Market Movers

Screening Filters

1. Price ≥ $1

   • Purpose: Exclude extremely low‑priced and most penny/OTC-style stocks.
   • Rationale:
     • “Market movers” typically refers to stocks that are widely followed and have meaningful price moves in dollar and percentage terms.
     • Stocks under $1 are often very illiquid, speculative, or at risk of delisting. Their price swings can be noisy and less representative of broad market interest.
     • Setting a floor at $1 keeps the focus on more established, exchange-quality names whose moves are more relevant to mainstream investors.

2. Average Daily Volume ≥ 100,000 shares

   • Purpose: Ensure the stocks have sufficient trading activity to truly be considered “movers.”
   • Rationale:
     • A stock can move a lot in percentage terms with only a few trades, but that doesn’t make it a real “market mover.”
     • A 100k‑share minimum filters out thinly traded names where price changes might be due to a handful of trades rather than broad market participation.
     • Higher volume generally reflects stronger investor interest and makes price moves more meaningful and tradeable.

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

   • Purpose: Restrict results to major U.S. stock exchanges.
   • Rationale:
     • When people ask about “US market movers,” they almost always mean stocks listed on primary U.S. exchanges (NYSE, NASDAQ, AMEX), not OTC or foreign venues.
     • These exchanges list the largest, most followed companies where institutional and retail investors concentrate their attention.
     • Focusing on these exchanges helps ensure the movers identified are central to the U.S. equity market.

Why Results Match

• The filters target actively traded, reasonably priced stocks on major U.S. exchanges, which aligns with the common understanding of “current market movers.”
• By excluding very low‑priced, thinly traded, or off‑exchange names, the screen emphasizes stocks whose price and volume changes actually matter to the broader U.S. market and are practical for most investors to monitor or trade.