Important Context for Scalping
No screen can guarantee “high profit” stocks, especially for scalping, which is a very short‑term, high‑risk strategy. What we can do is filter for stocks that statistically tend to be more suitable for scalping: liquid, actively traded, and showing short‑term price movement.
Below is how each filter helps target that kind of setup.
Screening Filters
Market Cap ≥ $300M ('market_cap': {'min': '300000000'})
- Purpose: Focus on established, more liquid companies and avoid ultra‑small, highly illiquid microcaps.
- Rationale:
- Scalpers need to get in and out quickly with minimal slippage.
- Very small companies (micro/nanocaps) often have wide spreads, low volume, and can be easily manipulated—bad for consistent scalping.
- A floor of $300M tends to keep you in the realm of more “tradable” stocks that still have room for movement but usually better liquidity and tighter spreads than tiny names.
Price Between $5 and $80 ('price': {'min': '5', 'max': '80'})
- Purpose: Target a practical price range where tick size, volatility, and capital efficiency are better suited to intraday scalping.
- Rationale:
- Under $5: Often includes penny stocks, which can be extremely volatile and illiquid with big spreads—higher execution risk.
- Over $80: While tradable, higher‑priced stocks may require more capital per share and may not move in a way that’s ideal for frequent small scalps (risk per share can be large).
- The $5–$80 band balances:
- Enough volatility for small intraday moves to matter.
- Affordable share size to scale in/out.
- Typically better liquidity than very low‑priced names.
Weekly Average Dollar Volume ≥ $1.5M ('weekly_average_dollar_volume': {'min': '1500000'})
- Purpose: Ensure there is sufficient liquidity (money flowing through the stock) for fast entries and exits.
- Rationale:
- Dollar volume = price × volume, which is a better measure of tradability than share volume alone.
- A minimum of $1.5M per week helps filter out illiquid names where:
- Orders can move the price too much (slippage).
- Getting filled at desired prices is harder.
- For scalping, you need to be able to execute quickly and frequently; this filter tilts the list toward names where that is more feasible.
Relative Volume ≥ 1.5 ('relative_vol': {'min': '1.5'})
- Purpose: Focus on stocks trading with significantly higher volume than usual right now.
- Rationale:
- Relative volume compares current trading activity to the stock’s typical volume.
- A value ≥ 1.5 means today’s volume is at least 50% higher than usual—indicating heightened interest (news, catalysts, momentum).
- For scalpers, this is critical: more participants usually mean tighter spreads, faster fills, and more intraday volatility, which create more tradeable price swings.
5-Minute Price Change ≥ 0.8% ('min5_price_change_pct': {'min': '0.8'})
- Purpose: Capture stocks already making short-term moves, revealing intraday momentum.
- Rationale:
- A ≥0.8% move over just 5 minutes is a strong near-term price action signal.
- Scalping relies on exploiting these small yet meaningful intraday swings.
- This filter 1) avoids “dead” stocks that aren’t moving and 2) highlights names with enough price action to make scalps potentially worthwhile.
Why Results Match Your Scalping Objective
Overall, these filters don’t promise profits, but they narrow the universe to stocks that are more likely to have the liquidity, volatility, and intraday momentum that scalpers typically seek.
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.