Find sideways stocks for iron condor short

Screening Filters

1. beta: ["LowRisk", "ModerateRisk"]

   • Purpose: Focus on stocks with relatively lower price volatility versus the market.
   • Rationale:
     • Iron condors are short-volatility, range-bound strategies; they work best when prices don’t make large moves.
     • Low-to-moderate beta names are less likely to experience sudden, outsized trends or gap moves that would threaten both sides of the condor.
     • This improves the probability that the stock will stay within the short strikes during the life of the trade.

2. rsi_category: ["moderate"]

   • Purpose: Avoid stocks that are technically overbought or oversold.
   • Rationale:
     • Extreme RSI (overbought or oversold) often precedes sharp reversals or continuation moves, i.e., trend acceleration.
     • A “moderate” RSI suggests price is neither stretched to the upside nor downside, which is more consistent with consolidation or sideways trading.
     • For an iron condor, you want to minimize the odds of a breakout in either direction.

3. month_price_change_pct: {"min": "-3", "max": "3"}

   • Purpose: Isolate stocks that have moved very little over the past month.
   • Rationale:
     • A 1‑month price change confined to roughly ±3% points toward a range-bound or sideways market over that period.
     • This aligns directly with your request for “stocks currently trading sideways.”
     • Combining low recent price movement with the RSI and beta filters further narrows the list to names that have been calm both in magnitude (small % move) and in momentum (neutral RSI).

4. is_optionable: "True"

   • Purpose: Ensure all results actually have listed options available.
   • Rationale:
     • An iron condor requires trading both calls and puts (four option legs total).
     • Many stocks either do not have options at all or have very illiquid ones; filtering for optionable securities is the minimum requirement for implementing the strategy.

5. option_iv_rank: {"min": "40", "max": "80"}

   • Purpose: Target stocks with moderately elevated implied volatility compared to their own past.
   • Rationale:
     • Selling iron condors is more attractive when implied volatility (IV) is relatively high, because option premiums (credit received) are richer.
     • Using an IV rank range of 40–80 aims for:
       • Not too low (below ~40), where premium is often too small to justify the risk.
       • Not extremely high (above ~80), where the market is pricing in big moves that could break your range.
     • This band balances premium income with a controlled level of event/volatility risk.

Why Results Match Your Goal (Sideways Iron Condor Candidates)

• Sideways price action is captured by:
  • The tight 1‑month price change band (−3% to +3%), and
  • A moderate RSI that avoids trending extremes.
• Controlled movement risk is addressed by choosing low-to-moderate beta stocks, which historically move less than the market and are less prone to large directional swings that can hurt a short iron condor.
• Strategy feasibility and reward are covered by:
  • Requiring optionable stocks so the iron condor can actually be constructed.
  • Focusing on IV rank 40–80, where sold options generally provide meaningful premium without signaling extreme event risk.

Together, these filters aim to find stocks that are:

• Currently range-bound,
• Relatively stable,
• Have tradable options, and
• Offer reasonable premium for an iron condor short strategy.