Best 3 stocks for swing trading today

Screening Filters

1. Price: $5 – $150

   • Purpose: Focus on mid-priced, actively tradable stocks and avoid extremely illiquid penny stocks or very high-priced names that are harder to size and manage for most swing traders.
   • Rationale:
     • Below $5 often includes highly speculative, thinly traded stocks with large bid-ask spreads and more erratic moves—not ideal for consistent swing setups.
     • Above $150, position sizing becomes trickier for smaller accounts and % moves can translate into large dollar swings, which may not suit many swing traders’ risk parameters.
     • The $5–$150 band tends to capture a broad set of “mainstream” tradable names with enough movement and liquidity.

2. Relative Volume ≥ 1.5

   • Purpose: Find stocks trading at least 1.5× their normal volume, indicating unusual interest today.
   • Rationale:
     • Swing trading often looks for momentum that can carry over several days. Elevated relative volume signals that institutions or large traders may be active, increasing the odds that current moves can continue.
     • Higher relative volume usually means tighter spreads, better fills, and more reliable chart patterns.

3. Monthly Average Dollar Volume ≥ $1,000,000

   • Purpose: Ensure sufficient liquidity measured in actual dollars traded, not just share count.
   • Rationale:
     • A stock can have “high volume” in shares but still be illiquid if the price is very low. Dollar volume gives a clearer picture of how much money flows through the stock.
     • A minimum of $1M per day (on average over a month) helps avoid thin names where entering/exiting swing trades can move the price or cause large slippage.

4. Moving Average Relationship: PriceAboveMA20

   • Purpose: Filter for stocks trading above their 20-day moving average, a common short‑term trend and momentum gauge.
   • Rationale:
     • Swing traders typically prefer trading in the direction of the prevailing short-term trend.
     • Price above the 20-day MA indicates short-term bullish bias; this increases the probability that upward momentum can continue for a few days to weeks, which is the core of many swing strategies.
     • It also avoids bottom-fishing in downtrends, which can be riskier for short-term trades.

5. Daily Price Change %: +3% to +15%

   • Purpose: Target stocks that are already on the move today, but not so extreme that the move might be exhausted or purely news-spike driven.
   • Rationale:
     • A gain of at least 3% suggests meaningful bullish activity and momentum, which swing traders often look to “ride” for a few more days.
     • Capping at 15% helps avoid names that are too extended or volatile for controlled swing trades; very large one-day spikes can reverse sharply and are often driven by one-off news events rather than sustainable trends.

6. Exchange List: XNYS, XNAS, XASE (NYSE, NASDAQ, AMEX)

   • Purpose: Limit the universe to major U.S. exchanges.
   • Rationale:
     • Stocks on these exchanges generally meet stricter listing and reporting standards and tend to be more liquid and transparent.
     • This avoids OTC, pink sheets, or very small foreign exchanges where liquidity and regulation can be inconsistent—less ideal for disciplined swing trading.

Why Results Match the Request (“best 3 stocks for swing trading today”)

• The filters emphasize liquidity (dollar volume, major exchanges) so you can enter and exit swing trades efficiently with tighter spreads and lower slippage.
• They focus on short-term bullish momentum (price above 20-day MA, +3–15% move today, high relative volume), which is central to many swing trading approaches that aim to capture multi-day follow-through.
• The price range makes the results usable for most account sizes and avoids extreme penny stocks or ultra-expensive names that can distort risk management.

Taken together, these filters don’t guarantee which stocks will be “the best,” but they systematically narrow the universe to names that are liquid, actively in play today, and aligned with typical swing-trading momentum criteria.