Top moving stocks

Screening Filters

1. Price ≥ $2

   • Purpose: Exclude very low-priced / penny stocks.
   • Rationale:
     • Ultra-low-priced stocks (under $2) often have wild, erratic moves that are more noise than meaningful “top movers.”
     • Focusing on stocks ≥ $2 typically yields more established names where big moves are more likely tied to news, earnings, or fundamentals rather than pure speculation or illiquidity.

2. Market Cap ≥ $500M

   • Purpose: Focus on mid- and larger-cap companies.
   • Rationale:
     • “Top moving” stocks of interest are usually companies that are at least somewhat established, covered by analysts, and widely followed.
     • A minimum $500M market cap filters out microcaps, which can move a lot on tiny volume and may not be suitable for most investors or traders.

3. Relative Volume ≥ 1.5

   • Purpose: Identify stocks trading at significantly higher volume than usual today.
   • Rationale:
     • Relative volume compares today’s volume to the stock’s typical volume.
     • A value ≥ 1.5 means the stock is trading at least 50% more volume than normal, a strong sign of unusual interest, news, or institutional activity.
     • This is central to your request: “top moving” is not just about price change, but also about unusual trading activity, which this filter captures.

4. Monthly Average Dollar Volume ≥ $500,000

   • Purpose: Ensure a minimum level of liquidity.
   • Rationale:
     • Dollar volume (price × volume) measures how much money actually trades in the stock.
     • A $500k+ daily average (over a month) helps avoid illiquid names that can appear to “move” on very few trades but are hard to enter/exit at fair prices.
     • This keeps the results to stocks that active traders can realistically trade.

5. Price Change % Between -100% and -5% (on the day)

   • Purpose: Find stocks that are big losers today (down at least 5%).
   • Rationale:
     • Your colleague interpreted “top moving” as “largest movers,” and focused specifically on the downside (biggest drops).
     • A move of -5% or worse in a single session is a substantial move for most mid/large caps and usually reflects significant news or sentiment shifts.
     • The lower bound of -100% is just a technical boundary to catch the full range of potential declines (e.g., extreme gap-downs, halts, etc.).

6. Exchange: XNYS, XNAS, XASE (NYSE, NASDAQ, NYSE American)

   • Purpose: Limit results to major U.S. exchanges.
   • Rationale:
     • These exchanges list the bulk of widely traded U.S. equities, with better reporting standards, liquidity, and transparency than OTC or foreign exchanges.
     • This aligns with what most users mean when asking about “top moving stocks today” unless they specifically mention OTC or international markets.

Why Results Match Your Request

• The screener is focusing on substantial intraday movers (≥ 5% drop) rather than mild fluctuations.
• Using relative volume ≥ 1.5 ensures these are not just random price blips, but moves backed by unusually strong trading activity—what most traders consider true “top movers.”
• Liquidity and size filters (price ≥ $2, market cap ≥ $500M, dollar volume ≥ $500k) keep the list to tradable, established names, not obscure microcaps or illiquid tickers.
• Restricting to major U.S. exchanges aligns the results with mainstream, widely followed stocks that users typically care about when asking this type of question.

If you’d like “top movers” on the upside as well (biggest gainers), you’d simply mirror the price change filter to include strong positive moves (e.g., +5% and above).