Key Takeaways
- You can profit from day trading by picking stocks with high volatility and strong trading volume.
- Stocks stand out due to their price swings, market interest, and liquidity, perfect for quick trades.
- Day trading thrives on fast moves, so understanding each stock’s unique edge is key to your success.
- Risks are part of the game, but these picks offer big opportunities if you time them right.
Introduction
Day trading can be a lucrative way to approach the stock market. Many investors use a day trading strategy and turn a hefty profit from doing so. Although the markets are crashing, an unavoidable aspect of trading, below are 5 of my best day trading stocks that I have consistently gained from.
After years of scanning markets and testing strategies, I’ve learned that the best day trading stocks share a few traits: they’re volatile, liquid, and tied to hot trends.
My experience has shown me how to spot these winners, and I’m here to share that with you. In this article, you’ll discover stocks that could turbocharge your day trading game, let’s dive in and find your ideal day trading stocks.
What is day trading?
In a nutshell, day trading is all about buying stocks, and selling them within the same day. It is a short-term trading strategy, as opposed to long-term trading, that can make you daily gains or losses.
The upside to day trading is that you’re not holding a stock for weeks or months, you’re in and out fast, aiming to pocket gains from quick market movements.
It’s a high-energy game that needs stocks with action i.e. high liquidity, volatility, and trading volume, not sleepy ones that barely budge.
Think of it like surfing, you need waves to ride, and these stocks fit that criteria perfectly. In layman's terms, we're looking for stocks that can produce the biggest waves.
List of the best day trading stocks
Here is my list of best day trading stocks, entirely selected based on past experience and thorough backtesting.
Tesla (TSLA)
NVIDIA (NVDA)
Palantir Technologies (PLTR)
CarMax (KMX)
Riot Platforms (RIOT)
Why these day trading stocks?
How did I pick these as the best day trading stocks for you? I used a clear set of must-haves:
- Volatility: Daily price swings of 2-5% or more to give you room to profit. This is significantly important as you want to capitalize off relatively good swings compared to huge swings or no swings at all.
- Volume: High average daily trading volume (millions of shares) for easy entry and exit. This allows day traders to easily enter/exit the market without having to wait too long for a buyer or seller.
- Momentum: Ties to trending sectors or news that keep traders buzzing, especially for news sentiment traders who can easily capitalize off a stock's news fueling further volatility.
These are the top aspects of a stock you need to pay attention to before day trading. By using these aspects, you can identify which stocks to day trade with. These factors ensure you’ve got stocks that move fast and let you enter & exit trades quickly.
Tesla (TSLA)
Recently, Tesla has taken a pounding in the stock markets, mostly due to Elon Musk's unpopular approach to the US government's DOGE department and off-the-cuff statements regarding other nations.
Regardless, Tesla stock remains a strong contender for day traders. Whether you're going long, or shorting the stock, it fulfills each of the criteria listed above. The company has high daily volume, high volatility, and is easily influenced by external, non-fundamental, factors.
Key features:
- Average daily volume: 80-100 million shares.
- Volatility: 3-5% swings on big news days.
- Sector: EV and clean energy.
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What sets Tesla apart? Its unpredictability and fanbase make it a volatility machine. If you love fast-paced trades, TSLA’s a great stock to profit from and perfect for beginner traders.
NVIDIA (NVDA)
Nvidia stands as a guiding beacon among stocks as the giant they wish to aspire to. The company saw a surge in its stock price throughout 2024, but slowed in Q1 of 2025 due to Trump's tariff uncertainty.
However, Nvidia still remains a great day trading stock as it offers very high trading volume, coupled with a modest average volatility range of <5%. The company, although speculative, has displayed strong fundamentals to support its current market valuation.
Key features:
- Volume: 40-50 million shares daily.
- Volatility: 2-5% average swings, especially during product launches and announcements.
- Sector: Semiconductor industry with high growth potential.
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Nvidia stands as a great stock to day trade with, and finding stocks like Nvidia are great contenders to consider. Although a lot of speculation may haunt Nvidia's future growth, the industry's outlook still remains positive.
Palantir Technologies (PLTR)
Palantir is leading the charge in developing AI infrastructure and technology on behalf of the US government. Palantir’s average trading volume of approximately 61.5 million shares ensures strong liquidity, facilitating rapid trades with minimal slippage.
Fundamentally, Palantir’s AI-driven growth remains robust, with Q3 2024 revenue up 30% year-over-year to $725 million and U.S. commercial revenue surging 44%, alongside raised full-year guidance.
Key features:
- Volume: 50-60 million shares daily.
- Volatility: 3-6% swings during announcements of new contract deals.
- Sector: Big data and AI, an important future industry.
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Palantir is a leading AI infrastructure company, deeply embedded into the US government via its military contracts making it a great AI stock to day trade. Although the fundamentals are not quite strong yet, the company certainly has a strong future ahead.
CarMax (KMX)
CarMax is a lesser-known stock that can offer day traders a great stock to capitalize on. The company specializes in the used-car market KMX delivers the volatility, liquidity, and catalysts that make it a sleeper hit for intraday action.
Daily moves of 2-5% aren’t uncommon for CarMax making it a great day trading stock. In combination with an average daily trading volume of over 1.8 million shares. CarMax is the used-car giant, thriving as vehicle demand enters a very volatile time.
Key features:
- Volume: 1-2 million shares on average traded daily.
- Volatility: 2-3% average daily swings.
- Sector: The reselling car industry could grow further with growing inflation concerns.
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CarMax can be considered a relatively stable stock to day trade with, as it has a high daily trading volume and less prone to unexpected high swings. As a day trading stock, CarMax certainly made our list.
Riot Platforms (RIOT)
Riot Platforms (RIOT) is a powerhouse in Bitcoin mining and digital infrastructure, leveraging its energy-efficient operations to capitalize on cryptocurrency volatility.
With an average trading volume of around 50-60 million shares, Riot offers robust liquidity, enabling swift trades with minimal slippage, perfect for day traders chasing fast moves.
Full-year 2024 revenue hit $376.7 million, a 34% jump from 2023, bolstered by its pivot into AI and high-performance computing (HPC) using excess power capacity.
Key features:
- Volume: 20-30 million average shares traded daily.
- Volatility: 5-10% swings tied to Bitcoin price fluctuations and tariff news.
- Sector: Bitcoin mining and AI/HPC, a volatile yet high-growth intersection.
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Riot Platforms stands as a leader in Bitcoin-driven infrastructure, with its strategic shift into AI/HPC adding a forward-looking edge.
While fundamentals are solidifying, its fate remains tied to crypto’s wild ride and macroeconomic turbulence.
Conclusion
Day trading offers a thrilling, fast-paced way to profit from the stock market, and despite recent market turbulence, stocks like Tesla (TSLA), NVIDIA (NVDA), Palantir (PLTR), CarMax (KMX), and Riot Platforms (RIOT) stand out as top picks for seasoned traders.
Each brings a unique edge, Tesla’s news-driven volatility, NVIDIA’s AI-fueled momentum, Palantir’s government-backed growth, CarMax’s sleeper stability, and Riot’s crypto-charged swings.
Backed by years of market scanning and backtesting, these stocks deliver the action day traders crave, whether you’re riding short-term surges or shorting dips. With volumes ranging from 1.8 million to 100 million shares daily and fundamentals bolstered by innovation, they’re built for quick entries and exits.
