Why Stock Screeners Don’t Work

Remember value line, zacks and magic formulas?

Every investor starts with the same ritual.

Punch some numbers into a stock screener: low P/E, high ROE, strong free cash flow, maybe low debt. Out pops a list of “good companies.”

And then reality hits: half those names underperform, some collapse, and the few that rise do so for reasons the screener never c…