Exploration (scanner)

Exploration is a mode of AmiBroker's Analysis window. You choose a formula, a list of symbols, a timeframe and a date range, and press Explore. AmiBroker runs the formula on every symbol and returns a table. Each row is a symbol and bar that passed the condition, and each column is a value the formula chose to show.

Two AFL items control it. Filter decides which bars appear: where Filter is true, the row is listed. AddColumn defines the columns, such as close, signal direction, entry, stop-loss or volume. AmiBroker also has a simpler Scan mode that lists only Buy and Sell signals. Exploration is the more flexible of the two because you decide what is reported.

It matters because nobody can watch 200 F&O stocks by eye. During the NSE session an intraday trader can run an Exploration on 15-minute bars every few minutes, or set it to repeat automatically, and see only the symbols where something has just happened. A swing trader runs it once after 3:30 pm on daily data to build the next day's list.

The common mistake is forgetting that a scan is only as good as the data behind it. If the feed has not backfilled a symbol, or the watchlist includes illiquid stock futures, the table will show signals you cannot trade sensibly. The second mistake is scanning on the wrong periodicity: the Analysis window has its own timeframe setting, separate from the chart you are looking at.