Ask Colin

As far as I am aware, MetaStock will not accommodate fundamental data.

For this purpose, I use Insight Trader, which will allow you to scan the data base using PE ratio, Dividend Yield and/or Price to Net Tangible Assets. To do this you need to enter the data yourself, or subscribe to the weekly Data Base Manager service, which also manages for you all the changes needed to keep your data base up to date.

There are other software packages around that use fundamental data. The best one is probably Stockdoctor (www.stockdoctor.com.au). Also, Sharefinder (www.sharefinder.com.au) has this capability I think - it certainly uses fundamental data in its systems.

I have no need of them personally, because Insight Trader, the tables in Shares magazine and the Australian Financial Review give me what I need.

There are also some sites on the web that provide fundamental data and I am sure some will allow you to scan for certain criteria. To find them, try the links page on www.ataa.com.au and also the two extensive lists put together by Frank McCorquodale and published in the ATAA Journal.