Optionscanner vs Barchart: Market-Wide Screens or a Rules Engine?

By Rohan Fernandes, Founder · Updated 2026-09-06 · Educational reference, not investment advice

*How this page was written: from each product's public materials as read in September 2026, and from what Optionscanner does as deployed. Features and prices change; check each site for current details. This is a description of tools, not advice about which to buy or what to trade.*

What is each product built to do?

Barchart is a market-data platform: quotes, charts and screeners across stocks, options, futures and more, with a long list of options screeners (unusual activity, covered calls, naked puts, spreads) that filter the whole market by yield, volume, expiry and other fields. The question it answers is "show me everything that matches these filters."

Optionscanner screens a universe too, but the screen is one step in a process: the criteria are a rule set you adopt and can edit, each setup is graded, the selected trade is built on a chart, open positions are checked against your exit rules, and a paper-first agent can run the process. The question it answers is "what passes my rules, and what happens after entry?"

What does Barchart do that Optionscanner does not?

• Market-wide coverage across asset classes, not only optionable equities.
• Many prebuilt options screeners and export-friendly tables.
• News, fundamentals and a long history as a data vendor.
• Coverage of futures options.

What does Optionscanner do that Barchart does not?

• A single rules engine whose thresholds are visible and editable, so a screen result comes with the exact rule and number behind every pass and rejection.
• A setup grade that combines volatility, liquidity, event risk and direction, with every driver shown.
• Position monitoring against exit rules you adopt, with the rule that fired printed on the card, and a paper-first automation agent with an approval queue and a kill switch.
• Quotes, chains and Greeks read from your own brokerage feed, with placement through your own account after a preview.

Where do they overlap?

Both screen options by liquidity, expiry and premium and both show implied volatility. Barchart's screens are wider and more numerous; Optionscanner's are fewer and tied to what happens next.

Which fits which trader?

A trader who wants one place to see the whole market, across asset classes, with many filters will find Barchart closer to that need. A trader who wants a written process run consistently and recorded will find Optionscanner closer. Using a broad screener to build a watchlist and a rules product to evaluate and monitor it is a common combination.

The honest caveats

A wide screen with many filters still leaves the selection and the exit to the trader, and a rules engine only knows its rules. Neither product is a source of investment advice, and both leave the decision to the trader.