Screening Filters
Market Cap Category: large, mega
- Purpose: Focus on big, established companies.
- Rationale: For options, you want underlyings with:
- Deep, liquid options chains
- Tighter bid–ask spreads
- Lower risk of extreme gaps/manipulation
Large and mega cap stocks (e.g., S&P 500 names) usually have very active options markets, which is ideal when you’re looking for a practical call/put strategy you can actually execute.
Price: min 20, max 300
- Purpose: Avoid very cheap “lottery ticket” stocks and extremely expensive names.
- Rationale:
- Under ~$20, stocks can be more volatile and less suitable for consistent options strategies.
- Above ~$300, option premiums can become very expensive, especially if your capital is limited (you mentioned < $1,000 before).
This range helps find stocks where single‑contract options are more affordable while still being reasonably stable.
Average Volume: min 1,000,000 shares/day
- Purpose: Ensure high liquidity in the underlying stock.
- Rationale:
- High stock volume usually correlates with good liquidity in the options chain.
- This leads to tighter spreads and easier entries/exits for both calls and puts.
For your purpose (a specific options trade idea), you don’t want to be stuck in illiquid names.
Moving Average Relationship: PriceAboveMA20, PriceAboveMA200
- Purpose: Find stocks in both short‑term and long‑term uptrends.
- Rationale:
- Price above the 20‑day MA → short‑term strength.
- Price above the 200‑day MA → long‑term uptrend.
This combination is classic for identifying bullish trends, making these stocks better suited for call option strategies (buying calls in the direction of the trend).
Note: This screen is specifically biased toward bullish setups (calls), not puts. For put ideas, we’d normally look for the opposite (price below moving averages).
MACD: bullish
- Purpose: Confirm upward momentum using a widely followed momentum indicator.
- Rationale:
A bullish MACD signal (e.g., MACD line crossing above signal, or staying above it) suggests:
- Positive momentum
- Increasing probability of continued upside in the near term
This further supports call strategies—especially directional long calls or call debit spreads—since momentum and trend are aligned.
1‑Week Price Change %: min 2
- Purpose: Ensure recent short‑term strength.
- Rationale:
- A gain of at least 2% in the past week shows buyers are currently in control.
- This avoids names that are technically in an uptrend but stalling or rolling over.
This is consistent with looking for immediate swing opportunities where a call can benefit from ongoing strength.
1‑Month Price Change %: min 5
- Purpose: Capture sustained, medium‑term momentum.
- Rationale:
- At least 5% gain over the past month filters to names with a clear, established move higher.
- These trends are often better candidates for swing‑style call options (e.g., 30–60 days to expiration) than flat or choppy stocks.
Is Optionable: True
- Purpose: Ensure the stock actually has listed options.
- Rationale:
This is essential—without this filter, the screener could return stocks where you can’t trade calls or puts at all. This guarantees every result is a real candidate for implementing an options strategy.
Why Results Match Your Request
- You asked for a specific stock recommendation for a put or call option strategy.
- These filters are designed to surface high‑quality, liquid, optionable stocks in clear uptrends with bullish momentum, which are:
- Well‑suited for directional call option trades (e.g., long calls, call debit spreads).
- Practical to trade with tighter spreads and sufficient volume.
- Typically more appropriate for smaller accounts due to the price range (20–300).
Important nuance:
- The current filter set is optimized for bullish setups (calls)—price above key moving averages, bullish MACD, and positive recent performance.
- If you also want put candidates, we’d normally reverse several of these conditions (e.g., price below MAs, bearish MACD, negative recent performance). The screener as configured is not doing that; it’s intentionally skewed to finding strong call‑option setups.
So while you asked for “call or put,” the filters are particularly effective at identifying stocks appropriate for a call option strategy, which aligns well with your previous swing‑trading, limited‑capital context.
This list is generated based on data from one or more third party data providers. It is provided for informational purposes only by Intellectia.AI, and is not investment advice or a recommendation. Intellectia does not make any warranty or guarantee relating to the accuracy, timeliness or completeness of any third-party information, and the provision of this information does not constitute a recommendation.