Zen is the assistant built into the scanner. Ask it how something in ZenBot works, what a stock is doing, or what the market looks like, and it answers from the scanner’s own numbers. Describe a scan in words and it builds it. Ask it to read a chart and it tells you what it sees. It describes; it never tells you what to trade.
Where to find it
- The search box. The green Ask Zen tag sits in the box in the gray bar. Click it to open Zen, or type a question in the box and pick the Ask Zen row. Press / from anywhere to get to the box.
- The tab on the right edge. Zen’s panel opens from the right side of the screen and closes with the ×. The conversation stays until you press New question. Your last few questions sit under the panel’s title as chips, and History keeps everything for 30 days (see Recent questions and History).
- Build Scan with Zen in the left menu, above your custom scans, opens the scan builder on a new scan and Zen’s panel side by side, with the cursor in the panel: describe the scan and it takes shape in the builder as you talk. The same box sits at the top of the filter editor, and the cursor lands in it whenever the editor opens.
- Explain Chart on a Fast Chart’s bar, and the Zen face on a TradingView chart, send that chart to Zen.
- The Build with Zen box in the Create alert dialog: plain words fill in the condition and settings, with Undo.
- Right-click a stock for Ask Zen about, Ask Zen to read the chart and Why is it on this scan?, or right-click a scan for Ask Zen about this scan. See Right-click menus.
- In a chart window the Ask Zen button on the window’s bar opens Zen over the charts. Every chart there has Explain Chart and the right-click items; a read is answered in that window, and anything about scans (save, edit, open) is handed to the main window.
- On a phone the search box with the Ask Zen tag runs across the top of the screen.
The arrow at the top of the panel pops Zen out into its own window, so it can sit beside the scanner on another screen.
What you can ask
| Ask | You get |
|---|---|
| How something works (how do I get alerts on my phone?, what is RVOL?) | An answer from this guide, with a Read button to the page and a button that opens the screen it is talking about. |
| A stock (how is NVDA doing?, what’s up with Silgan?) | Its price and move, relative volume, relative strength, the scans it is on, earnings and the latest headlines. Company names work as well as stocks. Zen shows the stock’s daily chart with the answer. |
| Two stocks (AMD vs NVDA) | Both sets of numbers side by side, and both charts. |
| Options (where are the call walls on NVDA?, is the options flow bullish?) | The share of delta exposure in calls and puts, the DEX totals, the scanner’s positioning read, the next major GEX level above and below the price with how far away it is, and the options volume, open interest and spread. Zen describes a level as a place price often stalls or bounces, never as a target. |
| Technicals (is AAPL extended?, RSI on the daily, is it in a squeeze?, how far from the 200-day?) | The scanner’s own readings on the 5-minute chart and the daily: RSI and LRSI, MACD, ADX, TTM squeeze, EMA and VWAP slopes, ZenTrend, distance from the 50, 100 and 200-day, ATR and ADR, and where price sits against the earnings, quarter, year-start and 52-week AVWAPs. |
| Halts, short interest, results (why is X halted?, short interest on GME?, did AAPL beat?) | The halt and resume times with the exchange’s reason code; short interest as a share of the float and days to cover, the float, a coming or recent split; the last report’s earnings and revenue against expectations. |
| The market (how’s the market today?, which sectors are leading?) | SPY and QQQ, the sectors ranked, breadth, the day’s movers and the busiest scans, with the SPY chart. |
| The week, or yesterday (recap the week, what moved the most yesterday?) | Each index over the last five sessions with its day-by-day path, the sector and macro ETFs over the same span, the week’s commentary, or yesterday’s biggest moves. |
| Your own scans (what scans do I have?, how many stocks are on my Warrior scan?) | Your custom scans by name, with their side, how many stocks are on each right now and their descriptions. For a scan’s exact rules, open it and ask from the editor. |
| Combining scans (stocks on both Top Longs and In Play, In Play but not Earnings Soon, my Warrior scan or Momentum) | A scan built on the On Another Scan and Not On Another Scan filters: any of the scans you name, all of them, or everything on one that is not on another. Built-in scans go by their menu names, your own by theirs. |
| The calendar (anything big this week?, when is CPI?) | The economic events and earnings coming up. |
| News (any news on GME?) | The headlines the scanner has for it. |
| Earnings dates (when does AAPL report?) | The next report from the earnings calendar, with the weekday, before open or after close, and how many days away. The same date the chart’s amber E shows. |
| Your alerts (what alerts do I have on?, what fired today?, alert me when something hits Momentum) | Which channels are on (in-app, desktop, Telegram, Discord), the scans with alerts on and the latest alerts. Ask to be told when a scan picks something up and Zen offers a Turn on alerts for … button; one click presses that scan’s bell, nothing changes without it. Alerts on one stock too: alert me when NVDA crosses 200 prepares the condition, the stock and the settings, and Review and create alert opens the dialog for you to check. A stock Zen names shows a bell beside it when you have an alert on it. If no channel is on yet, Zen sends you to Alert Settings first. Signed-in only. |
| Your account (when does my trial end?, why is my data delayed?, was I charged?) | Your plan and status, trial end, next charge, cancel date, recent invoices, what’s set up and the questions you have left, from the same place the Account screen reads. Changes (cancel, pause, card, annual) are made on the Account screen, and Zen offers the button; refunds and anything it can’t see go to Contact Support. |
| Trading ideas (how do I trade a gap and go?) | How the setup works and which scans find it, from the Trading Strategies pages. |
Under an answer, Zen offers a few buttons for where to go next. Stocks and scan names in an answer are links: click one to load it.
Under every answer there is a thumbs up and a thumbs down, with a Helpful? next to the newest one. Use them; they are how Zen gets better.
Zen knows the time of day and answers in the language you write in. Before the open it treats a question about pre-market movers as the day’s change so far; after the open it uses the gap from yesterday’s close. Ask in Turkish and it answers in Turkish.
Build a scan in words
Click Build Scan with Zen and describe the stocks you want: large caps pulling back to VWAP on heavy volume, small caps gapping up on news above $5, stocks in a strong sector resting on the daily 21 EMA. Zen turns it into a scan and runs it right away. The scan builder opens beside the panel on a new scan, and every scan Zen proposes goes straight into it, so you watch it take shape; Undo steps back. When it is right, press Save and View Scan in the panel (or Save in the builder) and it is saved to your Custom Scans and opened in the grid.
Ask for a scan from the panel while the builder is closed and the scan is saved and opened in the grid the moment Zen answers; a refinement updates that same scan, a new request makes another.
The answer shows the scan’s rules with how many stocks pass each one, the first matches, and anything in your description that it could not turn into a rule. Keep refining in words: only above $20, add a top-3 sector filter, looser, same but shorts. Each reply builds on the last.
A few things Zen does on its own:
- Timeframe. It works out whether you mean a day trade (today, VWAP, opening range, gap and go) or a swing trade (earnings, pullbacks to the 50-day, 52-week highs) and picks intraday or daily conditions to match. If it cannot tell, it asks, with a button for each answer.
- Multi-timeframe rules. When they make sense it uses them: a daily trend with a 5-minute entry, or the same condition on two charts.
- Groups. Add a group: up 3% or gapping up makes an “any of” group in the Filter Builder; a group for 2x RVOL near the day high makes one where every condition must hold.
- Names. A scan saved with the default name gets a short, friendly one.
- Order. Ask for the biggest gainers, the highest RVOL or the most volume and the scan opens sorted that way, biggest first; the sort is saved with the scan.
- Combining scans. Stocks on both Top Longs and In Play, In Play but not Earnings Soon or my Warrior scan or Momentum become On Another Scan and Not On Another Scan conditions. Name built-in scans as the menu shows them and your own scans by their names.
- Pre-market. Before the 9:30 open, pre-market gainers is the day’s change so far; after the open it is the gap from yesterday’s close (the Gap Up % and Gap Down % filters). There is no after-hours-only filter, and Zen says so.
Zen only uses the filters the scanner has (see Every filter, explained), so a scan it builds is a normal custom scan: edit it in the filter dialog, share it, or put an alert on it.
Zen in the filter editor
The Build Scan with Zen box at the top of the filter dialog works on the scan that is open, and the cursor lands in it when the dialog opens, so you can start typing. Ask about it (why does this find so few stocks?) and Zen answers from the scan’s rules and counts, the same numbers the Scan Explainer shows. Ask for a change (only tech stocks, make the RVOL 4x, add a group for a flat day) and Zen shows the changed scan with a count before and after and an Apply to scan button. Undo puts it back. Nothing is saved until you press Save in the editor.
On a scan that has never been saved (a new one from Build Scan with Zen) Zen’s version is applied for you, and the panel offers Save and View Scan. If you ask for a different scan altogether while editing, Zen says so: the open scan stays as it is until you press Apply.
When the editor holds your view filter rather than a scan (Filter Settings from the Filter chip), Zen knows: it calls it your filter, and its counts are within the scan you are looking at, not the whole market.
Explain a chart
Press Explain Chart on a Fast Chart, or ask explain the AAPL chart. Zen looks at the chart you see on that timeframe and at one bigger timeframe for context, and describes the trend, the key levels and the volume, with the numbers behind them. Both charts are in the answer, and three buttons follow: the other timeframe, Key levels and Vs its sector.
When Zen shows a chart it has not read yet, say in an answer about a stock, a Explain This Chart button sits under it.
Why is this stock on my scan?
Right-click a stock in the results and choose Why is it on this scan?. Zen checks each of the scan’s rules against that stock and tells you which ones put it on the list, with the stock’s numbers. It works on the built-in scans and your own.
Zen’s market brief
An empty Zen panel opens on a short brief of the moment: a pre-market brief before 9:45 ET (where the indexes and the macro ETFs stand, today’s calendar, who led yesterday, scans worth opening at the bell), a market brief through the session, a closing brief after 4:15, and the week in review at the weekend. It is written once for everyone from the 15-minute delayed feed, so reading it costs none of your questions. Press New question to see it with a conversation open, or search for Zen’s market brief.
Recent questions and History
Your last few questions sit under the panel’s title as chips; click one to ask it again. History lists everything you asked in the last 30 days, by day, with what Zen answered and, for a scan it built, the scan’s name and count:
- Open scan opens the custom scan that answer became, when it is still in your list.
- Rebuild asks the question again, so a deleted scan comes back.
- Click the question itself to continue that conversation: the scan it built comes along, so only above $10 refines a scan from last week without retyping it.
Search for Ask Zen history to open it from the search box.
Questions per day
| Who | Questions a day | Data |
|---|---|---|
| Signed out | 20 | 15-minute delayed |
| Free account | 20 | 15-minute delayed |
| Turbo | 100 | Live |
A typed question, a follow-up you type, a chart read and a question asked again from Recent or History each count as one question. The reply buttons Zen offers under an answer are free, including the three after a chart read. Opening the panel, the brief, History, applying or saving a scan, and the thumbs are free too. The count under the box shows what is left; it resets each day.
Good to know
- Zen describes what it sees and never gives advice. It will not tell you to buy or sell, and it says so if you ask.
- Zen can be wrong. Its numbers come from the scanner, but the words are its own: check the chart before you act.
- Zen knows ZenBot, stocks and the market. Ask it about something else and it will say that is not what it is for.
- Your questions are kept for 90 days so I can see what people ask and make Zen better. They are never shared.