finding the combination that is selective enough to be meaningful without being so restrictive that it eliminates everything.
Combination Methods
AND-Filtering: Requiring Multiple Stories Simultaneously
What it does: When you select multiple stories in the screener, companies must pass all of them to appear in results. This is the most common combination method — it builds a compound filter where each story adds a requirement.
When to use it: When your investment question has multiple non-negotiable requirements. "I want quality AND value" means the company must show both patterns. Neither alone is sufficient.
Example: Selecting Quality Compounder + Graham Value Position finds companies that are simultaneously high-quality operations and statistically cheap. Selecting Trend Alignment + Balance Sheet Fortress finds stocks with momentum backed by financial strength.
Watch for: Over-filtering. Three or four AND-filters can produce empty result sets, especially in narrow markets. If your combination returns nothing, remove the least essential story and re-run.
OR-Exploration: Broadening the Search
What it does: Running separate single-story screens and comparing the results side by side. Instead of requiring all stories simultaneously, you see which companies appear in multiple independent screens.
When to use it: When you want to explore a theme from multiple angles without forcing all criteria at once. You might run Quality Compounder, then separately run Earnings Integrity, and look for companies that appear in both — without requiring them to pass both simultaneously in a single screen.
Example: Exploring the value theme by running Deep Value Position, Graham Value Position, and Hidden Asset Value as three separate screens. Companies appearing in two or three of these screens show value characteristics from multiple structural angles.
Watch for: This is more labor-intensive than AND-filtering but more forgiving. It lets you see near-misses — companies that pass two of three value stories, for instance — that strict AND-filtering would exclude.
Exclusion Filtering: Removing Unwanted Patterns
What it does: Using risk or warning stories as negative filters. After selecting a positive story (quality, value, momentum), you add a risk story to exclude companies that show structural risk patterns.
When to use it: When you want the upside characteristics of a story without the downside risks that sometimes accompany them. Value screens are particularly prone to surfacing companies that are cheap due to genuine deterioration — adding risk exclusions helps filter these out.
Example: Select Deep Value Position, then exclude companies that trigger Financial Distress Proximity or Margin Pressure. The result is companies trading below asset value that are not showing signs of financial stress. Select Quality Compounder, then exclude Leverage Warning to ensure your quality companies are not over-leveraged.
Watch for: Exclusion filters are the most efficient way to eliminate value traps, momentum traps, and other situations where a positive signal coincides with structural risk. Use them routinely.
Multi-Pass Workflows: Sequential Refinement
What it does: Running a broad screen first, reviewing the results, then running a second screen on the companies that passed the first. Each pass narrows the universe using a different structural lens.
When to use it: When your investment question involves both hard filters and softer preferences. The first pass applies non-negotiable criteria. Subsequent passes apply preference-level filters to rank or prioritize within the qualifying set.
Example: First pass: screen for Earnings Integrity (non-negotiable — you only want companies with reliable numbers). Second pass: among those companies, screen for Capital Efficiency Leader (preference — you favor companies that deploy capital well). Third pass: check remaining companies against Valuation Compression Risk (risk awareness — flag any that show valuation stress).
Watch for: This workflow is the most flexible and the most informative, but it requires multiple steps. It is best suited for building focused watchlists rather than quick scans.
Common Combination Patterns
Quality + Value (Cross-Dimensional)
Stories: Quality Compounder + Graham Value Position or Deep Value Position
What it reveals: The classic QARP screen — quality at a reasonable price. Companies that are operationally excellent and statistically cheap. This combination is structurally informative because quality and value often conflict — high-quality companies tend to command premium valuations, so finding both together is structurally unusual and therefore informative.
Refinement: Add Earnings Integrity to validate that the quality metrics are based on reliable numbers. Exclude Valuation Compression Risk to ensure the cheapness is not a symptom of justified market skepticism.
Momentum + Strength (Confirmation)
Stories: Trend Alignment + Balance Sheet Fortress
What it reveals: Stocks with upward momentum backed by financial strength. This filters out momentum in fragile companies — stocks going up despite weak fundamentals. The financial strength requirement ensures the momentum is occurring in a structurally sound context.
Refinement: Add Capital Flow Momentum to confirm institutional participation. Exclude Leverage Warning to ensure the financial strength isn't masking emerging debt issues.
Growth + Quality (Validation)
Stories: Revenue Acceleration + Earnings Integrity
What it reveals: Companies with accelerating growth where the underlying earnings are trustworthy. Growth without earnings integrity risks chasing accounting artifacts. The combination validates that the growth story is structurally real.
Refinement: Add Margin Stack to confirm the growth is translating into profitability at every level. Exclude Share Dilution Pattern to ensure growth isn't being funded by excessive equity issuance.
Defensive Multi-Layer (Protection)
Stories: Balance Sheet Fortress + Low Volatility Profile, excluding Leverage Warning and Margin Pressure
What it reveals: Companies with strong financial foundations and historically low price volatility, with no emerging leverage or margin risk. This is a defensive screen for uncertain market conditions — it prioritizes structural safety over growth or value characteristics.
Refinement: Add Cash Generation Engine to ensure the defensive companies are also generating cash, not just sitting on existing reserves.
Using the Screener
Starting Point: The Two-Story Screen
Begin any combination screen with exactly two stories — one positive filter and one risk exclusion. This is the minimum viable combination: it adds one dimension beyond a single-story screen without over-filtering. For example, select Quality Compounder and exclude Financial Distress Proximity. Review the results. If too broad, add a third story. If too narrow, remove the exclusion.
This two-story starting point applies regardless of what you are screening for. The positive story defines what you want. The risk exclusion defines what you want to avoid. Everything else is refinement.
Building Up: Three and Four Story Screens
Once comfortable with two-story screens, add a third story that introduces a new dimension. If your base screen is quality-focused, add a value or momentum dimension. If your base screen is value-focused, add a quality or strength dimension. The third story should answer a question the first two leave open.
Four-story screens are the practical maximum for most markets. Beyond four stories, result sets become very small. If you need more precision than four stories provide, switch to a multi-pass workflow where you apply the additional stories as sequential refinement rather than simultaneous requirements.
Boundaries
What This Cannot Tell You
Combining stories increases the structural specificity of a screen but does not increase its predictive power. A company that passes four stories simultaneously is described with more precision, not more certainty. The structural picture is more complete, but the future remains unknown.
Combination also introduces survivorship effects. Stocks that pass multiple stringent filters tend to be larger, more liquid companies with more complete data. This is not a flaw, but it means highly selective screens may systematically exclude smaller companies or those with shorter trading histories.
Finally, the act of combining stories does not create new information. It intersects existing information in useful ways, but each individual story retains its own limits and boundaries. A quality story combined with a value story produces a quality-and-value filter, not a new composite insight. The combination is useful precisely because it is transparent about what each dimension contributes.