With more than 17,000 stocks being traded in the United States stock market nowadays, choosing profitable stocks to invest in has become the toughest task for stock brokers and dealers. If you are an independent investor in stocks, then you will find it even tougher to find stocks that meet your selection criteria for stock trading without any advanced tools. However, the problem can easily be solved by using a stock screener. Stock screening software is now abundantly available online, and these software programs can actually help you achieve a long term winning streak with stocks.

Here's one signal that big institutions use to know when the economy is turning around (long before the nightly news picks up on it).