$100 investment

Screening Filters

1. Price: $5–$50 per share

   • Purpose: Ensure the stocks are affordable for a $100 investment while still maintaining a minimum quality threshold.
   • Rationale:
     • With $100, you want to be able to buy at least 1–10 shares of something. Stocks over $50 would severely limit how many shares you can purchase; stocks under $5 can often be riskier or more speculative (penny stocks).
     • The $5–$50 range strikes a balance:
       • Low enough so $100 can be meaningfully deployed.
       • High enough to avoid most ultra-speculative penny stocks.

2. Monthly Average Dollar Volume: ≥ $1,000,000

   • Purpose: Filter for stocks that trade actively and are easy to buy or sell without large price slippage.
   • Rationale:
     • Higher dollar volume means better liquidity. For a small investor, you don’t want to get stuck in a thinly traded name where prices can move sharply just because a few people are buying or selling.
     • This makes your $100 investment more flexible; you can exit or adjust the position more easily.

3. Beta: LowRisk or ModerateRisk

   • Purpose: Focus on stocks with lower or moderate volatility relative to the overall market.
   • Rationale:
     • Beta measures how much a stock tends to move compared to the market:
       • Low beta: typically less volatile, more stable.
       • Moderate beta: some movement, but not extreme swings.
     • With a small starting amount like $100, avoiding the most volatile, high-beta stocks reduces the chance of very large short-term losses.

4. Is Index Component: GSPC (S&P 500)

   • Purpose: Restrict results to stocks that are members of the S&P 500 index.
   • Rationale:
     • S&P 500 companies are generally larger, more established businesses with better disclosure and analyst coverage.
     • For a small, beginner-sized investment, it’s usually more prudent to stay within higher-quality, widely followed companies rather than obscure small caps or microcaps.

5. Analyst Consensus: Strong Buy or Moderate Buy

   • Purpose: Select stocks that professional analysts generally view positively.
   • Rationale:
     • “Strong Buy” and “Moderate Buy” indicate that, on average, covering analysts believe these stocks have favorable prospects.
     • While not a guarantee, it provides an additional quality and sentiment screen to narrow down the universe to names with a more constructive outlook.

Why Results Match the User’s Request

• The price range directly aligns with having only $100 to invest, ensuring you can buy a reasonable number of shares.
• Liquidity and S&P 500 membership keep you in well-traded, established companies appropriate for a small, relatively conservative starting investment.
• Low/Moderate beta and positive analyst consensus tilt the list toward more stable, higher-quality opportunities rather than speculative bets, which is sensible when beginning with a small amount of capital.