Penny stocks

Screening Filters

1. Market Cap: 50M – 1B USD

   • Purpose: Focus on smaller companies typically associated with penny stocks while avoiding the very smallest, most illiquid micro-caps.
   • Rationale:
     • Penny stocks are usually smaller companies, so a market cap ceiling (1B) keeps us in the “small-cap” range.
     • A floor of 50M helps filter out the tiniest, often extremely high‑risk firms (e.g., shell companies or those with almost no operations), making the list more analyzable and somewhat more investable.

2. Price: 0.20 – 5 USD per share

   • Purpose: Capture traditional “penny stock” price levels.
   • Rationale:
     • In the U.S., penny stocks are often defined as trading under $5.
     • Setting a lower bound at $0.20 helps eliminate ultra‑low “sub‑penny” or near-worthless stocks that are often highly speculative or manipulated, while still capturing the low‑priced universe the user is asking about.

3. RSI Category: Moderate

   • Purpose: Avoid stocks that are extremely overbought or oversold in the very short term.
   • Rationale:
     • RSI (Relative Strength Index) is a momentum indicator. “Moderate” means the stock isn’t at an extreme, such as very overbought (>70) or very oversold (<30).
     • This helps avoid names that have just spiked (where you might be late) or crashed (where the move might reflect serious underlying problems), and focuses on penny stocks in a more neutral technical condition.

4. 1-Month Price Change: +5% to +100%

   • Purpose: Focus on penny stocks that have shown some positive momentum without capturing only extreme, possibly unsustainable spikes.
   • Rationale:
     • A minimum +5% move over a month indicates some recent buying interest or improving sentiment.
     • Capping at +100% avoids names that have already exploded in price recently, which may be highly speculative or prone to sharp reversals.

5. Exchanges: XNYS (NYSE), XNAS (NASDAQ), XASE (AMEX/NYSE American)

   • Purpose: Restrict to major U.S. exchanges.
   • Rationale:
     • Many penny stocks trade OTC (over-the-counter), where disclosure standards and liquidity are often weaker.
     • Limiting to NYSE, NASDAQ, and AMEX improves minimum listing standards, transparency, and typically liquidity, making the resulting penny stocks more suitable for analysis and potentially for trading.

6. Region: United States

   • Purpose: Keep the universe to U.S.-listed companies.
   • Rationale:
     • The user’s “penny stocks” reference is most commonly aligned with the U.S. definition (<$5).
     • Focusing on one region simplifies comparison (same regulatory environment, accounting standards, and currency).

Why Results Match the Request

• The price filter directly targets low‑priced shares that fit the common definition of penny stocks.
• The market cap and major-exchange filters keep us within smaller companies while avoiding the very lowest‑quality or least transparent names, making the list more practical for genuine analysis.
• The RSI and 1‑month performance filters steer the screener toward penny stocks that have some constructive price behavior but are not in extreme, potentially unstable conditions.

Together, these filters yield a set of U.S.‑listed, low‑priced, smaller-cap stocks that are more analyzable and somewhat higher quality within the penny stock universe.