Best stocks under $5 to buy today

Screening Filters

1. Price: $0.50–$5.00

   • Purpose: Focus only on low‑priced stocks under $5, while avoiding extreme penny stocks.
   • Rationale:
     • Upper bound at $5 aligns directly with your request.
     • Lower bound at $0.50 helps filter out ultra‑illiquid, highly speculative sub‑penny names that tend to be more like lottery tickets than investments.

2. Relative Volume ≥ 1.5

   • Purpose: Find stocks trading with significantly higher volume than usual today.
   • Rationale:
     • Relative volume > 1.5 means the current trading activity is at least 50% higher than the stock’s normal volume.
     • This often signals fresh interest, news, or a catalyst—useful for “to buy today” because you’re targeting names that the market is actively trading right now, not dead/ignored stocks.

3. Market Cap: Small, Micro, Nano

   • Purpose: Focus on smaller companies where sub‑$5 prices are more common and growth/momentum can be stronger.
   • Rationale:
     • Large caps rarely trade under $5 unless they’re distressed; smaller caps under $5 can still be early‑stage or growth stories.
     • Matches the realistic opportunity set for “best under $5” while staying within listed, more established small‑cap and below segments.

4. Monthly Average Dollar Volume ≥ $750,000

   • Purpose: Ensure minimum liquidity in dollar terms (price × volume), not just share count.
   • Rationale:
     • A $750k+ average in dollar volume helps you enter and exit positions without huge slippage.
     • This avoids thinly traded stocks that can move sharply on tiny orders—important risk control when dealing with low‑priced names.

5. PriceAboveMA20 (Price above 20‑day moving average)

   • Purpose: Capture stocks in short‑term uptrends.
   • Rationale:
     • Price above the 20‑day moving average is a simple momentum filter indicating the recent trend is positive.
     • For “to buy today,” it tilts your list toward names already moving up, instead of those stuck in downtrends.

6. RSI Category: Moderate or Overbought

   • Purpose: Screen for stocks with active positive momentum rather than oversold/weak ones.
   • Rationale:
     • “Moderate” RSI suggests healthy momentum without being too stretched.
     • Including “overbought” means you also catch very strong momentum names that have run recently; traders often look at these when seeking near‑term movers, even though they may be higher risk and potentially due for a pullback.

7. 1‑Week Price Change: +3% to +50%

   • Purpose: Focus on recent winners, but avoid extreme, potentially blow‑off moves.
   • Rationale:
     • Minimum +3% in a week ensures the stock has shown recent positive movement, consistent with “best to buy today” from a momentum standpoint.
     • Cap at +50% filters out ultra‑spiky moves that may be purely speculative pumps or one‑off news reactions and at higher risk of sharp reversals.

Why Results Match Your Request

• The price filter (≤ $5) directly matches “stocks under $5.”
• Liquidity filters (relative volume and monthly dollar volume) make sure you’re looking at names that are actively traded today and reasonably liquid, so they’re actually practical to buy and sell.
• Trend and momentum filters (PriceAboveMA20, RSI moderate/overbought, and 1‑week performance) bias the list toward stocks currently in short‑term uptrends, which is aligned with the “to buy today” timing rather than long‑term deep value ideas.
• The market cap focus (small/micro/nano) is consistent with where most sub‑$5 opportunities naturally live, while still filtering to listed companies with meaningful trading activity.

Together, these filters narrow the universe to low‑priced, relatively liquid, actively moving small‑cap stocks with positive recent momentum, which is a logical interpretation of “best stocks under $5 to buy today” from a screening perspective.