A stock screener can save lots of time. A basic stock screen will produce a list of those equities that meet basic criteria such as price and volume. Try keeping a watch list of such stocks and refresh it every couple of weeks to keep the stock list current.
Use your basic watch list and refine it with additional filters depending on market conditions. For example, in a trading market it may be helpful to filter for overbought or oversold stocks. Unusually high volume can be an insightful filter.
This is a list of available stock screens. Some have fundamental data, others technical indicators, and some have both.
* http://screen.yahoo.com/stocks.html
* ttp://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/finder/customstocksdl.asp (This is MSN's -- pre-set screens can help generate ideas for a custom screen).
* http://www.marketwatch.com/tools/stockresearch/screener/ (Both technical and fundamental filters, here).
* http://www.zacks.com/screening_2/custom/ (Zacks research has a proprietary screener -- exclusively fundamental data and based on their research).
* http://www.nasdaq.com/reference/StockScreener.stm (This NASDAQ screener is very complete if you're comfortable adding your own fundamental and technical data. It also allows you to screen any market including bulletin board and pink sheet companies).
* http://stockcharts.com/def/servlet/SC.scan ( This is a very unique and powerful page of scans -- one of my favorites).